MELBOURNE • AUCTION + VIEWING 105 commercial road, south yarra, victoria, 3141 telephone: 03 9865 6333 • facsimile: 03 9865 6344 info@deutscherandhackett.com
SYDNEY • VIEWING 16 goodhope street, paddington, new south wales, 2021 telephone: 02 9287 0600 • facsimile: 02 9287 0611 info@deutscherandhackett.com
IMPORTANT AUSTRALIAN + INTERNATIONAL FINE ART AUCTION • MELBOURNE • 15 JULY 2020 4
Important Australian + International Fine Art Lots 1 – 75
The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art Lots 76 – 129
IMPORTANT AUSTRALIAN + INTERNATIONAL ART AUCTION • MELBOURNE • 15 JULY 2020
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MELBOURNE • AUCTION + VIEWING 105 commercial road, south yarra, victoria, 3141 telephone: 03 9865 6333 • facsimile: 03 9865 6344 info@deutscherandhackett.com
SYDNEY • VIEWING 16 goodhope street, paddington, new south wales, 2021 telephone: 02 9287 0600 • facsimile: 02 9287 0611 info@deutscherandhackett.com
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melbourne auction
sydney viewing
melbourne viewing
absentee/telephone bids
live online bidding
LOTS 1 – 129 WEDNESDAY 15 JULY 2020 7:00pm 105 commercial road south yarra, vic telephone: 03 9865 6333 THURSDAY 2 – SUNDAY 5 JULY 16 goodhope street paddington, NSW telephone: 02 9287 0600 11:00am – 6:00pm THURSDAY 9 – TUESDAY 14 JULY 105 commercial road south yarra, vic telephone: 03 9865 6333 11:00am – 6:00pm email bids to: info@deutscherandhackett.com telephone: 03 9865 6333 fax: 03 9865 6344 telephone bid form – p. 201 absentee bid form – p. 202 www.deutscherandhackett.com/watch-live-auction
www.deutscherandhackett.com • info@deutscherandhackett.com
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specialists
CHRIS DEUTSCHER executive director — melbourne Chris is a graduate of Melbourne University and has over 40 years art dealing, auction and valuation experience as Director of Deutscher Fine Art and subsequently as co-founder and Executive Director of Deutscher~Menzies. He has extensively advised private, corporate and museum art collections and been responsible for numerous Australian art publications and landmark exhibitions. He is also an approved valuer under the Cultural Gifts Program.
DAMIAN HACKETT executive director — sydney Damian has over 30 years experience in public and commercial galleries and the fine art auction market. After completing a BA (Visual Arts) at the University of New England, he was Assistant Director of the Gold Coast City Art Gallery and in 1993 joined Rex Irwin Art Dealer, a leading commercial gallery in Sydney. In 2001, Damian moved into the fine art auction market as Head of Australian and International art for Phillips de Pury and Luxembourg, and from 2002 – 2006 was National Director of Deutscher~Menzies. HENRY MULHOLLAND senior art specialist Henry Mulholland is a graduate of the National Art School in Sydney, and has had a successful career as an exhibiting artist. Since 2000, Henry has also been a regular art critic on ABC Radio 702. He was artistic advisor to the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust Basil Sellers Sculpture Project, and since 2007 a regular feature of Sculpture by the Sea, leading tours for corporate stakeholders and conducting artist talks in Sydney, Tasmania and New Zealand. Prior to joining Deutscher & Hackett, Henry’s fine art consultancy provided a range of services, with a particular focus on collection management and acquiring artworks for clients on the secondary market.
CRISPIN GUTTERIDGE head of aboriginal art and senior art specialist Crispin holds a Bachelor of Arts (Visual Arts and History) from Monash University. In 1995, he began working for Sotheby’s Australia, where he became the representative for Aboriginal art in Melbourne. In 2006 Crispin joined Joel Fine Art as head of Aboriginal and Contemporary Art and later was appointed head of the Sydney office. He possesses extensive knowledge of Aboriginal art and has over 20 years experience in the Australian fine art auction market.
LUCIE REEVES-SMITH contemporary art specialist and gallery manager – sydney Lucie completed her studies in Belgium, obtaining Masters of Arts in Art History (Modern and Contemporary Art), together with a Bachelors of Art History, Archaeology and Musicology from the Université Catholique de Louvain. Since returning to Australia in 2014, she has gained sound experience in cataloguing, research and arts writing through various roles with the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre and with private art advisory firms Tutela Capital and LoveArt International.
ALEX CRESWICK head of finance With a Bachelor of Business Accounting at RMIT, Alex has almost 15 years experience within financial management roles. He has spent much of his early years within the corporate sector with companies such as IBM, Macquarie Bank and ANZ. With a strong passion for the arts more recently he was the Financial Controller for Ross Mollison Group, a leading provider of marketing services to the performing arts. Alex is currently completing his CPA.
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specialists
ROGER McILROY head auctioneer Roger was the Chairman, Managing Director and auctioneer for Christie’s Australia and Asia from 1989 to 2006, having joined the firm in London in 1977. He presided over many significant auctions, including Alan Bond’s Dallhold Collection (1992) and The Harold E. Mertz Collection of Australian Art (2000). Since 2006, Roger has built a highly distinguished art consultancy in Australian and International works of art. Roger will continue to independently operate his privately-owned art dealing and consultancy business alongside his role at Deutscher and Hackett.
SCOTT LIVESEY auctioneer Scott Livesey began his career in fine art with Leonard Joel Auctions from 1988 to 1994 before moving to Sotheby’s Australia in 1994, as auctioneer and specialist in Australian Art. Scott founded his eponymous gallery in 2000, which represents both emerging and established contemporary Australian artists, and includes a regular exhibition program of indigenous Art. Along with running his contemporary art gallery, Scott has been an auctioneer for Deutscher and Hackett since 2010.
MARA SISON registrar Mara has a Bachelor of Arts (Humanities) from the University of Asia and the Pacific, Philippines and a Master of Cultural Heritage and Museum Studies from Deakin University. She gained her experience in the private and not-for-profit sectors as a Gallery Manager and Exhibitions Coordinator for MiFA Asian Contemporary Art and Melbourne Fine Art Galleries and as an Administration Officer for Australia China Art Foundation.
CLAIRE KURZMANN head of online sales, gallery manager - melbourne Claire has a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Visual Art) from the University of Melbourne. She gained several years’ experience working as Gallery Assistant at Metro Gallery, Melbourne, assisting with exhibitions, events and marketing. She has acted as Artist Liaison for the Arts Centre Melbourne, coordinating aspects of artist care and has gained experience as a Studio Assistant for a number of emerging Australian artists.
VERONICA ANGELATOS senior researcher & writer Veronica has a Master of Arts (Art Curatorship and Museum Management), together with a Bachelor of Arts/Law (Honours) and Diploma of Modern Languages from the University of Melbourne. She has strong curatorial and research expertise, having worked at various art museums including the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice and National Gallery of Victoria, and more recently, in the commercial sphere as Senior Art Specialist at Deutscher~Menzies. She is also the author of numerous articles and publications on Australian and International Art.
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specialists for this auction
Chris Deutscher 0411 350 150 Damian Hackett 0422 811 034 Henry Mulholland 0424 487 738 Crispin Gutteridge 0411 883 052 AUCTIONEER Roger McIlroy Scott Livesey ADMINISTRATION AND ACCOUNTS Alex Creswick (Melbourne) 03 9865 6333 Lucie Reeves-Smith (Sydney) 02 9287 0600 ABSENTEE AND TELEPHONE BIDS Claire Kurzmann 03 9865 6333 please complete the absentee bid form (p. 164) or telephone bid form (p. 163) SHIPPING Veronica Angelatos 03 9865 6333 CATALOGUE SUBSCRIPTIONS Claire Kurzmann 03 9865 6333
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contents lots 1 — 129
page
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prospective buyers and sellers guide
page 194
conditions of auction and sale
page 196
catalogue subscription form
page 199
attendee pre-registration form
page 200
telephone bid form
page 201
absentee bid form
page 202
index
page 215
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IMPORTANT NOTICE
CULTURAL HERITAGE PERMITS
Some imagery on bark and early western desert paintings in this catalogue may be deemed unsuitable for viewing by women, children or uninitiated men. We sug gest ar t co - ordinators at Aboriginal communities show this catalogue to community elders for approval before distributing the catalogue for general viewing. Co-ordinators may wish to mask or remove certain images prior to circulation. The English spelling of aboriginal names has evolved over the years. In this catalogue every effort has been made to use the current linguistic form. However original information from certificates has been transcribed as written with the result that there are different spellings of the same name, title, language group and story.
Under the provisions of the Protection of Movable Cultural Heritage Act, 1986, buyers may be required to obtain an export permit for certain categories of items in this sale from the Cultural Property Section: Department of Communications and the Arts GPO Box 2154 Canberra ACT 2601 Email: movable.heritage@arts.gov.au Phone: 1800 819 461 Under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), permits are required for the movement of wildlife, wildlife specimens and products made or derived from wildlife. This includes species on the endangered species list. Buyers may be required to obtain an export permit for certain categories of items offered at auction. Permits must be obtained from: Wildlife Trade Regulation Section Environment Australia GPO Box 787 Canberra ACT 2601 Email: wildlifetrade@environment.gov.au Phone: (02) 6274 1900 Under the provisions of the Wildlife and Protection (Regulation of Exports and Imports) Act, 1982, buyers may be required to obtain an export permit for certain categories of items offered at auction (including plant or animal products derived from an Australian native species such as: ivory, tortoise shell, feathers, etc). Permits must be obtained from the Wildlife Protection Section, Environment Australia-Biodiversity Group at the address above, prior to items being export from Australia.
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part 1
IMPORTANT AUSTRALIAN AND INTERNATIONAL FINE ART LOTS 1 – 75 FEATURING Gene & Brian Sherman Capsule Collection V, Sydney
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CRESSIDA CAMPBELL
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born 1960 DAISIES AND CAMELLIAS ON INDIAN CLOTH, 1997 unique colour woodblock print 61.0 x 52.0 cm signed below image lower right: Cressida Campbell ESTIMATE: $40,000 – 60,000
PROVENANCE Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane (label attached verso) Private collection, New South Wales Estate of the above, New South Wales EXHIBITED Cressida Campbell, Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane, 14 October – 8 November 1997, cat. 25 (as ‘Daisies & Camelias on Indian Cloth’) LITERATURE Crayford, P., (ed.), The Woodblock Painting of Cressida Campbell, Public Pictures Pty Ltd, Sydney, 2008, cat. P9703, p. 345 RELATED WORK Daisies and Camellias on Indian Cloth, 1997, watercolour on incised woodblock, 61.0 x 52.0 cm, illus. in Crayford, P., (ed.), op cit., cat. W9712, p. 87
Cressida Campbell is an artist who clearly takes great personal delight in the act of looking. The detail, careful composition and colouring of her artworks provide in turn ample stimulation for the viewer to continue this pleasurable process long after the object has left the artist’s studio. Campbell’s works are sublime. They do not aim to shock or admonish viewers, nor do they operate as vehicles for socio-political commentary. Campbell takes her cues from the rich visual delights of her immediate environment, from the lush bushlands around Sydney harbour to the patterns of shadows on her kitchen floor. Campbell captures the form and colour of everyday objects, translating them into artworks that express with enduring appeal the quiet tranquillity of her surrounds. The decorative combination of flower arrangements and patterned fabrics collected during the artist’s travels has appeared in many of Campbell’s most successful works, including Nasturtiums, 2002, Bougainvillea, 2003 and Ranunculus with Painted Cloth, 2010. Daisies and Camellias on Indian Cloth, created in 1996, is amongst these, also revealing the artist’s signature precision and prettiness. Closely cropped, this domestic still life depicts pink camellia blossoms placed
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in a bowl and fresh daisies stretching joyfully across a tablecloth, its dense paisley pattern concealing finger eggplants casually strewn across the table in preparation for a meal. Almost all of Campbell’s still lives are semi-autobiographical, displaying in their subject matter and aesthetic structure cultural crossovers indicative of the artist’s own eclectic and multicultural interests. In this composition, a Malaysian Nonyaware porcelain bowl is filled with blossoms, placed on a Mughal paisley block-printed cloth, together arranged in a scene designed following Japanese principles of woodblock printing. The related woodblock of Daisies and Camellias on Indian Cloth was exhibited in a group exhibition called Still Lives, at Rex Irwin Art Dealer in November 1996, a full year before its unique print was exhibited and purchased from Philip Bacon Galleries in Brisbane. The block was singled out as a work of distinction at the time by John McDonald and used to illustrate his review of the exhibition in the Sydney Morning Herald.1 What lifts Campbell’s work beyond the realm of simple observation and representation, are slight artistic conceits she introduces within her choice of colour, texture and asymmetrical compositions. Campbell further incorporates sensuous elements in the chalky, bleached colour of the watercolour prints, and the mottled texture left behind on the block after the single print has been pulled. The long and illustrious history of the genre of Still Life has often been entangled with powerful moral lessons about the emptiness of worldly possessions, and memento mori – the fleeting nature of natural beauty and the transience of earthly life. If these classic codes of iconography inform our contemporary reading of Campbell’s work, this is unintentional. Memorialising opportunistic everyday details from her domestic environment and elevating them to the hallowed surfaces of her compositions, Campbell makes no comment on distinctions between fine art and decoration, simply addressing the things in which she derives an aesthetic pleasure and hoping that others will respond in turn to their seductive impact. 1. McDonald, J., ‘Still Lives’, Spectrum Arts, Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, 16 November 1996, p. 16 LUCIE REEVES-SMITH
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CRESSIDA CAMPBELL born 1960 PAPER BARK TREE, EAST SYDNEY, 1999 watercolour on incised woodblock 59.0 x 15.5 cm signed with initials lower left: CC ESTIMATE: $15,000 – 20,000 PROVENANCE Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane (label attached verso) Private collection, New South Wales Estate of the above, New South Wales EXHIBITED Cressida Campbell, Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane, 14 November – 9 December 2000, cat. 19 LITERATURE Crayford, P., (ed.), The Woodblock Painting of Cressida Campbell, Public Pictures Pty Ltd, Sydney, 2008, cat. W9921, p. 352 RELATED WORK Francis Street, East Sydney, 2000, unique colour woodblock print, in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, illus. in Crayford, P., op cit., cat. P0011, p. 196
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CRESSIDA CAMPBELL born 1960 PROTEA AND GUM LEAVES, 1979 watercolour on incised woodblock 45.5 x 45.5 cm signed and dated verso: Cressida / Campbell / ‘79 ESTIMATE: $20,000 – 30,000
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PROVENANCE Private collection, Sydney, acquired directly from the artist Shapiro Auctioneers, Sydney, 23 August 2016, lot 28 Private collection, Sydney EXHIBITED Cressida Campbell (Masks, Paintings and Things), Hogarth Galleries, Sydney, 29 September – 14 October 1979 (the artist’s first solo exhibition)
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ROBERT ROONEY
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(1937 – 2017) CANINE CAPERS VII, 1969 – 79 synthetic polymer paint on canvas 153.0 x 153.0 cm signed, dated and inscribed with title verso: Robert Rooney / … / CANINE CAPERS VII 1969 – 79 ESTIMATE: $25,000 – 35,000
PROVENANCE Estate of the artist, Melbourne RELATED WORK Canine Capers III, 1969, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 152.4 x 152.4 cm, in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Canine Capers IV, 1969, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 152.0 x 152.0 cm, in the collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
Despite his widespread influence as not only one of Australia’s most innovative exponents of conceptual and pop art, but as a renowned art critic for two broadsheet newspapers over two decades as well,1 remarkably Robert Rooney spent almost his entire life living in the city of Melbourne. Born in 1937, he studied art with Dale Hickey at Swinburne Technical College from 1954-57, and subsequently at the Phillip Institute in Preston from 1972 – 73. Notwithstanding his reluctance to venture beyond his hometown, throughout his career Rooney remained obsessively informed of global contemporary art activity and cultural phenomena – amassing a formidable collection of magazines, art books, photographic prints and newspaper clippings. He also forged correspondence with various artists abroad, including, most famously, his seven-year exchange with New York-based conceptualist, Roger Cutforth. During his formative years Rooney experimented with colours and shapes of mass-produced domestic objects to create geometric, hard-edge abstractions and in 1968, gained international recognition with his inclusion in the seminal survey of colour-field painting, The Field, organised by the National Gallery of Victoria. From 1969 to 1981, Rooney’s practice however became more conceptualist and processbased, exploring ideas of duration, routine and repetition through serial photography. He eventually returned to painting in 1982, appropriating both printed ephemera and his own earlier oeuvre to interrogate the potential for ‘absenting content’ in a manner reminiscent of Pop pioneers, Warhol and Duchamp. Significantly, in 1982 Rooney was
included in Paul Taylor’s controversial exhibition of Post-Pop art, POPISM, at the National Gallery of Victoria; and more recently, in 2010 his contribution was honoured with Endless Present: Robert Rooney and Conceptual Art at the National Gallery of Victoria. Quintessentially Pop with its motifs of domesticity, suburbanism and repetition, the ‘Canine Capers’ series – exemplified superbly here by Canine Capers, VII, 1968 – was significantly produced the same year as the groundbreaking Field show, and remains acclaimed among Rooney’s finest achievements with other examples housed in the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Art Gallery of South Australia. Created from stencils inspired by the pre-designed animal shapes on the back of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes packets (intended to be cut out by children and assembled as mobiles), the series cunningly collides abstraction and representation, flirting mimesis while disavowing reference. If a Duchampian pun is also discernible in the play between ‘cereal’ and ‘serial’, the supreme irony, as Philip Brophy suggests, ‘is to be found in the innate abstractiveness of the cereal box shapes, marking Rooney’s works as even more hard-edged than ‘the real thing’…’ 2 Like the two series preceding ‘Canine Capers’ – namely, KindHearted Kitchen Garden, Nos.1-4, and Slippery Seals, Nos. 1-5, both of 1966, here Rooney invokes the device of the interlocking meta-grid, comprised of a repeated motif aligned vertically and horizontally, to structurally reinforce the relationship between the cut-out commodity and the fine art object. Viewed as a consecutive series with each successive painting slightly altering the angle of either all or some of the motifs in alternate sequence, thus a complex polyphonic play of rhythms, shapes and their interlocking grids is achieved – almost akin to a cinematic animation. 3 Concerned more with the conceptualisation of perception involved in defining hard-edge abstraction than the practical methods of its production, indeed Canine Capers VII eloquently attests to Rooney’s strong neo-conceptual approach – already evident in these early investigations – that is today considered his greatest legacy. 1. Rooney worked at The Age from 1980 – 82, and at The Australian from 1982 – 99. 2. Brophy, P., ‘Robert Rooney as Pop’ in From the Homefront – Robert Rooney Works 1953 – 1988, exhibition catalogue, Monash University of Art, Melbourne, 1990 3. ibid. VERONICA ANGELATOS
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EDWIN TANNER
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(1920 – 1980) THE ENGINEER’S WORKSHOP, 1957 oil on canvas on composition board 89.0 x 120.0 cm signed lower centre: EDWIN TANNER dated upper left: 57. ESTIMATE: $30,000 – 40,000
PROVENANCE possibly: Rudy Komon, Sydney Ray Hughes, Sydney Estate of Ray Hughes, Sydney EXHIBITED Edwin Tanner: Works 1952– 1980, Monash University Gallery, Melbourne, 15 March – 12 May 1990, cat. 20 Edwin Tanner: Paintings 1952 – 1979, The Hughes Gallery, Sydney, 30 October – 25 November 2014, cat. 24; Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne, 12 March – 4 April 2015, cat. 7 LITERATURE Duncan, J., Edwin Tanner Works 1952–1980, Monash University Gallery, Melbourne, 1990, pp. 18 (illus.) 26 Hemingway, B., and Nodrum, C., Edwin Tanner: Paintings 1952 – 1979, The Estate of Edwin Tanner in association with The Hughes Gallery, Sydney & Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne, 2014, pp. 28 – 29 (illus.) RELATED WORK The Engineers’ Workshop II, 1957, oil on canvas on composition board, 90.1 x 123.5 cm, in the collection of the TarraWarra Museum of Art, Victoria
Edwin Tanner is perhaps one of Australia’s most idiosyncratic artists. A polymath whose unusual and diverse career progression and broad range of intellectual pursuits informed his paintings, Tanner produced works that stood well apart from the regional gestural expressionism practiced around the country during the second half of the twentieth century. Having emigrated from Wales in the early 1920s, the Tanner family worked as miners in the region around Newcastle, while young Edwin showed early aptitude for mathematics and mechanical engineering. Between 1935 and 1954, while the burgeoning artist first started showing his works at the Contemporary Arts Society in Sydney, Tanner steadily and tirelessly accumulated apprenticeships and degrees by correspondence in engineering, civil design, physics, logic, mathematics and philosophy. These accolades earned him a promotion as Chief Engineer at the construction company, S. Haunstrup & Co. Pty Ltd, in Melbourne, then at Australian Steel and Concrete the following year and eventually, the establishment of Tanner’s own engineering consultancy in 1960.
