47. Ian Scott (1945 - 2013)
Five Miniskirts - 1969 - 70
Oil on board
205 x 135 cm
Signed & dated 1969-70
est. $120,000 - 150,000
Fetched $120,000
Relative Size: Five Miniskirts - 1969 - 70
Relative size

PROVENANCE Private Collection, Auckland

Hamish Keith remarked of Ian Scott's early stark, bright imagery that; it was as if someone had turned on the light, and in many ways Scott did just that, right throughout his career. Painting since childhood, he was only 24 years of age and newly graduated from Auckland's Elam School of Fine Arts when he created this somewhat visionary work - visionary in that it clearly points the way forward to some of his later series of works.

Scott came of age during the 'swinging sixties' a decade when the energy and attitudes of an emboldened youth culture permeated music, art and fashion. London designer Mary Quant's miniskirt took the world by storm becoming a symbol of women's liberation and the most era-defining look of the '60s.

In Five Mini Skirts, a work from Scott's Girlie Series it is evident that the young artist certainly had his finger on the pulse. The fresh, saturated colour of his Girlie paintings echoed the more radical use of colour to be seen in the works of British and American Op and Pop artists. Scott kept it local, referencing a photograph of 'Teen Queen Beauty' contestants from the New Zealand's Woman Weekly.

If anything, the passing of time shines a brighter light on this five decades old work. A current perspective confirms its placement and importance in the career of one of New Zealand's most significant painters. Scott was an artist of vision, innovation and originality, attributes embraced and embodied in this work

FRANCES DAVIES

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