Tall 1977
lithograph, 4/20
44 x 33cm (unframed)
Artwork: 389
Tall 1977lithograph, 4/20
44 x 33cm (unframed)
Artwork: 389
Chair beside itself 1978lithograph, A/P
45 x 33cm (unframed)
Artwork: 80.06.HE.P
The box 1986oil on canvas
169 x 123cm
Artwork: 328
Ceremony 1988oil on canvas
170 x 270cm (framed)
Artwork: 451
Blue shadow 1988oil on paper on canvas
124 x 96cm (framed)
Artwork: 473
Snake in the grass 1988oilstick on paper on canvas
124 x 95cm (framed)
Artwork: 474
But you can't see me 1990oilstick on paper on canvas
155 x 185cm (framed)
Artwork: 661
Angle Manaslu 1998oil on canvas
142 x 106cm
Artwork: 917
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Brief biography
Sydney-based painter Helen Eager was born in 1952. She studied in Adelaide and Berkley, USA, and in 1980 was a recipient of an Australia Council grant to travel and study in Europe, Great Britain and the United States. In 1988 she was awarded the Australia Council's Greene Street residency in New York – an intensive period where the large studio space and time to devote to her practice had a significant impact on the scale of her work. In 1990 she graduated with an MA in Visual Arts from the College of Fine Arts, Sydney. Helen Eager has been exhibiting nationally and internationally since 1975 and is represented in many state and regional art galleries across Australia, as well as in private and corporate collections.
About the works
Known for her lithographic works in the 1970s, Helen Eager has since pursued a painting practice that incorporates simplified forms and pure lyrical colour. The early interior studies led to a particular focus on objects and more recently, to abstract paintings that comprise geometric shapes and vibrant colour relationships.
The early prints and pastel drawings in the Allens collection have a preoccupation with light as well as a lightness of touch – expressive line drawing and cross-hatching that bring objects and forms into being. The subject matter concentrated on rooms and other interior spaces such as a sewing basket, a cupboard, the comfort of an armchair – and, in this respect, these early works seem more tentative and demure than the recent paintings which contrast one strong colour against another, a geometric shape or angle against its background or negative space. But the change of approach was not sudden: The Box 1986 can be considered a transitional work, a domestic interior yet already the furniture and objects are depicted as darkened and ghost-like.
If the early works represent a concern with enclosed space – a world encapsulated within homely objects – then by the late 1980s, Eager had not only opened up her frame of reference in terms of the physical scale of her paintings, she simultaneously began to zoom in on particular and minute details, enlarging them so that they took on a more ominous presence. The edge of an object, a lampshade for instance, now a simplified angle against a blank wall; a cast shadow looms menacingly yet it is just a tea-cup or jug handle painted much larger and sharper than life; blocks of colour, one in front of the other, hint at an arrangement of furniture and fittings…these simple shapes and shadows alluding to empty but memory-filled rooms such as those works the artist exhibited under the collective title From an old house in America in 1990.
Helen Eager is one of the artists whose work has been acquired since the beginning of the Allens collection. Increasingly, over the three decades represented, it becomes apparent that the artist's fascination with light, colour and scale is an on-going investigation – the bold colour contrasts that characterise the most recent paintings (the series Angle 1998, On the Edge 2000, and Precipice 2003) have their beginnings in the juxtaposition of forms in large-scale works such as Ceremony 1988 which, in turn, are an extension of Eager's early investigative studies of domestic settings and the function of objects in everyday life.
Works in the Allens collection
Wild and woolly 1977
lithograph 10/16, 42 x 31cm (unframed), 65 x 52cm (framed)
Artwork: 82.04.HE.P1
Tall 1977
lithograph 4/20, 44 x 33cm (unframed), 66 x 54cm (framed)
Artwork: 389
Scrabble Round Table 1978
lithograph 10/11, 35 x 38cm (unframed), 56 x 59cm (framed)
Artwork: 390
Chair beside itself 1978
lithograph A/P, 45 x 33cm (unframed), 65 x 49cm (framed)
Artwork: 80.06.HE.P
Grande standee 1978
lithograph 1/10, 56 x 32cm (unframed), 80 x 53cm (framed)
Artwork: 82.04.HE.P3
Chandelier 1979
lithograph 13/15, 43.5 x 32.5cm (unframed), 74 x 61cm (framed)
Artwork: 82.12.HE.P
Rocker 1980
woodcut relief 7/10, 49.5 x 30cm (unframed), 67 x 46cm (framed)
Artwork: 81.04.HE.P1
Hall stand and roller skate 1981
pastel on paper, 60 x 35cm (unframed), 80 x 52.5cm (framed)
Artwork: 036
Red room 1981-82
lithograph 3/13, 41 x 32cm (unframed), 64 x 53cm (framed)
Artwork: 82.04.HE.P2
Swivel Chair 1981
pastel on paper, 52 x 43cm (unframed), 73 x 63cm (framed)
Artwork: 086
Howard's socks 1981
pastel on paper, 75 x 54cm (unframed), 95 x 73cm (framed)
Artwork: 087
I and the moment laugh 1982
pastel on paper, 109 x 75cm (unframed), 135 x 99cm (framed)
Artwork: 109
Red Armchair 1982
oilstick on paper, 69 x 55cm (unframed), 86 x 69cm (framed)
Artwork: 119
Sailing 1982
pastel on paper, 122 x 80cm (unframed), 152 x 109cm (framed)
Artwork: 167
Sailing (Time you must cry farewell) 1983
lithograph 10/11, 68 x 52cm (unframed), 90 x 72cm (framed)
Artwork: 83.11.HE.P
Blue shoes 1984
pastel on paper, 109 x 73cm (unframed) x 128 x 93cm (framed)
Artwork: 248
The box 1986
oil on canvas, 167 x 121cm (unframed), 169 x 123cm (framed)
Artwork: 328
Ceremony 1988
oil on canvas, 170 x 270cm
Artwork: 451
Blue shadow 1988
oil on paper on canvas, 122 x 93.5cm (unframed), 124 x 96cm (framed)
Artwork: 473
Snake in the grass 1988
oilstick on paper on canvas, 122 x 92cm (unframed), 124 x 95cm (framed)
Artwork: 474
Chair at Mary's 1988
acrylic wash on paper, 76 x 56cm (unframed), 98 x 77cm (framed)
Artwork: 679
But you can't see me 1990
oilstick on paper on canvas, 153 x 183cm (unframed), 155 x 185cm (framed)
Artwork: 661
NY Transfer, No 8 1991
lithograph 3/11, 29.5 x 39cm (unframed), 54 x 64cm (framed)
Artwork: 747
Angle Manaslu 1998
oil on canvas, 142 x 106cm
Artwork: 917
