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.

Among Thake’s most famous images, ‘A message from our sponsor’ is rich with visual puns. A nun in sunglasses takes a call beside a sign that reads “Hail cars here”, emphasis on the hail. Perhaps the ‘sponsor’ Thake cites is God himself, perhaps it is a car company. Is this a sign?

Represented across numerous public collections, including at the National Gallery of Victoria and British Museum, ‘A message from our sponsor’ 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)
'A message from our sponsor' 1975
linocut on paper
Image Size: 22 x 14 cm
Dimensions: 29 x 22 cm overall sheet size, scored to fold
Signed: Signed, dated, and titled in pencil in margin below image: ___ a message from Our Sponsor Eric Thake 1975. Inscribed reverse sheet, ink To Ursula / with Best Wishes / for whats left of 1976 / Eric Thake
Comes with Letter of Provenance

Impressions of this work are at the:
Art Gallery of New South Wales, accession number: 145.1976
National Gallery of Australia, accession number: 75.687
Castlemaine Art Museum, accession number: G516

Condition: Excellent

© The Artist or Assignee