This iconic and autobiographical painting, The Engineer’s Workshop, 1957, was painted in the middle of these years of professional successes, on the cusp of Tanner’s artistic élan. Firmly based in a figurative reiteration of his real-world experience, The Engineer’s Workshop is populated by spindly figures standing stiffly in their place of work, dwarfed by a central machine, whose rectilinear forms recall electric circuitry and remain obscure to even the most scientifically literate of viewers. With a poetic sensibility for negative space and colour, Tanner’s work here is subtle and quietly humorous. While the machine and the architectural space in which these figures stand are harshly delineated with vertical and horizonal lines, the floors and walls are painted with broad and expressive brushstrokes, creating unexpected tension within the composition. In this workshop, Tanner’s figures are marooned in a vast expanse of emptiness, standing beside an enormous machine, amongst broad brushstrokes and delicately changing hues, expectant and confused. Tanner was presciently attuned to the interdependence of man and machine, and conveyed these notions in his paintings, often endowing machines with anthropomorphic features. When introducing figures into his compositions, these were often static, if not completely reduced to geometric shapes, as can be seen in Board of Directors, 1956. An abstract work, this painting depicted public servants as little more than conductive tracks and nodes on a circuit board, making a pun on the limited individual power and the conformity that is imposed on such workers. Tanner’s works are often characterised by a flatness and strict adherence to the straight line and its associated grid format. However, his interest in philosophy, poetry and music endowed his paintings with a lyrical, if cryptic, sensibility. His paintings are often deadpan and laconic, presenting social critiques under a thin veil of metaphor. For all of Tanner’s eccentricities, he produced an astounding body of work, using a vocabulary and syntax that was purely his own. His stark matrices of straight lines divide sparse expanses of paint, transforming the painting plane into a design blueprint whose secrets are clear only to the artist. Although at times his tongue-in-cheek social commentary inflamed public opinion, during his lifetime Tanner largely remained neglected by the press and the art establishment, his works prized among artists and a small group of connoisseurs appreciative of the inventiveness of his unique artistic vision. Today his place has been rightfully re-established and solidified through further acquisitions by the National Gallery of Victoria, the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and most recently, a major retrospective exhibition held at TarraWarra Museum of Art. LUCIE REEVES-SMITH
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TONY TUCKSON
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(1921 –1973) SWIRLY REDS AND WHITE (TP54), c.1964 synthetic polymer paint on composition board 122.0 x 183.0 cm bears inscription verso: …son (Watters 1970) No 54 ESTIMATE: $150,000 – 200,000
PROVENANCE Margaret Tuckson, Sydney Watters Gallery, Sydney Hugh Jamieson, Sydney Private collection, Sydney EXHIBITED Tony Tuckson Paintings, Watters Gallery, Sydney, 27 May – 13 June 1970, cat. 54 (dated as c.1962 – 65) Tony Tuckson, John Firth-Smith: Two Sydney Painters, Monash University, Melbourne, 10 June – 3 July 1975; Mildura Arts Centre, Victoria, 24 July, cat. 1 (as ‘Black, Red and White, 1962 – 65’) Tony Tuckson 1921 – 1973, a Memorial Exhibition, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 10 April – 9 May 1976, cat. 61 (labels attached verso, illus. in exhibition catalogue, p. 43, as ‘No. 54 Swirly Reds and White’) Abstraction, 22 November – 9 December 1978, Watters Gallery, Sydney, cat. 11 (dated as ‘1964?’) Tony Tuckson Paintings 1949– 1970, Broken Hill City Art Gallery, New South Wales, 22 June – 21 July 1984; Lewers Bequest & Penrith Regional Gallery, New South Wales, 2 August – 27 September 1984, cat. 14 (illus. in exhibition catalogue, p. 23) LITERATURE Thomas, D., Free, R. and Legge, G., Tony Tuckson, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1989, pl. 101, pp. 96 (illus.), 183 After working in private and relative isolation for over twenty years, the Deputy Director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Tony Tuckson eventually overcame his sensitivity to potential conflicts of interest to exhibit sixty-five of his own paintings at Sydney’s Watters Gallery in May 1970. The effect was cataclysmic, with the reclusive arts administrator proclaimed almost overnight to be Australia’s greatest action painter and abstract expressionist, and works immediately purchased for both the state collection of New South Wales and the National Gallery of Australia, whose physical gallery was still twelve years away from being constructed. The large and vigorously triumphant work, descriptively titled by the artist Swirly Reds and White (TP54), c.1964, was included in this, the first and penultimate solo exhibition of Tuckson’s artistic career and remained in his widow’s collection for several years after his premature passing. Following this, the painting toured in several important retrospective exhibitions. As an artist, Tuckson was driven by a relentless pursuit of personal aesthetic refinement, absorbing and processing the diverse artistic influences to which he was exposed in his professional role at the art
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gallery, in particular his pioneering work with Aboriginal and Melanesian arts. His abstract works follow a progression of simplification and intensification of gesture, coalescing into distinct series. Swirly Reds and White (TP54), numbered painting 54 in Tuckson’s chronological classification, belongs to a group of particularly energetic and bold paintings completed between c.1960 and 1965, collectively titled ‘Red, Black and White paintings’ for their restricted chromatic palette. Many of these featured prominently in the 1970 Watters show alongside Swirly Reds and White (TP54). The Red, Black and White paintings in particular, proudly display each stage of Tuckson’s skilful creative process. The result is a vast surface animated by a cacophony of self-assured expressive gestures – cumulative shapes and single wavering lines each jostling for prominence above an undertow of shifting planes of pure colour. Critic James Gleeson spoke of Tuckson’s ‘rare and wild energy without parallel in Australian Art’,1 whereas David Thomas described the ‘great freshness’ of these paintings. 2 The undeniable immediacy of expression and bold declamatory force of this painting derives from Tuckson’s vast repertoire of varied marks used to cover the support – stretching all over the picture plane, putting into practice the new American approach to abstract painting in which each area of the composition was given equal importance and attention. This is in contrast to other paintings of this series which divided the canvas into sections of colour in a manner reminiscent of Mark Rothko. Broad swathes of semi-opaque and milky white wash are here overlaid with violent slashes of dripping scarlet paint, placed beside scribbled spirals, planes of cross-hatching and two rows of rare stippled daubs of pure white paint on an expanse of inky black. Unapologetically broken lines wander across the plane, prefiguring the sophisticated minimal gestures of Tuckson’s later works. John Henshaw was quick to note the combined influences of American abstract expressionism and Melanesian tribal graphic design in Tuckson’s works of the early 1960s, stating the red and black works were characterised by an ‘emblematic use of shape, somewhere between [Robert] Motherwell and shield design’. 3 Prominent geometric shapes such as crosses, squares, swirls or letters also helped to distinguish paintings from one another, influencing titles and adding to Tuckson’s symbolic vocabulary, unique in the Australian abstraction of the time. Tuckson is remembered for his clarity of gestural expression, which is yet to be surpassed in the history of Australian Art. 1. Gleeson, J., ‘Creative Violence’, The Sun, Sydney, 18 April 1973, p. 36 2. Thomas, D. et al., Tony Tuckson, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1989, pp. 35 – 36 3. Henshaw, J., ‘Stunning Combinations’, The Australian, Sydney, 6 June 1970
LUCIE REEVES-SMITH
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FRED WILLIAMS (1927 – 1982) HUMMOCK IN LANDSCAPE, 1967 oil on canvas 153.0 x 122.0 cm signed lower centre: Fred Williams ESTIMATE: $1,400,000 – 1,800,000
PROVENANCE Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney James O. Fairfax AC Collection, New South Wales Private collection, New South Wales, acquired from the above prior to 1976 EXHIBITED Fred Williams, Georges Gallery, Melbourne, 25 September – 14 October 1967, cat. 10 (label attached verso) RELATED WORK Hillock, 1965, gouache on ivory Arches paper, 51.7 x 53.8 cm, in the collection of Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Hummock in a Landscape, 1966 – 67, oil on canvas, 91.0 x 81.0 cm, illus. in McCaughey, P., Fred Williams, Bay Books, London, Sydney, 1980, pl. 91, p. 182
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FRED WILLIAMS (1927 – 1982) Hillock, 1965 (from the series Hillside and hummock in the landscape) gouache on ivory Arches paper 51.7 x 53.9 cm Art Gallery of New South Wales Ruth Komon Bequest in memory of Rudy Komon 2004 © Estate of Fred Williams
When Fred Williams returned to Australia in late 1957, it was to foreshadow a decade which we now recognise as representing a profound shift in Australian art. After six years in London, which included study at the Chelsea School of Art,1 his art steadily synthesised into an entirely original expression that reached its height by the late sixties. It was a time in which critical, commercial and institutional respect converged and spoke of Williams’ authority as a significant Australian painter and printmaker. National myth and hero painting had all but run its course. Interest in abstraction was healthy, and some wondered about the future of landscape painting offering anything fresh and important. Williams became its masterful exponent, where the landscape was his wellspring and it would reassure us this genre could create great and enduring art. Williams was an artist with a deep understanding of art history. He was equally curious about younger Australian artists whose interest in new abstraction was creating considerable interest. Their flat Colour field abstraction would be shown in The Field exhibition, part of the opening celebrations for the National Gallery Victoria’s new home on St Kilda Road in 1968. These artists admired Williams’ work and enjoyed his company. 2 When we consider his work from the late sixties this reciprocal interest and respect becomes self-explanatory. In the publication accompanying the National Gallery of Australia’s major exhibition Fred Williams: Infinite Horizons, a chapter is given to his work from the 1960s: Classic Williams. 3
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Early after his return to Australia, Williams painted at places such as Mittagong, New South Wales, Sherbrooke near the Dandenong Ranges, and northern Victoria. In 1962 he and his wife, Lyn, moved to Upwey. The location and surrounding areas were an endless source for work that followed. The motif itself was always the essential and lasting impetus for his art. Painting and sketching en plein air and the isolation of his studio were of corresponding importance. The keenness and adaption of his observation on location and making art within the introspective space of his studio were inseparable in his working method. In Hummock in Landscape, 1967 we find a brilliant aggregate of these two distinctive elements – the landscape observed and a studio confidence, where simple forms and pictorial elements become boldly complete. There is nothing timid or cautiously experimental happening. Its clarity of purpose and surface resolution stand out. It was painted shortly after he won the Wynne Prize with Upwey Landscape V in 1966. Williams’ enthusiasm for working in the landscape never diminished and his use of gouache on Arches paper was a constant feature of his career. Hillside in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney4 is a masterful example of this, and painted around the same time as Hummock in Landscape. We can compare this painting to other Hillside and Hummock works done between 1965 – 67, which Patrick McCaughey describes more fully in his monograph on the artist.5 They are central to all accounts of Australian art history from the sixties.
DAVID MOORE, Fred Williams in his Studio, Melbourne, 1969, silver gelatin photograph, courtesy of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. © Lisa, Michael, Matthew, and Joshua Moore
The disarming simplicity of his steadfast compositions became a recurring feature in the 1960s. An unaccentuated horizon line, a diagonal line or an off-centre arc suggesting a slope or, in the case of this work, a subtly irregular arc beneath a horizontal line towards the top of the picture plane. Many of these works use glazes in ways which arise from understanding his European predecessors. In 1963 he was awarded the Helena Rubinstein Travelling Scholarship and spent seven months in Europe the following year. On a visit to Venice he was drawn to the great Venetian painters’ use of glazes. He made notes from the trip on what he intended to implement.6 This painting contains various features and techniques which marked Williams’ arrival as a great painter: a simple, withheld but grand compositional arrangement, a subtle yet complex surface with painterly inflections suggesting, but seldom descriptive of, characteristics within the landscape. These are thickly applied calligraphic gestures, each with a colour and tonal range of their own. James Gleeson wrote, ‘I think the secret of Williams’ ability to depict monotony without being monotonous lies in the perfection of his placement … each spot or squiggle signifying a tree trunk forms part of a constellation whose pattern seems haphazard but whose placement is ordained by one of the most refined aesthetic sensibilities of our time’.7
When we recognise Williams’ formative interests, his work from the 60s provides something of a mind-map of his boundless curiosity, appreciation of the past and determination not to be its echo. He admired the tonalism of Max Meldrum, the disciplined modernism of George Bell, and in London as a student he met the great American painter Sam Francis (1923 – 1994), whose large, vast, stained and calligraphic-like abstractions he greatly admired. While celebrated in Australia, Williams has enjoyed broader international recognition, especially from New York and London. The reach of the recognition for Williams as a defining artist in the canon of Australian art history now also crosses generations. 1. Chelsea School of Art, est. 1908, Williams attended 1951 – 56 while working as a part- time framer in South Kensington. 2. Robert Jacks (1943 – 2014) accompanied Williams and James Mollison to the You Yangs in 1962. 3. Hart, D., Fred Williams: Infinite Horizons, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2011, pp. 61 – 79 4. Hillock, (undated) gouache on ivory Arches paper, 51.7 x 53.8 cm, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Rudy Komon Bequest, 2004 5. McCaughey, P., Fred Williams, Bay Books, Sydney, 1980, pp. 181 – 183, Hillside and Hummock in the Landscape Series, 1965 – 67 6. Mollison, J., A Singular Vision: The Art of Fred Williams, Australian National Gallery & Oxford University Press, Canberra, 1989, p. 120 7. Gleeson, J., ‘A new look at land without life’, Sunday Herald, Sydney, 23 October 1966; p. 101 DOUG HALL AM
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COLIN McCAHON
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(1919 – 1987, New Zealand) TITIRANGI, 1957 oil on cardboard 55.0 x 75.5 cm signed and dated lower left: McCahon / JULY ’57 inscribed with title upper left: TITIRANGI. ESTIMATE: $100,000 – 150,000
PROVENANCE Rodney Kirk Smith, Auckland, New Zealand Ray Hughes, Sydney, acquired from the above c.1987 Estate of Ray Hughes, Sydney EXHIBITED probably: The Group Show, Durham Street Art Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand, 12 – 27 October 1957 probably: Recent Paintings, Dunedin Public Library, Dunedin, New Zealand, 1 – 18 April 1958 Eight New Zealand Painters III, Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand, October – November 1959, cat. 19 LITERATURE Bloem, M., and Browne, M., Colin McCahon A Question of Faith, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Craig Potton Publishing, 2002, pp. 254 – 255 Simpson, P., Colin McCahon There is Only One Direction 1919 – 1959, Auckland University Press, Auckland, New Zealand, 2019, pp. 324, 325 Colin McCahon Online Catalogue, ref. cm001390 [http:// www.mccahon.co.nz/cm001390] (accessed 10/03/20) Colin McCahon clearly valued Titirangi, 1957 highly since he chose it as one of the five works to represent his career to date (a kind of mini-retrospective) in the exhibition Eight New Zealand Painters III at Auckland City Art Gallery in 1959. It was the most recent work in his selection, the others dating from 1946, 1947, 1950 and 1955. Though provided with a place name as title, it was the most abstract of the works selected and represented his steady move towards abstraction throughout the 1950s. If ‘Titirangi’ is entered into the search engine of the Colin McCahon Online catalogue (www.mccahon.co.nz) around 40 works come up, ranging in date from 1953 through to 1959 – precisely the period in which McCahon and his family lived in the bush suburb of Titirangi on the hilly western outskirts of Auckland City. The bare title Titirangi is shared with five other works, all from the period 1956-57. They are a ‘family’ cluster of works, other connected clusters from the same period being ‘Kauri’, ‘Manukau’ and ‘French Bay’.
Most of the works with ‘Titirangi’ in their titles are studies of the bush environment – predominantly regenerating kauri, a massive ancient coniferous tree, but also including other species such as kahikatea (white pine) and the palm-like nikau – which surrounded the McCahons’ dwelling in French Bay, Titirangi. The bush was a subject of endless fascination for McCahon as a painter, ranging from depictions of individual trees or groups of trees – Kauri Trees, Titirangi, 1955-57 (Private collection) 1 – to generalised studies of the bush as a mass of vegetation – Titirangi, 1956-57 (collection of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tãmaki). 2 These works are arrayed along a spectrum ranging from simple realism at one end to complete abstraction at the other. Broadly speaking, though there are exceptions, as time passed the approach became increasingly abstract, with the present work close to the nonrepresentational end of the scale. Others with a similar degree of abstraction included Red Titirangi, 1957 (Private collection, Auckland) 3, painted in the same month of July 1957. Of these works McCahon commented: ‘In 1957 too, a great change in attitude to the Titirangi landscape … I came to grips with the kauri and turned him in all his splendour into a symbol.’ 4 Titirangi is dominated by a roughly diagonal grid which divides the surface of the picture into large diamond-shaped blocks. Such grids were part of McCahon’s Cubist-inspired efforts to unify a picture while escaping traditional perspective. Running counter to this pattern are concave and convex shapes at upper left and right – which might be read as clouds or the profiles of kauri trees – and a horizontal and vertical form at lower right, constituting a rough square which might be read as a building. Within these broader outlines are numerous small lozenges of colour typical of works of this period – white, pink, ochre, brown, black – and other expressive marks. Painted with great energy and dynamism, the picture references sky, clouds, buildings, a tree line and other such details, however the overall effect is of an abstract painting which relates to the specifics of a particular locality but subsumes these within a fundamentally non-representational impression. 1. Colin McCahon Online database www.mccahon.co.nz cat. cm000407 2. Colin McCahon Online database www.mccahon.co.nz cat. cm001386 3. Colin McCahon Online database www.mccahon.co.nz cat. cm001580 4. McCahon, C., quoted in Colin McCahon: A Survey Exhibition, Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand, 1972, p. 24 PETER SIMPSON
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HOWARD TAYLOR
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(1918 – 2001) KARRI FOREST, 1963 oil on composition board 49.5 x 118.5 cm 65.5 x 134.5 cm (inc. artist’s frame) signed and dated lower right: H. TAYLOR 63 ESTIMATE: $18,000 – 24,000
PROVENANCE Private collection, Perth and South Australia Thence by descent Private collection, Western Australia RELATED WORK Karri Forest, 1963, oil on composition board, 49.7 x 118.5 cm, Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth, illus. in Howard Taylor: Phenomena, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, 2003, p. 86 With a vast, innovative oeuvre spanning five decades, Howard Taylor is widely revered as one of the most significant artists of the late twentieth century to interpret the Australian landscape. Honoured in 2003 with a major retrospective at the Art Gallery of Western Australia and Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, indeed critics have subsequently proclaimed Taylor an ‘old master’ in the same vein as Sidney Nolan and Fred Williams. While firmly rooted within the landscape tradition of Australian art, his work however defies definition, standing resolutely outside any particular ‘school’ or ‘movement’. As Anthony Russell observes, ‘…his vision went far beyond the focus of any painter before him, in that none of them – irrespective of their unquestioned brilliance – ever interrogated and captured the complexity of structure, the ephemeral quality of its light and colour, or the rich and subtle patina of its living forms, as he did.’1 Based in the remote sun-drenched town of Northcliffe, near the karri forests of Albany, Western Australia, Taylor devoted his talent almost exclusively to observing and immortalising the Australian bush. Employing a notebook to record in an empirical manner the barely perceptible nuances of the karri forests that dominated his environs, thus Taylor developed an acute awareness of the continuous cycles of change and renewal within Nature. Interestingly, as the artist’s appreciation of the various discrepancies within the landscape deepened, so too did his discovery of the art of the early Europeans and specifically, the egg tempera technique which he perceived integral in his untiring struggle to capture the transient effects of light and colour. 2
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Executed during the early 1960s – a period witnessing Taylor’s most active engagement in public commissions – Karri Forest, 1963 attests superbly to the artist’s enduring preoccupation with this single unifying motif. Yet unlike his paintings of the previous decade which betray Taylor’s predilection for the metaphysical art of British surrealist Paul Nash, the present reveals more immediately its landscape sources – a painterly effect heightened by his return to the oil technique. Describing the important transitional nature of these works, thus Taylor reflects, ‘I came to a stage, painting in tempera, where I began to think that I had been using an outmoded technique… I did in the end, feel that I ought to oil paint, and at that period of course there was a lot of interest in more gestural painting, more expressive painting. I think for a while I succumbed to that weakness, but then I was able to steer my oil painting to a more organised approach, sort of akin to the tempera painting but working in a freer way…’ 3 Simple in composition, yet irresistibly complex in its tension between figure and ground, literal and abstract, material and conceptual, the work articulates powerful ideas concerning perception, the mechanics of vision, and the relationship of the image to site, viewer and artist. Thus, the work Karri Forest, 1963 encapsulates well the artist’s lifelong quest for an essential unity and order in the apparent unruliness of Nature; as Taylor mused, ‘I’ve been obsessed for a long time by the notion of opposites in nature… I feel a great need to try and understand and explain, to tie the ends together, to get opposites to agree. I’m interested in the different ways that things can be seen and the way an artist can get a lot to happen with a refined and simple structure.’4 1. Russell, A., ‘Tribute: Howard Hamilton Taylor (1918 - 2001)’ in Towards Discovery: Paintings, Maquettes, Drawings, Galerie Dusseldorf, Perth, 2004 2. Dufour, G., ‘Visual Experience and Pictorial Structure’ in Howard Taylor: Phenomena, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, 2003, p. 51 3. Taylor, H. quoted in ibid., p. 46 4. Taylor, H. in an interview with Graham, D., ‘Big timber man’, National Times, New South Wales, 19 May 1979, p. 49 VERONICA ANGELATOS
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EUGENE VON GUÉRARD
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(1811 – 1901) ABENDLANDSCHAFT VON DER INSEL CAPRI, 1846 (EVENING LANDSCAPE FROM THE ISLAND OF CAPRI) oil on canvas 75.0 x 103.5 cm signed and dated lower right: Eug. V. Guerard / Df 1846 ESTIMATE: $150,000 – 200,000
PROVENANCE Emil Vorster, Broich, Germany, 1846 Private collection, Dusseldorf, Germany Christie’s, Melbourne, 22 August 2000, lot 100 (as ‘Capri’) Private collection, Sydney EXHIBITED Annual Exhibition of the Art Association of Rhineland-Westphalen, Düsseldorf, 1846 (as ‘Abendlandschaft von der Insel Capri’) RELATED WORK Capri, pencil on paper, 30.5 x 46.8 cm, inscribed with date and title lower left: Capri d. 2ten Mai 38, Private collection, United Kingdom
The enchanted island of Capri in Italy’s Bay of Naples is as renowned for its beauty as its history. Rugged rocks and the fabled Blue Grotto compete with tales of the pleasure villas of the Roman emperors Augustus and Tiberius. It became a magnet for artists, writers, grand tourists and, more recently, the rich and famous. All its magic is captured in Eugene von Guérard’s Abendlandschaft Von Der Insel Capri, 1846, through the singularity of his vision – striking realism, geological fascination, mood and narrative intertwined. Imbued with nineteenthcentury German Romanticism, its brilliant technique is in service to the sublime in nature. The painting’s story begins when the Vienna-born Eugene travelled to Italy with his father, Bernard. Settling in Naples in 1832, Bernard secured portrait commissions at the Bourbon court of Ferdinand II, King of the Two Sicilies, and in the summer months father and son explored the spectacular region on expeditions recorded in Bernard’s one, and Eugene’s three, surviving Neapolitan sketchbooks. Von Guérard made his first visit to the island in the summer of 1835 when its popularity as a destination for landscape painters was at its peak. Among the nineteenth-century German artists to visit, many inspired by Goethe’s close friend, the Neapolitan court painter, Jakob Phillip Hackert, were August Kopisch, who famously rediscovered the Blue Grotto in 1826, Ernst Fries, Leo von Klenze, Johann Christian Dahl, Franz Catel, Carl Morgenstern – and von Guérard. The drawing
for the present work was inspired by his second, and ‘farewell’, visit to the island, in early May 1838;1 by the 21st of that month he was on his way to Düsseldorf, the home of one of the most dynamic art academies in Europe. Von Guérard’s precise and exquisitely detailed pencil drawing – and his remarkable memory for light and colour – armed him with all the information required to realize his vision on canvas eight years later. Following the dusty road down into the saddle in the middle of the island the township of Capri comes into sight – the dome of the seventeenthcentury church of San Stefano clearly identifiable. Mount Solaro and the spectacular limestone cliffs, behind which the settlement of Anacapri sits, soar above the town. The complex topography of the island, the irregular contour of Mount Solaro, and the subtle planar shifts in the sheer walls of limestone, recorded with such assurance in pencil on paper by the younger artist, are, in the painting, suffused in Mediterranean light and colour. The palette, an orchestration of the terracotta pinks of the earth and architecture, the grey-greens of olive groves and the saturated blues of sea and sky, was so deeply impressed on his memory that it readily came to life in his Düsseldorf atelier. In this dynamic composition, myrtle trees bend and arch to frame the vista of the township; they seem to welcome the villagers making their way homewards in the warmth of the late afternoon sun. Far below, the languid movement of a single sailboat is traced in the intensely blue waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea. And, as in the best of von Guérard paintings, closely observed details sit in perfect equipoise with an expansive breadth of vision. The real hero of this work is light and its transformative power: villas and casas glow as sun’s low rays strike their faces, and solid limestone cliffs, dissolved in Mediterranean light and atmosphere, take on an ethereal and dreamlike quality. The entire canvas is luminous. In 1882, en route from Melbourne to Düsseldorf, von Guérard made one last visit to Capri, this time to share its beauty with his wife Louise and their daughter Victoria. 1. Eugene von Guérard, Capri, pencil, 30.5 x 46.8 cm, inscribed lower right: Capri d. 2ten Mai 38, Private collection, Coates, United Kingdom. RUTH PULLIN AND DAVID THOMAS
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EUGENE VON GUÉRARD (1811 – 1901) ABENDLANDSCHAFT VON DER INSEL CAPRI, 1846
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ISO RAE
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(1860 – 1940) YOUNG GIRL, ÉTAPLES, c.1892 oil on canvas 105.5 x 59.5 cm signed lower right: ISÖ RAE bears stencil verso on stretcher: S75T/ ESTIMATE: $30,000 – 50,000
PROVENANCE Louise Whitford Gallery, London Private collection, acquired 19 December 1980 Woolley & Wallis, Salisbury, United Kingdom, 11 December 2019, lot 68 (as ‘Girl in a Meadow Holding a Flower’) Private collection, Sydney RELATED WORK Portrait of a Young Girl, watercolour on paper, 7.5 cm diameter (tondo), Deutscher and Hackett, Sydney, 10 May 2017, lot 82, Private collection, Queensland Iso (Isobel) Rae studied at the National Gallery School in Melbourne between 1878 – 1887 and was part of the wave of young students who travelled to France in the late 1880s to further their artistic education. Paris had replaced London as the preferred destination for Australian art students, described by Rupert Bunny as ‘the one place in the world to study for the man who wants to do really good work. Nowhere else does he get the atmosphere, the sympathy, which is indispensable to the serious student of painting’.1 By the end of 1887, Rae and fellow students, E. Phillips Fox and John Longstaff – who had been awarded the inaugural National Gallery School travelling scholarship – were resident in the City of Light, part of a dynamic expatriate community that continued well into the first decades of the twentieth century. Writing for The Australasian in 1890, Rae’s sister and travelling companion, Alison, reported: ‘The army of foreign students in Paris is legion. And amongst this great army, gathered together for study, no more earnest workers can be found than our own little group of Australian artists. None can be said to be more united, freer from petty jealousies, more generously helpful towards one another … And whilst it comes as a surprise to other minds that so young a country as ours should show artistic tendencies – we must confess that … from the standpoint of those works that have been exhibited on the walls of the Salons and the Royal Academy, the outlook is, to an astonishing degree, brilliant’. 2
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Rae first visited Étaples, a fishing village in Brittany on the northern coast of France and site of a popular artists’ colony, in the summer of 1892. The picturesque landscape and creative community attracted visitors from all over the world, but there was a particularly strong concentration of Australian artists who lived and worked there from the 1880s onwards. Iso and Alison Rae were among the longest-serving residents, living there permanently from 1892 – 1932. Becoming a fluent French speaker and entrenched in local life, Iso found a rich vein of subject matter for her art, which is reflected in works as diverse as the pastel drawings she made at the nearby YMCA camp for allied soldiers during the First World War (represented in various public collections including the Australian War Memorial and the National Gallery of Australia), to women at a market in Les acheteuses (The Buyers), 1913 (Deutscher and Hackett, November 2017, lot 16), and this charming painting of a toddler wearing a traditional Breton cap. The intimacy of the scene reflects an easy familiarity and the inscription by Alison Rae on a closely related watercolour (Deutscher and Hackett, May 2017, lot 82), a small head study of the same child, notes that it was painted at the sisters’ Étaples home on the Rue des Violiers. The artist clearly delights in her subject, presumably the daughter of a local friend, as the child, in turn, delights in the warmth of the sunshine and the surrounding garden, a freshly-plucked flower in hand. Never before seen at auction in Australia, this painting exemplifies what the New Zealand-born artist, Grace Joel, described as Rae’s ability to ‘[paint] outdoor figure subjects with rare charm and poetry, combined with harmonious colour and vigorous effects’. 3 1. Bunny, R., quoted in Taylor, E., Australian Impressionists in France, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2013, p. 11 2. Rae, A., quoted in ibid., p. 15 3. Joel, G., quoted in Field, I., Letters from Alison and Iso Rae, Ivory Print, Victoria, 2011, p. 9 KIRSTY GRANT
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EMANUEL PHILLIPS FOX
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(1865 – 1915) A SPANISH GARDEN, c.1911 oil on canvas 38.0 x 46.0 cm signed lower left: E.P. Fox bears inscription on old label verso: [indistinct] Sp… garden / E Phillips Fox bears inscription on old label verso: A Spanish Garden / 95 / E/ P… bears inscription on frame verso: E. PHILIPS-FOX [sic] / “GROVE OF TREES” ESTIMATE: $45,000 – 65,000
PROVENANCE Private collection Christie’s, Melbourne, 11 March 1977, lot 49 (as ‘The Garden Path’) Thirty Victoria Street, Sydney (label attached verso, dated as c.1906 – 07) Private collection, California, USA EXHIBITED Catalogue of pictures by the Late E. Phillips Fox, Fine Art Society’s Gallery, Melbourne, 7 – 11 May 1925, cat. 95 Exhibition of Paintings by the Late E. Phillips Fox and Ethel Carrick Fox, Athenaeum Art Gallery, Melbourne, 27 February – 10 March 1934, cat. 31 (as ‘A Garden in Spain’) On loan to Newcastle City Art Gallery, New South Wales, 1979 LITERATURE Zubans, R., E. Phillips Fox: His Life and Art, The Miegunyah Press, Melbourne, 1995, cat. 246, p. 223
Painted in Spain, the subject of Emanuel Phillips Fox’s A Spanish Garden, c.1911 is light, not location. The latter provided the occasion. As Fox wrote from Paris to fellow Australian artist Hans Heysen, ‘Early this year middle of Feb … we went off for a round trip determined to get some settled sunlight ’, adding ‘We had a most enjoyable trip staying 3 or 4 days at each place after leaving Bou Saada and working everywhere’.1 Following their London wedding in 1905, Fox and Ethel Carrick settled in Paris near the Luxembourg Gardens. The titles of their paintings tell of their travels. The spring of 1907 was celebrated in Venice, their poetic memories now treasured in major Australian public and private collections. On to Picardy, Morocco, Algiers, Bou Saada, Tangier, and back through Cadiz, Cordova and other sun-drenched sites that Spain had to offer. All are recorded in sparkling colour and deft strokes of the brush, their subject being light. As the shimmering light of Venice entered Fox’s palette in 1907, so did the startling clarity of North Africa influence his art. As the noted Fox scholar Ruth Zubans observed, ‘For
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Fox the trip served as an artistically broadening experience and an extension of his experiments with light effects’. She continued, ‘The North Africa series, with its high-keyed record of the African sun and the fresh, exceptionally rich paint surfaces is quite distinct in Fox’s oeuvre’. 2 Also in Spain, in Bridge at Cordova, 1911 (private collection) the light is of such intensity that the monumental stone bridge and grand buildings seem almost to melt into the heat haze. Fox wrote, ‘We both did lots of work & I think got some good ones about 18 x 14 size – painted at one go’. 3 While Bridge at Cordova and A Spanish Garden are of that same favoured size, their sunlit atmosphere is distinctly different. The burning heat of one gives way to the gentle enchantment of the other, pervaded by an almost breathless stillness in its moment of quiet beauty. As sunlight uninterrupted shines from clear blue skies, shadows cast themselves across the pathway and flowers add decorative touches of colour. Its stillness invites the same in the viewer. Embracing feeling, Fox is interested in more than just appearances. The use of strong diagonals, for the garden path, is one of Fox’s classic compositional devices. It gives the painting a contained dynamism recalled from earlier Italian subjects with tranquil settings, especially Monastery, San Lazzaro (1907), (Sotheby’s Australia, 16 August 2017, lot 17). And as places changed, so occasionally did the signatures. In North Africa, returning through Spain, the earlier ‘E. Phillips Fox’ was sometimes replaced by ‘E. P. Fox’, as in our painting. Fox’s art is grounded in nature and styled in the French Impressionist methods of plein-air painting. When interviewed in Melbourne before his 1913 exhibition at the Athenaeum, he said, ‘In art everything must start from the springboard of nature. One may treat nature realistically, decoratively, or as a basis for the expression of ideas, but nature must be there.’ 4 Freely painted only a few years before, a little of each is found in A Spanish Garden. 1. Letter to Hans Heysen, 13 September 1911, Hans Heysen Papers, National Library of Australia, MS 5073/1/319A. Quoted in Zubans, R., E. Phillips Fox: His Life and Art, Miegunyah Press, Melbourne, 1995, pp. 181 – 2 2. Zubans, op. cit., pp. 160, 162 3. Fox letter to Heysen, op. cit., p. 182 4. ‘Mr. E. Phillips Fox’, Argus, Melbourne, 21 May 1913, p. 5 DAVID THOMAS
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WALTER WITHERS
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(1854 – 1914) THE HOT ROAD, c.1895 – 97 oil on canvas on board 29.0 x 49.0 cm signed lower right: Walter Withers / M bears inscription verso: Lent by Margery WITHERS, 1962 V.A.S / To go to Mary Roberta Owen / 52 Staughton Rd / Glen Iris / … / signature Margery McCann / ‘nee Withers / September 18 th 1958 bears inscription on old label verso: NTH-EAST HEIDELBERG ROAD / “THE HOT RD” OLD ELTHAM ROAD / NOW NAMED, ROSANNA ROAD / Painted by WALTER WITHERS about / 1895 to 97 whilst resident of CAPE ST / IN THE POSSESSION OF HIS DAUGHTER / MARGERY WITHERS, OF 101 THE BOULEVARD, IVANHOE N21. / Mrs. R. McCANN, ARTIST. U.X.2344 ESTIMATE: $25,000 – 35,000 PROVENANCE Margery McCann née Withers (1894 – 1966), Melbourne, daughter of the artist Thence by descent Mary Roberta Owen OAM (1921 – 2017), Melbourne, her niece Thence by descent Private collection, Victoria EXHIBITED Archives Exhibition, Victorian Artists’ Society, Melbourne, November 1962, cat. 35 (lent by Margery Withers) Annual Collectors Exhibition 2002, Holmes à Court Gallery, Perth, 20 September – 20 October 2002; Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, Melbourne, 1 November – 14 December 2002, cat. 8 (illus.) LITERATURE Mackenzie, A., Walter Withers: The Forgotten Manuscripts, Australian Art Manuscripts Series, Mannagum Press, Melbourne, 1987, p. 52 (illus.) The brush strokes in Walter Withers’ The Hot Road, c.1895 – 97 pulsate with heat. The air is full of it. As a radiant part of the Australian landscape, Withers was not alone in its depiction. Arthur Streeton paid it poetic tribute in ‘The purple noon’s transparent might’, 1896 (National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne). Taking the title from a poem by Shelley, he wrote to Tom Roberts that he painted it ‘during a shade temperature of 108 degrees’.1 Summer atmosphere and dusty roads appealed greatly to the Australian Impressionists. Both were going places. While Roberts showed a preference for the city, as in Allegro Con Brio, Bourke Street West, c.1885 – 86 (National Gallery of Australia, Canberra), Streeton’s was for country tracks before others led him to London. Significantly, Streeton’s The Australian Road, 1896 (private collection, Melbourne) – a road leading to Kurrajong in New South Wales – was also known as The Hot Road. 2 Throughout Withers’ landscapes of storms, farms and beaches, there are many road scenes, often peopled with men carrying their swags, women, carts, horses and cattle, as in A Bright Winter’s Morning, 1894 (National Gallery of Victoria), Early Morning, Heidelberg, 1898 (Art Gallery of South Australia) and The Drover,1912 (Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria).
