
Nadia Bellingeri
Senior Sale Coordinator
£6,000 - £8,000
Senior Sale Coordinator
Head Of Sale
Cataloguer
Provenance
Sale; Sotheby's, Ithell Colquhoun Studio Sale, London, 24 April 1985, lot 554
Sale; Sotheby's, London, 16 January 1986, lot 13
Exhibited
Penzance, Newlyn Gallery, 1974, cat.no.83
Literature
Richard Shillitoe, Ithell Colquhoun: Magician Born of Nature, 2009, cat.no.754, p.379
Many of Colquhoun's paintings attest to her interest in wild, marginal places, such as deserts or the seashore: primeval locations where nature stands untamed. It is a theme she returned to throughout her life. Desert Menace is a barren, timeless space where the nature of the menace is unstated: Colquhoun merely presents a landscape upon which, like a stage set or backdrop, viewers like the shadowy observer on the rocky outcrop, can project their own fantasies and fears.
We are grateful to Dr Richard Shillitoe for compiling this catalogue entry.