90
JENNY DOLEZEL - On With The Show
Estimate:
$15,000 - $20,000
Sold
$24,000
Live Auction
IMPORTANT & RARE ART
ARTIST
JENNY DOLEZEL (b. 1964)
Size
59.5 x 75 cm
Description
Oil on cavas
Signature
Signed & dated 1996
Provenance
Collection of ArtExplore
Purchased from Warwick Henderson Gallery
Literature
Encouraged by her artist mother Margo, Dolezel began making art when she was a toddler. Her career has been stellar: entering Elam in 1984 with the highest marks in the country and winning the Rosemary Grice award for painting while there. 1996 when this work was completed was a watershed year: she won the Paramount Award in the Wallace Art Awards as well as the Royal Overseas League’s 13th annual Open Exhibition in London. She was just 32 years old, but her life had also been marked by tragedy: the death of her artist brother in 1987, the year she graduated with her BFA.
A hint of that tragedy is in this work. Centre stage is a besuited jester, dancing across the dais, flanked by his attendants. The theme is human folly, but also resilience – keeping on with the show. She alludes to the process of going through challenges or devastating circumstances, and still being able to survive, maybe even thrive. She writes about this work: I began painting the dark background (the subtext for the action) then the central a large figure - ambiguously floating or skipping, with its arms raised - either triumphantly or willingly surrendering. As in medieval traditions the animal-hybrid form - here positioned as its hat - acts as a messenger from another world.
Unusually for this artist who usually rejoices in bright colours, this painting is a night scene, rendered on an intimate scale, and with the limited colour palette of one of her mezzotints which are admired for their intense tonal effects. Working without preparatory drawings in her paintings, her process is intuitive so that as one form dictates the next, a dynamic is created between them. Drawing on influences ranging from Tony Fomison to Hieronymus Bosch, and the narrative interactions in Giotto’s Arena Chapel frescoes, Dolezel is an artist who prefers to paint at night, free from distraction, and when the darkness brings its own magical inspiration.
Linda Tyler
A hint of that tragedy is in this work. Centre stage is a besuited jester, dancing across the dais, flanked by his attendants. The theme is human folly, but also resilience – keeping on with the show. She alludes to the process of going through challenges or devastating circumstances, and still being able to survive, maybe even thrive. She writes about this work: I began painting the dark background (the subtext for the action) then the central a large figure - ambiguously floating or skipping, with its arms raised - either triumphantly or willingly surrendering. As in medieval traditions the animal-hybrid form - here positioned as its hat - acts as a messenger from another world.
Unusually for this artist who usually rejoices in bright colours, this painting is a night scene, rendered on an intimate scale, and with the limited colour palette of one of her mezzotints which are admired for their intense tonal effects. Working without preparatory drawings in her paintings, her process is intuitive so that as one form dictates the next, a dynamic is created between them. Drawing on influences ranging from Tony Fomison to Hieronymus Bosch, and the narrative interactions in Giotto’s Arena Chapel frescoes, Dolezel is an artist who prefers to paint at night, free from distraction, and when the darkness brings its own magical inspiration.
Linda Tyler
