Every year, modernist Eric Thake would send his friends a hand-made Christmas card. Original lino-cut prints, these cards have since become canonical, each observing a changing nation through one its most distinct voices. They also speak to Thake’s inner world.

‘Nuns on the Geelong Road’ is among Thake’s best known linocuts. It is a delightful image – a car-full of nuns steam down Geelong road, black mounds but for a pair of eyes in the rearview mirror. Even nuns have places to be. Humorously, Thake writes “...or Oil Sheiks to Bahrein? The choice is yours” inside the card, setting up a visual pun for his recipient to solve. 

Represented across numerous public collections, including at the National Gallery of Victoria, ‘Nuns on the Geelong Road’ is a museum-quality work. It speaks to Thake’s remarkable wit, Australian modernism and is a prize for collectors of modernist art. 

Eric THAKE (1904 - 1982)
'Nuns on the Geelong Road…' 1969
linocut on paper
Image Size: 15 x 21 cm
Dimensions: 15 x 42 cm
Signed: Signed and dated lower right: Eric Thake 1969; titled lower left

Comes with Letter of Provenance

RELATED IMPRESSIONS:
- National Gallery of Victoria, accession number P139-1974
- Art Gallery of New South Wales, accession number DA77.1970
- National Gallery of Australia, accession number 73.257.30

Overall sheet size 15 x 42 cm, scored to fold
Inscribed reverse sheet, pencil "...or Oil Sheiks to Bahrein? / The choice is yours"

Condition: Excellent.

(c) The Artist or Assignee