STEPHEN BUSH

Sutton Gallery, Melbourne (bears stamp on the reverse)
Private collection, Melbourne; purchased from the above in February 2004

Stephen Bush, SITE: Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States of America,  February 2007 

Work in very good, original condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Stephen Bush was born in 1958 in Colac, Victoria. He studied at RMIT, completing his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1978 and a Graduate Diploma in 1979. He has exhibited in numerous curated exhibitions since the 1980s, including Victorian Views by Contemporary Artists (Geelong Art Gallery and tour, 1985-86), Young Australians (National Gallery of Victoria and tour, 1986-88), How say You? (Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne and tour, 1996-97), and this year's Future Tense: Reshaping the Landscape (Neuberger Museum, New York). Major solo exhibitions include Claiming: An Installation of Paintings by Stephen Bush (Australian Centre of Contemporary Art and tour, 1991) and Blackwood Skyline, Stephen Bush: work in progress #5 (Ian Potter Museum of Art, 2003). Bush's work can be found in the National Gallery of Australia,Artbank, all state and many university and regional collections.

Beginning with photographically-based documentary monochromes in the 1980s,Stephen Bush has expanded his practice to incorporate notions of Self and Other, of history, nationality and colonisation, of the ideal, the original and he variant, of the sublime and the kitsch. Perhaps bes-known for making more than two dozen identical 'blind' copies of his Babar the Elephant painting The Lure of Paris,in more recent years Bush has become freer in his imagery, more apocalyptic in his tone. In the present work a masked beekeeper tends his hives in front of a dribbly acid nowhere of mauve and green and gold - an 'allegory of risk and safety, action and repose.'¹

1. Jonathan Goodman, 'Stephen Bush at Goff + Rosenthal', Art in America, vol. 94, no. 4, April 2006