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. There are notes of humour, critique and poeticism.

Dated 1946, ‘Mirage People, Alice Springs’ is a scene distilled from one of Thake’s intermittent trips into Australia’s centre. It is surreal, a constellation of blurry figures under the beating sun.

Represented across numerous public collections, including at the National Gallery of Victoria, this is a museum-quality work. It speaks to Thake’s remarkable wit and ingenuity, a prize for collectors of modernist, surrealist and Australian art. 

Eric THAKE (1904 - 1982)
'Mirage People, Alice Springs' 1946
linocut on paper
Image Size: 15 x 19 cm
Dimensions: 15 x 38 cm overall sheet size, scored to fold, no inscription in card.
Signed: Signed, dated, and titled lower right: “Mirage People, Alice Springs” Eric Thake 1946
Comes with Letter of Provenance

Impressions of this work are at the:
Art Gallery of New South Wales, accession number: DA51.1967
National Gallery of Victoria, accession number: P117-1974
National Gallery of Australia, accession number: 73.257.6

Condition: Excellent

© The Artist or Assignee