Art + Object’s last Important Paintings and Contemporary Art sale for 2022, comprised a healthy 114 lots. With talk of a recession looming for 2023, A+O will be pleased to have sold some of the major works at well over estimate, with a sale total of $2,268,310 on the night. Works by Gow Langsford artists easily met or exceeded their comparable retail prices, a classic example being a large outdoor sculpture by Paul Dibble View over the Interior (Lot 67 ) selling for $270,000 against a $160,000 low estimate.
The global auction trends are far reaching, with audience numbers light-on at both Art + Object and Webb’s (their auction was held earlier in the week) but lack of room bidders made no difference at all to the overall results. As John Albrecht wryly notes, ‘it took two years of Covid for people to realise they could do something better with their time than spend hours in an auction room waiting for one or two lots to come up’.
Art + Object’s last Important Paintings and Contemporary Art sale for the year held in Auckland on 24 November 2022, numbered a healthy 114 lots, more than they would usually catalogue but this sale contained 23 lots of Martin Poppellwell ceramics which got the sale off of a nice start with most lots in an easy affordable range under $1,000.
Earlier this year, A + O had great success offering works from the estate of the sculptor John Edgar. Many items in that sale went well over estimate and it looks as if these benchmark prices may be here to stay. Included in the sale was Gold Lens, (Lot 35 ), a generously sized, beautifully coloured piece of Rajastan limestone inset with Indian sandstone. The estimate of $6,000-$9,000 was well exceeded when it realised $12,500.
If you ever wondered what 5.5cm was worth on an Ian Scott lattice, lot 46 and lot 47 in the sale provide the answer and it’s $4,000. Two near identical lattices, lotted consecutively in the sale were offered in the popular primary colour/black colourway. Small Lattice no. 232 (Lot 46 ) was 5.5 cm larger all round than Small Lattice no. 144 (Lot 47 ) and realised $26,000 against $22,000 for the smaller version.
More image confusion could have easily abound when a sales room notice advised that the image printed in the catalogue for Richard Killeen’s cut out work Destruction of the Circle (Lot 79 ) was the incorrect work. With so few clients in attendance in the room, and many people now bidding without viewing a sale or even asking for a condition report, I did wonder as the work sailed over its top estimate of $65,000 whether the bidders knew what they were bidding on. Luckily the work sold to a bidder in the room who had definitely done their homework and it realised $79,000 setting a new record for the artist at auction.
The buy of the night went to dealer John Gow who picked up Robin White’s exquisite drawing Hills across the Harbour (Lot 54 ) at $1,000 under low estimate for $24,000. Robin White is the subject of a major exhibition currently on at Auckland Art Gallery and has just been announced as one of New Zealand’s ten Arts Foundation Icons (one of the highest honours in the arts in NZ). This drawing had an excellent provenance being previously pat of the Les and Milly Paris Collection and was in fantastic condition. By comparison, Sandhills, Raglan (Lot 55 ), a smaller and less interesting watercolour without the wonderful tonal variation of the drawing by the artist followed and made slightly more, going to a buyer in the room for $26,000.
Unusually the sale included four matching or complementary pairs of works, not a common occurrence. As well as the Ian Scott Lattices and Robin White works noted above, two near identical works by Heather Straka in photograph and painting form added to the number. Betty the C-type photograph (Lot 57 ) sold just over low estimate for $7,250 and the painting Betty (The Attendant) (Lot 58 ) realised $14,000 dropping a little in price from other very similar works in the same series which have sold for more in previous years.
Without a major work by Michael Parekowhai in the sale, buyers had to be content with two offerings from the artist’s Beverley Hills Gun Club series, exhibited in 2000 across the artist’s dealer galleries in New Zealand. The taxidermy animals which inhabit this series are amongst the artist’s most recognisable images seen in both photographs and sculpture. The photographs appear at auction regularly, less so the sparrows sitting on shiny green or orange rods, only four other works have come up in the last 10 years at auction. Two examples graced this sale, Pat Covert (Lot 51 ) was the larger work, perched on the longer rod although the sparrow looked a little more age worn. It sold for $12,000 and the smaller work Elmer Keith (Lot 52 ) went for $16,000, both well less than the last work from the series which sold for $23,000 in 2021.
With talk of an inevitable recession looming for 2023, A+O will be pleased to have sold some of the major works at well over estimates. Works by Gow Langsford artists easily met or exceeded their comparable retail prices with a classic example of a large outdoor sculpture by Paul Dibble View over the Interior (Lot 67 ) well exceeding the estimate to sell for $270,000 against a $160,000 low estimate. A large Max Gimblett tondo Brave New World (Lot 80 ) painted in a very specific colourway of citric yellow and aqua, which I thought may have limited the market, obviously appealed to buyers as it also went past reserve to make $130,000 which is the current retail price for the same sized work.
A very elegant and sophisticated work by Frances Hodgkins simply titled Design (Lot 68 ) with original labels and framing with the all-important tick of authenticity from Hodgkins expert Mary Kisler was contested by just two buyers which was a surprise but it sold mid estimate at $145,000.
The market for artist Robert Ellis was definitely been reset in this sale, with his prices finally hitting the $100,000 price bracket. Interesting, the work in this sale, Conjunction II (Lot 78 ) set the auction record when it was sold in 2017 in the Warwick and Kitty Brown Collection sale. At that time it was estimated at $15,000-25,000 and sold for $35,000. Just five years later, the work was resold in this sale for $119,000, continuing an exceptional growth trajectory for the artist who died last year aged 91 years.
A couple of the major works which should have easily sold in the last two years when the market was booming went unsold on the night including Phillip Clairmont’s Three Windows (Lot 71 ) and Pat Hanly’s (Pacific Escape) lot 83, both were very good, typical examples by the artists and both were estimated at $100,000-$150,000 and currently remain unsold.
The sale total on the night was $2,268,310 which was a very good result in these uncertain times. For auction house staff the break over the Xmas holidays can be bittersweet, despite enjoying the break, the thought of having to consign a sale for the start of the year can be stressful at a time when many clients are away. Happily for Art + Object they have already got two sales locked in for two private collections at the start of the year, The Ron Sang Collection Part II and the Lois Going Collection so this should definitely ensure a more relaxing summer holiday for the team.
