Lot 86: ROBERT MACPHERSON (B. 1937)

THREE FROG POEMS FOR E.T. inscribed by Edward Tull '"3" CIRCLES...'76'; further inscribed by Robert MacPherson 'THIS WORK IS/A FOUND PAINTING/BROUGHT BY ME/IN 1983 TO USE/IN A POSS/SYLVIA HOLMES WORK/RM '83' (on the reverse of found painting); signed with initials, dated and inscribed 'RM 1988-89/3 PANELS/+ FOUND/PAINTINGS' (on the reverse of Panel 1 and Panel 2) melt-stik on wood with found painting 76.7 x 270 cm PROVENANCE Yuill Crowley, Sydney Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1989 NOTES Since he began using the collective title of Frog Poems in 1988 for an ever-expanding body of work, MacPherson has presented subtle formal arrangements determined by an invisible rationale in the act of their naming. Related to the exploration of painting's prescriptive tropes and his ultimate abandonment of them, we are offered a new personal language in which an ordained correspondence still exists between the name and the object, the work and its title.1 More specifically, he engages a consistent set of regulative ideas, in this case visual puns and language games, to highlight the operation of other classificatory systems. These systems exist not only in science [herpetology is the study and classification of frogs], language [Latin is used to classify things in nature, and like the frog, happens to be endangered in contemporary Australia], but also in art [activated by the work in combination with its title]. In Frog Poems for E.T 1988-89 the relationship of the signboards to the found painting can also be understood as an allusion to the particularities of place. Selected by the artist for the Enright Collection, it's a reference to the suburban landscape around Brisbane, as the three frogs listed on the boards, while physically absent in the work, are local tree-burrowing varieties that make holes/homes in old box trees. In the found painting we may see the connection. The work is also significant for its direct relationship to the major work Where Are You Now Sylvia Holmes 1982-83 [Private collection, Illustrated p 145 AGWA catalogue]. In it, MacPherson pairs two found abstract paintings he found in a junk shop with an open letter to the artist, a Sylvia Holmes, and speculates as to how chance has prevailed in the final work. The left panel in 3 Frog Poems for E.T 1988-89 was bought from the same shop on the day MacPherson acquired the Holmes pictures for a total of $17. On this occasion, however, the amateur artist [Mr Eddie Tull] remains unnamed, in keeping with so many of the works the artist has dedicated. Inscribed on its reverse is an insciption by the artist: 'This work is a found painting bought by me in 1983 to use in a poss' Sylvia Holmes work. RMcP.' By incorporating these found paintings into his own work, he makes a point in support of so many lost and unappreciated artists.... the gap between the gallery wall and the junk shop wall is not that great. Less a test of faith for the viewer, it's more a rewarding insight into his highly ordered world. Focussed on the backyard and everyday, it is here that he finds the beautiful, descriptive, wonderful and metaphorical - in his words "it is poetry."2 1. SEE: Ingrid Perez The Described and the Undescribed ex cat AGNSW 1994 p 11 2. Daniel Thomas 'Landfall: Bea Maddock and Robert MacPherson' ex cat Ivan Dougherty Gallery 2000 We are grateful to Simon Wright for this catalogue entry.