(Boy with a kite, Fitzroy)
1943
Medium
oil on composition board
Measurements
63.6 × 71.0 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
The Joseph Brown Collection. Presented through the NGV Foundation by Dr Joseph Brown AO OBE, Honorary Life Benefactor, 2004
© Courtesy of the artist's estate
Gallery location
Gallery 20
Level 3, NGV Australia
About this work
When self-taught artist John Perceval began painting at an early age, he was living in the middle of an experimental period in Australian art. His art was most radical in the early 1940s, when he worked alongside artists, such as Joy Hester, Sidney Nolan, Arthur Boyd and Albert Tucker. This group formed the artist movement known as the Angry Penguins, who redefined art throughout the decade. Boy with a kite, Fitzroy typifies this period for Perceval. The red, feral boy, his animal nature exuding through his monkey feet and hands, grimaces from a childlike mask. The boy rises with his kite, imaginatively levitating over Fitzroy backyards and roofs.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
Melbourne, Victoria
Inscription
inscribed in black paint l.l.: Perceval / Nov / 43
Accession Number
2004.204
Department
Australian Painting
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of The Vizard Foundation
Subjects (general)
Cityscapes Human Figures
Subjects (specific)
buildings (structures) children (people by age group) clothesline Melbourne (inhabited place) power lines roads telephone poles Victoria (state)