PROVENANCE
Elva Bett Gallery, Wellington Rachael Power Collection

Acquired directly from the artist 1977 Rosemary McLeod Collection Webb's, Fine New Zealand & Foreign Paintings, 03/04/2001, Lot No. 38
Private Collection, Auckland

ILLUSTRATED
Art New Zealand (52), Spring 1989 Philip Clairmont was celebrated from the late 1970s as one New Zealand's leading figurative colourist and neo- expressionist artists. Created in the last decade of Clairmont's life, Corner Painting - Table Top, 1977 (previously titled Mao Diptych), embodies many key elements associated with the artist's work. The painting is one of the first examples of a Clairmont Corner Painting - a diptych displayed across the two sides of a room corner. Giving the work a diagonal element that draws the viewer in.

A pupil of Rudolf Gopas, Clairmont's work was influenced by van Gogh, Francis Bacon and his contemporaries, Allen Maddox and Tony Fomison. His complex compositions appear spontaneous but there is more to them than meets the eye. Using strong colours and distorted forms, often choosing an arrangement of domestic objects and interiors as subject matter, his work is unique and readily identifiable.

The painting illustrated most enchanting quality is its luminosity. Clairmont valued the gesturality of painting, giving an incredible force of energy to his work.

EXHIBITED
Phil Clairmont, Elva Bett Gallery, Wellington, 3-14 September 1979