Operating on a modest scale with total lower estimates close to $670,000, Bonhams sold $634,705 IBP or 49% by value and 63% by lot. Included in the sale were a fascinating range of intensely decorated Aboriginal shields, clubs and boomerangs. These objects of considerable beauty were keenly sought and sold well, greatly increasing the percentage sold by lot on the night beyond 60%.
The fact that total sales approached the total lower estimate means that there was some spectacular bidding frenzy to make up for the works passed in. According to Steps 1, 2 and 3 above—fresh, modestly reserved, stand-out works sold well.
Queenie McKenzie's major work Winnaba Springs, 1996, (Lot 37 ) was previously offered in 2014 by Bonhams with estimate $15,000-$20,000 and was unsold. Now, a year later, with a greatly reduced reserve the work sailed past its $7,000-$10,000 estimate to sell for $23,180 IBP. It is a work which delineates topographical and spiritual sites for women’s ceremonies at Texas Downs. It is a masterwork that is both vibrantly coloured and strongly asymmetrical. It has finally found a home in the wake of a bidding war.
There were also gems from the War/Post-War period—now an area of collecting fashion. Guy Grey-Smith’s genuinely decorative gladed Karri Forest, 1956 (Lot 1 ) exceeded its $15,000-$20,000 estimate to settle at $24,400 IBP. It has a hip designer modernist aesthetic. So too has Elaine Haxton’s carefully-laid-out-flat Magnolias (Lot 52 ), selling for $13,420 IBP against an estimated range $4,000-$6,000). By comparison, Arthur Streeton’s Roses, 1931 (Lot 29 ) remained unsold on a modest low estimate of $28,000. In 2015 the Streeton roses seem like a poet’s roses—they, as T.S. Eliot would say ‘have the look of flowers that are looked at’.
Major post 1970 works from the Contemporary period generally performed poorly. Many Contemporary works were being donated and auctioned to benefit the redevelopment of Drill Hall Gallery, Canberra. There were sticking points even for such a worthy cause. Perhaps Contemporary works rely too heavily on the coat-tails of the primary market for their self-belief, while the secondary market requires that extra ingredient of fame to incite public interest.
Jude Rae’s opalescent still life SL 268, 2010 (Lot 68 ) failed to attract a bid on estimate $14,000-$20,000, a range well tested internationally in the New Zealand secondary market but well down on her primary following.
Painter Aida Tomescu has a strong secondary market following. With a plus for the positive side of the Contemporary ledger, her luminous oil on timber abstraction Petit Martin II, 2006, (Lot 61 ) realised $22,570 IBP more than double the lower estimate of $10,000.
The sale proceeds from Lots 63 to 86 will go to benefit the refurbishment of the Drill Hall Gallery, Canberra, attached to the Australian National University. These works were donated by the artists or well wishers and raised $46,850.
