If Wesfarmer’s deem the works they are deaccessioning as ‘lesser’ quality, then the company has a collection of which it can be truly proud. This illuminating statement helps contextualise where corporate collections sit in contemporary companies ‘oeuvre’.
The majority fall under the responsibility of the facilities department with curators assigned the tasks of cataloguing and tracking property.
ASX 100 companies tend to be housed in new buildings with sleek and minimal interiors. Beautiful works such as Constance Stokes Green Gum Nuts, 1933 (Lot 4 ) compete with architectural features.
Wesfarmer’s loss is our gain. Many of the treasures from the Wesfarmers collection lies not in the larger ticket items such as Fred Williams Turritable Falls, 1979 (Lot 9 ) or John Olsen’s All Around the Harbour, 1963, (Lot 9 ) but in exceptional examples by underrated and often overlooked artists such as Edwin Tanner’s Lightning Conductors, 1961 (Lot 8 ).
There are fine examples of colonial works (Lot 1 ), contemporary (Lot 21 ), and even hard edge abstraction (Lot 120 ). Even the tail end of the sale (lots 114 – 141) offers treats.
With a presale low estimate of $1.3 million, it is understandable the Wesfarmer collection did not command its own catalogue.
Deutscher and Hackett’s decision to leak the news appears to have paid dividends. They have leveraged the Wesfarmers collection to source and secure works of comparable quality.
However, one does have to qualify this statement by asking why the auctioneer has chosen to include a few stale paintings such as Sali Herman’s Milos, 1977 (Lot 80 ) (offered 3 times in the last 3 years) and their decision to end the sale on an anti-climax with 14 etchings by Norman Lindsay.
These works detract from an otherwise relatively fresh, interesting and diverse sale. Let us hope their inclusion hinged on the consignment of bigger ticket paintings.
It is unlikely the car dealer – come – painting arbitrager, Steve Nateski is the vendor of the Sali Herman or Norman Lindsays’.
We do know, thanks to a second Australian Financial Review article written on this sale, that he is the current owner of Flirtation by Albert Tucker (Lot 29 ). Those fortunate enough to have seen the Images of Modern Evil series on display at Heide Museum of Modern Art last year will appreciate the ability of the artist to capture and interpret the zeitgeist of World War II period.
This painting is strong and bold. It smacks you in the face. You can smell the grit and grime of bluestone back alleys in its impasto.
Tucker’s muses of war and post wartime Melbourne were cheap rum and cheap women and both are captured lucidly in Flirtation.
According to Katrina Strickland writing in The Australian Financial Review, Nateski hopes to redirect proceeds of the sale towards the acquisition of a Whitely from the artist’s widow.
The reduced estimate of $500 - $700K (the work realised $840K IBP at auction in 2007) still seems a stretch when one discounts prices paid by ill advised collectors in the heyday and takes into account the current average price for Tucker’s work ($52,000 IBP).
A better benchmark is to consider what other major Tucker paintings sold for outside the boom. For example, Intruder and Parrots (Sotheby’s, 25/08/2008 Lot. 26) achieved $380K hammer against a $400 – 600K estimate.
Flirtation is one of Tucker’s better paintings, but the subject matter and the price tag will preclude the trade and will entice only the minority of committed Tucker collectors. As stated in the Australian Financial Review, this work has had two owners over the past 5 years. Therefore, Mr Deutscher and Mr Hackett will need to find another potential owner, or preferably two potential owners before the 29th of August.
Perhaps a more conservative estimate would have whet the appetites of institutions, dealers and collectors and still enabled Nateski to snap up both sumptuous early Whiteley landscapes offered by Sotheby’s Australia from the collection of George Sheridan?
Conversely, the estimate on John Brack’s, Never (Lot 33 ), of $700 - 900K carries justification. Despite this failing to find a home in Bill Nuttall’s 2011 Blue Chip Exhibition, (with a $1+ million price tag) Sotheby Australia’s recent result for a similar sized and period Brack reinforces the fact that there are buyers at this end of the market.
Still, the price differentiation between Never and Brack's The Fertility Goddess (Lot 55) seems to question pricing rationale and herein lies the point – auction prices, indeed art prices in general, are irrational. Fortunately for Never’s vendor, their auctioneer has demonstrated their ability to sell works in the $1M+ market.
As stated earlier, Deutscher and Hackett have managed to pull together a impressive sale. I think we can expect to see sale–by-volume rates up, but the real test and ultimate sign of profitability, is clearance rate by value. Deutscher and Hackett have $1.964 million vested in 6 works – let’s hope for these works willing sellers are matched by willing buyers.
Feedback: The pricing of both Brack paintings is absolutely rational, based on subject, scale, past prices achieved for comparable material and collector demand. Chris Deutscher, Deutscher and Hackett
