Art Auction Sale Reviews

Keen collectors braved the rolling waves of severe thunderstorms on Wednesday night to fill the auction room at Menzies for their third (and last) major mixed vendor sale of the year. With double cause for celebration, marking 25 years in business with their 100th auction, Menzies broke five new Australian auction records in the face of slowly slipping clearance rates and opportunistic bids from a market increasingly favouring the buyer rather than the vendor.

Bonhams final Important Australian Art auction for 2023 features a curated collection of works covering the Victorian Era through to the Contemporary. Headlined by a magnificent Fred Williams, Golden Landscape, 1975 (lot 27), est: $300,000-400,000) repatriated from a US collection and offered for the first time to the Australian market. Exhibited at LA Louvre Gallery in 2005 from the Estate of the artist, this work portrays the artist’s beloved You Yangs.  Painted during a time of great artistic transition for Fred Williams in his choice of palette, use of perspective and approach to subject matter. Williams' innovations were celebrated and in 1975 he was invited to hold a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York - the first Australian to be given such an honour. Bonhams’ Head of Sale, Australian Art, Alex Clark says ‘It’s an exceptional work in the flesh that, as the title suggests, has a luminous presence. From a distance, the soft palette appears muted, though the closer you are drawn in, the more you recognise the wild brush strokes of exotic purples, yellows, greens and reds in the foreground which without contemplation can be overlooked.

Ian Fairweather’s Street in Soochow 1948 (lot 8) belied its humble 21 x 21 cm size and its pencil and gouache medium to bring a sense of auction delight and double its pre-sale estimate at Deutscher and Hackett’s ‘Important Australian + International Fine Art’ final sale of the year in Sydney, 22 November 2023, selling for $70,000 after spirited bidding.

Sidney Nolan’s enamel on composition board painting, Desert Bird 1948 (lot14) vivid yet modestly scaled, was completely new to the market. It was a pleasure seeing this work at the Melbourne viewing, as the spectacular paint surface caught my eye—such sensual paint details are completely lost in a digital or photographic version of it. Of course, the startled demeanour of the hovering bird is where the social power of the painting lies, as a reminder of the continuing difficulty we experience in coming to terms with the Australian environment and its histories. The hammer price of $1,300,000 was the 5th highest price for a Nolan. All the historically higher priced works were images of the helmeted Ned Kelly. Perhaps the bird may be seen as a Ned Kelly helmet after all.

In the expansive world of art collectors, Barrie and Jude Le Pley stand out as exemplars of passion, patronage and pure provenance. Since the early 1970’s, their unwavering dedication to Indigenous art has resulted in the creation of one of the country’s most remarkable collections. Focusing on major works from thirty Indigenous art centres, the Le Pley Collection encapsulates the essence of Indigenous culture.

Menzies chairman and head of private sales Cameron Menzies is chuffed to be celebrating the company’s 25 years in the art auction industry and its 100th sale by auctioning 36 paintings belonging to the ANZ Bank collection – given that, as one of the big four Australian banks, it has always been such a staunch presence in its business aspirations.

“These paintings are representative of its Australia-wide and international collection which numbers several hundred works,” he said. “It includes such marvellous paintings as Russell Drysdale’s (1912-1981) Dawn Flight, Bass Strait 1961 (lot 6), featured on the auction catalogue’s back cover, and one of three complete sets of John Coburn’s (1925-2006) The Seven Days Creation tapestries (lot 9) woven in Aubusson, France in 1970.”

Both these works were sold to the ANZ by Melbourne art guru, Polish-born Dr Joseph Brown AO OBE (1918-2009), the former in 1989 after he purchased the painting from Sotheby’s 14 years earlier. Much of Brown’s incomparable Australian art collection now resides in the National Gallery of Victoria.

The Lawsons November Fine Art sale is an appealing catalogue to both the entry-level and the experienced collector. The one hundred lots covers a variety of works by important Australian artists spanning from traditional to contemporary, among the selected highlights is an early work from pioneering Indonesian modernist S. Sudjojono.

With auctioneer Anita Archer on the podium in front of a packed audience in Cooee Art Leven’s Redfern Showroom, it took only two hours to sell 100% of the lots by number (129% by value) with a total sale value $2,250,000 (incl. BP).

