Michael Illingworth was born in 1932 in York, England and died in 1988 in Coromandel in New Zealand. He was a key figure in our relatively short art history by creating waves back in the early 1960's with his role in the bohemian alternative culture that was beginning to become a lifestyle option in Auckland and the antics that surrounded some of his early exhibitions in the fledgling dealer gallery scene that was just emerging in New Zealand's largest city.
The Michael Illingworth I knew took an uncompromising stand on surviving solely as a ''painter'' producing exquisitely crafted small size paintings that sparkled like real diamonds in sharp contrast to our rather raw "sackcloth and ashes" dark mainstream art.
He had recently returned from a period working in London at Victor Musgrave's Gallery One that had put Illingworth in direct contact with some leading and exotic figures making waves over there.
It was the conservative and conformist suburban dwelling nation of law abiding citizens that he found himself up against, and later they became symbols in his art practice. Moving away from small scale tachist works like The Poet Explodes, Illingworth's paintings started to become populated with Paul Klee type figures christened Mr. and Mrs. Piss-Quick (watch your P's and Q's) and these works proved to very popular with the hunters and collectors present at the estate sale.
This auction proved interesting because most of the works sold went to bidders in the room, with only a small number going to internet and phone bidders.
An opening selection of standalone drawings and small works on paper that had been produced to develop paintings, opened the sale and almost without exception exceeded the top end of the carefully considered estimates. Thomas P. Q (Lot 5 ) a small graphite drawing measuring only 17 x 10 cm sold for $11,000 against an estimate of $1,000-$2,000. A pastel drawing, Study for Adam (Lot 9 ) sold for $8,000, twice the top estimate.
Another small ink drawing of Thomas Piss-Quick (Lot 13 ) sold to a buyer in the room for $4,750 while the following lot, Study for Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Piss Quick (Lot 14 ) sold for $5,000.
The first painting in the sale, a beautifully crafted Self Portrait (Lot 3 ) from 1958 sold well at $16,000 and established a benchmark for the other paintings. Tawera over Pah Hill (Lot 37 ), a small watercolour measuring 38 x 25.5 cm sold for $26,000 while The Three Quark Man, Muster Mark (Lot 39 ), a small oil portrait went to a phone bidder for $49,000, although only 22 x 17 cm. Tomb of Sea Horse (Lot 43 ) sold for $69,000 to a couple in the room, as did the highest price work of the sale Painting with Rainbow (Lot 61 ) which was knocked down for $107,500.
Another fierce bidding battle took place when a rather curious Untitled (Lot 68 ) oil on canvas featuring a group of four typical Illingworth figures, all mouthless, but highly resolved selling to the room for $104,000 against the high estimate of $75,000.
In the sculptural works, a beautiful kauri and cedar construction To Father Skinner and the People of Puhoi (Lot 56 ) sold for $28,000 and Illingworth's controversial double sided large freestanding fiberglass sculpture of Adam And Eve (Lot 60 ) sold for $55,000, which was $5,000 below the low estimate.
But perhaps more impressive was the penultimate lot, a small mixed media Untitled – Tawera Figure (Lot 71 ) which precipitated some fierce bidding, and finally sold for $15,500, more than five times the top estimate of $3,000.
In the scheme of things this was a major artist's estate sale and with a clearance rate of just over 80% and a sale total of well over $1.1 million everybody seemed well pleased with the red letter day for a unique ''Rebel with a Cause'' who lead many of us out of the suburban darkness and whose light still shines brightly 30 years on from his premature death from cancer at the age of 56. Rest in Peace Michael Illingworth, a job well done.
All prices quoted are hammer in $NZ.
