Union Jack

Details

Garry Shead (b.1942)
Union Jack
signed and dated 'Garry Shead 92' (lower left)
oil on board
23½ x 23½in. (59.9 x 59.9cm.)

Provenance

Bought from the artist's 1992 solo exhibition at the Solander Gallery, Canberra by the present owner.

Exhibited

Canberra, Solander Gallery, 1992, catalogue no. 18.

Special Notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

In 1922, D.H. Lawrence moved to Thirroul, just north of Wollongong in New South Wales. It was there he wrote his novel Kangaroo, which would prove a rich source of inspiration for Garry Shead. Shead made frequent visits to Thirroul following in Lawrence's footsteps and the landscape became the backdrop to his D.H. Lawrence series of pictures painted in the early 1990s. The political undertones of Lawrence's novel are more to the fore in Union Jack than in many of Shead's other works from the series. Recent research has established that Lawrence's secret army, led by Benjamin Cooley, or 'Kangaroo', may have been based on a clash in 1921 at Sydney's Domain between Diggers and socialists. Shead's picture presents an image which represents this social division, a theme which would continue to be developed in his subsequent 'Royal Suite'.

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