Autumn 2025 Art Auction
40. TIMOTHY STORRIER
(B.1949)TO THE INUENDO OF IMPERMANENCE
Signed lower right and titled lower centre
Acrylic on canvas
152.5 x 152.5cm
Estimate: $35,000/$50,000
Hammer Price - $31,250
Illustrated: "Point to Point. The Art of Tim Storrier" by Linda Van Nunen, Published by Craftsman House 1987, Page 67.
Visual guide only. Framed size is used when available; otherwise artwork size is shown.
About this artwork
Tim Storrier was the youngest artist ever to win a major Australian art prize. At just 19, he was awarded the Sulman Prize in 1968 - an important moment he credits with giving him the impetus to pursue painting professionally. Since that early success, Storrier has held 68 solo exhibitions, won the Archibald Prize for Portraiture twice, claimed a second Sulman Prize, and served as a trustee of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Despite being a seven-time finalist in the Wynne Prize for Landscape Painting, that particular award has eluded him - at least for now. Read full essay Show less
Tim Storrier was the youngest artist ever to win a major Australian art prize. At just 19, he was awarded the Sulman Prize in 1968 - an important moment he credits with giving him the impetus to pursue painting professionally. Since that early success, Storrier has held 68 solo exhibitions, won the Archibald Prize for Portraiture twice, claimed a second Sulman Prize, and served as a trustee of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Despite being a seven-time finalist in the Wynne Prize for Landscape Painting, that particular award has eluded him - at least for now.
In recognition of his contribution to contemporary art, Storrier was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 1994. He was later awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from Charles Sturt University in 2003. His works are held in all major state galleries, the National Gallery of Australia, and internationally at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Storrier’s career is defined by both skill and relentless dedication. “To the Innuendo of Impermanence” is one of his transitional works, marking his shift from modernism toward a more surreal image. Art critic Ruth Faerber described these transitional pieces as “Romantic and Surreal... they present the Australian outback as a fairy-tale oasis, like a mirage in a clear blue sky.”
Rendered with precision and symbolic richness, Storrier’s paintings from this era are bathed with light and atmosphere. In “To the Innuendo of Impermanence” , the landscape is without horizon or sky - an intentional omission that intensifies the viewer's focus. Through sheer technical mastery, he transforms the mundane into the interesting. For Storrier, it was never about the subject itself; rather, it was mood and the arrangement of colour that gave his work its authority.
Storrier’s work offers something rare: a seamless blend of intellectual depth, technical brilliance, and open character. His paintings do not merely depict the Australian landscape - they distil it into something timeless, evocative, and profoundly personal. In every work, there lies a quiet invitation to look closer, to linger, and ultimately, to wonder.