Howard Arkley Fetches A$2.5M for his piece "Neapolitan delight"

In May 2025 Howard Arkley managed to fetch A$2.5M for his piece 'Neopolitan delight', a pop-art style piece reminiscent of works from Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, channelling Arkley’s interest in the aesthetics of Australian suburbia.

Bids ricocheted around a Sydney auction room as collectors battled to secure the Howard Arkley masterwork, driving the picture up to $2.5 million including buyer’s premium and the top of the 2025 auction sales league table.

It was a new auction record for the late Melbourne artist, whose work was inspired by pop culture and by what he called the “second degree imagery” abounding in suburbia, such as wallpaper and fabric designs.

Read on to learn more about the late Howard Arkley as part of our Artist Spotlight.

A splendid superior home, 1989

Synthetic polymer paint on canvas

174.5 x 254 cm

Howard Arkley was born on May 5,1951 and grew up in the Melbourne suburb of Surrey Hills. His early passion for art was inspired by a family outing to the National Gallery of Victoria in 1967. In 1969, Arkley embarked on an art course at Prahran College of Advanced Education. It was here that Fred Cress, an artist and lecturer, introduced him to the airbrush which became Arkley’s trademark. Arkley refined the use of the airbrush as a drawing tool.

He was energetic and compelling with a personal style that set him apart, and there was no mistaking his commitment and drive as an artist. Howard’s first solo exhibition in 1975 of black and white abstractions at Tolarno Galleries in Fitzroy Street St Kilda, signalled that he was an artist of significance. Already he had claimed his metier with a spray–gun technique that enabled him to explore delicate patterns with a facility and precision that increasingly came to be recognised as his own vernacular.

Explosion 1996

Synthetic polymer, paint on canvas

135.1 x 120

The dynamic and anarchic punk movement which swept though Melbourne in 1979 was fuelled by a desire to register the energy of the present, and brought with it new thoughts and ideas which pervaded all the arts. It was an exciting, creative time and Arkley was attracted to the break–free spirit and disdain for conformity advocated by Punk. The style of punk fashion which appropriated elements from disparate contexts, could be compared to Arkley’s humorous post modern paintings which irreverently combined high art, pop culture and the everyday.

Although the best-known subject matter of his art is suburbia, seemingly the most boring of themes, for Howard it was an endless source of fascination, and he depicted the sedate homes of Melbourne with a lurid vitality which makes them like a crazy vision of heaven. By 1988, every painting in his annual show at Tolarno Galleries was inspired by suburban themes, which heralded a professional breakthrough and commercial success. In this he changed the way in which we too, observe the world around us, especially through his paintings of houses, factories and freeways.

Bungalow Home, 1987

acrylic paint on canvas

160 x 198 cm

Arkley worked intensely on a variety of familiar themes in the last two years of his life. He was at the peak of his career and achieved considerable success both in Australia and internationally. In the same year he represented Australia at The Venice Biennale, held his first highly successful one-man show in Los Angeles, and had accepted commissions from the National Gallery of Victoria and the Melbourne Festival. Howard Arkley pursued his art with a passionate intensity.His inventive eye cast a refreshing and exploratory light on the suburbs, in contrast to the cynical and deprecating manner with which it had often been viewed in the past.

“Howard’s work was accessible and enjoyable and has been described variously as quirky, moody, passionate and rigorous. Both the artist and the man struck a special chord in the hearts of so many Australians in a way that few artists – maybe Nolan, Boyd and Whiteley – did.”

Ron Radford, Chair of the Council’s Visual Arts/Craft Fund and Venice exhibition Commissioner, 1999.

Howard Arkley was a colourful and extrovert character and those who knew him were charmed by his warmth and exuberance. He was highly respected within the Arts community for both his distinctive oeuvre and the rigour with which he pursued his practice. Arkley’s personal vision unfolded universal meanings, and in an exhibiting career that spanned only some twenty–four years, he claimed his place boldly as one of Australia’s great artists.

Cover image

The Estate of Howard Arkley. Licensed by Kalli Rolfe Contemporary Art

Image from: https://www.deutscherandhackett.com/auction/lot/neapolitan-delight-1993