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Withers was born in Warwickshire, far from the home in Cape Street, Heidelberg, where he and his wife Fanny settled in 1894. The climate was dramatically different. And it was here, many agree, that he painted some of his finest works, from smaller, engaging atmospheric studies, as in our The Hot Road, to the major compositions such as Tranquil Winter, 1895, purchased the same year by the National Gallery of Victoria. His stature as a landscape painter of considerable note was confirmed when, in 1897, he won the first Wynne Prize for the best landscape painting of the year with The Storm, 1896 (Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney). He was awarded the prize again in 1900 with Still Autumn. A description of Withers’ approach to The Coming Storm, 1898 (also titled The Rising Storm) in the Art Gallery of Ballarat, Victoria written by his wife Fanny, gives insight into our painting: ‘… a dramatic painting, executed rapidly during the short interval between the threatening, and the actual visitation of the tempest. It is accounted one of the finest rapid pieces of work, which Walter Withers ever executed. It has the boldness and vigour of a quickly executed sketch with the masterly finish of an accomplished and inspired hand’. 3 The Hot Road and The Coming Storm share an immediacy that comes from the spontaneity of their execution, leading to increased empathy between subject, artist and viewer. In The Hot Road the two walking figures are barely visible, illusions almost dissolved by the heat as the cattle move into the picture and raise the dust. As Fanny observed, it was not a passing interest, ‘Withers was something of a salamander and could sit in the open painting with the thermometer at 110° [F] in the shade’.4 It did not escape his contemporaries’ notice. When, in 1891, Withers exhibited A Hot and Dusty Road, acknowledged as among the best in his solo show, a Melbourne writer observed, ‘That is a thing we in Australia understand. The picture is so realistic that one grows hot and uncomfortable looking at it’. 5 1. Percy Bysshe Shelley, Stanzas Written in Dejection, near Naples. Arthur Streeton to Tom Roberts, Tom Roberts Correspondence, MS A 2480, vol. 1, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales. 2. Smith, G., Arthur Streeton 1867-1943, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1995, p. 118 3. Withers, F., The Life and Art of Walter Withers, Alexander McCubbin, Melbourne, 1920, pp. 22 – 23 4. Mackenzie, 1987, p. 123 5. The Evening Standard, 16 May 1891, quoted in Mackenzie, p. 139 DAVID THOMAS
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HANS HEYSEN
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(1877 – 1968) A SUMMER’S DAY, c.1907 oil on canvas 90.0 x 74.5 cm signed lower left: HANS HEYSEN ESTIMATE: $150,000 – 200,000
PROVENANCE Private collection, Adelaide Thence by descent Private collection, Sydney EXHIBITED Annual Exhibition, South Australian Society of Arts, Adelaide, 13 June - 6 July 1907, cat. 62, (illus. in exhibition catalogue p.6) The 28th Annual Exhibition, Royal Art Society of N.S.W., Sydney, August, 1907 LITERATURE ‘The Society of Arts. Annual Exhibition. An Admirable Collection’, Advertiser, Adelaide, 12 June 1907, p.8 ‘Royal Art Society. The Annual Exhibition’, Evening News, Sydney, 24 August 1907, p.8 ‘Royal Art Society. The 28th Exhibition’, Australian Town and Country Journal, Sydney, 28 August 1907, p.43 ‘Royal Art Society’, The Lone Hand, Sydney, 1 October 1907, pp. 596-7 When exhibited in Sydney in 1908, Hans Heysen’s recently rediscovered oil painting, A Summer’s Day, c.1907 was acclaimed as ‘the landscape of the year’.1 One of the Australian master’s previously unknown major early works, it was painted shortly before his spectacular successes of 1908 and the years following. The highlight of the 28th Annual Exhibition of the Royal Art Society of New South Wales, A Summer’s Day was lauded in The Lone Hand by illustration and by word:
‘Mr. Hans Heysen, who sends many beautiful things from Adelaide, has a strong vein of natural poetry. He sees nature beatifically, and the commonest things take on a charm rendered through the eye of his vision… Mr. Heysen has painted the landscape of the year in his “Summer’s Day.” Cast against the light, the big blue-gums rise transparently against the smoky day, enveloped in a haze of heat suffocating and still. In their shadows doze the plough horses, the white one catching a sickly gleam of light. Blinded by the haze, the range fades palpably away; the poor earth seems athirst for rain or the coolness of night, tortured by the cruel glory of the sun. And all this is conveyed by the sheer truth of the painter’s vision, by his careful observation, without agitation, without dramatic accessory.’ 2 Previously, when A Summer’s Day was exhibited in Adelaide in the annual exhibition of the South Australian Society of Arts in 1907, it was received with like acclaim. Handsomely illustrated full page in the catalogue, it also featured in The Adelaide Chronicle. 3 Adopting a favourite Heysen theme of the well-earned rest after a day’s hard toil, A Summer’s Day provides an early, engaging example of man and beast resting in the shade of noble gums, here in the company of horses, later with cattle or sheep. Companion variations are found in A Lord of the Bush, 1908, bought that year from Heysen’s first Melbourne solo exhibition by the National Gallery of Victoria; and The Three Gums, 1914-21, which slipped through the hands of the same state gallery into the welcoming arms of the Art Gallery of Ballarat. In 1909, the watercolour Summer, in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, was awarded the Wynne Prize for the most outstanding landscape painting of the year. A Summer’s Day enjoys this prestigious company, described by an admiring contemporary as ‘the most beautiful Australian landscape [Heysen] has painted, and the most typical.’4 1. ‘Royal Art Society’, The Lone Hand, Sydney, 1 October 1907, p.596. 2. Ibid, pp.596-7. 3. ‘South Australian Society of Artists: Some of the Pictures,’ Adelaide Chronicle, 29 June 1907, p.30. 4. Australian Town and Country Journal, Sydney, 28 August 1907, p.43. DAVID THOMAS
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TOM ROBERTS
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(1856 – 1931) DANDENONGS LANDSCAPE, 1925 oil on composition board 35.0 x 45.5 cm signed and dated lower left: Tom Roberts ’25 bears inscription verso on old label verso: THIS PICTURE IS THE PROPERTY OF R.W. ROBERTS / N.J. Roberts ESTIMATE: $140,000 – 180,000
PROVENANCE Caleb Grafton Roberts, Melbourne, the artist’s son Thence by descent, Norah Joan Roberts, Melbourne, Thence by descent, Richard William Roberts, Melbourne Private collection, Melbourne Joseph Brown Gallery, Melbourne, 1977 Private collection, New South Wales Private collection, Sydney EXHIBITED Winter Exhibition 1977: Recent Acquisitions, Joseph Brown Gallery, Melbourne, 4 – 14 July 1977, cat. 33 (illus., as ‘Australian Landscape, 1923’) LITERATURE Topliss, H., Tom Roberts: A Catalogue Raisonné, vol. I, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1985, pl. 221, cat. 563 (illus. as ‘Untitled. Dandenongs Landscape, 1923’) As the golden summers of Australian Impressionism gave way to bronzed autumns, Tom Roberts and Arthur Streeton moved their focus from Heidelberg to the Dandenong Ranges, outside Melbourne. After diversions abroad, the neighbouring hills and valleys became their ‘Australia Felix’. Streeton acquired land at Olinda in 1921, then lived there. From years in England, Roberts returned to Australia in 1923, he and his wife Lillie settling at Kallista. They named their place ‘Talisman’ after their son Caleb’s house in Essex. Here Roberts painted a number of lyrical landscapes, among the finest being The South Wind, 1924, in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra and Sherbrooke Forest, 1924, in Sydney’s Art Gallery of New South Wales. Compositional accents are strong, the tall, slender gums, verticals of The South Wind, reaching a crescendo in Sherbrooke Forest, offset by the flow of hill lines in one, rising curves in the other. Continuing in the lyrically atmospheric Dandenong Landscape, 1923, Roberts painted
the moment with the afternoon sun at his back, shadows beginning to lengthen. Luminous, elevated through the grandeur of the panorama, stillness and balance disrupted only by the strong diagonal, corrected in the accent of gums, they are touched with gold as they stand sentinel over beauty. When Roberts exhibited a number of recent works at The Fine Art Society’s Gallery in September 1924, their ‘poetry’ won the applause of the reviewer for The Age, ‘peace and plenty’ for The Argus.1 For Sydney and his 1926 exhibition, it was his ‘sense of atmosphere’ that attracted attention. 2 Recollection shared with renewal, Roberts’ response to the landscape is so richly tangible it gives this and other later works a special quality. Observed and admired by his fellow artist Jessie Traill (1881 – 1967), she wrote: ‘he made a lovely place in a lovely setting … There in the quiet of the years that followed he painted, thought-out gentle landscapes – they seemed removed from hurry; they had a joy and love in them, gained after years of seeking – our own bush interpreted by one who loved it so’. 3 As conservationists, Roberts and Streeton took a particular interest in the environment. They celebrated the gum tree, the mighty forest giants. In 1921 Streeton had written to Roberts describing enthusiastically the scene at Olinda where he was later to live: ‘10 fine Blackwoods, most beautiful trees (and the blossom, as you know, a soft yellow, like pale butter)’.4 Roberts’ 1924 exhibition included a work he titled ‘Joy o’ Gums’. The drama of their destruction is felt in Streeton’s Last of the Messmates, 1928, in a private collection. Living and dead gums are contrasted across the very picture plane of Roberts’ The South Wind. For Dandenong Landscape, a fallen gum to the right precipitously echoes the shadows of other trees and diagonal of the hill, warning of the slide into environmental destruction. A gentle grandeur prevails. 1. The Age, Melbourne, 17 September 1924, p. 16 and The Argus, Melbourne, 17 September 1924, p. 16 2. Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, 14 June 1926, p. 16 3. Traill, quoted in Gray, A., Tom Roberts, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2015, p. 300 4. Letter to Roberts, 13 August 1921, Croll, R. H. (ed.), Smike to Bulldog: Letters from Sir Arthur Streeton to Tom Roberts, Ure Smith Pty Limited, Sydney, 1946, p. 105 DAVID THOMAS
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ALBERT NAMATJIRA
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(1902 – 1959) RIVER GUM NEAR BITTER SPRINGS GORGE watercolour on paper 33.5 x 38.5 cm image 36.5 x 41.0 cm sheet signed lower right: ALBERT NAMATJIRA signed verso: Albert Namatjira bears inscription with title verso: 45 Gns / River Gum Near Bitter Springs Gorge / Arltunga, NT ESTIMATE: $25,000 – 35,000 PROVENANCE Ranald Chandler AM, Queensland Private collection, Sydney, acquired from the above in 1989 ‘… Many years ago an Aboriginal man from central Australia, Albert Namatjira, became very famous as a painter. Using Western watercolour techniques he painted many landscapes. But what nonaboriginal people didn’t understand, or chose not to understand, was that he was painting his country, the land of the Arrernte people. He was demonstrating to the rest of the world the living title held by his people to the lands they had been on for thousands of years’.1 Although an accomplished craftsman producing poker work-decorated woomeras, boomerangs and wooden plaques, it was not until viewing an exhibition of watercolours by Victorian artists Rex Battarbee and John Gardner at the Hermannsburg Mission in 1934, that Albert Namatjira truly embarked upon painting as a profession. Immediately captivated by the medium, he pleaded to be taught watercolour techniques and eventually Battarbee agreed to Namatjira accompanying him on two month-long expeditions in 1936 through the Palm Valley and MacDonnell Range areas. Thus began the cultural exchange that was to be an important aspect of their enduring relationship: Battarbee instructed Namatjira about the technique of watercolour painting, and in turn, Namatjira imparted his sacred knowledge about the subjects they were to paint – namely, the land of the Western Aranda (Arrernte) people, his ‘Dreaming’ place. Indeed, so impressive was Namatjira’s skill that Battarbee noted after only a brief period, ‘I felt he had done so well that he had no more to learn from me about colour’. 2 Success and recognition soon followed and Namatjira was launched onto the international stage as a cultural ‘icon’, widely acclaimed and admired for his innovative, vibrantly coloured desert landscapes that encouraged
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‘new ways of seeing the Centre.’ Today Namatjira’s iconic watercolours have become synonymous with our vision of the Australian outback and indeed, he is universally heralded as the pioneer of contemporary Indigenous art in Australia – a legacy honoured in more recent years by the publication of three biographies, and the organisation of three major exhibitions by public galleries (including a retrospective at the National Gallery of Australia to celebrate the centenary of his birth in 2002). Like many of Namatjira’s finest works, River Gum near Bitter Springs Gorge, evokes the artist’s distinctive compositional type with his much-loved, luminous white ghost gum dominating the foreground, silhouetted against a dramatic, brilliantly coloured backdrop of distant mountain ranges. Balanced on the left side of the composition and reaching beyond the depicted scene, the majestic gum plays a pivotal role not only as a framing device but also as a point of entry into the picture plane. More fundamentally perhaps, the signature cropped tree motif creates a tangible sense of being present in the landscape, of participating alongside the artist in seeing and identifying with the land – thus imbuing the work with an unmistakable intimacy, notwithstanding the panoramic view and monolithic forms. For while immortalising an ostensibly Western-style topographical view of the Central Australian landscape in all its myriad moods and rich textures, such depictions ultimately resonated with important personal symbolism for Namatjira as statements of belonging – coded expressions embodying the memory and sacred knowledge of a traditional ancestral site, his ‘dreaming’ or totem place. 1. Galarrwuy Yunupingu quoted in ‘The black/white conflict’ in Caruana, W. (ed.), Windows on the Dreaming, Australian National Gallery, Canberra and Ellsyd Press, Sydney, 1989, p. 14 2. Morphy, H., Aboriginal Art, Phaidon Press, London, 1998, p. 268 VERONICA ANGELATOS
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CLARICE BECKETT
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(1887 – 1935) ANGLESEA, 1929 oil on pulpboard 24.5 x 34.5 cm ESTIMATE: $25,000 – 35,000
PROVENANCE Rosalind Humphries Galleries, Melbourne (label attached verso) Private collection, Melbourne, acquired from the above in 1971 Thence by descent Private collection, Melbourne EXHIBITED probably: Clarice Beckett, Athenaeum Gallery, Melbourne, 17 – 25 October 1930 RELATED WORK Wet sand, Anglesea (Sunrise, Anglesea), 1929, oil on board, 28.0 x 38.0 cm, Private collection, Melbourne White Road, Anglesea, oil on board, 32.5 x 39.0 cm, Deutscher and Hackett, Sydney, 1 September 2010, lot 120 Clarice Beckett’s paintings are a record of her life, her wanderings, her friends and above all, of her singular painterly vision. In 1917, following two years of study at Melbourne’s National Gallery School under Frederick McCubbin, she attended a public lecture by Max Meldrum at the Athenaeum Theatre, where he expounded his personally devised theory of ‘optical science’ for painting, known now as ‘tonalism’. Impressed by what she heard, Beckett enrolled in his class. After a year, she went out on her own but Meldrum had been equally impressed, naming her as his best student ever more. Restricted in her social activities by a domestic life spent looking after her increasingly frail parents, Beckett’s interactions with her fellow ‘Meldrumites’ were rare. However, she was able to attend occasional painting retreats with them, and Anglesea, 1929, is a charming record of their first such trip, to this Victorian coastal town at the start of the Great Ocean Road.
colour or academic drawing. It attracted criticism not only from the prevailing conservative, male critics of the day, but also the country’s fledgling modernists. As a woman, Beckett was doubly crticised. Her story has become something of a legend within Australian art history and whilst it is true that her last years were sad, this aspect obscures the positive elements of her life: her tenacity, her self-belief, her multiple solo exhibitions (twelve between 1923 and 1933!), and her participation in numerous group shows as well. What is tragic is that so many of her paintings were ruined through poor storage following her death. Those that did survive, such as Anglesea, are therefore much treasured. An uncharacteristically sun-drenched work, this scene depicts Beckett’s companions on the foreshore in front of what is now the Anglesea Caravan Park. A land of rich resources for the Wathaurong people, the area had been popular with campers from Geelong since the 1860s. Like all of Beckett’s outdoor images, it was painted in one plein air session, capturing her friends on a perfect summer’s day without a cloud in the sky, and only a single distant yacht sharing the experience. Beckett has utilised broad, simplified bands of colour – caramel and blue highlighted by white – with the only pronounced brush stokes representing the waves rolling to the shore and the casual poses of the figures. Anglesea, is also an environmental record of the time for the foreshore has been much changed by ninety years of storms and erosion. The beach remains but the ochre-coloured limestone cliffs have crumbled leaving the shore strewn with large boulders. Beckett included a group of Anglesea paintings in her solo exhibition at the Athenaeum Gallery in October 1930. The reviewer for the Bulletin was one who recognised their quality stating emphatically that she was now, in his opinion, ‘the most original painter in Australia.’1 1. ‘The Palette’, Bulletin, 29 October 1930, p. 33
‘Tonalism’ was a controversial movement that rejected most contemporary modernist theories to concentrate solely on tone and form to create an image, rather than through the utilisation of pure
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ANDREW GAYNOR
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NORA HEYSEN
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(1911 – 2003) FLORAL STILL LIFE, 1932 oil on canvas 51.0 x 41.0 cm signed and dated lower right: NORA HEYSEN 1932 ESTIMATE: $18,000 – 24,000
PROVENANCE Uppsala Auktionskammare, Sweden, 12 December 2019, lot 964 Private collection, Germany
1989; and the National Library of Australia, Canberra in 2000. More recently, Melbourne’s National Gallery of Victoria presented the major retrospective exhibition, Hans and Nora Heysen: Two Generations of Australian Art during 2019.
Nora Heysen is an Australian artist of remarkable achievement. First, she had to make a name for herself independent of her famous father Hans Heysen (1877 – 1968). Secondly, she had to battle against times when women were not given recognition in the art world as they are today. Nora’s rise was spectacular. By the age of twenty she was already represented in three State Galleries – the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Art Gallery of South Australia and the Queensland Art Gallery. And her still-life paintings were to the fore. The Sydney gallery purchased Petunias, 1930 the same year it was painted. In 1931 the Queensland Art Gallery acquired A Mixed Bunch, also painted in 1930. In 1933, at the age of twenty-two, she held her first solo exhibition at the Royal South Australian Society of Arts Galleries, Adelaide, showing thirty still lifes, twelve portraits and a number of drawings. It was the year after Floral Still Life, 1932 was painted, the show’s outstanding success helping to finance her studies in London during the years to follow. That same year of 1933 the Royal South Australian Society of Arts awarded Heysen its Melrose Prize for Portraiture for Ruth. A success topped by its purchase the next year by the Art Gallery of South Australia.
Paintings of the 1930s are especially significant among all of those above – portraits awarded prizes and the still-life paintings acquired by State Galleries – much admired for their outstanding qualities. Such recognition has continued over the years. In the twenties, Eggs, 1927 became part of the Howard Hinton Collection of the New England Regional Art Museum, Armidale, a gift of Howard Hinton in 1933. Of more recent times the Art Gallery of South Australia was enriched by three still-life paintings from the early 1930s – Fruit in a Yellow Bowl, 1930; Spring Flowers from the Bush, 1931; and Still Life – Cabbage, 1933, all through the Elizabeth and Tom Hunter Bequest in 2009.
