In an interesting comparison, an impressionist oil painted ten years earlier by the more famous expatriate John Peter Russell, Fisherman Belle-Île (Pêcheur Belle-Île) 1905 (Lot 13 ), Deutscher and Hackett’s cover lot, sold for more than $770,000. For a time, Russell painted and studied with Europe’s stars of Impressionism. In this luminous canvas, his shapes and figure almost disappear into what fellow artist Monet described as a ‘sea’ of pure colour. Here, the comparison between Rae and Russell is one of form over shimmer.
This final November offering was a strong and successful sale for Deutscher and Hackett, with clearance rates of 84% by lot and 106% by value, a total of $6.4 million, including buyer's premium.. Following on the heels of Sotheby's successful end-of-season sale, Deutscher and Hackett drew a large Melbourne crowd, where potential floor bidders almost had to interject into the conversations between auctioneer and bank of telephones.
But what was exciting about the Deutscher and Hackett sale was the structure of the catalogue. It wasn’t a mere listing of safe expensive trophy paintings. It was a carefully curated offering: major Australian paintings; heavyweight contemporary Australian and international works; Australian colonial pieces; fine aboriginal paintings and cultural objects. What was pleasing from such a range was that the contemporary works sold well, as did the aboriginal offerings in what had been a previously depressed market.
Japanese artist On Kawara’s A4-sized diaristic canvas Jan. 18, 1998, 1998 (Lot 31 ), a documented confirmation that the artist was alive and well at the stated moment in the space-time continuum, sold for $621,000 to one of six telephones, while bidders in the room sat on their hands unmoved by the very modest reserve of $250,000. Come on Australians, the rest of the world is eating up contemporary! Kawara’s very elegant black and white painting, minimalist and texted, reminded this writer of the similarly conceptual black and white text paintings by Australian artist Mutlu Cerkez (1964-2005) that speculated on dates of the future.
In the domestic contemporary canon, Ken Whisson’s spiky figures on a white ground seemed more activated than usual. After a slow battle by telephones, his Perugia, Railway Station, Football Teams, Rag & Bone Man, etc., 1982 (Lot 9 ), sold solidly at $49,600, just above the top of its range. Works by Noel McKenna (Lot 38 ), Rick Amor (Lot 37 ) and Howard Arkley (Lot 36 ) all sold well at $14,900, $80,700 and $55,800 respectively –within their estimated ranges. McKenna’s quirky ironic works in artist’s hand-made frames are quietly creeping on up. Such delightful hand-mades seem to make fun of the fake gold frames that be-deck many a modernist Nolan and Boyd.
The Australian modernists performed true to form. A small collection of Margaret Prestons comprised the first six lots of the auction. This was a winning move as it focused the audience on her competency across a range of media: oil, stencil, monotype and woodcut. The carefully considered Australian iconography Banksia on a Window Ledge, 1934, (Lot 1 ) sold well at $186,300 in line with her previous market for floral canvases. The cubist light-filled oil on canvas Kangaroos Feeding, 1945 (Lot 2 ) fetched the same price—just above the top of its estimated range, as did the innovative stencilled work on cardboard Happy Family, 1949 (Lot 5 ) at $34,700. Curiously, even after all this momentum, the coloured monotype Aboriginal Still Life, 1946 (Lot 6 ), failed to sell in spite of a favourable $25,000-$30,000 estimated range and its confident assimilation of an aboriginal language.
There were breath-takingly beautiful aboriginal works on offer in sections cleverly spliced throughout the sale. They all sported modest reserves, which is THE most important key to reviving and sustaining any secondary market interest in anything. Vendors take note. Who would not be swept off their feet by the magnificent large black and white Dibirdibi Country, 2012, (Lot 43 ) by the late Sally Gabori? Estimated modestly at $15,000 - $20,000, it sold after exchanges between book, room and telephone for $34,700 to a room bidder, only a couple of thousand shy of the $36,600 Gabori record set at Mossgreen’s sale of the Estate of Anne Lewis in Sydney in 2011. However, auction records were set alight: Ronnie Tjampitjinpa’s Wilkinkarra (Lake Mackay), 1993, (Lot 46 ), comprising four monumental squares rippling like water to the edges of the canvas, soared to $154,000, almost double his previous record. Emily Kame Kngwarreye’s horizontal format Desert Storm, 1992, (Lot 44 ), radiating like a bed of jewels, sold solidly in mid-range at $186,000. The bargain of the night must have been Queenie McKenzie’s modestly-scaled Balankerr, Lajibany and Manyjoorroo Country, 1998, (Lot 75 ), depicting country with gentle characteristic mounds ringed by white dots. It sold for a mere $6,800.
There were mixed successes on the colonial front, where a surprising range of pencils and paper works were offered. Samuel Lock’s mid nineteenth century Corrobbaree, South Australia (Lot 116 ), a delightful watercolour that looked as if it had just emerged from the hand of an art school graduate negotiating the contemporary zeitgeist…attracted no bids. You could sense the pause in the room when the lot was offered, like a gasp of breath, as the punters knew that they should have been bidding. Corrobbaree would sit well when curated into any contemporary collection with its marks of vivid human drama. At the other end of the scale, Eugene von Guerard’s staid Aboriginal Family Group, 1856, (Lot 18 ) certainly hit a high mark at $173,800, while William Westall’s pencil documentary drawing Port Jackson Harbour, New Holland, c.1802 (Lot 19 ) reached mid-range at $62,100. What a steal. This was like a jpeg or a twitter handle from 1802, yes 1802—a piece of Australian History to be treasured.
All prices quoted are in $Au and include buyer’s premium.
