Every year, modernist Eric Thake would send his friends a hand-made Christmas card. Original linocut prints, these cards have become canonical, each observing a changing nation through one its most distinct voices. They also speak to Thake’s innerworld, with this particular work coming from the collection of his friend, revered writer and curator Ursula Hoff.

Dated 1972, ‘An Opera House in Every Home’ is among Thake’s best known images. It is a visual pun executed with brilliance – a stack of dishes in the style of the Opera House. Due for completion the year before this work was made, the Opera House was controversial – ostentatious in a way uneasy to the Australian sensibility. Thake plays on this, laconically democratising the structure, blowfly and all.

Represented across numerous public collections, including at the National Gallery of Australia, ‘An Opera House in Every Home’ is a museum-quality work. It speaks to Thake’s remarkable vision, Australian modernism and the friendship between an artist and scholar. With strikingly excellent provenance, it is a prize for collectors of modernist art.

Eric THAKE (1904 - 1982)
'An Opera House in Every Home' 1972
linocut on paper
Image Size: 15 x 21 cm
Dimensions: 15 x 42 cm overall sheet size, scored to fold.
Signed: Signed and dated lower right: Eric Thake 1972; titled lower left.  Inscribed reverse sheet, ink: To Ursula / with Best Wishes / for Xmas & 1973 / from / Eric & Grace
Comes with Letter of Provenance

Impressions of this work are represented at:
National Gallery of Australia, accession number: 73.1227;
National Gallery of Victoria, accession number: P142-1974;
Art Gallery of New South Wales, accession number: 7.1973;
Art Gallery of South Australia, accession number: 775G23;
Castlemaine Art Gallery, accession number: G515.

Condition: Excellent

© The Artist or Assignee