In 1938 Heysen became the first woman to win the Archibald Prize with her portrait of Madame Elink Schuurman, significantly a female subject. Another first came in mid-1943 when she was appointed an Australian war artist, coming into conflict with officialdom over being restricted to painting ‘women of the services’. Later she was honoured with retrospective exhibitions at South Australia’s Old Clarendon Gallery, in 1984; the National Trust’s S. H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney in
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Nora Heysen’s focus on still life flower pieces and portraits was a quite conscious choice, as Colin Thiele, Hans Heysen’s biographer points out, ‘to avoid working in the same field as her father’.1 Nevertheless, she acknowledged her father and that of the seventeenth-century Dutch master Jan Vermeer as her greatest influences in those years. This is quietly apparent in her handling of light, form and colour in Floral Still Life. Based on solid academic representation and delighting in the stillness of the moment, the blue cornflowers play a dominant role by numbers among the pink Rugosa roses, yellow Welsh poppies and white daisies, symbols of purity and innocence. The blue cornflowers should not be wondered at – as a national symbol of Germany they reflect the Heysen background. Australian eucalyptus is likewise present. 1. Thiele, C., Heysen of Hanhdorf, David Heysen Productions, revised edition, Adelaide, 2001, p. 245 DAVID THOMAS
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ROY DE MAISTRE
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(1894 – 1968) STUDY FOR A PAINTED PICTURE OF THE UNIVERSE, 1920 oil on cardboard 19.0 x 25.5 cm signed and dated lower right: R. de Maistre / 1920 ESTIMATE: $25,000 – 35,000
PROVENANCE Sir John Rothenstein, London, acquired directly from the artist Thence by descent Lucy Dynevor, London Sotheby’s, London, 26 February 2003, lot 86 (as ‘Landscape with Church Spire’) Private collection, Melbourne Deutscher~Menzies, Melbourne, 8 September 2004, lot 54 (as ‘Landscape with Church Spire, Sydney’) Private collection, Melbourne EXHIBITED possibly: Society of Artists Spring Exhibition, Education Department’s Art Gallery, Sydney, open 18 September 1920, cat. 72 (as ‘Landscape’) RELATED WORK A Painted Picture of the Universe, 1920 – 34, oil on board, 50.7 x 40.6 cm, in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
In August 1919, Roy de Maistre mounted the provocative Colour in Art exhibition in Sydney with his artist-colleague Roland Wakelin. Alongside high-coloured, flat-planed images of the Harbour and environs, the two artists exhibited the first non-objective abstractions ever painted in Australia. Only one of these is known to survive, Rhythmic Composition in Yellow Green Minor, 1919 (Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney), a swirling arrangement that seeks to illustrate the artist’s quest for a universal spirituality revealed through art. The next year, de Maistre began another significant work in this series, A Painted Picture of the Universe, 1920 – 34, (National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne) in which he expands on an earlier landscape view to create a mesmerising image of the interlinked celestial forces that he interpreted as underpinning the natural world. That original landscape is the work offered here, Study for A Painted Picture of the Universe, 1920.
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In this image, de Maistre has already reduced the scene into one of flattened planes, triangular forms and curves. It is suggestive of a semi-rural landscape with undulating hills and the possible curve of a lake apparent in the mid section. A sequence of four houses runs horizontally with three accented by chimneys. To the left, another hill rises steeply with two majestic trees reduced to their barest form as triangles; and the multiple arcs formed by the clouds and sun surmount all. The two large trees have previously been mis-interpreted as church spires, which is understandable considering the spiritual quest evoked by A Painted Picture of the Universe. The colours used by de Maistre are more muted when compared to those from the ‘Colour in Art’ period, but his total control of colour harmonies (which he equated to musical scales) is evident, running from soft violet and blue through to a rich citric green, punctuated by warm terracotta: ‘they are beautiful patterns and they ‘carry’.’1 The artist often worked serially through multiple versions of the same motif, synthesising and clarifying his original design as he proceeded. Comparisons between this study and the final abstraction make this strategy abundantly clear. Originally christened Roi de Mestre, the artist changed the spelling to ‘de Maistre’ from mid-1931; and Study for A Painted Picture of the Universe is signed using this later form (as is the larger abstraction). This indicates that he took both works with him when he relocated permanently to London after March 1930. De Maistre subsequently gifted this painting (when it is presumed he actually signed and dated it) to the noted British curator Sir John Rothenstein, the Director of the Tate Gallery from 1938 to 1964. Their friendship possibly started as early as 1923 when de Maistre first visited London bearing a letter of introduction to his father, the society artist Sir William Rothenstein. In 1960, Sir John wrote the catalogue essay for the de Maistre’s major retrospective held at the renowned Whitechapel Art Gallery in London; and Study for A Painted Picture of the Universe is an enduring symbol of their mutual admiration. 1. ‘Pictures set to music’, Daily Telegraph, Sydney, 9 August 1919, p. 8 ANDREW GAYNOR
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ROY DE MAISTRE
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(1894 – 1968) CHRIST FALLS FOR THE FIRST TIME, c.1948 – 49 oil on canvas 109.0 x 84.0 cm signed and dated lower left: R de Maistre. inscribed verso: LEROY de MAISTRE / 13 ECCLESTON ST. / LONDON S.W.I / ENGLAND label attached to stretcher verso: James Bourlet & Sons, Ltd London copy of original purchase receipt attached verso ESTIMATE: $30,000 – 40,000 PROVENANCE Michael Ailion, United States of America, acquired directly from the artist in 1967 The Estate of Michael Ailion, United States of America EXHIBITED possibly: Roy de Maistre and Arthur Pollen, Ashely Gallery, London, 1950 possibly: Contemporary British Painting, Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach, Florida, 6 – 29 January 1956 possibly: The 198th Summer Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts MCMLXVIII, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 7 May – 14 August 1966, cat. 699 (as ‘Christ falls under the Cross’, undated) RELATED WORK Christ Falls the First Time, c.1947, 41.4 x 31.1 cm, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, United Kingdom Third Cross of the Station, 1948, 78.0 x 60.0 cm, Arts Council Collection, London (on long term-loan to The University of York, England, until 2007) Study for Stations of the Cross, First Fall, undated, oil on board, 78.7 x 61.0 cm, private collection, illus. in Johnson, H., Roy de Maistre: The Australian Years 18941930, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1988, pl. 51, p. 110
Religion played an important role in Roy de Maistre’s life from an early age. However, it was following his relocation to London in 1930 that he really started concentrating on the subject artistically to the extent that by the 1950s, he was recognised more for his religious paintings than for any others. The technical success of these works varies greatly but Christ Falls for the First Time, c.1948 – 49, is most surely one of the masterworks among them. It features his decorative, highly personalised form of Cubism through which he evokes an emotional impact that is hard to ignore. De Maistre was born into a family of practicing Anglicans and, like many of his generation, was deeply affected by the atrocities of World War One, developing a keen interest in spiritualism. In discussing his work during the 1920s, he would occasionally invoke biblical references, paraphrasing, for example, 2 Corinthians 4:18 with the observation that ‘the things seen which are temporal (reveal) the things seen which are eternal’.1 In middle age, he became increasingly drawn to Catholicism
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with its ‘grandeur of a solemn religious ceremony’, believing that ‘religion isn’t primarily concerned with understanding but with a kind of total appreciation that … deeply involves one’s aesthetic sensibilities’. 2 A key aspect of this quest was that de Maistre sought to express the individual spirit inherent in his subjects be they portraits, landscapes or in this case, biblical subjects. Early works in this vein include a ‘naturalistic’ image of the Archangel Gabriel handing Mary white lilies, set against a background of St Jean De Luz, France (Angel of Peace, c.1930 – 31, formerly John Fairfax Collection); and the first of his abstracted renditions on the Passion of Christ, Crucifixion, 1932 – 45 (Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney). De Maistre often discussed the work of Picasso with his protégé Francis Bacon, but his own distinctive technique follows the cooler, more formalist approach of Juan Gris and Jean Metzinger. In Christ Falls for the First Time, the subject is almost buried within a tumult of shapes, facets and texture. The design is anchored by a blocky ‘z-shape’ at its centre that is, in turn, pierced by the diagonal of the cross bar which the fallen figure grasps with one hand as he balances with the other. To the right is the suggestion of a feathered wing, whose brushed markings are picked up elsewhere, a visual staccato running through the rest of the composition. A series of half-circles acts as a counterpoint to the otherwise sharp lines, all of which contain a full spectrum of colour. De Maistre enjoyed working in series doing multiple versions of individual images as he explored different compositional strategies, with the largest example being the most resolved. The Arts Council of Britain owns a smaller, less developed version of this lot, titled Third Station of the Cross, First Fall, 1948; and at his Retrospective in 1960 at the Whitechapel Gallery, London, de Maistre exhibited four works with this title (all dated 1947) which he descibed in the catalogue as being ‘stages of development of work in progress’. 3 In 1954, de Maistre was given the important commission to paint fourteen Stations of the Cross for the (non-public) Long Corridor of Westminster Abbey. Given the almost literal depiction of the Stations evident in the few published reproductions from this little-seen sequence, Christ Falls for the First Time, is instead a significant example of the artist’s more idiosyncratic and personal response to the subject. 1. Roy de Mestre, ‘Modern Art and the Australian Outlook’, Art in Australia, 3rd series, no. 14, December 1925 2. David Konstant, Bishop of Leeds, 1988. Cited in Johnson, H, ‘The Modernist Religious Painting of Roy de Maistre 1930-1960’, in Michael Griffith, James Tulip (eds). Religion, Literature and the Arts Project: Conference Proceedings of the Australian International Conference 1995, Australian Catholic University, Sydney, 1995, p. 203. De Maistre was baptised into the Catholic faith in 1947, then confirmed in 1951. 3. Roy de Maistre: A Retrospective Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings 1917-1960, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, May – June 1960, cats. 75 – 78, as ‘Christ falls for the first time.’ Each was 78.5 x 61 cm. ANDREW GAYNOR
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FRED WILLIAMS
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(1927 – 1982) ACACIAS, ARTHURS CREEK, 1977 oil on canvas 96.0 x 106.5 cm signed lower right: Fred Williams signed, dated and inscribed with title on artist’s label verso bears inscription on stretcher bar verso: 2 ESTIMATE: $250,000 – 300,000
PROVENANCE Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney Private collection, New South Wales, acquired from the above in 1977 Thence by descent Private collection, New South Wales, acquired from the above in 2004
Acacias, Arthurs Creek, 1977 is a very singular work in Fred Williams’ oeuvre. Rich in all the best we associate with his art, here it is raised to new heights through the interaction of the great landscape traditions of the West and the East as they inspire each other. Williams travelled to China in mid-1976, sketching, viewing, absorbing. Visiting the Imperial Palace, Beijing on 2 June, he noted, ‘a great landscape painting … 300 years old – one of the best landscapes I have ever seen’.1 Williams was impressed by ‘the extraordinary aura that seems to emanate everywhere from a land so suffused with history’. 2 Across the scroll-like unrolling of our landscape, seen both in plan and profile, the creek stretches almost from the top to the very bottom of the canvas itself, embracing vestiges of the serpentine rivers recorded in Williams’ China Sketchbook, 1976 (private collection). Now creeks, they plummet waterfall-like in their vertical drop. As Deborah Hart has observed, ’Williams saw that despite the many differences, there were some parallels between Australia and China’. 3 She cites the enormous size of both countries and dominance of their landscapes, adding, ‘In both places this implies a meditative spaciousness in which the human hustle and bustle is made relative’.4
Williams began painting the golden wattle that first enthralled him in the mid-winter of 1969. Returning to the subject later, he wrote in his diary for 24 July 1974: ‘It was a superb spot and a delight to paint the Wattles in their natural surrounds’. 5 Working from his rainbow palette of the time, in Acacias, Arthurs Creek, 1977, Williams provides us with a banquet of paint and colour. Washes are overladen with an abundance of colours and textures – succulent greens, mauves, pinks, browns and most of all, yellows. All herald the golden wattle and nature’s promise of the glory that is spring. Veils and swirls of paint translate into landscape forms or expanses, fields undulate or float, and flats romance verticals as dark-lined tree trunks extend the upward–downward compositional pull – the climbing scene allows both visual ascent and descent. A spill or run of pigment becomes a creek. And all is bathed in an atmosphere both luminous and aqueous as realism and abstraction dwell in harmony. 1. Hart, D., Fred Williams: Infinite Horizons, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2011, p. 151 2. ibid. 3. ibid, p. 154
The small country town of Arthurs Creek is a short distance northeast of Melbourne, not far from where fellow-artist Clifton Pugh lived at ‘Dunmoochin’, Cottles Bridge. It was at Pugh’s place in 1969 where
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4. ibid, p. 154 5. The artist quoted in Mollison, J., A Singular Vision: The Art of Fred Williams, exhibition catalogue, Australian National Gallery, Canberra, 1989, p. 175 DAVID THOMAS
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BRETT WHITELEY
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(1939 – 1992) THE FISH RIVER, 1979 synthetic polymer paint, gouache and ink on paper on paper 23.5 x 13.5 cm (sight) inscribed with title and dated lower right: the fish river / July 19/79 stamped lower right with artist’s monogram bears inscription verso: Abell / Steinhoff NOV 80 ESTIMATE: $30,000 – 50,000
PROVENANCE Private collection, United States of America, acquired directly from the artist Private collection, United States of America Menzies, Melbourne, 21 September 2016, lot 13 Private collection, Sydney LITERATURE Sutherland, K., Brett Whiteley: Catalogue Raisonné, Schwartz Publishing, Melbourne, 2020, cat.129.79, vol. 3, p. 608 (illus.)
This luminous and intimate winter landscape quickly recorded in ink and gouache neatly expresses the lyrical spirituality with which Brett Whiteley appreciated the rural environs in which he sought refuge. The late 1970s were decidedly tumultuous years in the lives of Brett and Wendy Whiteley, peppered with astounding highs such as the artist’s winning of both the Wynne and Sulman prizes in 1977, and then of all three, the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman, in 1979, counterbalanced by periods of extreme dependence on narcotics and restorative sojourns in the countryside. During these trips to the countryside, Whiteley created many artworks following contours of the plains, hills and valleys west of the Great Dividing Range, in particular the lands around the towns of Oberon and Carcoar in New South Wales’ central tablelands. The mesmerising forms of a sinuous riverbed fed into many of these masterful pastoral paintings of the late 1970s, including Summer at Carcoar, 1977 in the collection of the Newcastle Art Gallery, as well as in Paddock – Early Morning, Paddock- Late Afternoon and Blue Green Paddock, all painted in the winter of 1979 in Oberon, New South Wales. The Whiteleys had some influential friends in Sydney who owned holiday homes in this area, notably the radio host, John Laws, on whose property ran a perennial stream prized for rainbow trout, prosaically called Fish River. It was here, in the winter of 1979, where Brett and Wendy stayed for two months, along with the actor Jennifer Claire and her boyfriend.1 Returning to this region familiar from his childhood stirred feelings
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of tenderness in the artist, which in turn imbued certain pastoral compositions with a hint of magical realism and whimsical naiveté, aesthetically removed from his brash meditations on city living and addiction. Ashleigh Wilson explains the artist’s regular visits in his 2016 biography: ‘Trips out of Sydney were treasured escapes with Wendy, or alone, Brett liked to spend several days in the quiet, sketching, painting and drinking. Sometimes the trips were for him to get clean, he called them ‘geographicals’, intense days of detoxification – but often they served as a relief from Sydney’. 2 Whiteley was transfixed by the countryside around Fish River, in particular the granite boulders and willows which lined the riverbanks. He wrote of these all-consuming feelings in a letter to his mother, who was living in the UK: ‘The landscape really is the most beautiful I’ve seen in Australia … Fish River winds its way through the middle, but the most dramatic features are the intermittent strewn granite boulders … that give the dramatic feeling of a Zen garden’. 3 He goes on to explain that the rapid changing of the light, in these shortest days of the year, forced him to make quick sketches on paper. ‘The poetry in a painting has really got more to do with invention and how much you remember from going for a walk than it does from setting the canvas up in the paddock’, he wrote. This little gouache is one such visual poem, an intimate and sweet capturing of pale winter light upon the vividly coloured pastures and flora, loose and keenly felt. Acquired directly from the artist, this work on paper is closely related to dozens of gouaches, drawings and oil sketches of this same paddock in Oberon, exhibited to high acclaim at Robin Gibson gallery in 1980, all fluid depictions of the three sentinel hills, winding river, burgeoning springtime weeping willows and playful native wildlife. 1. Wilson, A., Brett Whiteley: Art, Life and the Other Thing, Text Publishing, Melbourne, 2016, p. 282 2. Wilson, A., op. cit., p. 258 3. Unposted letter to the artist’s mother, 5 February 1980, held in the Brett Whiteley Studio, Sydney. LUCIE REEVES-SMITH
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BRETT WHITELEY
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(1939 – 1992) SELF PORTRAIT AFTER A HAIRCUT AT 36, 1976 pen and ink and hair on paper 100.0 x 75.0 cm signed and inscribed with title lower right: brett whiteley / self-portrait after haircut at 36 ESTIMATE: $20,000 – 30,000
PROVENANCE Australian Galleries, Melbourne Private collection, Melbourne, acquired from the above in 1994 Thence by descent Private collection, Sydney EXHIBITED Brett Whiteley, Australian Galleries, Melbourne, 21 September – 5 October 1976, cat. 22 (illus. in exhibition catalogue) Brett Whiteley: Art & Life, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney 16 September – 19 November 1995; Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin, 13 December 1995 – 28 January 1996; Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, 22 February – 8 April 1996; Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 9 May – 16 June 1996; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2 July – 26 August 1996; Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, 18 September – 17 November 1996 LITERATURE McGrath, S., Brett Whiteley, Bay Books, Sydney, 1979, cat. 84, pp. 103 (illus.), 226 (illus., as ‘Self Portait with Real Hair’) Pearce, B., Brett Whiteley: Art & Life, Thames and Hudson in association with the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1995, pl. 118 (illus.), p. 233 Sutherland, K., Brett Whiteley: Catalogue Raisonné: 1955-1992, Schwartz Publishing, Melbourne, 2019, vol. 7, cat. 1.76, p. 349 RELATED WORK Self Portrait in the Studio 1976, oil, collage and hair on canvas, 200.5 x 259.0 cm, in the collection of Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (winner of the Archibald Prize in 1976), illus. in McGrath, s., Brett Whiteley, Bay Books Sydney, 1979, pp. 204 – 205
After returning to Australia from London, Brett Whiteley’s works reaffirmed his appreciation of the Australian landscape, particularly that surrounding his new residence in Sydney’s Lavender Bay. In parallel, Whiteley’s figurative paintings continued to explore an interest in the human condition, in dual psychological states and discordant associations of figures within their environments. This was particularly apparent in his self-portraits of the mid-1970s, a decade during which Whiteley’s notoriety as an enfant terrible surged. Remaining largely indoors in his new house, self-portraiture came to the fore and enabled a period of focussed psychological introspection. Inspired by a long-standing interest in schizophrenia as theorized by the British psychiatrist R.D. Laing, Whiteley applied himself to honestly recording his own spectrum of moods, often simultaneously on the same picture plane. Self-Portrait after Haircut, 1976 is a major example of this series of works. Here the artist reveals something of himself beyond a physical likeness, an arresting confession of how he sees himself: multifaceted, tortured and fractured. By layering the inky projections of his inquisitive face, Whiteley conveys a sense of inner mutability, of an ever-changing personality coloured by mind-altering substances. By affixing a tangle of his own trade-mark copper curls to the picture plane, Whiteley further asserts with this tangible record, his physical presence in the picture while subtly alluding to physical transformations and how they affect one’s image and its presentation the world. This work was one of three self-portraits presented in Whiteley’s 1976 solo exhibition at Australian Galleries, and is closely related to the artist’s magisterial, Archibald-winning work, Self Portrait in the Studio, 1976 (acquired in 1977 by the Art Gallery of New South Wales). Within this work, the mise-en-abyme of the artist painting his own self-portrait with the aid of a mirror expresses his sense of entrapment. In unashamedly admitting the grasp addiction had over him, Whiteley finds compassion for himself, and through the trope of the flawed artistic genius reaches an acceptance of the darker elements which coloured his seemingly sumptuous lifestyle on the harbourfront of Sydney. LUCIE REEVES-SMITH
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JAMES GLEESON
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(1915 – 2008) SEA GUARDS, 1991 oil on canvas 172.0 x 230.0 cm signed and dated lower right: Gleeson ‘91 signed and inscribed with title on stretcher bar verso: “SEA GUARDS” / James Gleeson ESTIMATE: $30,000 – 40,000
PROVENANCE Lauraine Diggins Fine Art, Melbourne (label attached verso) Private collection, Melbourne, acquired from the above in 1995
‘As human beings we do not have the capacity to imagine the unimaginable. We can only project from a basis of the known. We can invent nothing that is entirely new. All that we can do is to bring together pre-existing realities in such new relationships as might surprise us into feeling that we have caught a momentary glimpse of something that had previously been hidden from us. Nothing is as strange or as various as Nature herself. She is the primal Surrealist’.1 Without doubt Australia’s leading Surrealist painter and poet, for more than six decades James Gleeson divulged the depths of his own imagination onto the canvas, offering up damning – yet simultaneously captivating – depictions of a visceral universe that defies intellectual grasp. With their typically ominous skies, huge grotesque forms and dominant motifs of metamorphosis, his landscapes are the manifestation of our inner psyche – powerfully capturing the repulsive, the erotic, the abject, and the tumultuous uncertainty of our dreams and subconscious thoughts. As Lou Klepac, author of several authoritative texts on Gleeson’s work, elucidates: ‘Gleeson’s paintings are the mirror which reveals the dark and dangerous regions which are too terrifying for our ordinary consciousness, because they represent a view of existence measured in light years where man’s life is but a flicker of a small flame’. 2 Monumental in scale and conception, Sea Guards, 1991 exemplifies magnificently the second period of Gleeson’s career during which, from 1983 until his death in 2008, ‘he embarked upon the large imaginative landscapes which constitute his greatest and most original achievement’. 3 In stark contrast to his earlier explorations of ‘man as the measure of all things’, Gleeson now jettisons all interest in the representation of the human figure, transfixed instead by the mutability
of forms and possibility of ‘a biomorphic cosmos’4 – as might have existed pre-civilisation, or might yet occur after the obliteration of humanity. As Gleeson asserts, ‘I got to the point where the extreme (of the figure) almost came to be recognisable – then I felt no need to use the form at all as an entirety. It could be represented by an arm, a hand, an eye. I broadened it to be not only landscape but cosmic experience’. 5 That such anthropomorphic, pre-human forms are here set against an undulating, generative seascape signals further the evolution of Gleeson’s investigations into the subconscious and the representation of human form as allegory. Since the times of Greek mythology, the sea had been a poignant symbol of the unconscious – with the mutable, shape-changing sea god Proteus, son of Poseidon, subsequently defined by Swiss psychoanalyst, Carl Jung, as the personification of the unconscious. With its panoply of protean forms merging sea, land and sky, thus Sea Guards represents the culmination of the artist’s enduring fascination with links between the unconscious, Greek mythology and modern psychoanalysis, offering a masterful, evolved interpretation of the themes of transformation and metamorphosis that have long distinguished his unique vision. As Gleeson himself reflects, ‘the most important, constantly recurring motif throughout my work is a sense of the mutability of all forms and substances. Metamorphosis has always been, for me, one of the basic facts of life. Everything takes on a form, changes, falls apart and reforms in new organisations in an endless cycle’.6 1. Gleeson cited in Free, R., James Gleeson: Images from the Shadows, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1993, p. 11 2. Klepac, L., James Gleeson: Beyond the Screen of Sight, The Beagle Press, Sydney, 2004, p. 9 3. ibid., p. 13 4. Gleeson quoted in Free, op. cit., p. 43 5. Gleeson quoted ibid., p. 34 6. Gleeson quoted ibid., p. 43 VERONICA ANGELATOS
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WILLIAM ROBINSON
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born 1936 RAIN AND SUNLIGHT, NUMINBAH, 1996 oil on canvas 137.0 x 182.5 cm signed and dated lower right: William Robinson 96 inscribed with title verso: RAIN AND SUNLIGHT NUMINBAH ESTIMATE: $150,000 – 200,000
PROVENANCE Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney Private collection, Melbourne EXHIBITED William Robinson, Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney, 27 March – 29 April 1998, cat. 3 LITERATURE Klepac, L., William Robinson. Painting 1987 – 2000, The Beagle Press, Sydney, 2001, p. 120 (illus.)
In relation to a sense of place, William Robinson has made a unique contribution to the Australian landscape tradition, moving beyond conventional notions to encompass a fluctuating environment; of rainforest and ocean, ground and sky, day and night, elemental forces of wind, lightning, rain and fire. His multidimensional grasp of time and space also suggests metaphors for states of mind and being, life and death, continuity and transcendence. The profound spiritual resonances in Robinson’s art remind us of the need to preserve an ancient natural world in the present; ‘to keep the faith’, as Simon Schama wrote in Landscape and Memory, ‘with a future on this tough, lovely old planet’.1 Robinson’s treatment of the horizon and distorted perspective set him apart from his contemporaries. While many Australian landscape painters traditionally looked towards the arid interior for inspiration, he embraces the lush south eastern Queensland mountain ranges. The dramatic features of the granite belt, with its soaring cliffs, meandering rivers, creeks and waterfalls, offer the perfect subject for Robinson to flaunt his painterly innovations.
