Deutscher + Hackett has the edge for sales of contemporary Australian art in the secondary market and led with some of the most sought after artists in the primary market, including Philip Wolfhagen, Danie Mellor, Ben Quilty and Sam Leach.
Philip Wolfhagen’s large and imposing Beyond the Garden, 2008 (Lot 1 ) was never likely to stay imprisoned for long and made a healthy $44,000 hammer price, just a tad under the high estimate of $45,000. Likewise, Danie Mellor’s At Play in the Fields of a Lord, 2009, (Lot 3 ) went a tad over the high estimate, selling for $11,000 hammer price on estimates of $7,500-$10,000.
Although Ben Quilty’s Skullburger, 2006 (Lot 4 ) attracted a good number of bidders in the room and on the phone, it settled at $36,000 hammer price, around the mid-range on estimates of $30,000-$40,000. The much smaller, but more appealing One Hit Budgie, 2004 (Lot 6 ), was a big hit and could be caged no more, flying to $26,000 hammer price on $12,000-$16,000 expectations.
There is little doubt that the early works by Sam Leach offer a finesse and craftsmanship which is highly seductive and apparently as irresistible as Quilty’s birds. Their joint escape plan worked to perfection, and Peacock, 2008 (Lot 5 ) took no regard to the meagre $16,000-$20,000 estimates to sell for a well deserved $50,000 hammer price, setting a new benchmark and record price for the artist at auction. The previous record price of $19,000 was set by another peacock (footless and slightly smaller from 2007) just in May this year, also at Deutscher + Hackett.
Two other feted artists in the contemporary art world sold just below their low estimates: Archibald Prize winner Del Kathryn Barton’s Not a little love song, 2011 (Lot 9 ), sold at $95,000 hammer price, whilst Venice Biennale representative Fiona Hall’s series of ten works, Material World, 2011 (Lot 10 ), were looking highly bankable, selling for $78,000 hammer price on estimates of $80,000-$120,000 – still an auction record for this artist, in comparison to the previous highest auction result of $23,180 for the sculpture Ear Shot, 2002.
Jane O’Sullivan reported in the Australian Financial Review of 15th July very strong sales of $729,000 at Peter Booth’s Melbourne exhibition at Karen Woodbury Gallery, so it is perhaps surprising that three strong examples of Booth’s works failed to sell under the hammer. Painting (Three Figures), 2004 (Lot 13 ) was much less dark with its pastel colours tan the other two lots, and no-one wanted the desolation of lots 84 or 85.
Rosalie Gascoigne’s exceptional Summer Stack, 1990 (Lot 20 ) made an equally wonderful cover design and cover lot for this sale, and with estimates placed at $140,000-$180,000, it might have been expected to sell for more than the $130,000 hammer price it achieved.
Other things wood, this time by highly sought after Howard Taylor, had much lower expectations, but managed to comfortably exceed them on both occasions: Study for Mural, 1955-56 (Lot 21 ), sold for $26,000 hammer price on estimates of $18,000-$24,000, and Maquette for Stick Insect, 1957 (Lot 22 ), sold exactly for its top estimate of $30,000.
Howard Taylor’s other important work in this sale, Tree Line with Green Paddock, 1993 (Lot 24 ) offered not only a taste of the sublime (if not lime), but also in minimalism. Bidders on this lot took their cue no doubt from the painting to give the audience a lesson in what I can only describe as minimalist bidding, painfully descending in upwards bids of just $1,000 or $2,000 at a time, finally ending up at the unlikely figure of $116,000 hammer price – however, at $80,000-$100,000, this was a maximalist win.
A number of artworks in last night’s sale were being offered from the prestigious Gene and Brian Sherman collection in its first “capsule” collection sale. I am not sure if this referred to space capsule, but space is something you would need a lot of to house some of the offerings.
This proved no problem for John Olsen’s Water Flowing into Lake Eyre, 1992 (Lot 26 ) – the 182 x 244 cm work flowed on for an impressive $335,000 hammer price on expectations of $250,000-$350,000. The darker and perhaps more difficult image Nolan at Broome, 1991-92 (Lot 27 ) on the same estimates failed to sell.
Equally, Tim Storrier’s The Cacophony of Wisdom, 2003 (Lot 31 ) perhaps was just too large and unwieldy measuring a massive 185 x 305 cm, as it is an excellent example of the artist’s work, and sold for the bargain price of $130,000 hammer price Nonetheless, the Shermans are generously donating a part of the proceeds from these sales directly to the National Art School.
The Shermans were not the only ones in a generous mood: Tim Storrier, Wendy Whiteley, John Olsen and Michael Johnson’s donations of 5 works - lots 58 to 62 - to be sold to the highest bidder amounted to the substantial sum of $77,000 hammer price ($93,940 incl bp.) going towards the National Art School funds.
There has been a considerable re-set to the work of modernist painter Herbert Badham. We only have to look back to 2013 to see how this occurred, when the Grundy collection sale at Bonhams achieved a soaring $600,000 hammer price for his Travellers, 1933, on estimates of $200,000-$300,000.
On the back of this sale, On the Roof, 1928, also at Bonhams, then sold for $210,000 hammer price, based on a $100,000-$150,000 estimate. Though extremely rare, works keep surfacing, and in May this year, Deutscher + Hackett could offer Snack Bar, 1944, on expectations of $90,000-$120,000, with the hammer finally falling at more than triple the upper estimate at $380,000. Déjà vu then last night, when Pitt Street, Sydney, 1943 (Lot 40 ), sold for $170,000 hammer price on estimates of $25,000-$35,000. Incidentally, this very painting sold for a hammer price of just $7,750 in August 1998 with Sotheby’s.
Two disappointments would have been the non-sales of Jeffrey Smart’s The Caravan Park, 2007 (Lot 44 ), estimated at $650,000-$850,000, and the following lot, John Brack’s Up in the Air, 1973 (Lot 45 ), estimated at $300,000-$400,000 – two “failed to sells” with seemingly little justification.
A beautiful and also beautifully preserved watercolour by John Campbell, Swan Brewery, 1903 (Lot 52 ), deserved its $30,000 hammer price, right in the middle of its $25,000-$35,000 estimate.
Amongst other John Brack works that did sell was the subtle and discreet Reclining Nude, 1981 (Lot 65 ), selling on the high estimate of $45,000 hammer price
The buyer of Albert Tucker’s much more in-your-face Woman, 1950 (Lot 73 ) picked up quite a bargain. Sold by Bonhams in 2007 for $80,000 hammer price ($96,000 incl. bp.), it went for just $55,000 hammer price ($67,100 incl. bp). to the lucky winning bidder.
The seller of a private collection of six delightful watercolours by Albert Namatjira would no doubt be happy with his haul: a combined total of $118,500 hammer price for lots 86 to 91 was a good result, selling all works.
Most interesting proved the extremely rare appearance of a comparatively large watercolour on a beanwood panel measuring 15 x 32.5 cm. The vivid effect of watercolour on panel gave the work a three-dimensional quality. It then surely trounced the $15,000-$20,000 estimates, selling for an exceptional $30,000 hammer price
