David Aspden

The artist's estate
Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne
Private collection, Melbourne; purchased from the above in 2004

(possibly) Gallery A, Melbourne, 9 -  20 July 1968
(possibly) Gallery A, Sydney, 12 - 30 November 1968
David Aspden: Jazz, Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne, 8 - 31 July 2004 (label on reverse)

David Aspden: Jazz, Melbourne: Charles Nodrum Gallery, 2004 (illus., back cover)

There is a minor scuff mark to the yellow section of the canvas (lower right). This work is not lined and has its original stretcher. This work is in good original condition.
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David Aspden's abstractions of the early 1970s, with their complex camouflage jigsaws of torn leaf shapes, are among the most lyrical colour field paintings produced in Australia. The Brazil Series secured the artist both a gold medal at the XI Bienal of São Paulo in 1971, and a substantial local reputation and market success throughout the ensuing decade.

Before developing this trademark ragged grid, Aspden had initially come to public and critical attention as a painter of large, geometric hard-edge works, paintings of 'convergent shapes and broad wedges of colour held apart by seams of white ground.'¹  In such pictures, Aspden brought together a driving ambition, the technical finesse of a 'day-job' signwriter, a musical sense of rhythm and interval (jazz was one of his particular passions) and a clear enthusiasm for American Post-painterly Abstractionists such as Morris Louis, Nenneth Noland, Jules Olitski and Frank Stella.

Writing of these early works, James Gleeson described how Aspden 'arranged his stripes on vast canvases with unusual flair and daring ... the colours were unmodulated and contained by straight meticulously defined edges,'² and the scale and boldness of the present work – one of a group with Flag or Banner titles – show why the young artist was considered one of the leaders of the Field³  generation.³

1. John Neylon, 'Elegant tight-rope walk', Adelaide Review, October 1994, p. 26
2. James Gleeson, 'When colours began to meet in an embrace', Sun-Herald, 15 October 1970, p. 61
3. The Field, a major exhibition of contemporary Australian abstract painting and sculpture, was curated by Brian Finemore and John Stringer for the opening of the new National Gallery of Victoria in 1968. It has long been regarded as a landmark exhibition in the history of Australian art, marking the emergence and acceptance of a new, 'internationalist' abstraction.