The steep ravines, high annual rainfall and proximity to the coast combine to provide dramatic weather shifts, which Robinson exploits wilfully. As the title of Rain and Sunlight, Numinbah suggests, it is the ephemeral beauty of this landscape which captivates the artist. He gives equal weight to the physical grandeur of the ancient forms, as he does to the intangible elements of light, mist, mood and atmosphere. In the act of painting there is a tipping point where the image takes over and a seamless synergy occurs between the artist, their materials and subject. The artist becomes the vehicle for the work and almost takes a backseat as the painting evolves in inspired revelation. Artists sometimes refer to a work as ‘painting itself’ when describing this shaman-like relationship between the artist and subject. Robinson arrives at this point early and you can feel the urgency his works attain as they reach toward a higher state of observation and translation. Each new painting builds on the achievements of the previous one as he pushes the boundaries of his artistic abilities and the conventions of landscape painting. This state of oneness with his work is achieved by continuous immersion in the act of creation and Robinson typically works every day, all day – except Sundays. God rested on the sabbath and so does Robbo, reserving this day for reflection and music in humble observance of the Maker’s achievements. The artist is a deeply spiritual man and his paintings are to be viewed as a personal homage to the creator. The current example conveys this more than others, the central image of painting is the sunrise to the east, which may be considered as the first of its kind. Like the renaissance masters Robinson so much admires, he looks to the heavens for the essence of his inspiration. 1. Hart, D., ‘William Robinson’s artistic development: An intimate and expansive journey’ in William Robinson, A Transfigured Landscape, Queensland University of Technology and Piper Press, Brisbane, 2011, p. 38
HENRY MULHOLLAND
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ARTHUR BOYD
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(1920 – 1999) SHOALHAVEN RIVERBANK, c.1990 oil on canvas 120.5 x 90.0 cm signed lower right: Arthur Boyd ESTIMATE $70,000 – 90,000
PROVENANCE Athenaeum Club, Melbourne Mossgreen Auctions, Melbourne, 13 November 2007, lot 38 Savill Galleries, Sydney (labels attached verso) Private collection, Sydney
Eager to rediscover his roots, his ‘Australianism’, after more than a decade abroad, in 1971 Arthur Boyd returned to the country of his birth to take up a Creative Arts Fellowship at the Australian National University in Canberra. Over the blazing summer of 1971 – 72, Boyd and his wife Yvonne were invited by the Sydney art dealer Frank McDonald to visit Bundanon for the weekend, staying at a home he shared on the south coast of New South Wales with art historian Sandra McGrath and her husband Tony. Here the artist’s joyful rediscovery of the Australian bush with its stark contrasts and clarity of light was nothing short of an epiphany, and thus in 1974, Boyd purchased the nearby property Riversdale on the banks of the Shoalhaven River. Once again the magic of the dour, untamed Australian landscape became the impetus for his art, and over the subsequent twenty-five years until his death in 1999, Boyd would dedicate himself almost exclusively to capturing the myriad moods of the Shoalhaven in images that are today imprinted upon the national psyche as some of our most beloved and iconic. Soul-piercing in its beauty, the Shoalhaven region offered infinite potential as a subject – ‘the variation in the area with its great deep tones and high keys’ bearing strong affinities with music. As Boyd elaborated, ‘in the desert there is only one note, just one low singing note. In this landscape the tonal range – not tonal in the obvious sense of colour, but the actual fact of the horizon which can vary from very high to low to infinite, depending on your line of vision – makes it a greater challenge. It has a knife-edged clarity. Impressionism could
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never have been born here, but Wagner could easily have composed here.’1 Wild and primordial, the region differed completely from the ordered English countryside to which he had grown accustomed and thus, a new vision was required to unlock its tangled mysteries. If previously Breughel and Rembrandt had offered inspiration, now Von Guérard, Piguenit and Buvelot became Boyd’s spiritual mentors. As he mused, ‘I see the landscape looking very much like a Von Guerard, much more than the look of the Australian Impressionist school. In this area you are aware again and again how those old boys got it right all the time’. 2 Suffused with warmth and lyricism, Shoalhaven Riverbank, c.1990 is an exquisitely painted example of the ‘pure’ Shoalhaven landscapes which – devoid of the mythological creatures and symbolic narrative punctuating versions elsewhere – simply celebrate Nature in all her beauty and grandeur. Indeed, the work is a poignant reminder of how Boyd, comfortable once more with the eternal diversity of the Australian landscape, ultimately did tame his wilderness – ‘...what was unfamiliar became familiar, what was menacing became friendly, what was awesome became intimate’. 3 1. Boyd quoted in Pearce, B., Arthur Boyd Retrospective, exhibition catalogue, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1993, pp. 26 – 27 2. Boyd quoted in McGrath, S., The Artist and the Shoalhaven, Bay Books, Sydney, 1982, p. 220 3. McGrath, ibid., p. 79 VERONICA ANGELATOS
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GARRY SHEAD
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born 1942 WYEWURK, 1992 (FROM ‘D.H. LAWRENCE’ SERIES) oil on composition board 90.5 x 122.0 cm signed and dated lower right: Garry Shead 92 ESTIMATE: $50,000 – 70,000
PROVENANCE Michael Nagy Fine Art, Sydney Private collection, New South Wales, acquired from the above in October 1992 EXHIBITED Garry Shead: ‘D. H. Lawrence series’, Michael Nagy Fine Art, Sydney, 6 – 25 October 1992, cat. 21
‘The only way to do justice to a man like Lawrence who gave so much, is to give another creation. Not explain him, but prove... that one has caught the flame he tried to pass on’.1 Having first discovered the work of D.H. Lawrence during a trip to Papua New Guinea in 1968, Garry Shead immediately discerned significant affinities between his own experiences and those of the author who wrote his novel Kangaroo while living in the coastal township of Thirroul on his visit to Australia in 1922. As Grishin elucidates, ‘When Shead speaks of Lawrence the word ‘synchronicity’ features frequently; he uses the word in the sense of the strange coincidences or correspondences... [A]t various forks in the road of his life, Lawrence crops up - when he was in New Guinea and decided he would marry Merril, he was reading Lawrence’s letters; it was in Vence, where Lawrence died that he met his wife Judith... He introduced Whiteley to ‘Wyewurk’, Lawrence’s cottage at Thirroul, and it was from the house next door... that they painted their diptych (Portrait of D.H. Lawrence, 1973). Whiteley could also feel the presence of Lawrence hovering around the place; and it was at Thirroul that Whiteley died’. 2 Although unfolding against the steep escarpment and sweeping bush backdrop that unmistakably characterises the landscape surrounding Thirroul on the northern New South Wales coast, Wyewurk, 1992 does not offer a literal depiction of a specific incident from Lawrence’s
Kangaroo. Exploring universal themes of love and conflict, identity and alienation, the spiritual and the human, instead the work encapsulates the artist’s poignant homage to D.H. Lawrence as ‘a personal, intuitive response, rather than an attempt to illustrate Lawrence’s narrative’. 3 Thus, the figures – presumably Richard Lovat Somers and his wife Harriet of the novel – appear strange and ambiguous, taking on the features of Lawrence and Frieda while at the same time, bearing more than a passing resemblance to Shead and his wife Judith. Similarly, the chief antagonist in the novel, prominent ex-soldier and lawyer Benjamin Cooley (whose fictional nickname is ‘Kangaroo’), may here be symbolised by the motif of the omniscient kangaroo looming ambivalently behind the couple standing at the verandah railing – the manifestation of a spiritual ‘presence’ rather than a tangible character. A poetic scene – recognisably Australian yet strangely timeless and mythical – indeed Wyewurk eloquently embodies the drama and enormous sense of anticipation present in the novel where the reader remains ‘... waiting, waiting for something to happen, waiting for this spirit of the land to strike’.4 1. Miller, H., The World of D.H. Lawrence: A Passionate Appreciation, Capra Press, California, 1980 2. Grishin, S., Garry Shead and the Erotic Muse, Fine Art Publishing, Sydney, 2001, p. 94 3. Grishin, S., Garry Shead and the D.H. Lawrence Paintings, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1993, p. 14 4. ibid. VERONICA ANGELATOS
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GARRY SHEAD
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born 1942 ANNUNCIATION, 2000 oil on canvas 167.0 x 243.0 cm signed and dated lower right: Garry Shead 2000 ESTIMATE: $250,000 – 350,000
PROVENANCE Australian Galleries, Sydney (labels attached verso, stock no. 26654) Private collection, Sydney EXHIBITED Garry Shead. Recent Paintings, Artist and the Muse, Australian Galleries, Melbourne, 9 May – 3 June 2000, cat. 1 LITERATURE Grishin, S., Garry Shead and the Erotic Muse, Craftsman House, Fine Art Publishing, Sydney, 2001, pl. 106, pp. 175 (illus.), 200 ‘[Art] is treated as if it were a science, which it is not. Art is a form of religion, minus the Ten Commandment business, which is sociological. Art is a form of supremely delicate awareness and atonement — meaning at-oneness, the state of being at one with the object but is the great atonement in delight, for I can never look on art save as a form of delight.’1 For Garry Shead, one of Australia’s most widely admired contemporary figurative painters, ‘the notion that art is a religion and a total commitment, is an absolute given.’ 2 As Sasha Grishin elucidates in his authoritative text, a persistent motif pervading both his written diaries and richly allegorical painted oeuvre, is that of being married to his art, to his Muse, with the rest of life revolving around this union; ‘…Shead is an artist who subscribes to the now unfashionable theory that the artist is a medium who surrenders to his Muse…’ 3 Perhaps not surprisingly, to this end Shead frequently invokes the salient precedent offered by the Old Masters, who merged their own experiences and artistic styles with timeless religious or spiritual themes to create powerful, expressive statements on their contemporary world. Indeed, British figurative painter Francis Bacon famously declared the Crucifixion ‘…a magnificent armature on which you can hang all sorts of feeling and sensation’4, and likewise, Shead similarly exploits the canon of Christian art as a means of exploring human emotions and experiences that are universal. In his celebrated ‘D.H. Lawrence’ series based upon the Englishman’s novel Kangaroo for example, compositions such as
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Death of Cooley; Death of Kangaroo; and The Last Supper find obvious parallels in the Christian themes of Crucifixion, Entombment and Last Supper, while the ‘Royal Suite’ depictions The Visitation; The Coronation and various entombments also unmistakably echo sacred imagery. In the monumental religious paintings which Shead embarked upon towards the end of the millennium – of which the present Annunciation, 2000 is a magnificent example – this concept is elaborated further with the relocation of key events from Christ’s life to the artist’s coastal hometown of Bundeena, south of Sydney. Significantly, five centuries earlier, Italian Renaissance master Piero della Francesca had transported his Baptism of Christ from the banks of the Jordan to a tributary of the river Arno in his native Tuscany, while closer to home, during the forties Arthur Boyd had also tackled overtly religious themes set within the untidy foreshore scrub of Port Phillip Bay. Paying homage no doubt to such artistic predecessors in the recreation of biblical stories within a palpable localised reality, here Shead alludes to the moment when the Archangel Gabriel announces to the Virgin Mary that she would be the mother of Jesus Christ. A pivotal event in the story of the New Testament, the Annunciation signifies the actual incarnation of Christ – the moment that Jesus was conceived and the Son of God became man – hence the typical inclusion of the dove, a symbol of the Holy Spirit, in artistic representations. With characteristic wry humour, Shead now substitutes an Antipodean version of the sacred bird – the sulphur-crested cockatoo – while the protagonists of Mary and the angel have been replaced with two naked lovers, passionately embracing in the shallows while other bathers frolic in the water and onlookers on the shore stop in their tracks to behold the scene. One of the most important works by Shead to be offered at auction, the Annunciation encapsulates a joyful, highly personal interpretation of a traditional subject, powerful in its execution and infinite in its possibilities. 1. Lawrence, D.H., ‘Making pictures’ in Mervyn Levy(ed.), Paintings of D.H. Lawrence, London, Cory, Adams and Mackay, 1964, pp. iii-iv. 2. Grishin, S., Garry Shead and The Erotic Muse, Craftsman House, Sydney, 2001, p.166. 3. ibid. 4. Sylvester, D., Interviews with Francis Bacon, Thames and Hudson, London, 1975, p. 44 VERONICA ANGELATOS
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JEFFREY SMART
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(1921 – 2013) FIRST STUDY FOR THE PRESIDENT FACTORY, 2002 – 03 oil on canvas 37.0 x 52.5 cm signed lower left: JEFFREY SMART ESTIMATE: $120,000 – 160,000
PROVENANCE Australian Galleries, Sydney (label attached verso) Private company collection, Melbourne Private collection, Melbourne EXHIBITED Jeffrey Smart, Paintings and Studies 2002 – 2003, Australian Galleries, Sydney, 23 September – 18 October 2003, cat. 11 LITERATURE Grishin, S., ‘Jeffrey Smart’s Eternal Order of Light and Balance’, Jeffrey Smart, Paintings and Studies 2002 – 2003, Australian Galleries, Sydney, 2003, pp. 10 – 11 Pearce, B., Jeffrey Smart, The Beagle Press, Sydney, 2005, p. 232 (illus.) RELATED WORK The President Factory, 2003, oil on canvas, 76.0 x 111.0 cm Second study for The President Factory, 2002–03, oil on canvas, 43.0 x 61.0 cm First drawing for The President Factory, 2002–03, ink on paper, 15.0 x 18.0 cm
‘When we turn to a painting such as The President Factory, 2003, for all of its austerity, one could hardly describe it as unemotional. However, the two tiny marooned figures, ambiguously standing near the fence rail, are hardly the emotional epicenter of the work, rather the emotional content lies in the landscape setting. As one notable art historian wrote of Hopper: ‘The emotion with which Hopper’s art is charged is concentrated not on humanity but on its setting, on the cities and structures that man has built and among which his life is spent, and on nature with its evidences of man’s occupation. His detached attitude toward the human being, and the compensating intensity of his feeling for the human environment, inevitably produce an undertone of loneliness. For all his realism, Hopper was essentially a poet.’
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Knowledge of the exact site from which some of the compositional details for The President Factory are derived does not particularly enhance our understanding of this painting. It was in fact a scene from a car wrecker’s yard in the Arezzo industrial estate, looking directly up a steep and overgrown embankment to a concrete wall of a large factory with a ‘President’ sign on it. On top of the embankment, but concealed by the angle of vision from below, was a busy roadway, so that the tops of trucks would seem to mysteriously glide by. The initial working sketch made by Smart, while seated in his car, largely captures the actuality of the setting. The two smaller studies for The President Factory see the growth of a somewhat ambiguous hoarding or wall, with advertising posters for Miró and a circus, in the right-hand side of the composition, thus also dividing the structure into the golden section. Spatially an enormous tension is established between the gentle sloping surface of the billboard with its dramatic and mysterious shadow, the factory wall with its prefabricated concrete shells, the huge diagonally receding ‘president’ sign and the lovingly observed and immaculately depicted wall of grass and flowers which climbs vertically up the embankment. In the finished large painting of The President Factory all extraneous detail has been stripped bare, the geometric severity of the structure has been heightened and the drama of the composition has been allowed to unfold within a wonderful saturating light. Light, its source and direction, is as crucial to the composition as the objects that it illuminates. It articulates the surface of the concrete, the peeling posters, the texture of the grass and through the pattern of light and shade it creates the critical lines of the structure of the design. While it is possible to read the picture in terms of its verbal puns or to contemplate the predicament of the couple perched ambiguously above the precipice apparently in line with the approaching truck, or to consider the improbable scale of the ‘president’ sign, the true magic of the work lies in the symbolic geometry as revealed through light...’1 1. Grishin, S., ‘Jeffrey Smart’s Eternal Order of Light and Balance’, Jeffrey Smart, Paintings and Studies 2002 - 2003, Australian Galleries, Sydney, 2003, pp. 10 – 11 VERONICA ANGELATOS
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RICK AMOR
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born 1948 THE CLOUDS, 2007 oil on canvas 89.0 x 130.0 cm signed and dated lower left: RICK AMOR ’07 dated and inscribed with title verso: The Clouds / Sept / Oct / 07 / … ESTIMATE: $35,000 – 45,000
PROVENANCE Liverpool Street Gallery, Sydney Private collection, Queensland, acquired from the above in 2008 EXHIBITED Rick Amor Paintings 2008, Liverpool Street Gallery, Sydney, 16 August – 11 September 2008, cat. 10 (illus. on exhibition catalogue cover)
‘I’ve always thought that what we see is not necessarily what’s there. There’s extra things we don’t see, there’s layers of reality ... The twentieth century seems to be a struggle to relate perception to reality …’1 A consummate painter, sculptor and printmaker with a highly successful career spanning four decades, Rick Amor is the master of transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary. Although drawing inspiration from the seemingly mundane, everyday sites of suburbia, his paintings are typically full of drama, deep melancholy and foreboding – resonating with a disquieting sense of both beauty and menace that alludes to the ambiguities inherent in life and humanity’s complex existence. Far from being literal translations, Amor’s urban landscapes have evolved, rather, over a number of years, and consequently reveal several layers of memory, knowledge and perception – together with the influence of literature concerning cities from T.S. Eliot’s poetic verse to the classic dystopian texts of George Orwell and Franz Kafka. As Paul McGillick observes of Amor’s work, ‘this is a phenomenological process by which the world as we think we see it is actually a construction based only partly on our understanding of it … there is a disconcerting quality to his pictures, as though they were not so much snapshots of reality as frozen frames from the moving pictures of our dreams’. 2 Throughout his career, Amor has continuously depicted locations very familiar to him, with the most prominent arguably being the eastern shores of Port Phillip Bay near Frankston where he grew up. Although such beaches are generally placid and unspectacular in reality, Amor
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typically transforms them into works full of visual drama and narrative intensity, as encapsulated superbly by The Clouds, 2007. With its ominous bank of dark clouds, tempestuous waters and subdued tonal palette, the work is far removed from the idyllic interpretations of the same area by Arthur Streeton, Charles Conder or Penleigh Boyd, bearing stronger affinities with the dramatic seascapes of nineteenthcentury English Romantic painters such as J.M.W. Turner and John Constable. A motif frequently punctuating Amor’s landscapes is that of the solitary individual, alone and dissociated in his or her environment, and the present composition is no exception – featuring a partially clad figure, their back turned to the viewer and carrying a child on their hip. As typical of Amor, there is enough narrative to make us wonder, but never enough to let us know: for example, why is the bather still on the desolate beach with a child at such a seemingly late hour with a turbulent storm brewing? Are they approaching the water for a swim, or just observing the dramatic denouement of a day at the beach? Like the best of Amor’s achievements, The Clouds evokes a palpable sense of mystery and eerie disquiet not dissimilar to that pervading the crime novels of which he is such an avid reader. Indeed, as Amor poignantly reflects, ‘I like to suggest that behind the prosaic reality something else is lurking’. 3 1. The artist quoted in Catalano, G., Building a Picture: Interviews with Australian Artists, McGraw Hill, Melbourne, 1997, p. 141 2. McGillick, P., ‘The City as Dream - The New York Paintings of Rick Amor’, Monument, no.22, 1998, pp. 84 – 88 3. The artist quoted in Harford, S., ‘The Bronze Age of a City Seer’, The Age, Melbourne, 30 September 1994, p. 16 VERONICA ANGELATOS
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TIM STORRIER
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born 1949 THE WATER LINE, 1997 synthetic polymer paint on paper 102.5 x 151.5 cm signed, dated and inscribed with title lower right: ‘The Water Line’ / Storrier / 1997 ESTIMATE: $28,000 – 35,000
PROVENANCE Christopher Day Gallery, Sydney (label attached verso) Private collection, Sydney, acquired from the above in May 1998 EXHIBITED Christopher Day Gallery at Antique Dealers Association, Sydney, May 1998 LITERATURE Lumby, C., Tim Storrier: The Art of the Outsider, Craftsman House, Sydney, 2000, pl. 118, p. 164 (illus., dated as 1996) Klepac, L., Tim Storrier, The Beagle Press, Sydney, 2018, p. 164 (illus., dated as c.1996)
Encompassing the subtlety of nature’s fugitive diurnal moods, its mysterious, silently unfolding rituals and vast droning presence, Tim Storrier’s iconic outback paintings evoke a poignant sense of place that is inextricably Australian. As Edmund Capon, a former director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales elucidates, ‘they could not, I believe have come from any country other than Australia’.1 Typically juxtaposing the element of fire against low horizons and expansive skies, indeed his evocations are indelible echoes of this brooding landmass – longcontemplated narratives inspired by Storrier’s own highly personal experience of the landscape, and enhanced by the alluringly beautiful texture and finish of his art. Utterly individual and exquisitely rendered, thus his interpretations feature among the most instantly recognisable and universally admired images in Australian art. Upon first glance, The Water Line, 1997 mines familiar territory in Storrier’s oeuvre, with the strong horizontal tension of the blazing horizon echoing his celebrated ‘point to point’ paintings of the 1980s. Yet despite such affinities, the composition reveals a significant shift in Storrier’s vision towards the end of the millennium: where previously his evocations of fire had been literal and direct, now his treatment is
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more subdued, reflective and abstract. The rope too has been replaced by a burning log and the glowing embers of a vacated campsite, thus inviting darker, more sublimated readings which explore concepts of displacement and isolation. As Catharine Lumby suggests in her monograph on the artist, these nocturnal landscapes ‘announce a more sophisticated exploration of the emotive, melancholic mood that has always haunted Storrier’s work – of the themes of isolation and abandonment which he had focused on explicitly in works like Retreat, 1972, Defence of Indado, 1973, and Death of a Warrior in Spring, 1975. The skies in his nocturnal paintings are an intense cobalt blue, cut back with darker glazes ... the landscape here is at once awe-inspiring and threatening, both enveloping and alienating’. 2 Like the finest of Storrier’s work, The Water Line encapsulates the artist’s enduring interest in the four elements and the power of life which they embody. In the manner of the great Romantic painters of the nineteenth century such as JMW Turner and Caspar David Friedrich, Storrier here contemplates the insignificance of humankind when compared to the awesome magnitude of the natural world, drawing upon the symbolism of the fading light of day as a metaphor for change or the fin de siècle, end of an era. Unifying fire with an entirely different great vastness (untraversed bodies of water and infinite celestial skies), thus the present work may be construed as bearing allusions to evolution, the passing of time and the grandeur of decay in the same vein as the traditional vanitas still life. As Storrier himself muses, ‘there is a relationship between fecundity and mortality, between something that is wet and something that is burning. These are primal poetic qualities that do not change in terms of the human spirit’. 3 1. Capon, E., quoted in Lumby, C., Tim Storrier: The Art of the Outsider, Craftsman House, Sydney, 2000, p.8 2. ibid., p.142 – 3 3. The artist quoted in Tim Storrier: The Burning Gifts, Australian Galleries, Melbourne, 1989, p. 11 VERONICA ANGELATOS
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THE GENE & BRIAN SHERMAN CAPSULE COLLECTION V LOT 32 – 40
The 5th Gene & Brian Sherman Capsule Collection, presented by Deutscher and Hackett, interestingly joins the dots between Sherman Galleries’ exhibition programme and the decision-making which, during that period, underpinned the family collection. Starting with John Olsen, the still-active grand master of Australian art, a painter whose work seems to mirror the Australian experience of our vast dry continent, the artists in this capsule, (bar Mick Namarari), were all represented by Sherman Galleries. John’s grand 1993 exhibition gave us Nolan at Broome; Tim Storrier’s major Goodhope St shows produced many significant works, including the 1999 Drifting Over (The Coals) suite - and the Galleries’ younger generation painters, Gordon Bennett and Shane Cotton, created exhibitions which were eagerly awaited by quite different groups of collectors, who often staked their claim a year or more in advance. The Sherman Goodhope Gallery, a large space to fill by any measure, was specifically primed to best enhance the differences between artistic sensibilities and diversity of purpose. Entire walls were erected – with others dismantled, moved or re-painted to suit the prevailing thematic. Dark rooms were created, new technologies harnessed and each exhibition both embraced and enhanced the works on display. In short, artists knew that their creative efforts would be given the most aesthetically appropriate setting, and inevitably they stretched their imaginative and technical capabilities so as to escalate the quality of each exhibition. Apart from a longstanding connection to Sherman Galleries, (with Mick Namarari an outlier in this regard), the focus on landscape unites the majority of works in this – our 5th Capsule. (Gordon Bennett’s political intervention and his enigmatic abstraction obliquely referencing a fallen cross, clearly stand outside the landscape narrative).
