While some would claim it is too early to say, a good litmus test was going to be its November 20 2012 fine art auction. The civil trial, which was conducted in Victoria’s Supreme Court over 5 weeks in October, generated much negative media attention and coincided with stock getting and catalogue production for November’s auction.
Smith oversees both these functions for Sotheby’s Australia and would have undoubtedly been distracted. Despite this, Smith and his team – Fiona Hayward, Dr David Hansen and Brett Ballard - have produced a quality, if small sale (69 lots by 50 artists) underpinned by exceptional scholarship.
In a brave and calculated move, Sotheby’s Australia has elected to start the evening with Carol Jerrem’s, Magda and John at Home, 1975 (Lot 1 ). It can be interpreted as a clear message to critics and competitors: ‘we have a deep and sophisticated collector base’.
Jerrem is an academic artist and a debutante to the modern secondary market (only one of her works has previously been offered and sold at auction (Sotheby’s 30/04/95 (lot 259) for $161 IBP)).
Lot 1 is usually reserved for an accessible work that is guaranteed to sell well and get an auction off to a flying start. It is unlikely that Sotheby’s competitors would have the courage to even include Jerrem’s work in a major art auction, let alone start their sale with it. Many will be watching to see if this strategy works.
True to form, Sotheby’s Australia has consigned an obscure colonial treat, Moses Griffiths Rainbow Lorikeet, 1772 (Lot 17 ). At first (uneducated) glance, this work appears to be a well executed, orthinological study of a parrot. Its estimate - $150 000 - $200 000 – suggests the auctioneer is stuck in the halcyon days of the late 1980s when a reliable currency of Gould prints existed.
What brings this bird to flight is its comprehensive and detailed provenance and an excellent three page entry. We learn that the sitter is ‘widely held’ to be Tupia’s (a Raiatean priest and assistant navigator and indigenous translator to Captain James Cook) pet and that the bird was present on Cook’s navigation of the Australia’s eastern and northern coast in the early 1770s. Fed on diet of ‘ships mash’, the Lorikeet is likely to have stopped singing en route to the UK, and been added to the specimen collection of the ship’s botanist, Sir Joseph Banks. Moses Griffiths painted the work after the bird was presented to his patron, Thomas Pennant by Banks. Checkmate, price justified.
In his conclusion, Hansen informs us this work has been ‘rightly acknowledged and treasured by historians of art and science as a uniquely important and uniquely charming artifact’. Many people, quite possibly the bulk of the art auction audience and trade, owe Sotheby’s Australia and Dr Hansen a deal of gratitude.
In today’s art auctions where familiar works by familiar artists are recycled with alarming regularity, is refreshing to be engaged and educated by a genuine find and scholarly art auction entry.
Unsurprisingly, the bulk of the value of the sale lies in a handful of market darlings. (John Brack, Flowering Gum, (Lot 10 ), Jeffrey Smart, Reflected Arrows, 1974 (Lot 11 ), Brett Whiteley, The Valley at Dusk (Lot 15 ) Arthur Boyd, Near Bendigo, (Lot 20 ), Sidney Nolan Ned Kelly, 1951 (Lot 21 ), Rupert Bunny, La Cassette (Lot 33 ),Charles Blackman, Schoolgirl Reading, 1954 (Lot 33 ) and Russel Drysdale Boy on a Log, (Lot 41 )).
However, credit must be paid to Sotheby’s Australia’s commitment to building new markets. Gordon Bennett (Lot 25 ), David Larwill (Lot 12 ), Colin Colahan (Lot 59 ) and Asher Bilu (14) have full page catalogue entries despite carrying comparatively modest estimates. In doing so, Sotheby’s Australia are profiling good artists who have been overlooked for ‘fine art’ sales in the past.
Let’s hope Sotheby’s Australia’s competitors replicate their good work as they also have a vested interested in contributing to the future of the Australian art market.