Deutscher and Hackett will present its final major auction for the year with a considered selection of Important Australian and International Fine Art to be offered in Sydney at the firm’s Paddington premises on Wednesday 22 November 2023. With a total estimated value range of $5.0 – $7.1 million, the 63-lot auction boasts outstanding examples of Australian modern and contemporary art in particular from artists as diverse as Margaret Preston, John Brack, Rosalie Gascoigne, William Robinson and Cressida Campbell.

Two exceptional compositions by Howard Arkley – Shadow Factories 1991 (Lot 12) and Sampler: Formal 1998 (Lot 25) make their auction debut, together with two highly significant works by Sidney Nolan – In Town 1948 (Lot 9) and Desert Bird 1948 (Lot 14) – offered from the descendants of the original owners, are among the highlights of Smith & Singer’s forthcoming sale of Important Australian Art to be held in Sydney on Tuesday, 21 November 2023.

Cressida Campbell and John Coburn lead an impressive line-up of paintings in Lawsons October Fine Art sale, including important works by Garry Shead, Jon Molvig and Jessie Constance Traill.

On Leonard Joel’s front cover, there is an intriguing piece by the esteemed landscape painter Fred Williams with his work Kosciusko Landscape (Lot 10) painted in the mid-1970s. Inspired by the majestic mountain in New South Wales, Williams broke free from his artistic constraints, resulting in a remarkable shift in form and colour. From a rare body of work, this piece has been hidden in a private collection since its initial sale through the Rudy Komon Gallery, making it a unique opportunity for collectors. Furthermore, Williams produced only 4 oils of this subject, making it a work of further rarity and prestige.

Powditch, who died last year aged 80, was a typical Australian male artist of the second half of the 20th century to who early success came easily in nude, landscape and still life categories. After studying at the East Sydney Technical College (now the National Art School), he exhibited at several galleries including Rudy Komon, Ray Hughes and Australian Galleries before eventually becoming head of painting at the College of Fine Arts in a more traditional teaching role.

There’s an interesting mix in the October Aboriginal Art auction from Theodore Bruce Auctioneers & Valuers, with major names including Rover Thomas, Dorothy Napangardi and Nyurapayia (Mrs Bennett) Nampitjinpa, as well as a large selection from younger and mid-career artists. With modest estimates, these provide an excellent opportunity for new collectors looking to opt into the Aboriginal art market.

Following exhibitions in Melbourne and Sydney, which attracted almost five hundred visitors, the sale of SIDNEY NOLAN: Property Formerly from the Collection of Lord McAlpine opened to a full saleroom at Smith & Singer’s Sydney gallery. Those in attendance competed vigorously with strong interest from national and global telephone and online bidding for this remarkable collection of 42 paintings by Australia’s most internationally celebrated and collected artist.

Among the recognisable catalogue of artists in the Lawsons September Fine Art auction, leading the sale is Elywn Lynn, Clifton Pugh and Susan Norrie. Each of the works are prime examples from desired periods of artists, two of which are fresh to the secondary market.

Leonard Joel’s annual Women Artists auction is a much-anticipated event for collectors, showcasing an important collection of artworks by female artists that are now demanding the academic and commercial recognition they so rightfully deserve. After holding their first annual Women Artists auction in 2017, Leonard Joel’s dedicated auction is approaching its 7th year, presenting works by Florence Fuller, Constance Stokes, Margaret Preston, Frances Derham, along with works from The Estate of Jim Alexander.

The September Fine Art auction from Theodore Bruce Auctioneers features an appealing mix of Australian and international contemporary artists, plus art world luminaries including Ray Crooke, Lloyd Rees and Frank Hinder. Of particular note is a sketchbook with original drawings by Bauhaus stalwart, Lyonel Feininger (1871-1956).

In 1979, the Art Gallery of NSW acquired a collection of 125 Feininger drawings from the Estate of Fred Werner. Best remembered as a German Expressionist painter, he was the only artist to be with the Bauhaus for the duration, appointed by Walter Gropius in 1919 as the first Master in the new school, and later, head of the printmaking workshop.

Australian art icon Brett Whiteley (1939-1992) is another who rarely goes unsold and his brush and ink on torn reassembled paper entitled Self Portrait at 36, 1975 Verso: Seed Pods and the Tide Coming In (lot 2) sold for $28,000.

