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Provenance: Purchased in 2015 from Art Equity
Price: $26,000
Must be sold — all serious offers welcomed
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Painted in the wake of his 2014 Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship win, You pried me open and stars fell in captures James Drinkwater at a defining moment in his career. The $25,000 prize and three-month residency in Paris marked a turning point, with judges Jude Rae and Wayne Tunnicliffe praising his “distinct personal vision” and “strong lyrical sensibility.” That recognition catalysed a surge of interest in his work and positioned him as one of the most compelling voices in Australian contemporary painting.
This canvas, completed the following year, is a powerful expression of that creative momentum. At 180 x 122 cm, it carries both physical weight and emotional force. The surface is richly worked—scraped, scumbled, and smeared with pigment that feels pulled straight from memory. Loosely structured yet deeply intentional, the composition balances gesture and restraint, intimacy and abstraction.
The title reads like a line of poetry: vulnerable and expansive. There’s a quiet violence in the mark-making, but also tenderness—a painter laying himself bare. Acquired from Art Equity in 2015 and held in a private Brisbane collection since, this is the first time the work has returned to market.
An emotionally charged painting from a career-defining period, it stands as a testament to Drinkwater’s singular vision and the evolution of contemporary Australian abstraction.
With Buyer’s Premium: A$49,091 | Oil on linen | 146 x 97cm
Recent Auction Result for Brilliant Flags Down Endless Lanes on 19/11/2025
With Buyer’s Premium: A$49,091 | Oil on linen | 146 x 97cm
Brilliant Flags Down Endless Lanes | James Drinkwater | Oil on linen | 146 x 97 cm | Signed, dated and inscribed verso: Drinkwater 2015 / “Brilliant Flags / down Endless Lanes” | Estimate: A$40,000 – A$60,000 | Hammer Price: A$40,000 | With Premium: A$49,091 | Menzies | Important Australian & International Art; The Frank & Janet South Collection | Melbourne | 19 November 2025 | Lot 8 | Provenance: Peta O'Brien Contemporary, London; Private collection, Melbourne | Reference: James Drinkwater: Every Pigeon in Paris Became a Dove, Peta O'Brien Contemporary, London, 27 Sept – 15 Oct 2015 (illus.)