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Olsen pays tribute to Nolan, his colleague-in-arms and fellow investigator of Australian mythology; Storrier’s visceral understanding of dangers inherent in the vast Australian bush, (rooted in his experience on the land as a child and so frighteningly in evidence this past summer), speak to the landscape’s ongoing potential to burn. Shane Cotton’s grand pictorial rendering of New Zealand, our near neighbour’s paysage, create vistas which feel, as we might expect, darker, more mysterious and less articulated. Part Maori part Pakeha, Cotton, like Olsen and Storrier, had long established an intensely loyal following, producing a limited number of minutely crafted pictures which gave rise to angst on the part of collectors, palpably fearful of missing out. And what about our indigenous star, Mick Namarari, whose work was acquired by Brian on a Christopher Hodges lead expedition to Papunya, together with our then-teenage children. Brian’s eye was always impeccable and his thirst to see the landscape through indigenous eyes became a driving force in the acquisition of a small early collection of un-stretched, treasured canvases that came home with the family and have been amongst us these many decades. Landscapes evoke memories and Australian landscapes were new to us as South African migrants fleeing the strictures of Apartheid in the mid-seventies. Sherman Galleries was our family’s place of discovery - as it was for so many people, including the local community, the broader Australian art-interested world and, increasingly, for curators, collectors and museum directors who gathered in our spaces from all over the Asia-Pacific region. The artists were our priority and their needs came first and foremost. We felt honoured to facilitate their interaction with the public – and they rose and rose again to the occasion. GENE SHERMAN AM
GENE & BRIAN SHERMAN CAPSULE COLLECTION V • LOTS 32 – 40
MICK NAMARARI TJAPALTJARRI (c.1926 – 1998) TJUNGINPA (MOUSE) DREAMING, 1997 synthetic polymer paint on canvas 91.0 x 122.0 cm bears inscription verso: artist’s name, size and Papunya Tula Artists cat. MN970540
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PROVENANCE Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs Utopia Art Sydney, Sydney Gene and Brian Sherman Collection, Sydney
ESTIMATE: $10,000 – 15,000
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33 JOHN OLSEN born 1928 NOLAN AT BROOME, 1991 – 92
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GENE & BRIAN SHERMAN CAPSULE COLLECTION V • LOTS 32 – 40
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JOHN OLSEN
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born 1928 NOLAN AT BROOME, 1991 – 92 oil on canvas 182.0 x 244.0 cm signed and dated lower right: John / Olsen 91-92 inscribed with title verso: ‘Nolan at BROOME’ ESTIMATE: $180,000 – 250,000
PROVENANCE Sherman Galleries, Sydney (label attached verso) The Mécénat collection, Sydney (label attached verso) Gene and Brian Sherman Collection, Sydney EXHIBITED John Olsen: Recent Work, Sherman Galleries, Sydney, 28 October – 20 November 1993 The Mécénat Collection, Sherman Galleries, Sydney, 21 January – 21 February 1998, cat. 2 Escape Artists: Modernists in the Tropics, Cairns Regional Gallery, Queensland, 30 May – 30 August 1998; Rockhampton City Art Gallery, Queensland, 23 September – 31 October 1998; Brisbane City Gallery, Brisbane, 21 November 1998 – 10 January 1999; Mosman Regional Gallery, Sydney, 19 January – 24 February 1999; Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Victoria, 5 March – 9 May 1999; Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Townsville, 21 May – 27 June 1999 The Rose Crossing: Contemporary Art in Australia, Brisbane City Gallery, Brisbane, 8 September – 23 October 1999; Hong Kong Arts Centre, China, 29 November – 20 December 1999; Singapore Art Museum, Singapore, 10 February – 28 March 2000; Holmes à Court Gallery, Perth, 29 April – 29 May 2000; then touring to S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney and Campbelltown City Bicentennial Art Gallery, Campbelltown, 2000 Pulse: Paintings by John Olsen 1961–2005, TarraWarra Museum, Victoria, 29 May – 23 October 2005 LITERATURE Wilson, G., Escape Artists: Modernists in the Tropics, Cairns Regional Gallery, Queensland, 1998, pp. 160, 161 (illus.) Pulse: Paintings by John Olsen 1961–2005, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Victoria, 2005, p. 12
In 1990, Olsen moved to Rydal, NSW, and the following year he was honoured with a major Retrospective (curated by James Mollison) which opened at the National Gallery of Victoria in November. Some months before the move, Olsen had commenced a series of ‘gypsy caravan’ paintings noting that, for him, ‘a gypsy caravan is the ultimate symbol of freedom and independence from all those who want to dominate us’. 2 It is probable that Nolan at Broome, 1991 – 92 started as an unresolved caravan painting. Although there is no evidence that the two artists ever met in Broome, 3 Olsen noted in his diary that Nolan had visited the Retrospective. In November 1992, Nolan died and it would seem Olsen was moved to return to the incomplete canvas and reinterpret it as an homage to his late colleague.4 The image is ‘based on a photograph of Nolan sitting at a table at Heide in Melbourne during ... [the 1940s]. In the painting, Olsen transmutes this recollection in to the hot tropical environment of the Pindan country of north Western Australia’.5 Nolan sits in a modified caravan which now serves as an artist’s studio, echoing the familiar elevated architecture of Broome. Holding brushes and a palette as his legs dangle over the edge, he is surrounded by artistic paraphernalia, pots of paint, chairs and a rug. Awnings and a juxtaposed ceiling fan provide cooling relief whilst the lit edges of the artist’s face and arm indicate the heat of his surroundings. Outside, the landscape is typical Olsen, teeming with vegetative squiggles and tracery which recall Nolan’s own landscapes in the background of his famous Ned Kelly series of 1946 – 1947. Nolan at Broome was exhibited in John Olsen’s first solo show following the 1991 – 92 Retrospective. Held at Sherman Galleries Goodhope in Sydney, the exhibition was a great success. The gallery’s owners were also suitably impressed as the painting was already marked as ‘sold’ on the pricelist and has remained in the Sherman Collection ever since. 1. Hart, D., John Olsen, Craftsman House, Sydney, 2000 (2nd edition), p. 212
Nolan at Broome unites two of Australia’s great artists, John Olsen and Sidney Nolan, though in life they hardly ever met. In spite of this, Olsen often referred to the older painter in his diaries and one entry reads: ‘Nolan ... understood the irrationality of the Australian landscape, from the classical perspective, its bizarre nature, its irredeemable untidiness. This intractable quality was also its freshness; he saw its saving grace for the painter’.1
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2. Hawley, J., ‘John Olsen’, Encounters with Australian Artists, University of Queensland Press, Queensland, 1993, p. 128 3. Olsen had purchased a house in Broome in 1990, as a result of discussions with Lord Alistair MacAlpine, the owner/developer of the Cable Beach Resort. MacAlpine had close connections with Nolan having met him in London in the mid-1960s. He also gave Nolan the use of a large studio-cottage at Cable Beach for some years during the 1980s. 4. See Olsen, J., Olsen on Olsen, Duffy and Snellgrove, Sydney, 1997, p. 294 5. Hart, D., op. cit., p. 212 ANDREW GAYNOR
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TIM STORRIER
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born 1949 DRIFTING OVER (THE COALS), 1999 synthetic polymer paint on panel 49.0 x 39.5 cm signed, dated and inscribed with title lower right: Drifting over (the coals) / Storrier / 1999 ESTIMATE: $15,000 – 20,000 PROVENANCE Sherman Galleries, Sydney Gene and Brian Sherman Collection, Sydney EXHIBITED Tim Storrier: The Art of the Outsider, Sherman Galleries, Sydney, 21 September – 14 October 2000 LITERATURE James, B., ‘Modern Musings’, Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, 30 September 2000, p. 10 (illus.) Lumby, C., Tim Storrier: The Art of the Outsider, Craftsman House, Sydney, 2000, pl. 126, p. 172 (illus.) Klepac, L., Tim Storrier, The Beagle Press, Sydney, 2018, pp. 184 (illus.) 262
TIM STORRIER born 1949 DRIFTING OVER (THE COALS) II, 2000 synthetic polymer paint on panel 49.0 x 39.5 cm signed, dated and inscribed with title lower right: Drifting Over (the coals) II / Storrier / 2000 ESTIMATE: $15,000 – 20,000 PROVENANCE Sherman Galleries, Sydney Gene and Brian Sherman Collection, Sydney EXHIBITED Tim Storrier: The Art of the Outsider, Sherman Galleries, Sydney, 21 September – 14 October 2000
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GENE & BRIAN SHERMAN CAPSULE COLLECTION V • LOTS 32 – 40
TIM STORRIER born 1949 THE EVENING RUN, 2019 synthetic polymer paint on linen 30.0 x 50.0 cm signed lower left: STORRIER signed and inscribed with title verso: ‘THE EVENING RUN’ / Storrier
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PROVENANCE Gene and Brian Sherman Collection, Sydney, acquired directly from the artist
ESTIMATE: $20,000 – 25,000
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SHANE COTTON
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born 1964, New Zealand LOOKOUT #1, 2007 synthetic polymer paint on canvas 200.0 x 300.0 cm signed, dated and inscribed with title lower left: LOOKOUT 1 S. COTTON. 2007 signed, dated and inscribed with title verso: “LOOKOUT 1” / Shane L Cotton / 2007 ESTIMATE: $80,000 – 120,000
PROVENANCE Sherman Galleries, Sydney (stamped verso) Gene and Brian Sherman Collection, Sydney EXHIBITED Shane Cotton, Red Shift, Sherman Galleries, Sydney, 28 June – 14 July 2007, cat. 6 Shane Cotton, The Hanging Sky, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetu, Christchurch, New Zealand, 15 June – 6 October 2012; Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, 8 December 2012 – 2 March 2013; Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney, 23 March – 19 May 2013 LITERATURE Paton, J., (et al.) Shane Cotton: The Hanging Sky, Christchurch Art Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand, 2013, pp. 24 – 25 (illus.) Paton, J., ‘In the Air: Shane Cotton’s Recent Paintings’, Shane Cotton To and Fro, exhibition catalogue, Rossi and Rossi, London, 2010, p. 11 RELATED WORK Red Shift, 2006 – 07, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 190.0 x 300.0 cm, in the collection of the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane Takarangi, 2007, synthetic polymer paint on linen, 190.0 x 300.0 cm, in the collection of the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu, Christchurch ‘Stepping up to the painting, I found myself on the edge of a blue-black void, a space whose colours suggested some time before or beyond day or night’. Shane Cotton is undoubtedly one of New Zealand’s leading contemporary artists, drawing on a wealth of art historical references, from Colin McCahon to René Magritte. Strongly informed by and actively informing contemporary post-colonial discourse, Cotton mines his own mixed cultural heritage (both Mãori and Pãkehã) to create an artistic language that resonates with audiences around the world. Lookout #1, 2007 is a key work from Cotton’s acclaimed series of vertiginous skyscapes. Spectators are plunged into an otherworldly void inhabited solely by feathered emissaries, birds who remain curiously suspended in a liminal space where gravity holds no purchase. Infused with the gothic tension of a brooding storm, whose origins and effects remain unknown, Lookout #1 displays a dichotomy between the promontory referred to in its title and carefully rendered in the
lower right-hand corner, and the disorienting obscurity that dominates the rest of the painting’s vast plane. The void presents a metaphor of suspense and potential – an unknown point of departure for both artist and viewer. Cotton is propelled by a desire to streamline and synthesise his visual syntax and works from this series are remarkably minimal. Depicting a disorienting and illogical moment between day and night and a view with no clear vanishing point, they mark a progression from his early landscape paintings. Formerly defined by their clear horizon lines, Cotton’s landscapes now were redirected to vast celestial vaults, illuminated by neither the moon nor the sun. Looking away from the carved-up and disputed land underfoot also gave Cotton an opportunity to move away from the prevailing culture politics in New Zealand, which overdetermined readings of his landscape works. The unconquered skies provided a more inclusive space, uncertain and syncretic. In Mãori cosmology, the Hanging Sky describes a sky draped down to meet the edge of the earth through which spiritual voyagers can pass.1 With wings outstretched and flattened into improbable shapes, Cotton’s brightly coloured birds appear to be buffeted by gale force winds, thrown perilously close to the cliff face. The artist himself describes the scene as ‘the birds were stopped and it was the mountains that were moving, or, in terms of the way the marks were flowing, had the potential to move’. 2 Often carrying symbolic or devotional meaning in paintings, the birds in Cotton’s syncretic metaphysical space remain ambiguous. The sense of the uncanny is heightened by the discordance between a naturalistic painted cliff, magnified in the foreground, and the birds rendered in light graphic lines, delicately applied to the painted surface like a decal. This post-modernist free-association and appropriation of images, symbols and text would proliferate in Cotton’s later works, bizarre flights of fancy suspended in space, untethered to any point of reference. Art historians identify this tendency as a surrealist technique, indeed Robert Leonard qualifies Cotton’s approach as ‘speculative cultural surrealist’. 3 Exhibited alongside its related works in the acclaimed retrospective exhibition, The Hanging Sky, at Christchurch Art Gallery, Lookout #1 is an imposing and major work of Cotton’s oeuvre, lyrically exploring the physical and metaphysical limits of a culturally specific narrative. 1. Paton, J., (et al.), Shane Cotton: The Hanging Sky, Christchurch Art Gallery, Christchurch, 2013, p. 42 2. Paton, J., ‘Shane Cotton. Stamina, Surprise and Suspense’, Bulletin Magazine, Christchurch Art Gallery, Christchurch, Issue 170, December 2012 3. Leonard, R., ‘The Treachery of Images’, in Paton, J., (et al.), op cit., p. 136 LUCIE REEVES-SMITH
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GENE & BRIAN SHERMAN CAPSULE COLLECTION V • LOTS 32 – 40
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GORDON BENNETT
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(1955 – 2014) CAMOUFLAGE #9, 2003 synthetic polymer paint on linen 182.5 x 152.0 cm signed, dated, and inscribed with title verso: G Bennett 5 – 3 – 2003 / “CAMOUFLAGE #9” /… ESTIMATE: $35,000 – 45,000
PROVENANCE Sherman Galleries, Sydney (stamped verso) Gene and Brian Sherman, Sydney EXHIBITED Figure/Ground (Zero), Sherman Galleries, Sydney, 17 July – 9 August 2003, cat. 9 (illus. in exhibition catalogue) RELATED WORK Camouflage #7, 2003, acrylic on linen, 182.5 x 152 cm, in the collection of the Australian National University, Canberra Camouflage #8, 2003, acrylic on linen, 182.5 x 152 cm, in the collection of the Australian War Memorial, Canberra
History painting was once considered the most noble of all genres, revered in the seventeenth century foremost for its ability to relate and record for posterity both the events of history and those of the artist’s lifetime. Gordon Bennett was a painter of history and histories. As a critically and politically engaged artist, Bennett’s paintings of the early 2000s diverged from his prior Australian subject matter, addressing instead events occurring far from our shores and finding within them analogous concerns of indigenous subjugation. Camouflage #9, 2003 comes from a series of reportage paintings catalysed by political and social anxiety following the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent War on Terror. The paintings feature portraits of the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in army fatigues alongside anonymous figures in hoodies and gas-masks, successively obscuring their features with an overlay of camouflage and decorative patterns. Camouflage #9, like its related works #8 and #7 (respectively in the collections of the Australian War Memorial and the Australian National University), clearly delineates Hussein’s features in thick black lines and carefully traces the outlines of his iconic military uniform. Shown to critical acclaim in the Figure/Ground (Zero) exhibition at Sherman Galleries in Sydney, the Camouflage works are important historical documents. Created at the height of international paranoia over the existence of biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction, the Camouflage works appropriated a well-known portrait
of Hussein. Camouflage #9 was painted in March of 2003, during a time when Hussein’s image was ubiquitous throughout Iraq and the Western media, and the dictator himself was in hiding. With a black commando beret poised cockily on his head and Republican Guard Field Marshall epaulettes adorning his military garb, this portrait encapsulated Hussein’s grandiose persona during his suffocating presidency. Bennett, however, creates a jarring visual experience by overlaying the portrait with a bright pattern of candy-coloured camouflage. The confronting impact of these works has been inevitably altered by historical perspective, and our current knowledge of the chain of events that occurred since this painting was created. Bennett, through his use of distorting discordant patterns, comments on the ambiguity and subterfuge of political rhetoric that existed at the time around the casus belli of the War on Terror. Ian McLean, in his exegesis for the Figure/ Ground (Zero) catalogue, links Bennett’s criticism of political rhetoric in this series to the artist’s long-standing concern with Australian postcolonial perception of indigenous peoples, creating parallels between global and local terror.1 The artist, in a 2003 interview with Bill Wright, explained that the works were about ’colonial dominance’. 2 Bennett was a quintessentially post-modern painter. His works employed a unique syntax that mined the vast contemporary visual landscape – appropriating historical works of art, images from mass media and iconography that was purely the artist’s own. Reminiscent of Andy Warhol’s last self-portrait, Camouflage Self-Portrait, 1986, in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bennett’s Camouflage works applied these patterns to progressively abstract the once iconic image of the dictator, until Camouflage #6, where only a silhouette remained. Bennett creates a ’veil’ for the dictator, shrouding the figure in secrecy, and as McLean notes, dehumanising his ubiquitous image with the ’iconoclastic retribution of defeat’. 3 1. McLean, I., Camouflage, Figure/Ground (Zero), exhibition catalogue, Sherman Galleries, Sydney, 17 July – 9 August 2003 2. The artist in conversation with Bill Wright, cited in Gellatly, K., Gordon Bennett, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2007, p. 105 3. McLean, I., ibid.
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GENE & BRIAN SHERMAN CAPSULE COLLECTION V • LOTS 32 – 40
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GORDON BENNETT
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(1955 – 2014) UNTITLED (BLACK AND BLUE), 1994 synthetic polymer paint and flashe on linen 152.0 x 121.5 cm signed and dated verso: “G Bennett 12 – 8 – 94 / … / …” bears inscription on stretcher bar verso: 3 ESTIMATE: $30,000 – 40,000
PROVENANCE Bellas Gallery, Brisbane (stamped verso) Gene and Brian Sherman Collection, Sydney, acquired in 2000 RELATED WORK Bloodlines, 1993, acrylic on canvas, rope on wood, 3 panels: 182.0 x 425.0 cm (overall), in the collection of Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane
SELECTED LITERATURE Hughes, H., (et al.) Be Polite Gordon Bennett, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane and Sternberg Press, Berlin, 2017 Smith, T., History and Memory in the Art of Gordon Bennett, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham and Henie-Onstad Kunstsenter, Olso, 1999 McLean, I., and Bennett, G., The Art of Gordon Bennett, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1996 Butler, R., Gordon Bennett: paintings 1987 – 1991, Epernay Cedex, France, 1992
Gordon Bennett lived and worked in Brisbane SELECTED EXHIBITIONS 2016 – 2018 Be Polite. Gordon Bennett, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane; Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Perth; Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada; McMaster Museum of Art, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada 2017 The National 2017, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney 2014 8th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, Museen Dahlem, Berlin, Germany 2012 Documenta 13, Kassel, Germany 2008 16th Biennale of Sydney: Revolutions – forms that turn, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney 2007 Gordon Bennett: A Survey, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne and touring to Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane; Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth 2005 International Biennale of Contemporary Art in Prague, National Gallery in Prague, Czech Republic 2004 – 2005 Three Colours, Gordon Bennett and Peter Robinson, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Victoria, touring exhibition 1999 History and Memory in the Art of Gordon Bennett, Brisbane City Gallery, Brisbane and touring in UK and Norway 1995 Transculture, Palazzo Giustinian Lolin, Venice Biennale, Italy touring to Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum, Japan 1992 9th Biennale of Sydney: The Boundary Rider, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney 1989 Perspecta, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
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SELECTED COLLECTIONS Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth Australian National Gallery, Canberra Australian War Memorial, Canberra Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney National Gallery of Australia, Canberra National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne National Portrait Gallery, Canberra Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart TATE Modern, London, United Kingdom REPRESENTED BY Sutton Gallery, Melbourne Milani Gallery, Brisbane
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MICK NAMARARI TJAPALTJARRI
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(c.1926 – 1998) TJUNGINPA (MOUSE) DREAMING, 1997 synthetic polymer paint on canvas 122.0 x 153.0 cm bears inscription verso: artist’s name, size and Papunya Tula Artists cat. MN970760 ESTIMATE: $25,000 – 35,000
PROVENANCE Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs Utopia Art Sydney, Sydney Sherman Galleries, Sydney (stamped verso) Gene and Brian Sherman Collection, Sydney Mick Namarari was the first great practitioner of Western Desert minimalism. Commencing with Wallaby Dreaming, 1982 (Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide), Namarari incrementally reduced the emphasis on signs and icons, moving inexorably towards the assembly of subtly shifting fields composed entirely of dots. When Namarari’s works came to the attention of gallerist, Gabrielle Pizzi in the late 1980s, he was already one of the most accomplished of the founding Papunya painters. Pizzi exhibited several of Namarari’s most abstract works at international art fairs, thereby spearheading the acceptance of Western Desert art in the ultra-competitive world of contemporary art. Allied with comparable canvases by Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula and Ronnie Tjampitjinpa, Namarari’s works displayed such confidence that his minimal paintings materialised as the inevitable outcome of a process set in train at Papunya in the previous decade. The works of desert minimalists are sometimes thought to have sprung from an essentialist view of nature within an abstracted cosmology, however such explanations do not account for the genre’s earthy origins. It is more accurate to approach Namarari’s works as an interpretation of the specific and the minute in nature, amplified and attenuated to encompass the total visual field.1 Neither should the uncanny similitude of the works of Western Desert minimalists to those produced by European and North American modernists deny the contemporary desert artists their individual voice. It is important therefore, when considering works such as Mick Namarari, Tjunginpa (Mouse) Dreaming, 1997 that the artist’s purpose is weighted.2 The starting point for Namarari’s works can be as subtle as the traces left by an animal nestled in dry grass, Bandicoot Dreaming, 1991 (Museum and
Art Gallery Northern Territory, Darwin), or the runways of Tjunginpa, the Spinifex Hopping-mouse, (Notomys alexis), Untitled, 1990 (Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney). Namarari was a custodian of a constellation of sites in the vicinity of the Western Australian/Northern Territory border, several of which were associated with totemic mammals. As a result there has been some confusion regarding the identity of species associated with particular works,3 for example, Tjunginpa is both the name of a hopping-mouse and a totemic site, northwest of Kintore, associated with the species. The behaviour of the mouse sheds some light on the treatment of Namarari’s paintings and the religious significance of this seemingly minor mammal. Tjunginpa live in cool burrows under the sunbaked desert earth. Tunnels connect their burrows, in much the same way as paths in classical Tingari paintings interconnect sacred sites. In times of abundance, following heavy rain, plagues of Tjunginpa emerge from popholes, dotting the sand between favoured food plants with tiny tracks.4 These trackways are reflected in the treatment of Namarari’s paintings. The emergence of the hopping-mice from their burrows reinforces the Indigenous notion that all life comes from the earth. Moreover, the abundance of Tjunginpa streaming from their popholes substantiates a belief that if the correct ceremonies are conducted, animals and plants will flourish. Namarari’s luminous late work Tjunginpa, 1997 is a profound meditation on the cryptic, yet distinctive attributes of particular desert species. Such paintings transport us from the gallery and into a world of minute observation and precious knowledge. 1. Kean, J., ‘Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri’, in Tjukurrtjanu: Origins of Western Desert, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2011, pp. 160 – 2 2. Kean, J., ‘Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri, Shimmer and Shake’, in Brought to Light II, Contemporary Australian Art 1966 – 2006, Queensland Art Gallery Publishing, Brisbane, pp. 78-83 3. Various authors, in Papunya Tula: Genesis and Genius, Art Gallery of New South Wales in association with Papunya Tula Artists, Sydney, 2000, p. 283 4. Moseby, K., Nano, T., and Southgate, R., Tales in the Sand: A Guide to Identifying Australian Arid Zone Fauna Using Spoor and Other Signs, Ecological Horizons, South Australia, 2009, p. 87 JOHN KEAN
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GENE & BRIAN SHERMAN CAPSULE COLLECTION V • LOTS 32 – 40
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PROPERTY OF VARIOUS VENDORS
IMANTS TILLERS
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born 1950 WATERFALL (AFTER WILLIAMS), 2011 synthetic polymer paint on 32 canvas boards 203.0 x 142.0 cm (overall) each panel numbered sequentially with stencil verso: 89282 – 89313 ESTIMATE: $35,000 – 45,000
PROVENANCE Private collection, New South Wales EXHIBITED The Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 31 Mar – 12 June 2012 and touring (Winner, Wynne Prize) Imants Tillers The Fleeting Self, ARC ONE Gallery, Melbourne, 18 June – 20 July 2013 LITERATURE Allen, C., ‘Oh no, not you again – The Archibald, Sulman and Wynne prizes’, The Australian, Sydney, 21 April 2012 Mendelssohn, J., ‘Times change but the art establishment rolls on’, The Conversation, 2 April 2013 [https://theconversation.com/ times-change-but-the-art-establishment-rolls-on-13058] (illus.) RELATED WORK Eugene von Guérard, Waterfall, Strath Creek, 1862, oil on canvas, 83.2 x 65.7 cm, in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Fred Williams, Untitled, [Free copy of Eugene Von Guerard’s Waterfall, Strath Creek, 1862], 1970, gouache on paper, 60.2 x 37.4 cm, in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Imants Tillers, Untitled (Deaf), 1989, synthetic polymer paint on 48 canvas boards, 213 x 165 cm, in the collection of TarraWarra Museum of Art, Victoria
Eugene von Guérard’s 1862 masterpiece, Waterfall, Strath Creek, although modest in scale, encapsulates the Romantic sense of awe and scientific exactitude that would propel the Austrian artist to the status of one of Australia’s greatest colonial painters. Waterfall, Strath Creek at the Art Gallery of New South Wales became a touchstone of Australian landscape painting for contemporary artists. During the 1970s and 1980s, its dynamic composition was reprised several times in a chain of appropriation that would ultimately culminate with Imants Tillers’ magnificent, Wynne prize-winning painting: Waterfall (After Williams), 2011. Speaking of his work at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 2012, Tillers explained that the painting could be more aptly described as a ‘meditation on landscape’ in the wake of the revolution of aboriginal landscape painting.1
Key to Tillers’ work is the idea that the landscape is a constructed space, the product of a highly mediated conception of nature. A postmodern artist par excellence, Tillers longstanding artistic practice has been founded on its devices: appropriation, grid-based enlargement and reproduction and application of text and stencilled overlay on the painted surface. Waterfall (After Williams) is, in fact, thrice removed from the original subject, the 50m valley through which flows the Strath Creek waterfall, in the thickly timbered country of Victoria’s Mount Disappointment. Von Guérard visited this site in January of 1862, as did Fred Williams in 1970 when he painted Free copy of Eugene Von Guerard’s Waterfall Strath Creek, now held in the National Gallery of Australia. Tillers did not go so far, choosing instead to appropriate Fred William’s gouache plein-air study, translating its painterly gestures into graphic, stencilled silhouettes. Further obscured under layers of text, the final image of Waterfall (After Williams) bears little resemblance to von Guérard’s original detailed naturalist painting. As an interpretation of an interpretation, Tillers’ work speaks to the idea of flux and transience, with the waterfall a metaphor for an everchanging landscape. Over a hundred years after von Guérard, contemporary artist William Delafield Cook sat at the same spot in the bottom of the valley, looking up towards its V-shaped ravine, recording the scene with his own signature photographic realism. The resulting vast painting of a parched and bleached summer landscape won the Wynne prize in 1980 and was acquired for the Art Gallery of New South Wales’ collection the following year.2 Fred Williams also returned to this subject in oil paint to attempt to capture the spectacular scale of the falls. Continuing this chain of dialogue between the landscape and his artistic forefathers, in 1989 Imants Tillers painted Untitled (Deaf), which was a closer reprisal of von Guérard’s Waterfall, Strath Creek, overlaid with a decorative arabesque appropriated from American artist Philipp Taaffe’s Now and Then, 1988. Executed in vertically oriented canvas boards, Untitled (Deaf) initiated Tillers’ own part in this decades-long discussion of the mediated nature of Australian landscape painting. In this last iteration, of 2012, alongside the stanzas of an Indian sutra, ‘the fleeting self / like a dream/ like a vision’ over the canvas boards appear phrases that invite historical accountability and invite a re-assessment of the genre: ‘who we were/ all this / reality works in overt mystery / abolish / will never.’ 1. The artist, 9 April 2012 [https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/wynne/2012/29209/] 2. William Delafield Cook, A waterfall (Strath Creek), 1980 – 1, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 198.2 x 156.2 cm, in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. LUCIE REEVES-SMITH
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ROSALIE GASCOIGNE (1917 – 1999) DOVECOT, 1977 weathered wood bottle box, with painted wood surveyor’s pegs and builder’s offcuts 44.0 x 55.0 x 13.0 cm ESTIMATE: $12,000 – 18,000
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PROVENANCE Ray Hughes Gallery, Brisbane The Estate of Ray Hughes, Sydney EXHIBITED Rosalie Gascoigne, Ray Hughes Gallery, Brisbane, 16 June – 5 July 1979, cat. 4 Rosalie Gascoigne, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 19 December 2008 – 15 March 2009 LITERATURE Gellatly, K., Rosalie Gascoigne, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2008, p. 134 Gascoigne, M., Rosalie Gascoigne. A Catalogue Raisonné, ANU Press, Canberra, 2019, cat. 142, p. 178 (illus.)
