Like the offering at International Art Centre the previous week, Art + Object had played to their strengths and compiled a catalogue that was varied, with reasonable estimates and well suited to their mainly contemporary collector client base.
There were about 40 potential bidders present at the start of the auction, but with an opening event on at Webb’s and a function for patrons at the Auckland Art Gallery AND the preference towards online bidding, it’s no longer a concern if the room numbers are lighter than in the past and it certainly didn’t make a difference to Art + Object’s sale.
The first four lots of editioned works by Gordon Walters and Bill Hammond did the job to get the sale off to a good start. Even though the first two works by Gordon Walters Tamaki (Lot 1 ) and Kapiti (Lot 2 ) were hammered subject at $19,000 and $22,000, those prices were still higher than previous sales for the same editions and were promptly sold at those offers after the sale. Likewise for Bill Hammond, whose prints Singer Songwriter (Lot 3 ) and Fish Finder (Lot 4 ) both achieved prices at the top of the market for those editions, realising $15,000 and $8,000 respectively.
It's long been a puzzle why works by Dunedin based painter Kushana Bush have failed to find a buoyant market at auction. With good dealer gallery representation here and in Australia (at Darren Knight Galley) and a waiting list for her works in the primary market, it was commonplace to see the works offered at auction either fail to sell or sell under the estimate, unlike other artists in the same situation whose works sell for more at auction when they aren’t available at retail prices. However some strong results over the last nine months are redressing this and two examples sold Madonna with Ashtray from All things to All Men (Lot 29 ) realised $7,000 against a $5,000 low estimate and Cock Fight (Lot 32 ) just nudged in over low estimate at $25,000 to set a new record for the artist.
Dale Frank’s work Craven A (Lot 36 ) was the first major surprise of the night. I thought this was going to be a difficult sell, it was large (2m x 2m), highly reflective, so almost impossible to photograph. A+O had done a good job with this in the catalogue, shooting it as a side angle installation view alongside another work for context, and didn’t have the lush colour one would associate with a typical Dale Frank. However multiple bidders online and on the phone thought otherwise and strongly contested the work from under the low estimate of $50,000 to realise $101,000, another new artist record.
Robert Ellis, very senior artist and educator who just passed away at age 91 late last year, was finally beginning to the see due recognition his work deserved in the few years before he died. Always highly respected for his role in the art world, the prices for his work had been static despite having a solid collecting base. However sales in the last two years have changed dramatically with the top 9 prices being set in the last two years for works from his Motorway Series and almost all of these works dating from 1969-1971. Art + Object had a very interesting example Motorway/ City (Lot 30 ) which dated from this same period but had a more colourful palette. A number of clients in the room and on the phone pushed the price well above the reserve price of $26,000 to realise $58,000, the third highest price for the artist.
A very small McCahon painting titled ‘Night Landscape’ (Lot 47 ) would have represented excellent buying if it could have been acquired at the low estimate of $25,000. That’s about the hammer price that’s been paid recently for a posthumous McCahon print in an edition of 100 which was released about 5 years ago by the McCahon House Trust as a fundraising exercise. Therefore, an original painting seems a better value proposition and other buyers thought the same, so it was not a surprise to see it bid to $41,000 which was about the right price.
One of the major works in the sale was another McCahon painting, Monuments to Te Whiti and to Te Ua: Prophets (Lot 57 ). Hailing from a very small series of seven works on paper which were created alongside the seminal Parihaka triptych in 1972, these images McCahon considered some of his best work for years, according to a letter he wrote to a friend at the time. Of the seven works, only two have come up for auction in the last 20 years, and a further two are held by institutions, so it’s unlikely that more will come to market in the near future. An internet bid at $260,000 started the bidding, which then alternated between the room and online before sliding in over the low estimate to sell for $335,000.
A pair of works by Don Binney included in the sale, illustrate how concentrating on the key elements of an artist’s practice pay off in the long term, especially if you are buying for investment. Te Henga from Man’s Head IV (Lot 61 ) is a popular subject by the artist, but didn’t contain a large bird, was in an unusual diamond format and was painted in tones of blue and grey rather than the traditional landscape colours of others in the series. This work had been offered in 2012 and had gone unsold at $60,000. Since then the Binney market has increased dramatically in value, but this work hadn’t see these gains and it carried an estimate of $55,000-$75,000 before being sold at $53,000 under the hammer.
By comparison, the trophy for the longest lot of the night and possibly in auctioneer Ben Plumby’s career went to Don Binney’s Heron’s Departure, New Spring, Te Henga (Lot 62 ). The low estimate of $550,000 pitched the painting near the top of the artist’s market at auction and on par with another work from the same period sold by A+O in 2018. It ticked a lot of boxes for collectors, it was a good size, 120 x 90 cm (generous, but not too big), it had a large bird and very strong contrast between colours and well defined outlines which gave the painting a nice rhythm. It was from the right period of the artist’s career (mid 1960s) and it had a nice documented provenance and exhibition history.
This sounds overly simplistic and unacademic when discussing a painting that achieves a record price but sometimes the simple things, done well are the most appealing to buyers. Starting the lot at $420,000, it was hard going for Plumbly who used all his auctioneering skills to draw out the bids, even executing a vendor bid $440,000, something we haven’t seen a lot of in any auction room of late but finally the phones and internet kicked in around $480,000 - $500,000 and once the work was on the market at $550,000 it was all go. Bids came in from all directions. It wasn’t a fast operation either but was in the hands of skilled auctioneer like Ben Plumbly. The final five minutes was a very slow uphill climb that paid off in the end. After 15 mins (or thereabouts) the hammer finally came down at $920,000 which including the buyer's premium takes the final sale price to $1,110 440, escalating Don Binney into a small club of artists who have exceeded $1,000,000 at auction in NZ and well exceeding the previous top price for the artist which was set just last year at $600,000 (hammer).
Ralph Hotere’s prices have been seen good competition at auction recently for key works and Dawn/Water Poem (Lot 64 ) was just such a piece. It was elegantly beautiful, in wonderful condition which is extremely important in any Hotere work which uses lacquer and was even better in person than the catalogue photo. The estimate of $65,000-$85,000 was very reasonable and no less than five bidders on the night competed in a true auction room duel, without any internet bidding for this lot. Three of the bidders had dropped out at $95,000 leaving two parties in the room to battle it out sometimes in $1,000 rises until the hammer landed at $130,000.
After the major lots had ended, the sale continued on at pace, with another record set for a David McCracken sculpture Untitled (Lot 74 ) which sold at $47,000 against a $25,000 low estimate.
The sale total was sitting at $4,410,378, one day after the sale which was an excellent result and is the highest to date for the season using the figures available publicly in the Australian Art Sales Digest. Art + Object will have a busy September with two single vendor sales scheduled and this very strong result will leave them feeling encouraged about the strength of their market in the second half of the year.
All prices are in $NZ and are hammer prices unless otherwise noted.