Smith & Singer will offer a collection of 42 paintings by Australia’s most internationally celebrated and collected artist that span Sidney Nolan’s highly productive and inventive career from 1957 to 1987.  Significant examples from Nolan’s Eliza Fraser, Ned Kelly, African, Bathers, Oedipus, Gallipoli, and Silk Road series are represented by large-scale compositions in oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas and composition board that reveal the artist as the truly extraordinary innovator and trailblazer for which he is justly renowned.

Australian artist Tim Storrier’s sculpture Equine Impedimenta (Tully’s Baggage) 2019 (lot 38) scooped the pool at Menzies Sydney timed online auction on August 30, selling well within its catalogue estimate for $147,273 including buyer’s premium. The sculpture shows Storrier’s enduring fascination with the symbolic power of objects – in this case an easel, hat, briefcase, palette and multiple bulging sacks among many other items on the horse’s back.

Smart collectors and first-time buyers would be well advised to closely consider Deutscher and Hackett’s timed online Melbourne Modern, Contemporary and Indigenous art auction which will end from 7pm Tuesday September 5. Among the 45 works on offer are several by top Australian artists along with affordable paintings ideal for collection starters. Among the higher catalogue estimates is Ray Crooke’s (1922-2015) Village Islanders (lot 4) at $35,000-$45,000 and James Gleeson’s (1915-2015) Evidence of Uncertainties, 2005 (lot 5) at $30,000-$40,000.

Another atypical work for Perth is, Charles Bryant’s (1883-1937) painting, Circular Quay (Lot 19), highly evocative night scene of the electric advertising signs and bustling harbour ferries of the  c1920’s. Also, a wonderful study from the charismatic Murray Griffin, 1903-1992, Old Log in Forest (Lot 4), and a sensitive tonal early-period work by Ray Crooke, (1922-2015), View of Mosman, Sydney harbour (Lot 2).

Smith & Singer’s auction of Important Australian Art in Sydney on 23 August 2023 witnessed intense competition and achieved several highly significant auction records for Australian artists, including Fred Williams, Isobel Rae, and Joel Elenberg, the latter also being the highest price paid at auction for an Australian sculpture, with works by women artists continuing to perform strongly.

Following on from the success of The Fred and Elinor Wrobel Collection: A Curated Salon in April, Bonhams is offering a second group of works - The Fred and Elinor Wrobel Collection: The Artist's Eye,  focusing on landscapes, scenes of the harbour and beach life. Fred’s passion and career in boating led to the acquisition of a number of works on this theme – most importantly  Roy de Maistre's St Jean de Luz, 1931 (lot 31). Set in De Maistre’s beloved French seaside town, the work highlights the artist's skill with form and colour as well as his interest in perspective in his depiction of brightly coloured vessels stored away for the day.

Ten Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) pottery pieces and prints by some of Australia’s best-known artists are part of Menzies timed online Prints & Multiples Sydney auction ending from 6.30pm Wednesday August 30 at 12 Todman Avenue, Kensington.

While there are several high-priced items among the 110 lots, many are estimated for only a few thousand dollars and will no doubt appeal to first time auction goers looking to buy a work by a well-known artist.

Leonard Joel’s annual Indigenous art auction to be held in the evening of  Monday 28 August presents just over 100 key works of art by a diverse range of artists spanning numerous regions, mediums and periods. The selection caters to all collectors, from those perhaps new and curious to the more astute collector. The August auction continues to present works that have come from approved ethical sources only, following Leonard Joel’s refinement of their policy in late 2021.

Competitive bidding on valuable paintings fresh to the market heralded an exciting night for Deutscher and Hackett’s sale of Important Australian and International Fine Art in Melbourne on 16 August, 2023. Outside, the evening temperature hit record lows. Inside, as the room filled, there were few winter blues and the mood lifted.

An early double-sided watercolour by Albert Namatjira depicting the Ranges and a rare portrait of Namatjira’s son is one of the leading highlights among the 100 lots in Lawsons August Fine Art sale.

Fred Williams’s ‘Waterfall’ compositions of 1979-1981 have long been acknowledged as one of the artist’s most accomplished, sustained and complex series; a body of work that finds its origins deeply embedded within the history and development of Australian art as well as fundamentally inspired by the astonishing qualities found within the Australian landscape itself.

