Every year, modernist Eric Thake would send his friends a hand-made Christmas card. Original linocut prints, these cards have since 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.

‘Roadside Bunyip’ is a trick of the light. In it, two glowing roadworks lamps on steel drums are flashed by Thake’s headlights, transforming into a bunyip’s eyes. The hilarious hallucination is a moment caught from a long car trip, the mundane made magical.

Represented across numerous public collections, including at the National Gallery of Victoria, ‘Roadside Bunyip’ is a museum-quality work. It speaks to Thake’s remarkable wit, 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)
'Roadside Bunyip' 1973
linocut on paper
Image Size: 22 x 13 cm
Dimensions: 22 x 26 cm; Overall sheet size scored to fold
Signed: Signed and dated lower right: Eric Thake 1973; titled lower left.
Inscribed reverse sheet, ink To Ursula & Mrs Hoff / with Best Wishes / for Xmas & 1974 / from / Eric & Grace
Inscribed reverse sheet, ink, bottom left AUSTRALIAN ANIMALS ILLUSTRATED
Comes with Letter of Provenance

Impressions of this work are at the:
Art Gallery of New South Wales, accession number 8.1974
National Gallery of Victoria, accession number P143-1974
National Gallery of Australia, accession number 74.405
Castlemaine Art Museum, accession number G517
Art Gallery of South Australia, accession number 20062G8
Bendigo Art Gallery, accession number 1981.11

Condition: Excellent

(c) The Artist or Assignee