Lot 70: John Doherty , b.1949 Pay Double this Amount oil on canvas

oil on canvas

81.5 by 122cm.; 32 by 48in.

In the late 1970s, Doherty photographed multiple images of petrol stations around Ireland which later formed the basis of his series of paintings entitled Totems of the Highway. The petrol pump came to symbolize the extortionate prices in the 1970s when the dials on the pumps could not reflect the inflated prices forcing customers to Pay Double This Amount. The present work depicts one of the first pumps Doherty ever photographed in Laragh, Co. Wicklow.

Born in Kilkenny, Doherty trained as an architect in Dublin and subsequently moved to Australia and went on to study fine art at the National College of Art, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. Since then he developed the highly detailed super realist style of the present work and now splits his time between West Cork and Australia.