This auction features six works by Guy Grey-Smith, the highest-valued of which is the work in acrylic Northern Cabbage (Lot 42), previously exhibited at John Gild’s gallery in 1972. There are two lots by the well-regarded Pippin Drysdale. One lot consists of four pieces from the Tanami mapping series (Lot 64), while the other lot is a singular piece from the scarce Maningrida Weavings series (Lot 63).

Art works belonging to two giants of Australia’s art world – including Brett Whiteley’s (1939-1992) South Coast After the Rain, 1984 (lot 1) and Sidney Nolan’s (1917-1992) Early Morning Township, 1955 (lot 9) – will be among the highlights of Deutscher and Hackett’s forthcoming Melbourne auction from 7pm Wednesday August 16 at 105 Commercial Road, South Yarra.

The next Aboriginal Art sale from Theodore Bruce Auctioneers & Valuers once again offers an interesting selection of paintings, contemporary objects and watercolours from leading and upcoming Indigenous artists. The auction also features over 60 works from the Des Rogers Collection, including a rare Albert Namatjira pencil sketch. With 122 lots on offer, buyers will find paintings by major artists including Dorothy Napangardi, Judy Watson Napangardi, Nyurapayia (Mrs Bennett) Nampitjinpa and Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri, plus watercolours from Johannes Katakarinja, Reggie Namatjira and others.

Leading Lawsons July Fine Art Sale are nine works by German-born artist Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack. Relatively less known, however important, the small collection of works span the years between 1940s through to the early 1960s. Landscape depictions of Wilson’s Promontory demonstrates his interest in engaging with his new homeland through figurative representation whilst continuing to produce in his later years formal and whimsical abstractions that demonstrate a life-long commitment to Bauhaus theory and practise. Hirschfeld-Mack represents an important link between Australia and the teachings of Bauhaus and was instrumental in the rise of a new Australian art. It is fitting that this sale features works by modern Australian artists that have significantly contributed to a shift in that visual language in Australia post WWII.

McKenzies Auctioneers next sale on July 25 in Perth comprises more than 130 Lots, including a strong representation of Western Australian artists. An important early work from Howard Taylor 1918-2001 Granite Dome - Most likely Gibraltar Rock, Porongorups (Lot 16), c1960s, gouache and wash on paper, (in artists frame), was previously exhibited at Galerie Dusseldorf, exhibition, 'Significant Work from the 60s' 1999, Cat #9; and is accompanied by the original exhibition catalogue.

KAWS made a powerful impact at the National Gallery of Victoria in 2020, taking over the space with his instantly recognisable sculptures. Notably, the NGV commissioned a monumental work titled Gone for this exhibition. Towering at an impressive height of 7 meters, this bronze masterpiece stands as the largest KAWS piece ever created. Soon, it will be the centerpiece of the forthcoming Fox Contemporary gallery, scheduled to open its doors in 2028.

Has Australia decided who our greatest landscape painter is? The AGNSW’s Wynne Prize for landscape does ask this question regularly every year. There is no easy answer, and it depends on whether you are talking about 19th century realist depictions by the likes of Von Guerard and Glover or impressionist visions by Arthur Streeton. In the 20th century modern and contemporary category, Fred Williams, Arthur Boyd and John Olsen would be foremost.

An enthusiastic crowd was in attendance at Cooee Art’s Redfern showrooms, with other bidders waiting on the phone and internet to participate, as auctioneer Anita Archer approached the podium for the June 20 Indigenous Fine Art Auction. On offer were 106 select lots from across Australia, valued at AUD 1.5 to 2.0 million.

Leonard Joel’s June Fine Art auction is led by two important international works of art. Gracing it’s front cover is lot 19 by Vietnamese modernist, Vu Cao Dam. The first to come to market in Australia, it was acquired by the current owner while travelling in New York in the late 1970s from the esteemed Wally Findlay Galleries. Le Cavalier 1978 highlights the richness and delicacy of Vietnamese painting, infused with the principles of modern art prevalent at the time in Europe. After visiting France in the 1930s, Vu Cao Dam never returned home to Vietnam but retained his cultural heritage through the subjects he painted. His friend and neighbour, Marc Chagall, undoubtedly had an influence on his painting style. Vu Cao Dam’s paintings are now highly sought after by collectors in South East Asia and around the world.

