The final Menzies Important Australian & International Art sale for the year on 29 November in Sydney included a consignment of 36 reliably blue-chip Australian paintings (and tapestries) deaccessioned from the ANZ bank collection, addingan extra $1,432,000 to Menzies’ total low-end pre-sale estimates for their summer auction. The top price of $290,000 in the collection was paid for William Robinson’s sweeping Springbrook Cliffs with Waterfalls, 1997 which presented a majestic view across the valley with clearing clouds and ringed by towering gum trees.
A consignment of 36 reliably blue-chip Australian paintings (and tapestries) deaccessioned from the ANZ bank collection, to make way for new acquisitions of works by female artists, indigenous, Pasifika, and LGBTIQ+ artists, added an extra $1,432,000 to Menzies’ total low-end pre-sale estimates for their summer auction. Perhaps they were hoping to replicate the very successful dispersal of corporate collections that we had seen throughout 2022’s seasonal auctions. Announced by auctioneer Martin Farrah, as works from “the mightly ANZ bank” collected between 1970 - 2000, this consignment was separated into two discrete tranches in Menzies’ sale: lots 1 - 14 and lots 49 - 70. On the night, with the help of a sustained online audience averaging over 200 remote bidders, Menzies cleared a respectable 83% by volume of the ANZ consignment.
Presenting a majestic view across the valley with clearing clouds and ringed by towering gum trees, William Robinson’s sweeping Springbrook Cliffs with Waterfalls, 1997 (Lot 7 ) fetched the highest price of this tranche at $290,000, while Russell Drysdale’s 1961 Dawn Flight, Bass Strait (Lot 6 ) sold to an absentee bid of $260,000. Of the four Arthur Boyd works offered from this corporate collection, only one failed to reach the reserve: a large 6ft square painting, Woman in a Jinker, c.1969 (Lot 5 ). While Hillside with Black Ram, 1972 (Lot 8 ) sold comfortably mid-estimate, $100,000, both the expressive pastel-toned Shoalhaven Fishing, c.1983 (Lot 4 ) and semi-abstract candy-coloured tapestry from an edition of 6, The Dream of Nebuchanezzar, 1975 (Lot 10 ) exceeded expectations, achieving $90,000 and $40,000 respectively, both though bids communicated over the telephone. This tapestry’s final price settled just shy of the record price for a Boyd tapestry: $42,000 ($51,545 inc. BP) set just last week at Smith and Singer, for Cloud, 1968 - 69, from an edition of 4.
Receiving much interest during the Melbourne and Sydney preview exhibitions, spilling over into board-room display spaces, John Coburn’s full suite of seven tapestries, The Seven Days of Creation, 1960 - 70 (Lot 9 ), struggled to find a buyer with enough wall space. They sold for an astute bid on the reserve of $120,000, in the room, below estimates of $140,000 - 180,000. The rarity of these works had been somewhat understated by auctioneer Martin Farrah at the rostrum, who commented that it was “very hard to find a set like this intact”, when this happens to be the only full set from a very small edition of 3 to have ever been offered at auction. One other complete set is held in the collection of the John F. Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. (ed. 2 / 3), while the other (ed. 1 / 3) was dispersed and sold individually. Prospective buyers during the Sydney preview exhibition were astounded to hear that all seven tapestries were being offered in one lot, presented with conservative pre-sale estimates considering that single examples from this suite of seven have been known to sell for up to $55,000 hammer.
Amongst the works consigned from mixed vendors, Menzies was the only major Australian auction house to feature a Brett Whiteley painting in their end-of-year sale, placing the radiant Feeding Lavender Bay Doves, 1979 (Lot 33 ) on the cover of their catalogue, with strong pre-sale estimates of $650,000 - 850,000. Having remained in the same private collection since its first exhibition at Robin Gibson gallery in 1980, the Lavender Bay landscape from Whiteley’s celebrated Sydney harbour works, sold to a commission bid of $650,000.. Although only ever had one private owner, it is worth noting that this painting has been offered for sale once before, in March 2011, also at Menzies, failing at the time to meet a low end estimate of $450,000. Two auction records for specific prints by Brett Whiteley were achieved on Wednesday night. From the ANZ collection, Whiteley’s colour screenprint (The Orange) Fruit Dove in Clark Park, 1980 (Lot 63 ) reached a new high of $20,000, surpassing the previous record for this impression, from the BHP Collection which had stood for twenty years; and the large diptych, The Divided Unity, 1974 (Lot 130 ) surpassed its high estimate, settling for $29,000 after a quick-fire battle between bidders on the phone, internet and in the room.
Strong results for prints by international modern artists on the night helped to consolidate Menzies’ positioning in the global art market. A new Australian auction record was set for abstract expressionist American artist Brice Marden, for a full suite of etchings, After Botticelli, 1992 - 93 (Lot 36 ), with a mid-estimate bid of $110,000, while Hockney’s enticingly turquoise Lithograph of Water Made of Thick and Thin Lines and Two Light Blue Washes, 1978-80, (Lot 34 ) from a limited edition of 40, sold to just one bid of $150,000 on the phone, without any further competition. With very similar examples of Paper Pools lithographs by Hockney having recently sold in Australia well in excess of $200,000 all up, this telephone bidder last night was very fortunate indeed!
There were very few works by female artists in this auction, although a high price was achieved for the ever-popular Margaret Olley, with Kilim Rug and Cornflowers II, 1997 (Lot 24 ) running past high pre-sale estimates to achieve $115,000, with the phone bidder exhausting their opponent, a particularly persistent room bidder. Repatriated from Oregon, My Anooralya Story, 1992, by Emily Kame Kngwarreye (Lot 18 ) sold to a single bid of $50,000, whereas the larger Earth Creation, 1995-96 (Lot 37 ) reamined unsold on the night. Martin Farrah was unable to convince buyers that it was a “good time to buy an Emily”, in light of the National Gallery of Australia’s major retrospective on the artist opening in Canberra this evening, on Thursday 30 November - an exhibition sure to draw significant crowds over the summer.
Displayed on opposite ends of the Sydney gallery during the preview exhibition, the contrasting whimsical Sydney landscapes by Robert Dickerson (Lot 41 ) and Justin O’Brien (Lot 28 ) both soared above their high estimates, achieving $100,000 and $110,000 respectively.
Although inflation is nipping at the heels of discretionary household budgets and produces an absence of cashed-up consultants in the auction room, opportunistic single bids both in person and remotely on the phone and through invaluable.com allowed many large corporate-sized works to change hands, including the playful painterly pair of Richard Larter paintings (Lot 67 ) and (Lot 68 ) selling to different phone bidders. Big, colourful abstracts proved to be popular on the night, Robert Owen’s Blind Spot (from the Text of Light series), 2003 (Lot 76 ) was fought over the phone and internet, such that it broke auction records in excess of $10,000 to set a new benchmark at $55,000. Sculpture didn’t fare so well on the night, with a racy Barbara Tribe bronze and two Robert Klippel table-top sculptures passing in, as did a large Peter D. Cole geometric assemblage. Guy Boyd’s Kneeling Nude, 1984, (Lot 105 ) however, sold for a record price of $41,000.
The sale totalled $4.5 million ($5.5 million IBP) with 95% sold by value and 80% sold by number.
All prices are hammer unless otherwise indicated.
