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shaun tan art

Shaun Tan - "Never Miss The Last Day of Summer" - oil on canvas

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Never Miss The Last Day of Summer 

Oil on canvas by Shaun Tan (2012).

Artwork size:  86 x 76 cm (33.9" x 29.9)

Frame size: 88.5 x 78.5 x 4.7 cm (34.8" x 30.9" x 1.9")

"Two boys ascending a bottomless ladder against a dark, faceless wall, arriving in a sunlit landscape of giant fruit and cakes where the most natural thing to do is march with musical instruments. The melody is inaudible, and the boys are small like ants on a picnic rug. Like many Australians, I have strong memories of the last days of long summer holidays, and the more regular wistful atmosphere of late Sunday afternoons, wanting to extend indefinitely the slanted light of a sinking sun."

"The image of a fruit landscape developed from earlier sketches in notebooks, involving two children improvising an imaginary festival, marching between colossal teacups, riding on the back of a large cat as it prowls across suburbia at night, or simultaneously exposed and hidden. This has something to do with the scale a private universe between two very close people, it’s both big and small. No other person is likely to notice it, and even if they do, it will escape their understanding. The colourful burst of fruit, flowers and cake also implies impermanence – this precious moment will not last, and is all the more precious because of it."

"As for the brothers, the youngest is now heading the procession on horn, and the oldest is supporting with a drum. I later painted a title illustration in which these roles are reversed. The little brother, struggling with the oversized drum, has dropped a stick while the older one marches on. This give an important context to the final spread: the older boy has, perhaps, learned to make allowances for the younger one, including the privilege of leading the tiniest of processions." —Shaun Tan

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