Leading Australian landscape artist Fred Williams (1927-1982) was fascinated with a “billabong” in the Melbourne suburb of Kew and during the mid-1970s used it as the basis for his Kew Billabong series – numbering more than 30 paintings. 

Describing it as “splendid” but noting that the place was in fact “just a rubbish dump of all things”, he admitted to using a rubber tyre in his painting as a motif (first ever) and found it a great place to work.

In all, there were seven visits to the site – with three or four paintings produced on each one, the first work dating from April 30, 1975.

One of Australia’s most famous photographers and an internationally respected master of his craft, Wolfgang Georg Sievers (1913-2007) compositions were often magic personified and changed the face of industrial and architectural photography in this country forever.

So important is he to Australia’s photographic history that 65,000 of his images reside in the National Library of Australia in the national capital, Canberra – the largest single collection on record.

Featured are Rehfisch and Lahey’s more traditional contemporaries, Francis Vida Lahey and Alice M Bale. Both artists trained under Frederick McCubbin and associated with artistic circles that persisted a traditionalist approach to painting. Yet despite their training the modern zeitgeist is undeniably present in their works.

Collated over many years by a Sydney collector, this collection of modern and contemporary art for auction at Theodore Bruce features an interesting mix of paintings, objects and photography from Australian and international artists. With modest estimates, the auction provides a good opportunity for new collectors looking to opt into the contemporary market.

Cooee Art, Australia's oldest exhibiting Indigenous gallery and specialised Indigenous-focused auction house, is holding its bi-annual Fine Art Auction in Sydney, on the June 20th,  2023. The auction features 106 lots, showcasing the diversity and richness of Indigenous art from across the country, with the sale estimated at $1.58 to $2.1 million.

Almost 70 per cent of the part of his indigenous art collection that Melbourne-based artist James Smeaton’s entrusted for a timed online auction on June 6 with Deutscher and Hackett sold, with many of the works achieving above catalogue estimate prices. The top selling painting was Makinti Napanangka’s Untitled, 2003 (lot 5) which was knocked down for $28,000 against an $18,000-$25,000 estimate.

Eighty-six per cent of the 1383 lots on offer sold by volume with the surprise being a Papua New Guinea carved wooden ancestral spiritual figure (lot 1099) collected by Australian ex-pat John Lean Pender, who lived there during the 1930s and returned to Australia in 1942 following the Japanese invasion.  Listed in the catalogue with a $250-$350 estimate, it brought a staggering $32,265.

Melbourne-based abstract artist James Smeaton has given some of his indigenous art collection to Deutscher and Hackett for a timed online auction ending from 7pm Tuesday June 6 at 105 Commercial Road, South Yarra. Smeaton, 59, has been exhibiting solo since the early 1990s – most recently with Scott Livesey Galleries – and his paintings concentrate on aquatic and maritime features in Melbourne’s port area. Footscray’s old two-storey cotton mills became his “painting home” in 2009, complete with a suspended Balinese fishing boat and other maritime memorabilia to help provide inspiration for his works.  

Deutscher and Hackett’s latest timed online auction is a great opportunity to pick up works by some of Australia’s well-known artists without destroying the budget.

Classified as modern, contemporary and traditional art, the sale will close from 7pm Tuesday May 23 and features affordable paintings, prints and sculptures by such luminaries as Sidney Nolan, Bill Henson, Tim Storrier, Tim Maguire, Brett Whiteley, Russell Drysdale, Robert Klippel and Norman Lindsay.

Each year in May the world’s contemporary art market is centred in New York City, spring is in the air and and so is a frenzy of buying and selling of the season’s most exceptional modern and contemporary art.

Earlier this week at UOVO in New York, 60 paintings from two of the world’s most acclaimed private collections of Australian Indigenous Art were bought together for the first time, when paintings from the collections of John and Barbara Wilkerson (the renowned collection of fine early Papunya boards), and contemporary paintings from the collection of Steve Martin and Anne Stringfield (masterworks by Emily Kngwarreye, Papunya Tula masters etc), were exhibited together for the first time.

