SWINGS, 1932

Important Australian + International Fine Art
Melbourne
30 November 2011
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ETHEL SPOWERS

(1890 - 1947)
SWINGS, 1932

colour linocut on buff oriental laid tissue

24.0 x 26.0 cm

edition: 26/50
signed, dated, titled and numbered below image

Estimate: 
$15,000 - 20,000
Sold for $31,200 (inc. BP) in Auction 23 - 30 November 2011, Melbourne
Provenance

Estate of Oswald Syme, Melbourne
Thence by descent
Private collection, Victoria

Exhibited

Exhibition of Linocuts, Everyman's Lending Library, Melbourne, 5–16 April 1932, cat. 19 (another example)
Modern Colour Prints, The Redfern Gallery, London, 21 July – 20 August 1932, cat. 30 (another example)

Literature

Coppel, S., Linocuts of the Machine Age: Claude Flight andthe Grosvenor School, Scolar Press, Aldershot, England, in assoc. National Gallery of Australia, 1995, pl. 41, p. [46] and pp. 172–173, cat. ES22 (illus., another example)

Related works

Other examples of this print are held in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, and the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

Catalogue text

Swings 1932 belongs to an outstanding group of rhythmic modernist designs by Spowers featuring children playing, including The Giant Stride 1932, Fox and Geese 1933, Tug of War 1933 and Children's Hoops 1936.

'After viewing a second Melbourne show of linocuts in April 1932, [Arthur] Streeton's opinion changed. Spowers' work, particularlyThe Gust of Wind and Swings received favourable comment for its harmonious colour and design.'1

The provenance of both Wet Afternoon and Swings is of particular interest having formerly been in the collection of Oswald Syme (1878-1967) former chairman of the Age newspaper and relative of Eveline Syme whose grandfather Ebenezer Syme (1826-1860) acquired the Age in 1856.

1. Coppel, S., Linocuts of the Machine Age: Claude Flight and the Grosvenor School, Scolar Press, Aldershot, England, in assoc. National Gallery of Australia, 1995, p. 67