For some time, curators of Australian art have considered the role of pioneering female artists in establishing Australia’s cultural identity. Many had pivotal roles in establishing a visual language for Australian painting at the springboard of modernism in the 1930s and this ongoing approach to visual language has persisted through to the contemporary. In the past this contribution was grossly undervalued. Now, this recognition has brought dramatic market consolidation. Yvonne Audette’s Cantata No 14 (Lot 16 ) from 1963-4 realised a hammer price of $240,000 on a $150,000 to $200,000 estimate, totally eclipsing her previously recorded hammer price of $85,000 set by Sotheby’s in 2018. Cantata had remained hidden in private hands for more than 50 years. At the Melbourne viewing the musicality of the painting was dazzling. It breathed life into the space in which it was hung, proving absolutely that paintings must be experienced in the flesh rather than flicked past in online viewing rooms.
Besides the Audette, modernist works by other Australian women also looked eerily contemporary, with figuration and brushwork speaking today’s language. Bessie Davidson’s Interieur, c1938 (Lot 37 ) sold for $120,000 on a $50,000-$70,000 estimate, almost tripling in price since its previous outing in the market in 2014. Framing of a quasi-cubist Australian vernacular, Dorrit Black’s linocut The Pot Plant, 1933 (Lot 21 ) achieved $37,000, well above its top estimate of $25,000. Clarice Beckett’s Out Walking, c1928-29 (Lot 11 ) achieved $52,000 on a $35,000 to $45,000 estimate. In the new year, attention will be focused on her retrospective at the Art Gallery of South Australia—Clarice Beckett: The Present Moment.
The secondary market’s favourite female postmodernist Rosalie Gascoigne continued with strong results for Ledger, 1992 (Lot 5 ) selling mid-range with a hammer price of $220,000. It doesn’t seem that long ago that Gascoigne’s chopped yellow signs mounted on plywood were a mere quarter of that amount. If only the auction buyer could go back in time. If only!
Many of the classics, or predicted classics, in this first section of the sale were true to form. Russell Drysdale’s Going to the Pictures, 1941 (lot12) settled comfortably at a hammer price of $2,400,000 just shy of it’s $2,500,000 lower estimate and equalling his previous record at hammer price. This small but brilliantly drafted painting brimmed with acute observation of family relationships, dogs, water towers and overhanging corrugated iron eaves. The painted figures engaged in a narrative of an Australia that was. Auctioneer Roger McIlroy remarked it was a painting that was ‘very hard to get’. We assume he meant that Drysdale works of this quality are scarce for an auction house to secure, that bidding is competitive, and that deep pockets are needed for the successful bidder. The realised price was a tad shy of what such an important work deserved.
At the outset of the sale Peter Upward’s spectacular January Seventh, 1961 (Lot 6 ) sadly failed to find a buyer. This work is a major example of his calligraphic approach—fulsome, gestural and immediate. It was painted at a time when Australian artists were absorbing the practices of Abstract Expressionism from America, but the calligraphy of Upward’s Asiatic voice is totally inimitable, just as the mark of Cy Twombly is inimitable. The estimated range $350,000-$550,000 proved to be a bridge too far, given that his previous record hammer price was $270,000 set in 2018 for a similar sized and similar period work.
Part I continued with the sale of the large Fred Williams’ Hillside at Lysterfield II, 1967 (Lot 8 ). This is classic Williams, with luminous colours and static markings that hang in the air like the murmur of a summer almost gone. Such a major work settled in well at a contested $1,800,000 on an estimated range of $1,500,000-$2,000,000, just short of the record hammer price of $2,300,000 set by Deutscher and Hackett at their July 2020 sale.
Ben Quilty’s soon-to-be-classic Paul’s Falcon, 2008 (Lot 2 ) brought a new record for the artist at $140,000 on a $90,000-$120, 000 estimate. In both subject and brushwork, this proved to be a popular incantation of Quilty’s robust style. Showing even more grunt was Ian Fairweather’s small oil and gouache on cardboard: Lads Boxing, 1939 (Lot 13 ). This diminutive work, a mere 48 x 44.5 cm, outclassed the nearby Quilty for compelling brushwork. In a bidding battle between the telephones it finally settled at a hammer price of $520,000, double its pre-sale $200,000-$250,000 estimate. You beauty.
In Part II of the sale, Deutscher and Hackett continued to refine their skill at achieving solid prices for notable international and contemporary works. Keith Vaughan’s large oil on canvas Baptism, 1963 (Lot 22 ), ex the Marlborough Galleries in London, realised $180,000 hammer, just above the top estimate of $160,000. Works from Sydney gallerist Conny Dietzschold’s European stable also fared well: Chun Kwang Young’s mysterious Aggregation 02-D106, 2002, (Lot 32 ) made of Korean mulberry paper, polystyrene foam and string on board (hammer $13,000) and Kuno Gonschior’s Weiss, 2003-4 (Lot 33 ) (hammer $23,000) both sold well above reserve. Michael Cook’s suite of 14 inkjet prints collectively titled Civilised, 2012, (Lot 30 ) set a record for the artist with a hammer of $88,000 over $65,000-$85,000 estimates. It is encouraging to see home-grown contemporary art being recognised in the secondary market for its powerful contribution to contemporary life in Australia.
