James Yuncken, painting, café, Cumulus, Flinders Lane, 2011, Walking to Work series
Summary
Purchased in 2013, Yunken’s acrylic painting is from the series ‘Walking to Work’. Its realism captures not only the leisurely pace of the café’s early shift and the illuminating light of a southern spring morning, but also the viewpoint of the patron. The awkwardly placed beer tap and off-centre perspective do not belong to an overworked composition, but rather reflect the viewer’s quick, incidental glance over their morning coffee. This is a window onto a familiar routine, onto a valued ritual wrapped up with walking to work.
Artist statement
Cumulus is housed in the same building on Flinders Lane as my gallery, fortyfivedownstairs. One of Melbourne’s many elegant, quality establishments, this café-bar-restaurant can be matched to your needs and the time of day.
I usually call in there when I go to fortyfive; I drink a coffee, read the paper and enjoy the somewhat exotic and seductive atmosphere. There are business people from the big end of town, city residents, and patrons of culture and high-end shops – all suave sophistication made cool and sort of casual. It’s ‘Marvellous Melbourne’ resurrected. If any of this existed in the days of my youth – the 1950s, 60s and 70s – it certainly passed me by.
Then I make my way back through elegant gardens to Fitzroy, to my studio in Smith Street. There it’s the disadvantaged, the newly arrived, the mentally disturbed and a variety of colourful characters rubbing shoulders with the hip, the cool, the progressive edge.
James Yuncken
