Parrots live forever
(1978)
- Medium
- oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas
- Measurements
- 211.2 × 211.2 cm
- Inscription
- inscribed in blue paint l.l.: Audrey Flack
- Accession Number
- EA2-1978
- Department
- International Painting
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased through The Art Foundation of Victoria with the assistance of ESSO Australia Ltd, Fellow, 1978
© Courtesy of the artist
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited - Gallery location
- Level 3 foyer
Level 3, NGV International - About this work
-
In contrast to other photorealist or superrealist artists of the 1970s, who loved to dazzlingly record the external surface of things, Audrey Flack’s main concern was constructing complex allegorical narratives within her elegantly airbrushed compositions. These reflected her love of seventeenth-century still-life paintings, especially those devoted to the theme of vanitas, the ephemeral duration of all life. Parrots live forever, its very title seemingly an ironic falsehood, is full of imagery that speaks of mortality and decay – ripe fruit, an unfurling ribbon, a half-consumed glass of wine, the cruelly reflecting mirror and the harsh, shiny form of the plastic parrot itself, which will surely endure beyond its owner’s lifetime.
- Subjects (general)
- Animals Still Lifes
- Subjects (specific)
- carrots (roots) cherries (fruits) fruit (plant components) grape (berry fruit) lemons (fruits) oranges (fruits) parrot wine
