The hunched figure of Explorer Antarctica, 1964 (Lot 125 ) seems barely human with staring black goggles. This, the most difficult work of the five, reached mid estimated range at $58,000 and may yet prove to be the best investment of the lot. A second bearded Explorer Antarctica, 1964 (Lot 193 ) with figure weighed down by rounds of blackened ice, reached higher to achieve $112,000 well above the estimated range of $50,000 to $70,000. Finally, in Antarctica, 1964 (Lot 156 ), there is a glimmer of light on the horizon - a bouncing of light termed ‘iceblink’, and this pushed the last of the five to $107,000, more than double the reserve. We are reminded of singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen’s lyrics ‘There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in’.
These Antarctic works appeared in the second half of the sale in a 120-lot section featuring mainly Nolan’s works on paper and dedicated to the final dispersal of the estate of Lady Nolan who died in 2016. This ‘Nolan’ opportunity certainly aroused the interest of the public, as after the average dispersal (57% by lot) of the first section of 87 lots of Important Australian Art, the auction room started to fill to standing room only. It is most unusual for an auction to increase its audience numbers halfway through! The buyers had come for their piece of Nolan. So, the second half of the sale was aggressively bid on, achieving a much-increased dispersal rate of 87% by lot.
The Nolan works on paper covered most of the themes, myths and legends of his output: works from Africa alive with animals; plumed hats from Gallipoli, pared back lines of Leda and the Swan; scalloped birds and flowers; arid scrapings of Central Australia; and, of course, the ever-present images of the Kelly legend. It was interesting to see these paper works laid out cheek and jowl at the viewing: comparisons are then immediate. Nolan’s capacity for invention was certainly on display; his ability to make a graphic line with charcoal or a loaded brush and leave it quite alone, completely unaltered for posterity to mull over. But it was in the Kelly works—from a range of eras and re-workings, from single-lined scribbles to detailed Glenrowan narratives—that the bidding soared.
The back-cover lot Kelly (Lot 109 ) not dated, not signed, mixed media on paper, showed a dramatic arrangement of eight brush marks to outline the helmeted figure. This piece was fought over between telephones and room bidders to the tune of $36,000 on a $12,000 low estimate. Even the A4-sized crayon works via rubbings (Lot 200 ) or scribble (Lot 201 ) brought more than $10,000 and $4200 respectively. Many of these works achieved double their low estimate. Such is life.
The sale began with a section of Important Australian Art, where some contemporary works from the IBM Collection were dispersed after their accrual in the 1980s and 1990s when it was fashionable for corporations to line their walls with Art. Notable here was an early almost two metre square canvas by Dale Frank: Pseudo Dilemma of the Super Dado - Nano Nano, 1993 (lot17). This was the bargain of the night at $5500; a bargain indeed considering his recent canvasses with pooled varnish of roughly the same size move quickly (not the varnish) in the secondary market for more than $50,000.
In the same category, a fantastic work by Howard Arkley, Scalloped Bracket, 1998 failed to find a buyer with a low estimate of only $10,000. This work more than summarises Arkley’s lifetime achievement: it examines decorative pattern, facades, commercial furnishings and sculptural installation all simultaneously in the same work.
Also unsold with the first hammer (but apparently sold in the hours after the sale) was the cover (Lot 25 ) Spring, 1964, by Ian Fairweather. At a lower estimate of $200,000 it didn’t seem expensive in light of recent realisations of similar stature. This painting breathes with human to human interaction yet is painted from the vantage point of Fairweather’s hermit ‘cloak’. Even though he was a loner, he still seemed to be able to say how people come together: the curving lines quietly shape out embracing bodies and the earth pigments read as the stuff of life.
At the viewing it was almost transcendent to see the Fairweather hanging above a magnificent grouping of hand incised and engraved Aboriginal works in hardwood: A Spearthrower and Three Clubs (Lot 53 ), undated, maker unknown. They achieved a humble $3600. These burnished objects carried a resonance and spirit that spoke to the Fairweather. They could teach many contemporary artists a thing or two about objects of substance that carry the weight of history, and bring it to us now in the contemporary moment. It is inexplicable why the traditional bark works such as (Lot 82 ) Mick Magani, Untitled (figure with totemic animals and plants) failed to find a buyer. This is the stuff of Country. Bonhams is to be commended for placing these Aboriginal works seamlessly where they belong in the context of the contemporary.
Quoted realisations include buyer’s premium.
