Laughing Painting, 1993

oil on canvas
1670 x 1770 mm
signed lower right hand corner: “A.M. 3.93”
inscribed: “Laughing Painting with Nick and MaLou [Marilou] written on A.M. 3.93”
Illustrated: Wedde, Ian (et al), Allen Maddox, Gow Langsford Gallery: Auckland, 2006, p. 3
Provenance: Collection of Harry Maddox, Private Collection, New Zealand
Exhibited: Allen Maddox Survey Exhibition, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, 2006

‘The cross that both negates and makes content, its meaning as a denial and as a selection, the repetitions that are both frustrated compulsions and elastic engineerings of structure - these tensions are the artist’s tools and strategies. They are how the work gets made and how it appears.’ (Wedde, Ian, ‘Hung, Drawn and Quartered’ in Wedde, Ian (et al), Allen Maddox, Gow Langsford Gallery: Auckland, 2006.)

Allen Maddox began crossing out the latticed boxes of his paintings in 1975 and 1976. This act of negation eventually developed into his primary mode of working and became an affirmative, productive and energetic force. Laughing Painting (1993) is an iconic work within Maddox’s oeuvre, featuring brilliant colour applied with vigorous gestural strokes. Quirks within the work, such as small pencilled phrases and the seam in the centre of the canvas, add to its vitality, underscoring the presence of the artist and his comic wit.