Lot 74. RICHARD (Dick) Watkins (b.1937)

"L'Etat c'est Je"

Oil on Canvas
183x121cm
Initialled, Titled & Dated 92 to rear canvas stretcher
Prov: Private Collection Adelaide

Frame size: N/A

Condition: Excellent condition, no visible concerns or faults to report, work is on stretched canvas with no additional outside framing.

$8,000-12,000

Illustrated Art Now Contemporary Art Post – 1970 by Donald Williams & Colin Simpson page 113. Book to be included with this work.

Dick Watkins occupies an important place in the history of Australian abstraction. Emerging during the 1960s as one of the artists associated with Sydney’s Central Street Gallery and the landmark exhibition The Field (1968), he continually reinvented his practice over the following decades. While remaining committed to abstraction, Watkins increasingly incorporated references to history, literature and popular culture, creating paintings that were both visually exuberant and intellectually engaging.

Painted in 1992, L’État c’est Je belongs to this mature phase of Watkins’ career. The boldly simplified jester, constructed from sweeping gestural lines and vivid primary colours, demonstrates the artist’s ability to balance figuration and abstraction within a single dynamic composition. The work’s title introduces an additional layer of historical and political allusion, inviting interpretation while resisting a single fixed meaning.