The sale totalled close to $233,000 (hammer) against pre-sale expectations of $195K.
The diverse make-up of the crowd reflected the stock on offer, much of which had not seen the light of day in decades. It also included gallery supporters and staff, many of whom made sentimental purchases. It also attracted a couple of 1970s icons: artist Peter Kingston was in attendance, presumably to watch his works sell, and comedian Grahame Bond (Aunty Jack) came to buy.
Aboriginal Art industry personae Tim Klingender, Todd Barlin, Adrian Newstead and Karen Coote were present, and Melbourne dealers Chris Cullity and Charles Nodrum made the trip up. The auction also brought in several intrastate regional dealers, who competed with each other throughout the sale for the multiple print lots of works by Sidney Nolan and Martin Sharp.
In a display of friendly rivalry, the iconic Hogarth Gallery motorised turtle (Lot 23 ) was acquired by tribal art dealer Todd Barlin outbidding Tim Klingender for $4,000. Sentimental Hogarth Galleries’ patrons will be able to stop by its new Paddington gallery home only a few streets away.
Tim Klingender was probably buying stock for his new venture rather than bidding for clients; he was successful on an array of Aboriginal works of art, including Darby Jampijinpa Ross (Lot 62 ) for $1,200 and canvases by Angelina George (lots 65, 66). Richard Bell was clearly not to the taste of the general public in attendance and Klingender was able to secure both works under estimate, including the large Govt Blacks, 1994 (Lot 95 ), which was snapped up for $400 against expectations of $1,200-1,800.
As expected, the sale’s top lot was Martin Sharp’s Eternity Haymarket (Lot 11 ), which was bought for $25,000 by a private bidder against its estimate of $4-6,000, and against steely bidding from museum consultant Adrienne Wilson. The coveted work depicts the graphic ‘Eternity’ made famous by Arthur Stace, who chalked it on Sydney’s streets for over 30 years, and which was elevated to icon status by the 2000 Olympic Games. As was the case with many of the works in the recent retrospective, the painting was recently ‘touched up’ by the artist in a well publicised homage[1].
Other highlights included Richard Larter’s Dithyrambic Painting No.1, 1965 (Lot 170 ), which was underbid by Tim Klingender, amongst others, to sell to Denis Savill for $17,500 against its estimate of $4-6K. Charles Nodrum was active of most of the ’60s works, but was outbid on the other Larter (Lot 3 ), which he chased to its upper estimate before selling to a private for $5,500.
Private buyers were clearly happy to go head-to-head with trade, and secured many of the sales top lots including American James Doolan’s Artificial Landscape No. 11, 1969 (Lot 101 ), which sold for ten times its low end estimate, making $8,500. Brett Whiteley’s screenprint, The Divided Unity, 1974 (Lot 99 ) was the only other lot to break the $5K hammer barrier, selling for $6,000 to another private buyer.
The bundled lots attracted great interest and were generally heavily contested, securing results well over the low end. Auction agent Bob Lavigne was active throughout the latter part of the sale acquiring most of the more cheaply estimated bundles. Klingender fended off bidders to secure a group lot of indigenous works (Lot 305 ) for $1,000 against $600-800. The best results amongst these works were lots 54 and 309, which were both bid to $1,100 against $300-500 by Charles Nodrum; lot 28 reached $1,400 against $400-600; lot 194 sold for $3,000 against $500-800; lot 203 sold for $2,600 to John Cruthers against $600-800; and lot 255 made $3,600 against $500-800.
The lack of mobile phone reception was a blessing for the standing crowd, enabling Anne Phillips to stay on pace and dispatch the 320 or so lots in just under 3 hrs with the help of a solid flow of absentee bids distributed throughout the sale. It probably also accounted for the large trade turnout who might otherwise have retreated to being phoned on their Sunday outings in the sun. Even Sotheby’s Australia execs Geoffrey Smith and Gary Singer breezed in around lot 230 to catch the vibe.
Given the thinning of auction room audiences of late, the onsite sale’s atmosphere was refreshing, despite the heat from the crowded rooms. An end-of-an-era melancholy may have been in the air ahead of the first hammer fall, but any tinges were quickly dispelled by the support of the audience, whose participation was often marked by genuine camaraderie.
[1] Michaela Boland, ‘Gallery Owner Courts New Incarnation for his Treasures’, The Australian, 26 November 2010.