These and two other works were inherited by the daughter of Augusta Macdougall, the proprietor of Pakie’s Club in Elizabeth St, one of Norton’s bohemian haunts in mid-century Sydney, and now form part of her estate. Continuing the pagan theme are a bronze Piping Pan (Lot 72) and an earthenware bust, Pan (Lot 73) by the hard to find but well respected sculptor and potter, Loma Kyle Latour. A student of Rayner Hoff, she was an important and unconvential personality of the 1930s, who apart from artistic endeavours was also recognised as an actor, model and writer.

The selection up for auction is remarkable, featuring pieces from esteemed Australian artists like Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Arthur Boyd, John Perceval, Guy Grey-Smith, Robert Juniper, Portia Bennett, Howard Arkley, and William Delafield Cook, Junior.

Lawsons’ May Fine Art is sale is predominately traditional in its offering, featuring both rare and exemplary paintings by some of Australia’s most coveted artists. Featured among the traditional genre are contemporary works by John Olsen, Garry Shead, Michael McWilliams and Bruce Armstrong.

McKenzies forthcoming May sale is representative of the firm’s mainstay, of Fine Arts Auctioneering in Western Australia since 1988, focussing on Australian and International art with a strong showing of local art and artists. This two-night sale encompasses art, collectables, furniture, luxury and jewellery, with art comprising over 130 lots on the first night, 23rd May.

Theodore Bruce Auctioneers & Valuers holds regular auctions in Aboriginal Art, which until recently have been situated within its Fine Art auctions. With an increased focus on higher end offerings, its newest auction is a standalone, featuring an impressive selection from key figures in Australian Indigenous Art. The collection is predominantly made up of contemporary works, with a handful of traditional objects.

With 105 lots on offer, there’s an interesting mix of artworld luminaries and upcoming artists - including collector favourites Dorothy Napangardi, Rover Thomas, Tommy Watson, Judy Watson Napangardi and Minnie Pwerle.

Kelly has had a strong connection with artists, art collectors and non-profit indigenous owned art centres ever since 2000 when she opened an Aboriginal art centre in Armadale which closed 10 years later.

Asian contemporary art continues to make inroads into international markets, with increased representation at international art fairs and biennales, and a growing demand from collectors attracted both to the stylistic innovation and affordability. For its next fine art auction, Theodore Bruce Auctioneers & Valuers has curated a selection that includes key figures in the Australian art world, and dynamic artists from the Beijing and Shanghai art scenes.

At Deutscher and Hackett’s sale of ‘Important Australian and International Fine Art’, the golden glow of Russell Drysdale’s outback study Children Dancing, 1950, (lot 12) embraced the Midas touch and turned to actual gold, selling for a hammer price of $1,650,000 on $1,300,000-$1,600,000 estimates. The reality of this painting is more dire. It brilliantly shows the resilience of Australian life in the outback; for all the harshness and empty silence, the painting conjures music only from the long-hoped-for-beats of the arms of a windmill echoed in the rhythm of the dancing children. The golden light of the painting belies the challenges of a harsh life in a landscape devoid of water.

Smith & Singer’s first fine art sale of 2023 enticed buyers not with just one, but two hard copy auction catalogues. Totalling a higher than usual 100 lots, the first 13 lots were from the Selwyn and Renata Litton collection. From the provenance material supplied, the couple were regular auction house attendees and between 2001 and 2013 purchased many of the offerings in the public saleroom.

Alison Kelly came to prominence in the art world when in 2000 she opened an Aboriginal art gallery in the Melbourne suburb of Armadale about five years after she completed an art history degree as a mature age student.

The gallery, which subsequently moved to Prahran, closed in 2010 following the adverse impact of the global financial crisis two years earlier – but not before Alison had made strong connections with other art collectors, artists and non-profit Aboriginal-owned art centres where she sourced many of her artworks.

Russell Drysdale (1912-1981) was renowned for providing an artistic commentary of Australia and its inhabitants during the 20th century – his paintings capturing both the essence of the country and the character of its people.

One, entitled Children Dancing, 1950, (lot 12) is at the forefront of Deutscher and Hackett’s forthcoming Melbourne auction from 7pm Wednesday May 3 at 105 Commercial Road, South Yarra with a catalogue estimate of $1.3-$1.6 million. 

