The works have been consigned to Deutscher and Hackett by publisher Steve Bush, whose magazines Art World and Australian Aboriginal Art Magazine appeared on the magazine racks, and, just as quickly vanished. Mr Bush’s two contemporary art publications were launched as competition to the established and enduring Art + Australia which seems to be weathering the economic crisis rather more successfully.
Perhaps the same bold and audacious conviction to take on the literary art world journal Art + Australia can be seen in Mr Bush’s predilection for the essentially abstract and challenging work of work of Colin McCahon, an artist now acclaimed as one of the most inventive and influential artists of the twentieth century, but met with hostility and bafflement at the time these paintings were produced.
The four pictures by Colin McCahon have a collective presale estimate of $1.3 million to 1.9 million, with the powerful, standout work in the group, Let Be, Let Be estimated at $800,000 to $1.2 million, last offered through Webb’s in 1995, and sold for $NZ704,000 ($Au631,957), still the highest price paid at auction for a New Zealand work of art.
The offering of these four important works in one sale should be an interesting test for a cautious and selective market, given that Australian non-indigenous abstract art, unlike its New Zealand collector counterpart, displays a far less vigorous enthusiasm and support at this level.
Also on offer for the first time in 150 years, is the privately sourced, early Victorian landscape Murndal in the Early Days 1860 ($200,000-$300,000) by noted colonial artist Thomas Clark. Thomas Clark was born in England but migrated to Australia and travelled the countryside completing commissions by local graziers and others active in Victoria’s early pastoral development.
The early colonial landscapes of Thomas Clark are held to display an accurate topographical element, and Murndal in the Early Days 1860 is a rare Western District work depicting aborigines in the foreground and the Grampians in the distance.
Other important modern works include paintings by the currently popular John Brack, Six Cards with two Figures 1990 ($50,000-70,000), a 1950s Charles Blackman painting Children 1954-56 ($80,000-100,000), an attractive landscape by Fred Williams Masons Falls 1979 ($220,000-$280,000) and a rare Ian Fairweather from 1956 Circus ($65,000-$85,000).
Also on offer is the corporate consigned seminal work by John Olsen, Duck a l’Orange which was originally acquired by Perth based Christensen Fund Collection, and thence on long term loan to the Art Gallery of Western Australia. The impressive canvas was a feature in the 1992 John Olsen Retrospective at the National Gallery of Victoria and appears on the market after a 14 year absence.
In the short time since establishing their break away Australian house, Deutscher and Hackett have differentiated themselves from the other auction houses through their demonstrated expertise and commitment to the emerging and contemporary Australian art.
Evident again in this sale with a rich array of well regarded current artists such as McLean Edwards All She Ever Wants 2003 ($10,000-15,000), Philip Wolfhagen During The Light In II 2008 ($16,000-20,000), Cherine Fahd Redman 2003-04, Fiona Hall, Cross Purpose 2003 ($3,000-4,000), a courageous auction debut from Linde Ivimey, St Eloi 2006 ($10,000-15,000) and the show stealing photograph Approach To Mundi Mundi: Silverton Road / Mundi Mundi, 2007 ($10,000-15,000) by Shaun Gladwell.
Traditionally a slower pace sets in as the year progresses in the Australian auction calendar, the August series of sales will not only have to combat the year’s natural market deceleration but the spectre of a still present economic crisis. It is against this backdrop the Deutscher and Hackett sale 26 August will reveal whether the readiness to be bold for the beautiful has yet returned.
