Since the beginning of the year, the economic predictions in NZ have been fairly doom and gloom, with inflation and the cost of living rising, petrol price rises and the list goes on. However the buying audience at IAC seem to be immune to these challenges with their sale on Tuesday night posting extremely buoyant results and a number of new auction records. Many works sold well over top estimate and there appeared to be a number of both phone and absentee bidders on most lots.
Strategically placed at lots 1 and 2 were Lo Negro Sobre Lo Oro (The Black over the Gold) (Lot 1 ) and Lo Negro Sobre (Lot 2 ) both lacquer and gold leaf works by Ralph Hotere, whose prices are on an upward trajectory at the moment after a long flat patch in the market. The works were small but priced with a light touch at $8,000-$12,000 and both works sold well over-estimate at $37,500 and $20,000 respectively.
A rare 1950s painting Untitled (Lot 4 ) by Milan Mrkusich (one of only four works from this period to be offered in the last 10 years) also fell into the reasonably priced bracket at $15,000-$20,000. A harmonious colour composition of beautifully knitted together squares reminiscent of Australian artist Grace Crowley, had a slowish start but finished well to sell at $36,000 and on another day it could have had even further to run.
The upwards trajectory of prominent women artists in the auction arena was continued in this sale with three works by Gretchen Albrecht all exceeding estimates. Layered Sky, Winter, Karekare, (Lot 9 ), which dates from the same period as her popular colour field paintings from the 1970s, had a knockout bid of $60,000 left online to trump the opening bid of $30,000 and promptly sold at that. A more recent painting Night – Nomadic Geometries (Lot 14 ) in the familiar oval format dating from the mid 1990s, also had an absentee bid left online at $95,000 against a $75,000 reserve but ended up selling to another internet bidder for $110,000 to set a new record for the artist at auction and finally a work purchased from a Melbourne auction in August last year, Allotment / Fitzroy (Lot 64 ) for $1,900 AUD, found a generous return for the arbitrager when it sold for $10,500 under the hammer.
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa has been a long standing client of IAC and in recent years has fed a number of works from her collection through their auction rooms. This week’s sale saw 18 works from Dame Kiri consigned, and of which 15 sold under the hammer with some very strong results. In 2001, Dame Kiri paid well over-estimate for Marlotte, Paris 1894 (Lot 29 ) when she bid $45,000 against a $28,000 estimate at an IAC auction. Her foresight was rewarded, when the work was returned to the rooms this week with an estimate of $150,000-$250,000 and was strongly contested to sell for $230,000. The last time a major work by Lloyd Rees was offered in 2018 (also from Dame Kiri’s collection), Australian art identity Denis Savill was in the rooms, and kept everyone entertained with his saleroom antics and strong bidding. Unfortunately, despite borders being open, he wasn’t there and this time, A Small Tribute to Jorn Utzon and his Great Buildings (Lot 28 ) was passed in.
One of the major surprises of the night also came from Dame Kiri’s collection, a very dark, almost murky painting Canal Scene, Holland (Lot 42 ) by the grandfather of New Zealand painting, Petrus van der Velden. Despite his importance within the academic tomes of art history, his prices are auction are often low, but this work captured the imagination of no less than seven phone bidders who all competed vigorously. From a start at $8,000, the painting ended up at a surprising $43,000, eclipsing the price paid for a seminal Otira Gorge painting of the same size in previous years.
In 2018, when Dame Kiri last publicly consigned works to auction, she included three large works by C.F Goldie. Two sold and one went unsold at the time and it’s telling to see how much the Goldie market has shifted in just four years, when IAC offered their flagship painting of the sale which was a portrait by Goldie, Te Hau – Takiri Wharepapa. (Lot 48 ) This painting which had been in a private collection since 1957, received much pre-sale publicity, due to the fact that it was part of the artist’s private collection at his death and was accompanied by handwritten notes stating that it was one of his favourite paintings.
This painting (although a different sitter) was very similar in size and composition to one of Dame Kiri’s Goldie’s, which sold for $775,000 just under the low estimate of $800,000. The estimate on Te Hau-Takiri Wharepapa was $1,500,000 - $250,000, 000 benchmarked off last year’s record sale of Hori Pokai for $1,420,000. The bidding started at $1.4 million before a couple of bids got it up to low estimate where it slowed down and after offering some lower increments of $10,000 rises, the painting sold to a phone bidder for $1,570,000 and set the new record at auction for the artist.
A suite of works by Frances Hodgkins were all sold under the hammer, which was no surprise as she is another artist who has seen a dramatic price increase on account of one result for Rialto Steps which sold at IAC last year for $260,000. Although well over the low estimate, Pergola c. 1936 (Lot 51 ) looked like the buy of the night compared to recent sales – this being, in my opinion the best late work by Hodgkins to appear on the market in the last decade or so. Still in its original frame, with original Lefevre Gallery labels attached, the painting realised $140,000 against a low estimate of $100,000.
Sir Grahame Sydney’s painting Away to the South (Lot 57 ) must take the prize for the highest price achieved by a work belonging to art buying group sold at auction. Usually, art groups don’t have the budget to buy major large scale oil paintings by Grahame Sydney, which sell for well over $100,000 if you can even access one for sale, but the Hangings Art Group from Dunedin bought their work in 1993 and have held onto it since then, so with the benefit of time and the scarcity of work available by the artist, the estimate of $100,000-$130,000 was easily eclipsed with the work getting knocked down for $160,000.
There was one vendor who probably could have done with a record price this week, and unfortunately the results didn’t go in their favour on the night. The Ranfurly Veterans Trust and Auckland RSA (Returned Soldier’s Association) offered two major paintings by Peter McIntyre, Gold Mining in Central Otago (Lot 66 ) and Cobb and Co (Lot 67 ) with the sale proceeds to benefit the organisations and the veterans they assist. Although the works were of very good quality, the large size (almost 3 metres long each) may have been difficult for buyers to accommodate and the works were passed in. Hopefully a sale for these lots will be transacted in the coming days.
An honourable mention at the back end of the catalogue must go to Ivy Fife’s version to New Zealand’s favourite painting* ‘Cass’ by Rita Angus. Although Angus’s image is iconic, Ivy Fife’s painting also called Cass (Lot 77 ) captures the spirit of the landscape of this most famous railway station. With its companion watercolour located in the Te Papa Tongarewa collection, the estimate of $4,000 was sure to be eclipsed and it was with an internet bidder securing the work for $25,000.
Rounding off an incredibly successful night for IAC was the sale total which sat at $4,517,150 after the sale and the clearance rate at 91%. A quick check back through the auction records shows that this sale total is higher than any of the mixed vendor sales in 2021 which itself was a record year. If IAC continues on in this way, they will be the auction house to catch this year!
*As voted by the NZ public in 2006
