File 05: Angel at the gate / Peter Kingston

PXA 7741

file

2017

9677672

15 prints (1 box) - linocut, ink, etching, typescript - sheets 36 x 36 cm, in wooden box 41 x 41 x 4 cm

Peter Kingston, Sydney painter, printmaker and cartoonist, was born in Sydney in 1943 and received a Bachelor of Arts in 1965 from the University of New South Wales, where he studied architecture and arts. He was a Pop artist in the 1970s and has exhibited since 1978 in Sydney and New York. Kingston was also one of the key figures in Martin Sharp’s Yellow House. He was a fierce campaigner for Sydney’s heritage, including Luna Park, bush land near his Lavender Bay home or the ferries on Sydney Harbour. The Harbour, the bridge, the ferries, iconic buildings, and the bushy foreshores became dominant subjects in his later paintings. He has been included in several group exhibitions including the Dobell Drawing Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1993 and 2000, the Wynne Prize between 1995 and 2003, and the Sulman Prize between 1998 and 2001. He tutored in architecture at the University of Sydney and was artist in residence at Haefliger Cottage at Hill End, NSW in 1995. His work is held by major Australian galleries, libraries and museums, and internationally in Belgium, Los Angeles and Tokyo. He died in 2022.

References: Australian Galleries https://australiangalleries.com.au/artists/peter-kingston/ (Accessed 17 January 2024)
Design and Art Australia Online https://www.daao.org.au/bio/peter-kingston/biography/ (Accessed 17 January 2024)

Unbound artists' book containing 64 folios which include 10 linocuts chine-collé to inside rectos and 5 etchings laid in, interspersed with brief texts and sketches, and wrappers with linoprint 'Spanish Steps' printed in red with white lines. Wooden box constructed by Ian McLeod. The work pays homage to the work of early Renaissance painter Piero della Francesco (especially his Defeat of Chosroes), amongst other fragments collected over the creator's three visits to Italy in fifty years.

Contents [unnumbered]:
Spanish steps (wrapper)
Outside the Colosseum (Angel at the gate title page)
Introduction: Il Porcellino / by Barry Pearce
Memory fragment
Peril in the Pantheon
Justin O'Brien, self portrait, 1941
Hungover on the Ponte Sant' Angelo (etching printed in sepia)
Up and down the street they go, and talk of Michelangelo (etching)
Insomnia
Standoff in the Piazza Navona
If you climb the Spanish Steps to the Obelisk and the old woman begging alms... (etching)
The Gods cannot abide the happiness of mortals (handcoloured etching)
Bologna, home of Morandi, bicycle thieves and tall towers
Angel at the gate of the city (handcoloured etching)
The battle of Heraclius and Chosroes
The best picture in the world
Jeffrey Smart / by Luke Sciberras (pen and ink, Lavender Bay, 2011)
A final lunch at “Posticcia Nuova” with an ailing Jeffrey Smart ... “See you at the footy”
Works
Epilogue
Colophon

In copyright:
Copyright holder:: Peter Kingston
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, and Courtesy copyright holder

Limited edition of 11 copies: 5 hors commerce copies reserved for those who worked on the project; 6 copies for sale, signed and dated by the artist
Transferred from HX 2018/0018, 14 February 2024

From colophon: Set in Bembo and printed by Nicholas Pounder at the sign of the Polar Bear, using Rising Stonehenge for the folios and texts. Peter Kingston used Iwaki Mulberry for the linoprints and wrapper and Kozo for the lid and base linings. Etchings were printed by Bill Moseley and Genevieve Carroll at the Hill End Press on recently discovered vintage Magnani Velata White Wove.

Copy no. 5 of limited edition of 6.