Lot 23: MICHAEL CHALLIS BROWN (1938-1997)

The Little Sheep
signed and dated 'Mike Brown/1972' (on the reverse)
acrylic and printed matter on canvas
211 x 165 cm
A letter describing this artwork accompanies this lot in the artist's hand

Sydney, Watters Gallery I don't know what to think about anything, (it don't matter nohow), 26 July - 12 August 1972
Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoia, Embracing Chaos: Mike Brown, A survey of work 1962 to 1977, 16 December - 5 February 1978, cat. no. 50
Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria, Power to the People, The Art of Mike Brown, 7 April 1995 - 15 May 1995, cat. no. 50

J. McDonald, 'Power to you Mike - Obituary' The Sydney Morning Herald, 11 April 1997, illus.
R. Haese, 'On Being-in-the-world' Power to the People: The Art of Mike Brown, Melbourne, 1995, p. 69

Watters Gallery, Sydney
Acquired from the above in December 1972

"'Alienation from people and their "ordinary" doings', Brown declared, 'has resulted in Art becoming an unforgivably dull subject.'

This last sentiment was also inscribed across the bottom of the The Little Sheep, the largest painting in the exhibition. Painted, doodled and drawn on a canvas which an earlier painting had been partially painted over, it had evolved, unplanned and unscripted, into its present condition of biomorphic shapes, pattern painting, cartoons and inscriptions. Part palimpsest, part collage (its one actual collage item is a newsprint version of 'Smash U.S Imperialism'), it is, in the radical juxtapositions of these polymorphous elements, true to the spirit of collage. Its title, deriving from yet another of its inscriptions, 'one by one the little sheep are coming home to roost' signified for Brown a feeling that, although still not fully resolved, the various aspects of his work were finally beginning to cohere in a way that he had not felt since the days of Imitation Realism." (R. Haese, 'On Being-in-the-world', Power to the People: The Art of Mike Brown, Melbourne, 1995, p. 69

A 10% GST will also be charged on the Hammer Price. For overseas buyers, special regulations apply regarding the changing and refunding of GST on the Hammer Price, proof of export and the GST-registered status of the buyer.