The painting, acquired from iconic Melbourne collector Joseph Brown (whose collection is on show in the National Gallery of Victoria), has since 1983 been in a private Melbourne collection.

Centum was first held at Leonard Joel in 2020, with a desire to provide an auction devoted exclusively to Australian contemporary art. There was, in their view, a gap in the secondary market for a refined contemporary art auction which was sought after by buyers and sellers, but also needed for a sustainable secondary market for the work of contemporary artists. Leonard Joel wanted a name and a goal and so set about curating 100 lots annually, honoured through the name Centum. The name remains, the commitment to nurturing a secondary market for contemporary Australian and International art continues but the number of works moves with and reflects the market.

Italian neoclassical painter Fabio Fabbi (1861-1946) – recognised as the last of the Orientalists – scooped the pool with his work entitled Egyptian Street Scene (lot 47) which sold for $80,000 ($30,000 above its high catalogue estimate) at Melbourne-based Gibson’s Auctions Australian & International art sale on April 16. Born in Bologna and trained at Florence’s Academy of Fine Art, in 1866 Fabbi journeyed to Egypt to join his brother Alberto where he revelled in the exotic scenery, tastes, colours and scents that later influenced his paintings.

Three small Jeffrey Smart paintings, quirky, yet true to form, confirmed their blue-chip status at Menzies first sale of the year. The carefully composed Study for the Petrol Station, 1975, (lot 15) with its loadings of art historical and social comment saw at least three battling telephone bidders push the hammer to $170,000 eclipsing $80,000-$120,000 pre-sale estimates. The larger Smart, Bus by the Tiber, 1977-8, (lot 18) sold comfortably at $520,000 in the middle of its estimated range. It is clear that although Smart painted with ostensibly Italian imagery, his paintings speak quietly to Australian audiences with his canny placement of figures in isolated and alienating spaces. They make us look again at the urban world that we inhabit—a world in constant transition—both social and environmental.

Led by a strong return from iconic indigenous artist Lin Onus (1948-1996) with his Deep Water, Matong 1995 (lot21) and six artist auction records, Australian Aboriginal art is alive and well if the latest Deutscher and Hackett Melbourne sale on March 22 is anything to go by.
The painting sold for $343,636 including buyer’s premium (on a $180,000-$250,000 catalogue estimate) in an auction that realised $3,262,950 for 73 lots – 168 per cent by value where 91 per cent of the works changed hands.

Several Jeffrey Smart (1921-2013) paintings feature among works by Australia’s top artists in what undoubtedly will be  drawcards for Menzies forthcoming art auction from 6.30pm Wednesday March 29 at 1 Darling Street, South Yarra.
The highest estimate work is Bus by the Tiber 1977-78 (lot 18), an oil on canvas that first appeared in 1980 in Rudy Komon Art Gallery in Sydney and carries a $600,000-$700,000 catalogue estimate.
Other Smart works in the sale include First Study for Waiting for the Hovercraft, Boulogne 1986-87 (lot 12) and Study for the Petrol Station 1975 (lot 15).
Each carry healthy respective catalogue estimates of $100,000-$150,000 and $80,000-$120,000.
Sydney Morning Herald art columnist and author of Jeffrey Smart: Paintings of the ‘70s and ‘80s John McDonald has written the accompanying catalogue essays for each of the paintings.

The ability of artists like 70-year-old John Mawurndjul to transform Kuningku bark painting – pioneering a new interpretation of clan sites and inspiring the next generation of bark painters – could be one of the reasons for the strong international and local interest in Australian indigenous art as more collectors become aware of the genre.
Deutscher and Hackett indigenous art specialist Crispin Gutteridge points to the fine detail of Mawurndal’s work entitled Ngalyod, Rainbow Serpent, 1999 as a departure from previous more abstract designs to illustrate this trend.
The work is featured on the front catalogue cover of the auction house’s forthcoming Important Australian Indigenous Art sale on Wednesday March 22 at their South Yarra rooms and is listed as lot 20.

Thinking about starting a modern and contemporary art collection? Then have a look at Deutscher and Hackett’s online auction, which ends from 7pm Wednesday February 15, at which 36 art works – many by well-known Australian artists and all carrying affordable catalogue estimates – will go under the hammer.