David Aspden

Gallery A, Sydney; 
Collection of Rua Osborne, Sydney; 
by inheritance to the previous owner, till 2014

At Gallery A in 1968, David Aspden exhibited in two Group Exhibitions: Arts Vietnam in October and Beginning the Fifth Year in November; in January 1969 he was included in another Group Exhibition.  In 1971, Gallery A held a show in March  - Works from the Private Collections of Rowena Burrell, Ann Lewis and Rua Osborne.  This work was most likely shown in at least one of these exhibitions.

Max Hutchinson opened Gallery A in Melbourne in 1959.  In 1964 he, Ann Lewis and Rua Osborne opened a Sydney branch.  Lewis directed the Sydney gallery from 1970 when Hutchinson opened his gallery in New York.  Osborne and Lewis were later joined in Sydney by Rowena Burrell.

This painting remains an outlier in the artist's oeuvre.  In 1968 horizontal stripes were his predominant format - mostly 5 ft by 8 ft but also 2 ft by 12 ft - and were followed by the Norfolk Series - mostly vertical – where straight lines were systematically broken up.  The asymmetry of this work is also unusual in that his colours and forms tended to be evenly balanced and spread during this period.  Here, by contrast, an almost ecstatic yellow injects a fierce energy into an otherwise restrained composition.