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GWYN HANSSEN PIGOTT (1935 – 2013) STILL LIFE WITH BROWN BOWL, 1999 Limoges porcelain ten pieces (4 bottles, 2 bowls, 2 beakers, 2 jugs) 31.0 cm height each stamped at base with artist’s roundel ESTIMATE: $12,000 – 18,000 (10)
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PROVENANCE Rex Irwin Art Dealer, Sydney Private collection, New South Wales, acquired from the above in 1999 EXHIBITED Somatic Object, Ludwig Furm für Internationale Kunst, Aachen, Germany, 27 October – 28 November 1999 on loan to the Australia Council for the Arts, Sydney, 2000 – 2001 Still Life Still Lives, Newcastle Region Art Gallery, Newcastle, New South Wales, 10 May – 29 June 2003 Eminent Artists, Newcastle Region Art Gallery, Newcastle, New South Wales, 5 July – 14 September 2003 A Touch of Ceramics, Boutwell Draper Gallery, Sydney, 17 November – 18 December 2004
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MARGARET PRESTON (1875 – 1963) DAHLIA AND SUNFLOWER, 1933 hand-coloured woodcut 30.5 x 30.5 cm signed with initials in image lower right: MP signed and inscribed with title below image: Sunflowers + dahlias Margaret Preston ESTIMATE: $12,000 – 16,000
PROVENANCE Philip Bacon Gallery, Brisbane Private collection, Queensland, acquired from the above in 1984 Estate of the above, Queensland EXHIBITED Exhibition of Etchings, Woodcuts etc. by Margaret Preston (and others), The Sedon Galleries, Melbourne, 12 September 1933, cat. 14 (another example, as ‘Sunflowers etc.’) Exhibition of Etchings, Woodcuts & Pencil drawings, The Sedon Galleries, Melbourne, 12 – 24 December 1933, cat. 178 (another example) Exhibition of Etchings, Woodcuts etc., The Sedon Galleries, Melbourne, 9 – 24 December 1936, cat. 150 (another example, as ‘Dahlia and Sunflowers’) Society of Artists, Parbury House, Brisbane, 19 May – 5 June 1937, cat. 75 (another example, as ‘Sunflower’) LITERATURE Art in Australia, Sydney, Third series, no. 50, June 1933, p. 48 (as ‘Sunflowers and Dahlias’) Butler, R., The Prints of Margaret Preston: A Catalogue Raisonné, Australian National Gallery, Canberra and Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1987, cat. 170, p. 166 (illus., another example) RELATED WORK Other examples of this print are held in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra and the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
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MARGARET PRESTON (1875 – 1963) ROUGH WEATHER, SYDNEY HEADS, 1946 colour monotype 30.5 x 40.0 cm signed below image lower right: Margaret Preston inscribed with title below image lower left: Rough Weather Sydney Heads. monotype ESTIMATE: $18,000 – 24,000
PROVENANCE Charles Lloyd Jones, Sydney, by 1949 Deutscher Fine Art, Melbourne Private collection, Sydney, acquired from the above in 1988 EXHIBITED Australian Art: 1820s – 1980s, Deutscher Fine Art, Melbourne, 19 May – 3 June 1988, cat. 52 (illus. in exhibition catalogue) LITERATURE Ure Smith, S., Margaret Preston’s Monotypes, Ure Smith, Sydney, 1949, p. 67 Butler, R., The Prints of Margaret Preston: A Catalogue Raisonné, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 1987, cat. 302 Margaret Preston Catalogue Raisonné of paintings, monotypes and ceramics, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2005, CD-ROM compiled by Mimmocchi, D., with Edwards, D., and Peel, R.
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LLOYD REES (1895 – 1988) RIVER LANDSCAPE, 1931 pencil on paper 12.0 x 20.0 cm signed and dated lower right: LLOYD REES 1931 ESTIMATE: $6,000 – 9,000
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PROVENANCE David Sumner Galleries, Adelaide (cat. 991, label attached verso) Private collection, Melbourne
LLOYD REES (1895 – 1988) MEDICI PALACE, ROME, 1924 (VERSO: PALACE INTERIOR) pen and ink on paper 22.0 x 22.5 cm signed and dated lower left: LLOYD REES / 1924 ESTIMATE: $10,000 – 15,000
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PROVENANCE Bertrand James Waterhouse, Sydney Mary Roberta Owen OAM, Melbourne Thence by descent Private collection, Victoria EXHIBITED Lloyd Rees Loan Exhibition, National Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1 August – 30 August 1942, cat. 23 LITERATURE Free, R., Lloyd Rees, Lansdowne Press, Sydney, 1972, cat. D73 RELATED WORK Villa Medici, 1924, pen and ink on paper, 19.0 x 23.5 cm, in the collection of the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth A Roman Villa, 1937, pen and ink on paper, 16.4 x 23.5 cm, in the collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
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ELIOTH GRUNER (1882 – 1939) PASTORAL LANDSCAPE oil on canvas on board 28.0 x 40.0 cm signed lower left: Gruner ESTIMATE: $15,000 – 20,000
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PROVENANCE Leonard Joel, Melbourne, 5 November 1975, lot 601 (as ‘Cows in Winter Pastures’) Private collection, Melbourne
ELIOTH GRUNER (1882 – 1939) THE VALE, 1926 oil on canvas on board 24.0 x 29.5 cm signed and dated lower right: GRUNER / 1926 bears inscription verso: Landscape, N.S.W. bears inscription on label verso: 3
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PROVENANCE Estate of the artist, Sydney Macquarie Galleries, Sydney (label attached verso) Mrs John Maund, Sydney (label attached verso) Private collection, New South Wales, acquired from the above Thence by descent Private collection, New South Wales Sotheby’s, Sydney, 26 November 2007, lot 63 Private collection, Sydney
ESTIMATE: $18,000 – 25,000 EXHIBITED Elioth Gruner Memorial Loan Exhibition, National Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 17 April – 31 May 1940, cat. 21 (as ‘Landscape, N.S.W.’, label attached verso)
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JAMES R. JACKSON (1882 – 1975) SYDNEY HARBOUR FROM KURRABA POINT oil on canvas 71.5 x 92.0 cm signed lower right: JAMES R. JACKSON bears inscription on Sedon Galleries label verso: James R Jackson / Sydney Harbour / from Kurraba Point north shore / looking toward eastern part of city of Sydney ESTIMATE: $15,000 – 20,000
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PROVENANCE The Sedon Galleries, Melbourne (label attached verso) Private collection, Melbourne
JOHN PASSMORE (1904 – 1984) LANDSCAPE, 1946 oil on canvas on board 40.0 x 50.0 cm signed and dated lower right: J PASSMORE ’46 bears inscription verso: PASSMORE / JOHN bears inscription on frame verso: CF0495
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PROVENANCE Private collection, Sydney Thence by descent Private collection, Victoria
ESTIMATE: $8,000 – 12,000
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MICHAEL SHANNON (1927 – 1993) STUDIO STILL LIFE NO. 2, c.1958 oil on composition board 64.0 x 91.5 cm signed lower left: Shannon bears inscription verso: No. 2 ESTIMATE: $15,000 – 20,000
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PROVENANCE Private collection, Adelaide Thence by descent Private collection, United Kingdom EXHIBITED possibly: Michael Shannon, Australian Galleries, Melbourne, 24 February 1959, cat. 13 (as ‘Studio Still Life’) Michael Shannon, Royal S.A. Society of Arts, Adelaide, February – March 1960, cat. 8 RELATED WORK Still Life No. 2, 1957, oil on composition board, 60.0 x 91.5 cm, in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney Studio Interior, 1958, oil on composition board, 137.0 x 92.0 cm, in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, illus. in Sturgeon, G., Michael Shannon, Painting and the Poetry of Daily Life, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1990, pl.7, pp. 62 – 63 (as ‘The Studio’)
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EDWIN TANNER (1920 – 1980) GIFT HORSE, 1956 (VERSO: STUDY FOR THE DRAUGHTSMAN) oil on canvas on board 61.5 x 66.0 cm signed and dated upper left: EDWIN TANNER. 56. ESTIMATE: $18,000 – 24,000 PROVENANCE Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney (label attached verso, stock no. 2650) Rudy Komon, Sydney (by 1976) Ray Hughes, Sydney The Estate of Ray Hughes, Sydney EXHIBITED Edwin Tanner, Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, 7 – 24 April 1959, cat. 10 Edwin Tanner, Powell Street Gallery,
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Melbourne, 23 June – 10 July 1970, cat. 12 Edwin Tanner Retrospective, The Age Gallery, Melbourne, 18 – 29 October 1976, cat. 80 Edwin Tanner: Works 1952– 1980, Monash University Gallery, Melbourne, 15 March – 12 May 1990, cat. 17 Edwin Tanner: Paintings 1952 – 1979, The Hughes Gallery, Sydney, 30 October – 25 November 2014, cat. 22; Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne, 12 March – 4 April 2015, cat. 5 Edwin Tanner. Mathematical Expressionist, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Victoria, 12 May – 15 July 2018 LITERATURE Duncan, J., Edwin Tanner Works 1952–1980, Monash University Gallery, Melbourne, 1990, pp. 14 (illus.) 18, 25 Hemingway, B., and Nodrum, C., Edwin Tanner: Paintings 1952 – 1979, The Estate of Edwin Tanner in association with The Hughes Gallery, Sydney & Charles Nodrum Gallery Melbourne, 2014, pp. 24 – 25 (illus.) Fitzpatrick, A., Edwin Tanner. Mathematical Expressionist, TarraWarra Museum of Art, Victoria, 2018, pp. 22, 103 (illus.), 132
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CHARLES BLACKMAN (1928 – 2018) CHILDREN IN TERRACE HOUSES, 1954 charcoal on paper 50.0 x 60.0 cm signed and dated lower left: Blackman 1954
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PROVENANCE Robert Rooney, Melbourne, acquired directly from the artist Estate of Robert Rooney, Melbourne EXHIBITED Blackman Paintings, Mirka’s Studio, Melbourne, 2 – 13 November 1954
ESTIMATE: $12,000 – 16,000 LITERATURE Shapcott, T., The Art of Charles Blackman, Andre Deutsch, London, pl.41 (illus.), p. 250
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CHARLES BLACKMAN (1928 – 2018) UNDERWATER MAN, 1954 charcoal on paper 50.0 x 60.0 cm signed and dated upper right: 1954. BLACKMAN bears inscription verso: Beach Figure – “The Underwater Man” / Charles Blackman 1954 ESTIMATE: $12,000 – 16,000
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PROVENANCE Robert Rooney, Melbourne, acquired directly from the artist Estate of Robert Rooney, Melbourne EXHIBITED Charles Blackman: Schoolgirls and Angels, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 18 May – 16 August 1993, and touring: Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 23 September – 21 November 1993; City Art Gallery, Brisbane, 7 December 1993 – 27 January 1994; Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, 16 February – 4 April 1994, cat. 30 (label attached verso) LITERATURE Moore, F. St. J., Charles Blackman: Schoolgirls and Angels, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1993, p. 49 (illus.)
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BRETT WHITELEY (1939 – 1992) TOWARDS SCULPTURE 5, 1977 lithograph 90.0 x 63.0 cm (sheet) edition: 35/50 signed and numbered below image artist’s stamp in image upper right ESTIMATE: $15,000 – 20,000
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PROVENANCE Guelda Pyke, Melbourne Private collection, Melbourne, a gift from the above c.1995 LITERATURE Deutscher, C., Brett Whiteley: The Graphics 19611992, Deutscher Fine Art, Melbourne, 1995, cat. 32, p. 42 and front cover (illus., another example) RELATED WORK Another example of this print is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
GEORGE BALDESSIN (1939 – 1978) PERSONAGE, c.1969 ink and oil wash on gesso on incised plywood 31.5 x 38.0 cm signed lower right: George Baldessin ESTIMATE: $12,000 – 18,000
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PROVENANCE Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney (label attached verso, stock no.4339) Ray Hughes, Sydney The Estate of Ray Hughes, Sydney EXHIBITED Probably: George Baldessin, Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney, 30 September 1970 RELATED WORK Personage, c.1969, oil wash on gesso on plywood, 31.5 x 23.0 cm, in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, illus. in Baldessin/Whiteley Parallel Visions, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2018, p. 112
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RICK AMOR born 1948 STATION, 1989 – 90 oil on canvas 106.8 x 76.0 cm signed and dated lower right: RICK AMOR 90 dated and inscribed with title verso: STATION / NOV-DEC ‘89’
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PROVENANCE Niagara Galleries, Melbourne Private collection, Queensland, acquired from the above in July 1990 EXHIBITED Rick Amor, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne, 19 June – 7 July 1990, cat. 1
ESTIMATE: $18,000 – 24,000 LITERATURE Catalano, G.,’A harsh view of the city as fearful labyrinth’, The Age, Melbourne, 27 June 1990, p. 14
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TIM STORRIER born 1949 WAVE AND GARLAND, 2002 synthetic polymer paint on board 40.0 x 50.0 cm signed lower left: Storrier
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PROVENANCE Metro 5 Gallery, Melbourne Private collection, Melbourne
ESTIMATE: $14,000 – 18,000
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ANTONI CLAVÉ
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(1913 – 2005, Spanish) THE KING OF CARDS (ROI AU FOND ROUGE), 1957 oil, collage and paper on board 77.0 x 55.0 cm signed, dated and inscribed with title on label verso: ‘Roi Au Fond Rouge[…] 1957 Clavé’ bears inscription verso: Antoni Clave (S34) ‘The King of Cards’ […] Gift from An Clavé 25-8-58 certificate of authenticity issued by Archives Antoni Clavé accompanies the work, archive number 58TMPMPN57 ESTIMATE: $30,000 – 50,000 PROVENANCE Mr and Mrs Oscar Edwards, Sydney, acquired directly from the artist in August 1958 Judy Cassab, Sydney The Estate of Judy Cassab, Sydney Shapiro Auctioneers, Sydney, 17 May 2016, lot 45 Private collection, Sydney EXHIBITED Famous Painters in Private Collections, Hicks Atkinsons Gallery, Melbourne, c.1960s (label attached verso) Born in Barcelona in 1913, Antoni Clavé is regarded as one of Spain’s most celebrated artists with a vast and varied oeuvre encompassing painting, printmaking and sculpture, as well as stage and costume design. Born in 1913 in Barcelona, he trained at the Barcelona School of Fine Arts at the age of thirteen, before working in advertising and decoration where he delighted in the opportunity to delve into avantgarde experimentation, creating collages with various material, rope, printed textiles, cardboard and newspaper. Upon the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, Clavé enlisted as a draughtsman for the Republican Government Army and, at the conclusion of the war in 1939, was forced to flee to France as a refugee. Settling in Paris, Clavé initially worked as an illustrator for children’s books and in 1940, held his first solo show at the ‘Au sans Pareil’ bookshop, 37 Avenue Kleber – the same venue where Max Ernst and other leading figures from the Dada movement had been exhibiting since the 1920s. In 1944, he met fellow expatriate Picasso who was to have a profound influence upon his artistic development. Indeed, where previously he had embraced an intimate, decorative style betraying affinities with Post-Impressionist artists such as Bonnard, Vuillard and Rouault, now Clavé embarked upon figure compositions such as the present King of Cards (Roi au Fond Rouge), 1957 – which were inspired by not only Picasso’s motifs of kings, harlequins and children, but his radical use of the collage technique.
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Following the end of World War II, Clavé began to increasingly attract international recognition with theatrical designs for stage sets in New York, Munich, London and Paris, including most notably Los Caprichos (1946) and Carmen (1949) for Roland Petit’s ballet company, Les Ballets des Champs Elysées, and was nominated for two Academy Awards (Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design) for his work on the 1952 film, Hans Christian Andersen. During this period, Clavé also continued to exhibit widely at the Galerie Witcomb, Buenos Aires (1951); the Galerie Drouant-David in Paris (1953); and Galleria del Sole, Milan (1954), and in 1954, abandoned theatrical design in order to devote himself more fully to his painting which had now become substantially more abstract and enigmatic, integrating the influence of wall textures and graffiti, as well as objets trouvés employed in a collage-like manner. In 1957, he began to design carpets, and from 1960, embarked upon sculptural bas reliefs, assemblages and totem-like sculptures of wood and modelled or imprinted lead. In 1958, the first survey exhibition of Clavé’s work was organised by Galerie Creuzevault, Paris; and after several solo exhibitions in Zurich, Barcelona, Paris and Tokyo during the intervening years, Clavé was honoured with a major retrospective at the Centre Pompidou Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris in 1978, and in 1984, represented Spain at the prestigious Venice Biennale. Today Clavé’s work may be found in many major museums and galleries around the world, including the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; the Tate Gallery, London; the Museo de Bellas de Bilbao, Spain; the Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris; the Museo Nacional de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; the Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; and the British Museum, London. VERONICA ANGELATOS
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ELIOT HODGKIN (1905 – 1987, British) CONVOLVULUS, 1953 tempera on paper 44.0 x 13.0 cm signed and dated lower left: Eliot Hodgkin / July 1953 ESTIMATE: $6,000 – 9,000
PROVENANCE Burlington Art Academy, London Sotheby’s Australia, Melbourne, 1 April 2015, lot 377 Private collection, Sydney EXHIBITED Contemporary British Painters, Wildenstein & Co. Ltd, London, 18 November – 23 December 1953, cat. 36 LITERATURE Eliot Hodgkin online catalogue raisonné [https://www. eliothodgkin.com/work/convolvulus/] (accessed 16/06/20)
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ROLAND STRASSER (1895 – 1974, Austrian) TIBET (POTALA PALACE), c.1926 oil on canvas 83.2 x 66.5 cm signed and inscribed with title lower right: Straßer/ Tibet
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PROVENANCE Private collection, Sydney
ESTIMATE: $10,000 – 15,000
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LEONARD FRENCH (1928 – 2017) CHURCH IN A CITY, 1949 oil on board 37.0 x 47.0 cm signed and dated upper right: French 49 ESTIMATE: $5,000 – 8,000
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PROVENANCE Polly Pyke, Melbourne Private collection, Melbourne, a gift from the above c.1995 EXHIBITED Leonard French, Tye’s Gallery, Melbourne, October 1949 LITERATURE French, L. and Buckley, V., Leonard French: The Campion Paintings, Grayflower Publications, Melbourne, 1962, p. 97
JOHN COBURN (1925 – 2006) SUMMER GARDEN, 1995 oil on canvas 83.0 x 105.0 cm signed lower left: Coburn signed, dated and inscribed with title verso: JOHN COBURN / SUMMER GARDEN / 1995
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PROVENANCE Axia Gallery, Melbourne Private collection, Melbourne
ESTIMATE: $20,000 – 30,000
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BILL HAMMOND
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born 1947, New Zealand BANANA NEVER SLEEPS, 1982 synthetic polymer paint, collage and pencil on wood panel 25.5 x 39.0 cm signed, dated and inscribed with title lower right: Banana Never SLEEPS / W Hammond / 1982 ESTIMATE: $8,000 – 12,000
LUDWIG HIRSCHFELD-MACK (1893 – 1965, German/Australian) FIGURES, 1960 colour monotype 20.5 x 22.0 cm signed and dated lower right: L.H. Mack 1960 ESTIMATE: $4,000 – 6,000 PROVENANCE Joan Gough’s Studio Gallery, Melbourne Private collection Sotheby’s, Melbourne, 25 August 1998, lot 348 (as ‘Abstract Composition – Figures’) Private collection, Melbourne LITERATURE Art and Australia, Sydney, vol. 16, no. 1, September 1978, p. 15 (illus.)
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PROVENANCE Brooke | Gifford Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand (label attached verso) The Estate of Ray Hughes, Sydney, acquired directly from the artist
SAM FULLBROOK
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(1922 – 2004) JOCKEY, c.1994 oil on canvas board 22.5 x 17.0 cm signed with initials lower left: SF ESTIMATE: $5,000 – 7,000 PROVENANCE The Estate of Ray Hughes, Sydney
SAM FULLBROOK (1922 – 2004) DEATH OF A WILD PARROT, 1963 oil on canvas board 15.0 x 29.0 cm signed lower left: Fullbrook bears inscription with artist’s name, title and date verso: FULLBROOK Death of Wild Parrot / 1963 ESTIMATE: $3,500 – 5,500
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PROVENANCE Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney (label attached verso, stock no.655) The Estate of Rudy Komon, Sydney Ray Hughes, Sydney The Estate of Ray Hughes, Sydney EXHIBITED A Tribute to Sam Fullbrook, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 3 – 30 August 1976, cat. 37 (label attached verso)
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JOHN OLSEN born 1928 CATS watercolour and ink on paper 56.0 x 75.0 cm signed with initials lower right: JO ESTIMATE: $10,000 – 15,000
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PROVENANCE Private collection, Melbourne Thence by descent Private collection, Melbourne
JOHN OLSEN
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born 1928 BICYCLE BOYS (STUDY), 1954 – 55 pen and ink and wash on paper 33.5 x 37.5 cm signed lower left: J Olsen ESTIMATE: $5,500 – 7,500 PROVENANCE Rudy Komon, Sydney The Estate of Rudy Komon, Sydney Ray Hughes, Sydney The Estate of Ray Hughes, Sydney LITERATURE Hart, D. John Olsen, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1991, p. 18 (illus.) RELATED WORK The Bicycle Boys Rejoice, 1955, 60.0 x 75.5 cm, oil on canvas, The Estate of James Fairfax AC, Deutscher and Hackett, Melbourne, 30 August 2017, lot 7, Private collection, Melbourne, illus., in Spate, V., John Olsen, Georgian House, Melbourne, 1963, pl. 10, p. 17 (illus.)
