The Spark company is New Zealand’s equivalent of Australia’s Telstra, and their art collection known as The Spark Foundation Collection was primarily assembled in the late 1990s and early 2000s by CEO Roderick Deane. Initially displayed in the offices in Wellington, it was later moved to the Auckland office, and it had a focus on mainly contemporary New Zealand artists as well as artists with a Wellington connection.
The sale comprised of 76 lots, many of which were works on paper and prints. The same artists and images are still in the collections of businesses now which were buying art for their offices in the same time period. Many of these bright and decorative images sold well above their estimates including images from a suite of monotype prints by skilled printmaker Stanley Palmer, Afternoon, Maungawhau (Lot 57 ) realised $4,500 against a low estimate of $1,000 and a classic image by Pat Hanly in fantastic fresh condition, Wonder (Lot 39 ) achieved $5,500 against a $3,000 reserve.
The highest prices in the sale were reserved for the major name artists and two very good early works by Brent Wong which are scarce on the secondary market, both sold well above expectations. These tightly painted landscapes with a floating architectural mass in the sky are highly desirable and both sold well over the low estimate of $35,000 to realise $77,000 (Lot 7 ) and $65,000 (Lot 8 ) respectively.
Women artists were in hot demand on the night, and it was the paintings by Rita Angus and Gretchen Albrecht which provided the most excitement on the night. A view from Rita Angus’s studio, titled Wellington Rooftops (Lot 17 ) was a watercolour in large proportions which showcased her unrivalled technical ability with the watercolour medium. The scarcity of these works on the market meant lots of interest from all areas and multiple bidders across all avenues who took the lot from a low start of $60,000 all the way to $133,000.
IAC have been on a roll selling Gretchen Albrecht’s work of late, achieving the top price for the artist at auction in their sale in August. Inlet West Coast (Lot 28 ) comes from a desirable period of the artist’s work. This work had a horizontal orientation rather than a vertical one which I tend to prefer, but the low estimate of $40,000-$60,000 no doubt got the bidders interested as a retail price on these early works is more than three times this low estimate at her Auckland dealer. Engagement was high as bidding started at $65,000 between the internet and the floor before new bidders entered at $94,000 and $109,000. At this point there were still parties bidding until the work was hammered at $142,000. That would have been a fantastic price, but the bidding was reopened due to a disputed bid. On it went, with two bidders left, until the painting finally sold about 10 mins after the start for $165,000, trouncing the previous top price of $110,000.
There were a few surprises at the auction, works that I thought should have had more interest than there appeared on the night, including two ‘Pine’ works by Ralph Hotere, which made $5,000 and $5,500 each and have previously had no trouble in selling for $8,000 or more in recent sales.
Thanks to the unreserved nature of most of the sale, these works and a few others were hammered below the estimates, showing if you have an interest in a work, it’s always best to engage in the sale as you never know what may happen on the night.
The auction was offered mainly without reserve (just 17 lots had them) and this led to a clearance rate of 99%, just one lot is remaining unsold on the IAC bidding app currently and a sale total of $1,033,324 including buyer’s premium.
All prices are hammer unless otherwise noted and are expressed in $NZ.
