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 1944, ‘Strange Spectacle’ transforms a twig into opera glasses. Like a literary satirist, Thake was interested in “an uncommon view of common things”, seeing debris like a twig as a deliciously surreal moment.

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)
'Strange Spectacle' 1944
linocut on paper
Image Size: 14 x 17 cm
Dimensions: 14 x 34 cm, overall sheer size, scored to fold
Signed: Signed, dated and titled lower right: Strange Spectacle / Eric Thake 1944
(No inscription in card)
Comes with Letter of Provenance

Impressions of this work are at the:
Art Gallery of New South Wales, accession number: DA47.1967
National Gallery of Victoria, accession number: P116-1974
National Gallery of Australia, accession number: 73.257.4

Condition: Very Good: Describes a work of art's image as Excellent, but may show some small signs of surrounding wear to paper or frame. There are no tears to paper margin or disruption to the paint surface.

© The Artist or Assignee