Acquired by the present owner circa 1975

There is a tiny indentation in the canvas in the upper left quadrant which coincides with the stretcher bar. Otherwise the canvas is in original condition. There are stretcher marks along the edges and horizontally across the centre of the canvas. There are areas of very light craquelure in all but the upper left quadrant. It is most visible in the black and blue pigment. Examination under ultra-violet light reveals a small horizontal line of retouching 11.5cm in length in the centre of the upper quadrants. There is also a very thin diagonal line of retouching approximately 12cm in length in the upper right quadrant. There are a few other minor spots along the lower edge in the lower right quadrant and a few scattered tiny spots in the black pigment in the right of the painting. Held in a simple black wooden frame. Please telephone the department on 020 7293 5381 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

'It is not my intention to create a picture consisting of merely literal references to things outside the area of the canvas'. (Allen Jones, quoted in Andrew Lambirth, Allen Jones: Works, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2005, p.19).

Parachute Fragments, painted three years after Allen Jones left the Royal College of Art, is a work which is dominated by a powerful spectrum of colour. It is not the fluorescent colour of his later works of the 60s and 70s, which seem so heavily influenced by his year in New York and direct experiences of America and its culture, but a more thorough experiment in colour. The palette relies heavily on the polarity of the red and green pigments. The flat abstracted bands of colours they depict seem directly influen𒆙ced by the colour experimentation of artists such as Robert Delaunay and Fernand Léger, whose work Jones saw in the flesh in France on frequent trips ♒between 1958 and 1961, and more obviously Matisse and Kandinsky.

Apart from the colouful arm which thrusts out from the centre of the picture, Jones' only clearly objective depiction in the painting appears to be his 'floating' legs, which provide a visual connection with the dreamlike floating figures of Marc Chagall, which Jones greatly admired during his early visits to France in the late 50s and early 60s. But the gravity-defying limbs, and the reference to the 'parachute' in the title, also refer to the works of Nietzsche, whose writings Jones had been introduced to by Ken Kiff at Hornsey School of Art in 1960. In Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche made an appeal for society to defy the 'Spirit of Gravity' which restrains and overpowers, to achieve a heightened spiritual state. Jones draws on this philosophy to give his work symbolic meaning. The reference to the 'parachute' in the title gives the viewer the impression that the abstracted array of colour might represent a heap of multi-coloured parachutist's material. But an impression is all it is. Jones had clarified only the year before, 'It is not my intention to create a picture consisting of merely literal references to things outside the area of the canvas (i.e. naturalistic painting).' (Andrew Lambirth, Allen Jones: Works, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2005, p.19).

Parachute Fragments is a powerful experiment in colour and form, a fine example of what Jones considered modern art's capacity to be a 'laboratory for pure visual research'. (Lambirth, op. cit.p.20).