Rosalie Gascoigne's 'Beaten Track', 1992, (above) was formed from an assemblage of sawn wooden soft drink crate pieces that seemed to glow in a golden light. Placed near the start of the evening sale when enthusiasm and bidder confidence are high, the work immediately drew bids near its low estimate of $400,000, to eventually settle at a hammer price of $850,000, or $1,043,182 including buyer’s premium.
Early offerings in the sale also performed strongly. Brett Whiteley’s Giraffe No 1, 1964-5 (Lot 4 ), an elongated bronze animal form with a wandering gait, sold mid-range at $250,000. This three-dimensional work from his London period perfectly captures the familiar arabesque lines of his paintings. Similarly, a large-scale fluro-suburban Howard Arkley canvas High Fenced, 1996, (Lot 5 ) sold for $700,000 at the top of its estimated range and again in line with market expectations.
Following this strong start, the momentum continued with the offering of beautiful collection of eight Lin Onus works one after the other, from the collection of S & P Global, Australia. One of the advantages of attending the auction in person as opposed to viewing and bidding online, is to be able to see such works complementing one another, together, in real time and real space. Somehow that seems to be what Lin Onus' paintings are about: space and time. He quietly slips a timeless indigenous world into the space of a western landscape view. The bridge is seamless. Based on recent auction realisations for works by Onus, the estimated range $180,000 - $250,000 seemed somewhat conservative for Malwan Pond – Dawn, 1994, (Lot 9 ), even given its modest domestic scale. But the multiple layers and reflections in this work really define the extent of Onus' achievements. Under very competitive bidding the work was sold for an impressive $310,000. Smaller gouaches such as Butterflies, 1993, (Lot 10 ) and Speargrass, 1993, (Lot 16 ) proved popular, the latter reaching $44,000 on $25,000 - $30,000 estimates. It is interesting that the sequential offering of eight Lin Onus works did not depress the realised prices. All eight works sold comfortably, and at prices that will seem quite modest in the future. The new owners must be delighted.
The feeling that this auction was definitely a set of curated mini-collections was confirmed by the next group offered: three substantial works from the collection of Reg Grundy and Joy Chamberlain-Grundy. The very busy faux-naïve Margaret Preston canvas, Molong Show, 1946, (Lot 17 ) realised a very strong $140,000, over $80,000 - $100,000 estimates. It was helped along by the Reg Grundy fame and the post-WW2 country fairground atmosphere that it records for all time. This writer preferred the more modestly-priced Preston monotype Bottle Brush (2), 1946, (Lot 36 ) that demonstrates Preston’s earnest desire for a quintessentially Australian iconography. This was a steal at $15,000.
Auctioneer Roger McIlroy is well-known for his quick wit. The offering of Tom Roberts Portrait of Eileen and verso, Coastal Landscape, c1892, (Lot 20 ) brought smiles to the audience. "Buy one, get one free for Deutscher and Hackett’s Black Friday Sale" quipped McIlroy, as the porter holding the painting demonstrated that the painting rotated within its frame like a spinning wheel, so that the front and verso images could be swapped in an instant. It was hardly free: the work(s) were sold at the click of a mouse to an internet buyer at the $120,000 lower estimate.
At last, a room battle ensued (as opposed to a fight between those sitting at the bank of telephones) when an impressionistic and visibly glowing Iso Rae oil on canvas Une Tricoteuse (A Knitter), c1909, (Lot 23 ) was offered. During the frenzy of room bids, the auctioneer remarked "Odd phenomenon to have the bidders actually here!" At least, what began as a duel between two in the room later migrated to the telephones, and after twenty-five bids, the work sold under the hammer for $105,000 on extremely low estimates of $40,000 - $60,000. This is a painting that looked great in the flesh, right in front of an audience. Perhaps it was an even better than the larger work Young Girl, Etaples, c1892, which achieved Rae’s previous record price of $220,000 also set by Deutscher and Hackett in July 2020 just when Covid was biting.
On the international front, a delightful signed screen-print on wallpaper, Cow, 1976, (Lot 44 ) from Andy Warhol’s Cow Wallpaper series sold comfortably at $28,000 on $12,000 - $18,000 estimates. These works, when in unlimited form (as opposed to individually signed form) are often used to actually wallpaper a gallery space. Two decades ago, this writer saw such a room at the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh decked out in a different colourway. Banksy is another of the big international names never far from the spotlight. Recent realisations show that his market appears to be softening post-pandemic as Gangsta Rat, 2004, (Lot 45 ) failed to reach its lower estimate of $40,000 on the night.
Riding the current upward trends for his work, Sand Hill Boundary, c1950s, (Lot 42 ), a modest Albert Namatjira watercolour sold for a strong $48,000, well above the standard top estimate of $35,000, even without a white-barked gum in sight.
Ten works from The Laverty Collection occupied the central section of the sale. Highlights here were numerous. The magnificent Emily Kame Kngwarreye Untitled (Alalgura/Emu Country), 1989, (Lot 48 ) which ascended to a hammer price of $280,000 over a top estimate of $200,000. A new artist record price of $260,000 was set for Paddy Nyunkuny Bedford, Mendoowoorrji – Medicine Pocket, 2005, (Lot 49 ), accompanied by a round of applause from the room as the hammer fell.
Returning to the Reg Grundy grouping, surprisingly the dramatic Danila Vassilieff oil, The Wedding, 1954, (Lot 19 ) was the first lot to be passed in on the night. This seems strange given the painting’s European expressionist dexterity. The European post-WW2 influence of Klee and Kandinsky was also on display in a suite of works—oils, gouaches, drawings, woodcuts—by émigré Ludwig Hirschfield-Mack, who taught art at Geelong Grammar after a period at the Hay Internment Camp in NSW from 1940. The woodcuts on paper depicting life under internment performed well thanks to a persistent room bidder: Desolation, Internment Camp – Orange, NSW, 1941, (Lot 88 ) skyrocketed to $26,000 on the fall of the hammer on $2,000 - $3,000 estimates. These are works where Art and History are welded together.
All prices quoted are hammer prices and do not include the buyer’s premium. The sale totalled $8.35 million and achieved 91% by lot and 145% by value.
