ELLIS, Robert;
Motorway/City No. 28
Enlarge Image
1969
Oil on board
1230 x 1070mm
The Motorway/City series is perhaps Robert Ellis’s best-known body of work. It combines the aerial viewpoint and urban subject-matter of earlier works, such as City and River in Orange Landscape and Megalopolis, with a new sense of expansiveness. A striking aspect of Motorway/City No. 28 is the use of rich red, which can be read as energising or wound-like.
Inscriptions
Robert Ellis '69 [l.r.] NO 28 / MOTORWAY/CITY / 123 x 107cms. / 1969 'AUCKLAND FESTIVAL' / ROBERT ELLIS / P.O. 2175 AUCKLAND N.Z. [verso]Exhibition History
21st Auckland Festival, Tāmaki Makaurau, 1969
References
Hamish Keith et al., Robert Ellis (Tāmaki Makaurau: Ron Sang Publications, 2014), 39.
Provenance
1983–
Challenge Collection (later Fletcher Trust Collection), purchased from Webb’s, 1983
–1983
Unknown