Lot 94: Joby Hickey - Mountains Plane

Artwork Information:

Signed: Yes

Framed: Yes

Original: Yes

Numbered Edition: No

Edition Info: 1 of 20

Artist Information:

Joby’s work is thoroughly unique and his subject matter has captured the zeitgeist of a generation. His artwork is the painterly equivalent of the major cultural changes, which this country has experienced over the last twenty years. His cityscapes and car paintings are evocations of life and at times the isolation of big city dwellers. They reveal a superb execution, masterly effects of light and shade, and a wonderfully exciting colouristic quality, which is derived from the artist’s study of the scenes around him.

His paintings, handmade photosensitive plates and negatives are distilled into memorable pictorial symbols, at times iconic, at time bordering on the legendary.

His mastery of craft is the way in which Hickey is able to simplify his compositions and waive all merely anecdotal detail. What speaks to us is his empathy for the fate of the normal, common person with life in a mass society.

His fascination with the camera resonates in nearly all of Hickey’s work. His early projects such as Still Life, 1996 reflect the camera’s edginess with an emphasis on colour, shape, and form, off set by an oblique angle. One recalls the quirky perspectives of Degas when looking at this painting or of the Fauvist in his choice of colours. Another painting Old Film also explores the theme of the pinhole camera, and reflects Hickey’s interest in the old advertising billboards.

Thematically the camera, documentary, television, and film continue to echo in his more recent work of men on the moon, as if we are directly watching images as they are being broadcast.

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