The sale benefited throughout from fresh and first-time-on-the-market works (as every firm hopes for) and a Nolan Kelly (every firm’s dream come true …). The Kelly did not disappoint. Not seen on the market since its outing at Marlborough Galleries in 1968, Kelly, 1966 (Lot 9 ), a rather pallid work, stirred up plenty of fire in the room before selling to the phones for $430,000 (est. $120–180K).
Roy de Maistre’s Magnolia, 1928 (Lot 48 ) had been in private hands since its debut exhibition at Macquarie Galleries in 1928. While there’s always a good chance that a Kelly will exceed estimates exponentially, few would have banked on this work’s broad appeal. With Bonhams’ Chairman Mark Fraser, on the phone, offering bids for a client in twenty-thousand dollar increments when the going rate was five, the realisation that this work would be hard fought and expensively bought set in early. Art consultant David Hulme was overheard suggesting, seriously, that his competition “was weakening“ at $430,000, before capturing the work at the next bid for $450K (est. 80-120K).
De Maistre’s oeuvre is filled with still lifes featuring floral arrangements, but this work had the ‘it factor’: fresh, certainly, but also a sublime and restrained confidence of composition, a particularly appealing and restrained palette, and a very early date that cements it right in the pulsating heart of Australia’s modernist movement. It may have looked more Preston than de Maistre perhaps, but it now sits at number two in the artist’s records, and has added an important data point to this genre’s market stats.
The cover lot did its job: Brett Whiteley’s Hummingbird and Frangipani (Lot 37 ), was quickly pursued to its hammer of $590,000 (est. $280–350K), selling to Aussie John Symons representative, Elizabeth Hastings, on the phone in the room, much to the disappointment of other participant underbidders amongst the small crowd of less than 50 people, and setting a record for the artist’s beloved bird pictures (on this scale).
The much-touted three-metre Emily Kame Kngwarreye painting with Elton John provenance, My Country, 1993 (Lot 15 ), also performed as hoped-for, selling well after a slow start for $340,000 to a buyer in the room (est. $150–250K). This work has been off the market since 1997 when it sold for $40K (hammer) through Sotheby’s, reportedly having been prised from the collection of Pat Corrigan (who was in attendance) with a promise of an international tour, which didn’t eventuate, and that it would vault the artist across the then-magical $100K barrier (for Indigenous artists), also not-to-be. That came a year later with one of Kngwarreye’s ‘Earth’s Creation’ multi-panelled works (which have since broken the million-dollar barrier).
Charles Blackman was prominent in the sale with three works in the top ten. His dreamlike Illusion of Children, c. 1966 (Lot 20 ), was chased by one of the frustrated Kelly underbidders to just under its eventual hammer of $180,000 (est. $80-120K). He and the buyer left straight-afterwards. The work, the most ethereal of the artists’ variations on this theme, is now also the most successful.
Outside the best-performing group, Blackman’s chunky and clunky Siena Arcade, c. 1962 (Lot 38 ) with the provenance of the artist’s former wife, Barbara Blackman AO, tipped into the top ten’s near-bottom, selling under its low end for $55,000 to an internet bidder. The catalogue did not note its former unsuccessful outing at auction (as is customary) in 2007, where it carried the same estimate. And fresh-to-the-market from the same provenance, the quirky de Chirico-esque Side Street, 1954 (Lot 49 ) brought up the bottom, making its low end of $40,000.
Arthur Boyd’s Shoalhaven painting with a matter-of-fact wordy title featuring a white rock (Lot 17 ) carried expectations mid estimate to sell at $130,000. Another painting of a white blob against blue, Sidney Nolan’s Antarctica, 1964 (Lot 36 ), raised eyebrows with a ‘glacial’ (according to Brigitte Banziger) steady climb to make $100,000 (est. $40–60K).
And last of the top ten (but not least) was another blue painting, albeit dressed in gold. Ex-pat Impressionist John Peter Russell’s not quite Pointillist Loctudy, c. 1883 (Lot 31 ) was carried to its high estimate of $140,000 through the efforts of four competing phone bidders.
The sale cleared 78% by lot, amongst which the Aboriginal art core, comprising 41% of lots on offer, fared worse, with ten of the sale’s fifteen unsolds. The works weren’t poor quality or overpriced; the diversity of buyers just weren’t there, particularly for the less mainstream items and 3D works.
Most of the sales in this category were made at the low-end estimates, the biggest bargain being Ningura Napurrula’s very large (153 x 183 cm) untitled 2007 work (Lot 42 ), which sold for $15,000. And the biggest non-sale puzzle would have to be Timothy Cook’s bold and impressive Kulama, 2014 (Lot 11 ), the second largest work recorded for the artist, which didn’t meet its mark of $15-20K.
Market crossover artists Albert Namatjira and Lin Onus, however, did well.
Namatjira’s unusual close-up picture of an old gnarled ghost gum in a rocky hillside from c. 1943 (Lot 3 ) made for an interesting comparison with Grace Cossington Smith’s Bush with Rocks, c. 1952 (Lot 1 ); both works made $22,000, near or at low-end.
Lin Onus’ Lerderderg River, c. 1975 (Lot 25 ) – a well-balanced landscape that revealed the artist’s interest in painting watery reflections – was on its second market outing since 2005, where it made $6,000. This time around it sold for $18,500, against a modest $6–8K, the second-best price for a work from this period within the artist’ oeuvre.
Later, an unusual work by Arthur Boyd – also a study of watery reflections – Mordialloc Creek, c. 1938 (Lot 35 ), sparked quite a bit of interest and was chased to $25,000 (est. 12–18K), a small improvement (for the record, not the vendor) on its 2008 hammer at $20K.
And the freshest thing about the sale? The auctioneer: Bonhams’ paintings specialist Merryn Schriever did a fine job, conducting the sale in style with authority and aplomb, clarity, good grace and humour, which, when it was used, was fresh and personal, and not the usual old humdrum English schoolboy gags (yawn).
Other works that performed over estimate:
21 – John Firth Smith, Sun Line, 1970, $15,000 ($8–12K)
26 – Albert Namatjira, Mount Sonder, $5,500 ($3–5K)
32 – Walter Withers, After the Storm, 1898, $16,000 ($8–12K)
47 – Justin O’Brien, Procession, 1964, $22,000 ($14–18K)
54 – Clem Millward, Far Western River, 1987, $3,500 ($1,800–2,500K)
62 – Hal Hattam, Honeysuckle Beach, c. 1975, $8,500 ($3–5K)
63 – Hal Hattam, Summer Night, Pt. Leo, $5,500 ($600–800)
65 – Michael Nelson Tjakamarra, (Possum Dreaming), 1987, $13,000 ($6–9K)
66 – Ronnie Tjampitjinpa, (Emu Dreaming), 1986, $10,000 ($6–8K)
67 – Old Tutuma Tjapangati (Mushroom and Kangaroo Dreaming), c. 1975, $8,000 ($5–7K)
68 – Old Tutuma Tjapangati (Eagle Dreaming), 1974, $8,500 ($5–7K)
