12
ROBERT ELLIS - City in Cultivated Landscape
Starting Bid: $25,000
Estimate:
$30,000 - $40,000
Ended
Timed Auction
Collectable
ARTIST
ROBERT ELLIS (1929 - 2021)
Size
122 x 122 cm
Description
Oil on hardboard
Condition
To request a condition report, please contact us at auctions@artcntr.co.nz or phone +64 9 379 4010
Signature
Signed & dated 1965
Provenance
Private Collection, Auckland
Acquired from Petar/James Gallery, Auckland
Acquired from Petar/James Gallery, Auckland
Literature
In the 1960s, Robert Ellis began painting his celebrated Motorway series. The creation of these works involved distilling land data, aerial perspectives and topographical information into painted patterns and symbols. City in Cultivated Landscape is an intricate work.
Through translating different impressions of perspective and landscape into a painted language, Ellis was able to compose elegant symphonies of civilisation and infrastructure such as this one. Knowing that Ellis spent time working as an aerial photographer in the Royal Air Force helps - it makes the work's immense perspective more accessible. Looking through this aerial lens, we encounter the metamorphosis of a free flowing city.
For Ellis, these paintings were a means of exploring ideas about universal urbanisation and city expansion. Specifically, they functioned as a commentary on the motorway development and urban transformation plans which had been underway in Auckland since the 1950's.
Through translating different impressions of perspective and landscape into a painted language, Ellis was able to compose elegant symphonies of civilisation and infrastructure such as this one. Knowing that Ellis spent time working as an aerial photographer in the Royal Air Force helps - it makes the work's immense perspective more accessible. Looking through this aerial lens, we encounter the metamorphosis of a free flowing city.
For Ellis, these paintings were a means of exploring ideas about universal urbanisation and city expansion. Specifically, they functioned as a commentary on the motorway development and urban transformation plans which had been underway in Auckland since the 1950's.
