Item - The departure, Bakeamu Jesuim
| ID | UNSW P 1980/0098 (082090) |
| Artist | Ray CROOKE (1922 - ) |
| Title | The departure, Bakeamu Jesuim |
| Alternate Titles | |
| Category | Painting |
| Medium | oil on canvas |
| Materials | oil pigments, canvas support |
| Edition Number | |
| Measurements (cms) | |
| Height | 153.00 |
| Width | 213.00 |
| Depth | 0.00 |
| Other | Frame: 163 x 228 x 6 cms |
| Marks/Inscriptions | |
| Location | lower left |
| Signed | inscribed in dark pigment: BAKEAMU JESUIM |
| Produced | |
| When | 1980 |
| Where | Australia |
| Style | Narrative |
| Subject | Death |
| Credit Line | Gift of Mr Albert Scheinberg, 1980 |
| Description/Remarks | Frances Thomson, Director, Perc Tucker Gallery wrote in 1997: "The Departure is a key work in the artist's oeuvre, his last great religious statement. It has a particular personal and emotional significance for the artist, as well as a universal meaning about grief and the acceptance of loss. On one level it is a descriptive image of a Torres Islander funeral, with the background mourners and mother and child figures in the foreground symbolising the eternal cycle of birth-life-death. But as with many works by the artist, there is also a deeper meaning. The artist has told me that the image also deals with the long, drawn-out resolution of his private feelings of grief, loss, and the final acceptance of the tragic death of his eldest daughter, Susan, who died at the age of 23 in a car accident in December 1975 outside Cairns. This was the most significant event in Ray's life; many believe that the death of Susan profoundly changed him and, in subtle ways, changed his approach to painting". |
| Exhibition History | The Blake Prize Blaxland Gallery, Sydney (00/00/1980 - 00/00/1980) |
| Bibliography | ISBN |
