Robert Medley

Description Robert Medley (1905-1994) Samson Agonistes Suite, folio book cover, frontispiece, and 1 silkscreen only, Three framed as one, printed in colours Signed and dated in pencil, numbered 6 of 20 Each sheet c.70 x 51 cm. (27 1/2 x 20 in) (3) Please note this lot may be subject to droit de suite. Please note this lot is subject to VAT on the hammer. No visible damage, under glass

168. Robert Medley (1905-1994) Landscape, watercolour and pencil on paper, 1987, initialled RM and dated in pencil lower right, 255 x 355 mm (9 7/8 x 14 in), unframed. Condition report: Slight surface damage with a raised white line measuring c.25mm in the centre of the paper.

Robert Medley (1905-1994) Two figure studies in sepia (one illustrated) the first signed 'Robert Medley' (lower left) and dated ''46' (lower right); the second signed 'Robert Medley' (upper right) and dated ''46' (lower left) pencil, pen and brown ink and watercolour and gouache, framed as one 7½ x 5¼ in. (19 x 13.4 cm.); and smaller

LOT 34 ROBERT MEDLEY, R.A. 1905-1994 AN ANIMAL METAPHOR 4,000—6,000 GBP measurements 142 by 151cm.; 56 by 59½in. Description signed and dated '66 oil on canvas PROVENANCE James Hyman Gallery, London, where acquired by the present ownerin October 2005. EXHIBITED London, Leicester Galleries, Oils and Drawings by Robert Medley,10th March - 2nd April 1966, cat. no.7, illustrated in thecatalogue;London, James Hyman Gallery, Robert Medley: A Centenary Tribute,3rd November 2005 - 27th January 2006, cat. no.9, illustrated inthe catalogue. CATALOGUE NOTE 'I was completely committed to the idea that paintings had tohave a subject – the concept that the picture was itself thesubject did not strike me at the time as convincing. I was abletherefore to take what I needed from the example of the New Yorkpainters: it gave me the courage to leave an intuitive strokeundisturbed and to proceed towards further abstraction of my ownkind by ruthlessly eliminating unnecessary descriptions...'(Robert Medley, quoted by Andrew Lambirth, 'Robert Medley and theCentral Tradition', Robert Medley: a Centenary Tribute , exh.cat., James Hyman Gallery, London, 2005, p.13).Under the influence of the Abstract Expressionist movement emergingfrom America in the early 60s, Medley experimented with the freedomit afforded, whilst remaining aloof from its imperatives andsubsequently, his paintings from the 1960s are some of the largestand most powerful of his career. However, contrary to the 'art forart's sake' impetus amongst some of his internationalcontemporaries, he strongly believed that style should bedetermined by meaning; that form and content are, and should be,related by subject. Thus it is on the interplay of abstraction andfiguration that he focuses his attention in the present work. AsAndrew Lambirth has commented, the works from this period have 'ananimated messiness, a fruitful disorder within which are theunmistakable traces of a deeper, more essential order' (Lambirth,ibid., p.15). Indeed, despite the ambiguous abstraction of thepresent work, there is a simultaneous relaxed clarity which isabsent in his more fraught works. The soft greens mingle withchalky white and dusty lilac, creating an atmosphere of calm whichemerges from within the composistion. As Lambirth has concluded,An Animal Metaphor is 'a quiet masterpiece which...hassucceeded in creating something entirely new... (ibid. p.26).

LOT 37 ROBERT MEDLEY 1905 - 1994 PAINTED DOOR 3,000—5,000 GBP measurements 102.5 by 66cm.; 40¼ by 26in. Description oil on panel PROVENANCE Sale, Sotheby's, 6th October 1993, lot 127 CATALOGUE NOTE The present lot was originally painted, recto and verso in1927-28 for the artist's friend Kathleen Dillon. The two imageshave since been divided. They were made for the serving hatch atDillon's house in Chelsea Park Gardens, with the kites on thedining room side and the abstract architectural design facing thekitchen.