As art auction houses invest in their online bidding platforms, the audience may see more of this bidding behaviour, where the opening prices are set by the internet rather than through ‘book’ bids left for safe keeping with the auctioneer. But technology can be a two-edged sword, as the start of the Deutscher and Hackett sale ground to a halt after the first lot when the internet went down for a good ten minutes.
But the sale sprang to life after the internet revived, and there were few seats left for room bidders keen to step out after Melbourne’s covid years. Financially, the sale was a windfall. This writer counted record prices (or record equalling prices) for thirteen artists. This demonstrates how completely undervalued Australian paintings from the 1970s have been. The most superb of these works was the muted yet vibrating op-art work by Lesley Dumbrell (Lot 42 ) which sailed past its estimated $15,000 - $20,000 range to sell to a lucky but wise room bidder for a hammer price of $50,000 after spirited bidding from 3 telephones, 2 room bidders and at least one internet bidder. Her previous record was $9,000. This fair recognition was followed in quick succession by records for Miriam Stannage (Lot 43 ) at $22,000; Inge King (Lot 45 ) at $180,000; and the contemporary Rosslynd Piggott (Lot 64 ) at $14,000.
Not to be out-done, their male counterparts also fared well with artist records: William Delafield Cook’s meticulously painted headland A French Cliff, 1979, (Lot 15 ) reached $420,000 on a $200,000 upper estimate; Ken Whisson’s Drummer, c1973 (Lot 33 ) showed recognisable painted figures before the free-form linearity of his later work. It equalled a previous record of $70,000 well above his usual estimated range of $25,000-$35,000. West Australians also performed well, with George Haynes Figure Study, 1972, (Lot 73 ), eclipsing the $10,000-$15,000 estimate to sell for $40,000. Another record.
Not setting records, but still incredibly interesting was the lyrical abstraction Manassas Blue, 1973 (Lot 37 ) by Sydney Ball, selling for $42,000—almost triple its top estimate. This painting shows the direct influence that American expressionist painting unleashed on the young Australian artists of the 1970s. Howard Arkley’s Stroke, 1975, (Lot 46 ), from his first solo show at Tolarno Gallery in April 1975, graphed the early application of his monochrome linear airbrush technique. The room burst into spontaneous applause when it sold for $94,000, more than triple its upper estimate. It wasn’t the classical suburban-house Arkley that we have grown to love; it was more about the birthplace of his technique well away from the suburbs.
Jeffrey Smart can always be relied on as an auction mainstay. His figure-in-the-city oeuvre The Footbridge, 1975, (Lot 6 ) performed solidly as expected (in the light of the National Gallery of Australia’s current exhibition) and reached $800,000 over a top estimate of $600,000. What is interesting to note here is that it was acquired back in 1975 when it was painted and first exhibited. It didn’t cost that much back then.
As the collection expanded its parameters in the 1990s, the magnificent tonally-controlled Arthur Streeton Blue Vista from the Sundial, 1920 (Lot 16 ) was acquired later in 1998. It sold for $750,000 over a very conservative $300,000-$500,000 estimate—auctioneer Roger McIlroy confirming: ‘nice picture, nice result’.
Also acquired in the 1990s was a particularly strong Arthur Boyd oil, Shoalhaven Cliff and River, 1994, (Lot 26 ), notable for the form and vitality of its brushstrokes. It performed as this writer expected, achieving $380,000—a figure more than double its top estimate. The three John Olsen’s on offer sold comfortably, his popularity noticeable through strong internet bidding. Olsen’s 1970s work Dark Void (Lot 10 ) sold strongly at $400,000 as anticipated.
The sale of the National Australia Bank Collection was set across two nights with Part 1 through Deutscher and Hackett and Part 2 through Leonard Joel. The catalogue preface explained that the sale was designed to ‘release funds back into the community through the NAB Foundation’ and allow the bank to focus more directly on it’s role of ‘supporting customers’. This is a cultural change to corporate responsibility, for their insight certainly assisted a generation of 1970s artists.
It is clear that the audience relished the chance to acquire works from this auction, not only because of the time capsule nostalgia for undervalued paintings from the 1970s, but also because all works in the sale had been carefully selected by curators such as Georges Mora and Felicity St John Moore. Many of the 1970s works from the collection were also selected by curator Robert Lindsay for the 1982 exhibition The Seventies – Australian Paintings and Tapestries from the Collection of the National Australia Bank at the National Gallery of Victoria. For the would-be purchaser, this provides guidelines of quality and impeccable provenance.
The sale achieved 99% sold by lot, and 192% by value, with a hammer total of $8.6 million and a sales total including buyer's premium of $10.56 million.
All prices quoted are hammer prices and do not include the buyer’s premium.
