Tim Maguire is represented by Martin Browne Contemporary, Sydney and Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne. The quince, close cousin to the apple and pear, has proven a rich motif throughout the history of western painting, and in particular, within the Dutch vanitas style of the 16th and 17th centuries.


Intended as reminders of the transience of life, the futility of pleasure and the certainty of death, the quince itself is associated with marriage, fertility though also bitterness with their flesh hard and inedible. Like the vanitas theme which preoccupied the Dutch, Tim Maguire displays fruit which concurrently has a real and metaphysical value.


We are beguiled and seduced whilst the painting simulta...