These images sneak up on the viewer by posing questions rather than preaching: in a subtle switch, using high production values, they present Aboriginal culture as the civilising force- so that European finery is put quaintly out of context. There is no haranguing here. Respectfully, one is reminded of the early work of Tracey Moffatt or the celebratory videos of colonised Pacific culture by New Zealander Lisa Reihana shown at last year’s Venice Biennale.
It has taken a while for works addressing the post-colonial to find their way confidently into the Australian contemporary secondary market. When Tracey Moffatt's photographs first reached the secondary market more than twenty years ago, they rapidly found immediate highs. Something More #1 achieved $117,000 back in 2001, and after a quiet period in the market, this ground-breaking Something More series has settled more solidly back into the market with D+H’s current Something More #8, 1989, (Lot 36 ) running to $48,000 in a bidding war between phones and room. This is an auction record for the #8 image. (Tracey Moffatt also represented Australia last year at Venice.) Although Michael Cook has exhibited widely internationally he is only just becoming known in the secondary market in Australia with Civilised being only the second work by him to reach the secondary market. What a path to the market! In the same section of the Deutscher and Hackett sale, the fabulous Danie Mellor work A Most Favoured Aspect (on the Periphery), 2009, (Lot 41 ) sailed past its $8,000 to $12,000 estimate to reach more than $21,000 in a fight between three room bidders and some phones. This small but immaculately presented work showed Australian fauna inserted ironically into a blue landscape resembling the patterned finery of a Wedgwood plate, setting up Mellor’s hallmark visual interaction between two cultures. So, post-colonial work has arrived in the secondary market surely and powerfully.
Deutscher and Hackett made a bold statement by labelling their auction Modern + Contemporary Art. Their brand has been able to guide the audience towards post-1970 work, to shine a light on the foundations and currency of Australian culture now. There was not a Boyd, Nolan or Blackman in sight. But there, for Melbourne audiences, was a fine staple work Hudson River: From Train, 2004, (Lot 83 ) by Andrew Browne, the newly-crowned winner of the 2018 Geelong Contemporary Art Prize. Even with such impetus, the 120 x 150 cm canvas sold for only $7,400. He is a realist painter seeking ways to cross-pollinate with the traditions and light-behaviours of photography.
The branding of this sale was also highly inclusive of the traditions of Aboriginal art. It is very exciting to experience the work of Queenie McKenzie Nakarra or Rover Thomas in a context where they may be visually assimilated as contemporary art, and not sidelined in a special category of their own. The Mackenzie, Untitled (Gidja Country), 1991, (Lot 56 ), achieved $23,000 and the Thomas (Lot 38 ) was referred at a hammer of $95,000. As the Thomas lot demonstrates, the market for Aboriginal art still remains in recovery post the financial crisis, and after the strictures of superannuation fund art ownership; both these effects have stonewalled the aboriginal market in the last decade. In the current sale almost half the aboriginal works presented were passed in, and this is even at a time when only the very best such works are consigned to auction.
Deutscher and Hackett’s sale effortlessly stared down the rainstorm that flooded Melbourne at the outset of the sale with a ten minute delay to the start. Even so, the sale fired up right from the barrier with a solid clearance rate of 71% on the night, with a 65% clearance rate for of Aboriginal works in the sale.
Contemporary art from the collection of Gene and Brian Sherman comprised lots 16 to 25 of the sale. Single owner collections are well favoured by the market not only because provenance is indisputable, but also because gallerists such as the Shermans are rock-star pickers. This was the fourth ‘Capsule’ of artworks sent to the market. As industry insiders, and instinctive collectors, they are able to seek out key works from across the market with vitality and grace. Their offerings were wide-ranging in style and substance… ‘works that individually and collectively give expression to the contemporary’ opined the catalogue. Notable were the 54-panelled Imants Tillers Outback: F, 2005 (Lot 17 ) which reached its top estimate of $37,000, and a magnificent run of three aboriginal works by Prince of Wales (Midpul); in particular the effortless black and white Body Marks (KB 1180), 2002, (Lot 28 ) sold for a humble $5,500 within its estimated range. At more than $12,000, the innovative Gareth Sansom Retirement, 1993 (Lot 23 ) found a new home , but a pair of eX de Medici watercolours, exemplified by the renegade USA ( Go Away) Vietnam, 2010,(Lot 20 ) unusually failed to sell. We wait for ‘Capsule 5’.
During the auction, when a minimal hang of large impressive works is subtly placed before the bidding audience, like a subliminal show of reminders, there was a comparison of side-by-side works that fascinated me. One side wall was graced by the darkening canvas Outlook (White), 2007, (Lot 18 ) by New Zealander Shane Cotton and from the Sherman’s hoard. It achieved $43,000 mid-range. This was a resonant image, echoing tribal lore with mesmerised attendant birds humming around an ancient skull. All is dark. On an adjacent wall facing the audience, Del Kathryn Barton’s sprightly feminist bird, jewelled and confidently prancing on a branch, announced its presence: From Her Nest in the Holm-oak Tree the Nightingale Heard Him, 2011 (Lot 29 ). All is light. She, the current darling of the secondary market, achieved $280,000 with her breasted nightingale work, a mere $100,000 above the estimated range $140,000 to $180,000.
Beyond these pros and cons, there were some realisations that delighted me. Of course, John Brack’s modernist Still Life with Slicing Machine, 1955, (Lot 4 ) was bound for greatness at more than $440,000. Peter Booth’s gravitas early work, Untitled, 1970 (Lot 15 ) comfortably settled at $185,000, equalling his previous record hammer price. This sumptuous span of a painting was hung in the opening exhibition at Pinacotheca Gallery in Melbourne in 1970. What a piece of history! Shaun Gladwell’s dramatic lightbox crucifix image Approach to Mundi Mundi: Dawn, 2007 (Lot 84 ), was a steal at almost $15,000 against an estimated range of $6,000 to $9,000. I arrived late to his sell-out show at Sherman Galleries in 2007 and have missed the boat yet again it seems.