WILLIAM ROBINSON
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born 1936 CHOOKS, 1983 pencil on paper 55.5 x 73.5 cm (sight) signed lower left: William Robinson ESTIMATE: $6,000 – 8,000 PROVENANCE Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney Ray Hughes, Sydney The Estate of Ray Hughes, Sydney EXHIBITED Animals on paper: from the Australian collection of prints, drawings and watercolours, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 5 September – 5 October 1992; Dubbo Regional Art Gallery, NSW, 18 December 1992 – 24 January 1993; Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery, NSW, 1 – 30 May 1993; Grafton Regional Gallery, NSW, 11 June – 1 August 1993, cat. 70 (label attached verso)
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JOHN PETER RUSSELL (1858 – 1930) PORTRAIT OF A MAN, 1886 pencil on paper 28.0 x 14.0 cm ESTIMATE: $4,000 – 6,000 PROVENANCE Christie’s, South Kensington, United Kingdom, 30 November 1989, lot 23 (as ‘Portrait d’homme’) Private collection, New South Wales
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PIERRE BONNARD (1867 – 1947, French) PORTRAIT DE JEUNE FEMME, 1921 pencil on paper 17.0 x 12.0 cm ESTIMATE: $4,000 – 6,000 PROVENANCE Wolseley Fine Arts, London (label attached to verso) Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney, acquired from the above in 2001 Ray Hughes, Sydney The Estate of Ray Hughes, Sydney EXHIBITED Pierre Bonnard 1867 – 1947, Hooghstate Museum, Haastrecht, The Netherlands, 18 – 27 May 2001; Wolseley Fine Arts, London, United Kingdom, 6 June – 14 July 2001; The Hughes Gallery, Sydney, 10 August – 5 September 2001, cat. 24 (illus. in exhibition catalogue, label attached verso)
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PIERRE BONNARD
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(1867 – 1947, French) TABLE DRESSÉE AVEC FRUITS ET GÂTEAUX, c.1930 pencil on paper 12.5 x 16.0 cm artist’s studio stamp lower right ESTIMATE: $4,000 – 6,000 PROVENANCE Wolseley Fine Arts, London (label attached to verso) Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney, acquired from the above in 2001 Ray Hughes, Sydney The Estate of Ray Hughes, Sydney EXHIBITED Pierre Bonnard 1867 – 1947, Hooghstate Museum, Haastrecht, The Netherlands, 18 – 27 May 2001; Wolseley Fine Arts, London, United Kingdom, 6 June – 14 July 2001; The Hughes Gallery, Sydney, 10 August – 5 September 2001, cat. 55 (illus. in exhibition catalogue, label attached verso)
PIERRE BONNARD
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(1867 – 1947, French) PORTE-FENÊTRE OUVERTE, VERNON, 1921 pencil on paper 12.5 x 16.0 cm ESTIMATE: $4,000 – 6,000 PROVENANCE Wolseley Fine Arts, London (label attached to verso) Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney, acquired from the above in 2001 Ray Hughes, Sydney The Estate of Ray Hughes, Sydney EXHIBITED Pierre Bonnard 1867 – 1947, Hooghstate Museum, Haastrecht, The Netherlands, 18 – 27 May 2001; Wolseley Fine Arts, London, United Kingdom, 6 June – 14 July 2001; The Hughes Gallery, Sydney, 10 August – 5 September 2001, cat. 35 (illus. in exhibition catalogue, label attached verso) RELATED WORK Porte-fenêtre ouverte, Vernon, 1921, oil on canvas, 118.0 x 96.0 cm, The Phillips Collection, USA, illus. in Dauberville, J. and H., Bonnard: catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre peint, Editions J. et H. Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, vol. 3, cat. 1065
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part 2
THE PETER AND RENATE NAHUM COLLECTION OF ABORIGINAL ART, LONDON LOTS 76 – 129
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THE PETER AND RENATE NAHUM COLLECTION OF ABORIGINAL ART, LONDON LOT 76 – 129
During his seventeen-year tenure at Sotheby’s London, Peter Nahum established the Victorian Painting Department at the newly opened premises in Belgravia (1971) and was head of the British Painting Department (1840 to Contemporary) until his departure. In 1984 he set up his own gallery which later became Peter Nahum At The Leicester Galleries and over twenty-five years as a passionate art dealer and expert followed. Located in St. James, London, the gallery specialised in high quality nineteenth and twentieth century British art. From the 1970s Peter Nahum produced numerous scholarly publications and exhibition catalogues ranging in subject from Victorian art (particularly Burne-Jones and the PreRaphaelites), through to twentieth century British art, with a focus on surrealism. A large collection of books, journals and exhibition catalogues was donated by Peter and Renate Nahum to the Paul Mellon Centre Library, London in 2012, comprising thousands of publications on nineteenth and twentieth century British art and artists. From 1981 – 2002 Peter Nahum was a regular contributor to the BBC’s popular Antiques Roadshow, rediscovering Richard Dadd’s lost watercolour Artists Halt in the Desert, c.1845, which he later sold to the British Museum. In 2017 – 18, he built the online website for the Burne-Jones Catalogue Raisonné and continues to act as adviser and coordinator to the project. Reflecting on his career, Peter Nahum muses: “Dealers are glorified collectors … the only difference between a dealer and a traditional collector is that a dealer’s collection is, in principle, faster moving – their motto must be ‘Sell and Regret’.“
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In 2006 Christie’s London sold The Poetry of Crisis: The Peter Nahum Collection of British Surrealist and AvantGarde Art, “one of the outstanding single-owner collections of modern British art in private hands, assembled over a period of 20 years and representing the collecting passion and discerning eye of Peter Nahum.” Peter and Renate Nahum’s engagement with Australian art began in the late 1980s. Assembled over a period of twenty years, the Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art is the antithesis of Victorian painting and far removed from British surrealism, but reflects their enquiring minds and keen eyes. The bold simplicity of the art of the Kimberley and the fine bark designs of John Mawurndjul resonated for them as parts of a unique and truly international art movement. Looking at Australian Aboriginal Art with fresh eyes, the collection highlights the importance of eucalyptus bark paintings from Maningrida, Yirrkala and Western Arnhem Land, which stand in stark contrast to the distinctive group of Utopia paintings presented alongside the imagery of urban Aboriginal artists. Within this collection, these extreme points in contemporary Aboriginal art history are observed with passion from a curator’s perspective. CHRIS DEUTSCHER
PETER AND RENATE NAHUM, PAUL MELLON CENTRE, LONDON Courtesy Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London
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ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA)
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(c.1926 – 1998) BARAGU COUNTRY, 1989 natural earth pigments and bush gum on canvas 110.0 x 70.0 cm bears inscription verso: artist’s name, size, Waringarri Arts cat. S-1988 and AP1971 ESTIMATE: $50,000 – $70,000
PROVENANCE Waringarri Arts, Kununurra, Western Australia (label attached verso) Deutscher Gertrude Street, Melbourne (label attached verso) The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London, acquired from the above in 1989 EXHIBITED Turkey Creek: Recent Work: Rover Thomas/Paddy Jaminji/ George Mung Mung/Jack Britten/Freddy Timms, Deutscher Gertrude Street, Melbourne, 25 October – 17 November 1989, cat. 4 (illus. exhibition catalogue front cover)
The art of Rover Thomas is synonymous with East Kimberley painting, but his origins lie further south in the Great Sandy Desert. Born at Yalta, a soak just north of Kunawarritji (Well 33) on the Canning Stock Route, after the death of his parents at the age of ten, he travelled north following stockmen along the Canning to Bililuna and beyond into the Kimberley. Rover eventually became a stockman himself and his travels across vast swathes of country infuse his later art practice. Painted for Waringarri Arts in Kununurra in 1989, the year before Rover Thomas was selected as one of the first two Aboriginal artists (together with Trevor Nickolls), to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale, Baragu Country exemplifies the best of his paintings. Layers of natural pigments affixed with a synthetic binder are outlined by a tracery of white dots painted with huntite, a white chalky pigment used in ceremony and rock art. The canvas, lightly infused with the natural pigments, develops a unique velvety surface. The work shows an aerial view of the landscape where two large irregular forms infilled with light sandy brown and light red/dusky pink pigments are bisected and surrounded by a narrow band of black charcoal. The subject of this painting is Lake Gregory, now known by its Walmajarri name Paruku, which is a declared Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) that covers around 430,000 hectares on the borders of the
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Great Sandy Desert and Tanami regions, 200 kilometres south of the township of Halls Creek in Western Australia. An area of spectacular wetlands that is internationally renowned as a haven for large numbers of birds and other animals, it includes an extensive lake system, the only one in the region with a reliable source of fresh water. Primarily sourced from Tjurabalan (Sturt Creek) which flow into Lake Gregory from its beginnings some 800 kilometres north-east across the border in the Northern Territory, it is an important site for the local indigenous people. The traditional owners believe it was formed when a star fell from the sky into the lake and transformed itself into a man, becoming the very first Traditional Owner of this place. A breeding ground for budgerigars, Lake Gregory is also the home of the Billiluna Rainbow Snake. Rover Thomas articulated a highly personal way of telling stories and establishing connection to the land and its related ceremonies. Idiosyncratic in style, his paintings established a new typology and visual language distinct to the east Kimberley region of Western Australia. Both planar and aerial views of land are united in his compositions, where the past and the present also converge. They map tracts of country whilst exploring the regional history and ancestral tales of these same locations. Thomas’ compositions carefully balance the landscape and the narrative in natural harmony – executed in earth pigments and natural resins, his canvases are characterised by the interaction between large open expanses and bold forms. In August 2001 the High Court of Australia formally recognised the Traditional Owners of this area held native title over the land. The handover ceremony was conducted on the shores of Paruku, symbolising the significance of this place to local Aboriginal people. CRISPIN GUTTERIDGE
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ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA)
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(c.1926 – 1998) TRIBUTARIES OF THE ORD RIVER, 1991 natural earth pigments and bush gum on canvas 90.5 x 180.0 cm signed verso: ROVER ESTIMATE: $200,000 – 300,000
PROVENANCE Mary Macha, Perth Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne Private collection, Melbourne Deutscher~Menzies, Melbourne, 27 June 2000, lot 109 Private collection, Victoria Lawson~Menzies, Sydney, 30 July 2002, lot 81 Private collection, Switzerland Christie’s, London, 12 December 2007, lot 81 The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London EXHIBITED On loan to the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, and exhibited in the general collection between 2002 – 2006
Painted the year after Rover Thomas was the first Aboriginal artist to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale,1 Tributaries of the Ord River, 1991 is a robustly painted visual mnemonic of country well traversed by the artist in his days as a stockman in and around Texas Downs Station in the eastern Kimberley, towards the border with the Northern Territory. By the time of the Venice exhibition, Rover Thomas was acknowledged as the leading artist of the Eastern Kimberley painting movement that emerged at Warmun (Turkey Creek) in the 1980s. The catalyst for this movement was the Gurirr Gurirr, a barlga or public ceremony that was revealed to the artist when he first settled at Warmun in the wake of Cyclone Tracy that destroyed the city of Darwin in 1974 and wreaked havoc across the east Kimberley. The barlga bears witness to that catastrophic event and incorporates references to sites of significance throughout the Kimberley. As the owner of the ritual Thomas did not paint designs on the boards carried by the performers as is customary, yet when he commenced his painting career in the early 1980s his intuitive, free-form renditions of the landscape, particularly evident in Tributaries of the Ord River, brought a fresh dynamism to the movement. Ostensibly, Tributaries of the Ord River represents a map of water courses. The painting, however, is not a literal rendition of a geographic landscape. Typically, Rover Thomas overlays references to the ancestral past with the modern history of the eastern Kimberley, also incorporating a degree of autobiography. A number of the watercourses
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named by Thomas in describing this work may be difficult to find on conventional maps of the region, however they would be well known to stockmen who worked the area. The Ord River is depicted laterally across the canvas flowing from the top left corner to the top right, towards Lake Argyle and on to Kununurra. Of the many rivers and creeks that flow into the Ord, Rover Thomas has depicted five which he identifies as, clockwise from the lower left: Dinah Creek; Tomato Creek in the upper centre left; Horseman River; Harvey Creek in the lower right; and Mistake Creek in the middle of the lower register of the composition. All are described in swathes of yellow ochre apart from the latter which stands out in red against a black ground, indicating its significance within the schema of the painting. Each element is bordered by lines of dots characteristic of the Eastern Kimberley style, and the whole image is also framed by dots as if to indicate the painting depicts a section of country or is part of a larger narrative. Mistake Creek, that lies to the east of Texas Downs, evokes the Ngarrangkarni or Dreaming when the grassy lands around this stretch of river were subject to burning as represented by the surrounding black areas in the painting. It is also the site of a massacre of a group of Gija people along its shores in 1915, and where some years later another group sought refuge after a killing at Lajibany (Horseshoe Creek). References to these tragic events in the early years of gardiya (European) settlement in the eastern Kimberley are a recurring theme in Rover Thomas’s oeuvre. Suites of paintings about this brutal aspect of Kimberley history are held in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, and the Janet Holmes à Court Collection, Perth. 2 Thomas’ accounts of these harsh times, handed down orally over the decades, were never bitter or remorseful. He realised that these events were little known outside the region, yet they were stories that needed to be painted and in Thomas’ hands the painted landscape bears the evidence of all who walked upon it. The Ord River itself is a historic reference point as well as a physical reality to the Gija, into whose society Rover Thomas had been adopted, and neighbouring groups in the eastern Kimberley. For millennia it was the main, life sustaining waterway that was dammed in the 1960s to create Lake Argyle as the reservoir for the irrigation scheme that transformed the landscape, and the lives of its Aboriginal inhabitants.
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Tributaries of the Ord River has thematic and pictorial affinities with three paintings in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia: Lake Argyle, 1986, that depicts the Ord River; The camp at Mistake Creek, 1990;3 and the Texas Downs masterpiece All that big rain coming from top side, also painted in 1991.4 1. Along with the Adelaide born painter Trevor Nickolls (1949-2012) 2. For details of these paintings see Thomas, R. with K. Akerman, M. Macha, W. Christensen and W. Caruana, Roads Cross: The paintings of Rover Thomas, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 1994, and Carrigan, B., Rover Thomas: I want to paint, Holmes à Court Gallery, Perth, 2003 3. Thomas, R. et al, pp. 17 and 50, respectively 4. Cubillo, F. and W. Caruana (eds.), Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art: Collection highlights, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2010, p. 89 WALLY CARUANA
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ROVER THOMAS (JOOLAMA) (c.1926 – 1998) TRIBUTARIES OF THE ORD RIVER, 1991
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JOHN MAWURNDJUL born 1952 NGARRT – SHORT NECKED TURTLE, 1989 natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark 215.0 x 95.0 cm (irregular) ESTIMATE: $40,000 – 60,000
PROVENANCE Maningrida Arts and Crafts, Maningrida, Northern Territory (cat. MAW147, certificate of authenticity attached verso) Deutscher Gertrude Street, Melbourne The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London, acquired from the above in 1989 EXHIBITED Kunwinjku; Bark paintings by James Iyuna, John Mawurndjul and Ivan Namirikki, Deutscher Gertrude Street, Melbourne, 12 – 28 July 1989 Dreamtime: zeitgenössische Aboriginal art / The Dark and the Light, Sammlung Essl, Klosterneuberg, Austria, 18 May – 30 September 2001 (illus. in exhibition catalogue, p. 62) Rarrk – John Mawurndjul: Journey Through Time in Northern Australia, Museum Tinguely, Basel, Switzerland, 21 September 2005 – 29 January 2006; Sprengel Museum, Hannover, Germany, 19 February – 5 June 2006 LITERATURE Kaufmann, C., et al., rarrk – John Mawurndjul: Journey Through Time in Northern Australia, Crawford House Publishing Australia, Belair, South Australia, 2005, pp. 103 (illus.), 227 This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Maningrida Arts and Crafts, Maningrida which states: ‘Ngarrt – Shortnecked turtle at a site known as Kabarabardi. It’s a female turtle shown with its egg, living inside the water at this place. Also shown is a plant growing in the water which is like a pandanus. It is known as manjimjim. It has a fruit, which is shown, which is edible by Ngarrt, but which is ‘cheeky’ or poisonous for humans.’
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JOHN MAWURNDJUL born 1952 NGALYOD THE RAINBOW SERPENT IN THE FORM OF YINARNGA (KANGAROO), 1989 natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark 212.0 x 68.0 cm (irregular) ESTIMATE: $30,000 – 40,000
PROVENANCE Maningrida Arts and Crafts, Maningrida, Northern Territory (cat. MAW142, certificate of authenticity attached verso) Deutscher Gertrude Street, Melbourne, acquired from the above in 1989 The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London EXHIBITED Kunwinjku; Bark paintings by James Iyuna, John Mawurndjul and Ivan Namirikki, Deutscher Gertrude Street, Melbourne, 12 – 28 July 1989 This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Maningrida Arts and Crafts which states: ‘Ngalyod – rainbow serpent is a very important figure in Kunwinjku mythology. He is known by different names and assumes different forms. He is the central focus of many dreaming sites, each of which has a different story. Here, Ngalyod is taking the form of Yinarnga – a dreaming kangaroo – at the artist’s mother’s country at Barrihdjokweng. At this site – Daluk (female spirit) of the Yirridja moiety, broke the sacred law by entering Ngalyod’s territory and was swallowed by him. This spirit now exists at the site as Wyuk – waterlily, which is shown on the stomach of Yinarnga. Ngalyod disguises himself with Wyuk, hiding so as to surprise intruders. This is considered a dangerous place to touch or break waterlily stems of leaves. On the right hand side and under the chin of Yinarnga is goln – palm tree.’
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JIMMY NJIMINJUMA (1945 – 2004) NAMARRKON – LIGHTNING SPIRIT, 1991 natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark 160.0 x 64.0 cm (irregular) bears inscription verso: Maningrida Arts and Crafts cat. NJA91 ESTIMATE: $4,000 – 6,000 PROVENANCE Maningrida Arts and Crafts, Maningrida, Northern Territory (certificate of authenticity attached verso) Private collection, Darwin Deutscher~Menzies, Melbourne, 27 June 2000, lot 309 The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Maningrida Arts and Crafts, Maningrida, Northern Territory.
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JIMMY NJIMINJUMA
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(1945 – 2004) NGALYOD – RAINBOW SERPENT, 1989 natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark 139.5 x 57.5 cm (irregular) bears inscription verso: cat. NJA101 ESTIMATE: $4,000 – 6,000
PROVENANCE Maningrida Arts and Crafts, Maningrida, Northern Territory Private collection, Queensland Deutscher~Menzies, Melbourne, 27 June 2000, lot 412 The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London
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NAMERREDJE GUYMALA (1926 – 1978) NGALYOD AND FEMALE SPIRIT NGALKUNBURRIYA, c.1972 natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark 84.0 x 52.0 cm (irregular) bears inscription verso: cat. E.78 ESTIMATE: $6,000 – 8,000 PROVENANCE Painted in Western Arnhem Land Rothmans of Pall Mall, Canada The McIntosh Gallery, Ontario, Canada (cat. 1978.0016, label attached verso) Sotheby’s, Sydney, 29 July 2003, lot 248 (as ‘The Rainbow Serpent and Female Spirit Ngalkunburriya’) The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London EXHIBITED Art of Aboriginal Australia, Rothmans Art Gallery of Stratford, Ontario, June – September 1974; The Glenbow-Alberta Institute, Alberta, September – October 1974; The Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatchewan, November-December 1974; The Vancouver Centennial Museum, British Columbia, December 1974 – January 1975; The Edmonton Art Gallery, January – February 1975; The Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario, March 1975; Musée du Quebec, April – May 1975; Musée d’Art Contemporain, Montreal; Dalousie University Art Gallery, Nova Scotia, June – July 1975; Memorial University Art Gallery, Newfoundland, August 1975; Confederation Art Gallery and Museum, Prince Edward Island, September – October 1975; Agnes Etherington Art Gallery, Ontario, October – November 1975; The Royal Ontario Museum, Ontario, April – May 1976, cat. 78 LITERATURE Edwards, R., Art of Aboriginal Australia presented by Rothmans of Pall Mall, Rothmans of Pall Mall Canada Ltd., Canada, 1974, cat. 78, p. 51 (illus.)
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YIRAWALA (c.1895 – 1976) BARRAMUNDI, c.1960 natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark 34.0 x 84.0 cm (irregular) bears inscription verso: artist’s name, title and cat. F/10, X53 ESTIMATE: $10,000 – 15,000
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PROVENANCE Collected by the artist, Len Annois in the late 1950s whilst on a field trip in Western Arnhem Land Private collection, Melbourne Deutscher~Menzies, Melbourne, 10 August 1998, lot 2 (dated as ‘c.1958’) The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London RELATED WORK Barramundi, illus. in Le Brun Holmes, S., Yirawala: Painter of the Dreamtime, Hodder and Stoughton, Sydney, 1992, pl. 143
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EMILY KAME KNGWARREYE
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(c.1910 – 1996) MERNE (EVERYTHING), 1996 synthetic polymer paint on linen 122.0 x 213.0 cm signed verso: Emlly [sic] bears inscription verso: artist’s name, commissioned by Delmore Gallery, Delmore Gallery cat. 96A035 ESTIMATE: $150,000 – 200,000
PROVENANCE Commissioned by Delmore Gallery, via Alice Springs, Northern Territory The Delmore Collection, Northern Territory Private collection, Tasmania Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Delmore Gallery, via Alice Springs.
Between the summer of 1988/89 and September 1996 at the remote settlement of Utopia, close to the Simpson Desert in the Northern Territory, an explosion of creativity by the Anmatyerre woman Emily Kngwarreye attracted worldwide attention and focussed the eyes of the artworld on Australian indigenous art. Although she was not the only artist producing work of cultural importance at that place and time, Emily’s paintings struck a chord with almost all who saw them and resulted in a global clamour for her work. Renowned for her colourful and vibrant paintings, Emily Kngwarreye was deeply rooted in the Anmatyerre land of her ancestors to whom she paid respect through a lifetime of ceremony, dance, song and painting. Her art chronicled on canvas the ever-changing desert country of her homeland, Alhalkere. Located at the western edge of Utopia this triangular shaped country was where Emily was born and where she lived in the traditional ways of the eastern Anmatyerre, following a way of life that had continued from long before European presence. Her mark-making recorded the seasonal variations, sometime subtle, often dramatic, of the harsh desert environment and the explosion of growth that occurred after rain. Referred to by Emily as the ‘green time’1, the desert would come to life, wildflowers would carpet the red earth and plants and grasses would flourish, supplying the women with seeds, tubers and fruit.
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Limited only by the reach of her arm over the surface of the canvas, Emily was celebrated for her strength and certainty of hand, developing a free-flowing style of painting and iconography based on the meandering linear pattern of the spread of the underground roots of the yam plant (Vigna Lanceolata). This design, and myriad variations upon it, would dissolve into fields of layered colour achieved through a build-up of dots upon dots and sometimes, as with this later painting, an added random array of powerfully gestural broad marks that added another layer to the work. Merne (Everything) was produced in January 1996 and is an exemplar of Emily’s later style of painting as described by art historian Terry Smith who wrote, ‘where in contrast to almost all other desert painters, Emily makes no attempt to generate a repetitive pattern, rather, her mark making is to lay down individual strokes often starting from the edge of the canvas and moving in toward the centre as far as her reach extended, then sweeping back’. 2 The work exudes energy and the sweeping lines and dots express a movement that takes your eye across all areas of the canvas. It is the gesture, the way that the paint has been applied, that dominates this painting. The gestural marks created by the expressive movement of Emily’s outstretched arm reveal the physical relationship between the artist and the canvas, lending the painting a human scale while at the same time describing a broad stretch of her country. As Janet Holt notes in the accompanying certificate, with its layers of multi-coloured dots and broad gestural strokes, Merne (Everything) is a celebration of nature, ‘the dramatic transformation of the desert from bare to abundant … a display of the desert’s power’. 3 1. Isaacs, J., ‘Anmatyerre Woman’ in Isaacs, J., Smith, T., Ryan, J., Holt, D., and Holt, J., Emily Kame Kngwarreye Paintings, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1998, p. 13 2. Smith, T., ‘Kngwarreye woman abstract painter’, in Isaacs, J. et al., Emily Kngwarreye Paintings, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1998, p. 36 3. From the accompanying Delmore Gallery certificate of authenticity CRISPIN GUTTERIDGE
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EMILY KAME KNGWARREYE (c.1910 – 1996) MERNE (EVERYTHING), 1996
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ANGELINA PWERLE born c.1952 BUSH PLUM, 2001 synthetic polymer paint on canvas 196.0 x 125.0 cm bears inscription verso: artist’s name, title, date, location, Rodney Gooch, Alice Springs, Australia, and cat. 11-1101 ESTIMATE: $6,000 – 8,000
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PROVENANCE Rodney Gooch, Alice Springs Niagara Galleries, Melbourne The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London, acquired from the above in 2002
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ANGELINA PWERLE born c.1952 BUSH PLUM DREAMING, 2004 synthetic polymer paint on linen 175.5 x 120.5 cm bears inscription verso: Niagara Galleries cat. RG – NIAG013, Niagara Galleries for Angelina Pwerle
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PROVENANCE Niagara Galleries, Melbourne (label attached verso) The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London, acquired from the above in 2005 EXHIBITION Angelina Pwerle, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne, 1 – 26 February 2005, cat. 8 (illus. in exhibition catalogue)
ESTIMATE: $6,000 – 8,000
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MINNIE MOTORCAR APWERL (PWERLE) (c.1922 – 2006) AWELYE ATNWENGERRP (WOMEN’S DREAMING), 2000 synthetic polymer paint on canvas 120.0 x 90.0 cm bears inscription verso: artist’s name, title and date, and cat. FW4781 ESTIMATE: $3,000 – 4,000
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PROVENANCE Fireworks Gallery, Brisbane The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London
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MINNIE MOTORCAR APWERL (PWERLE) (c.1922 – 2006) AWELYE, 2004 synthetic polymer paint on linen 122.0 x 179.5 cm bears inscription verso: cat. 04989 ESTIMATE: $5,000 – 7,000
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PROVENANCE Dreaming Art Centre of Utopia, Adelaide David Bromley collection, South Australia Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London, acquired from the above in 2010 EXHIBITED The Women’s Show, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, 10 March – 10 April 2010, cat. 2 (illus. in exhibition catalogue)
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MINNIE MOTORCAR APWERL (PWERLE) (c.1922 – 2006) AWELYE, 2001 synthetic polymer paint on four linen panels 122.0 x 91.0 cm (each) 122.0 x 364.0 cm (overall) each bears inscription verso: artist’s name, title, date, cat. DS03817 and cat. FG010067 – 70 ESTIMATE: $12,000 – 18,000 (4)
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PROVENANCE Dreaming Art Centre of Utopia, Adelaide Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne (label attached verso) The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London These works are accompanied by certificates of authenticity from Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne.
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ROBERT CAMPBELL JUNIOR (1944 – 1993) BLUE LIGHT MAN (OR GHOST OF GRAVELLY HILL), 1982 synthetic polymer paint on canvas on board 91.5 x 120.5 cm
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PROVENANCE Private collection, New South Wales, acquired directly from the artist in 1982 Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London, acquired from the above in 2006
ESTIMATE: $12,000 – 15,000 EXHIBITED Masterwork, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, 11 October – 4 November 2006 RELATED WORK Blue Light Man II, 1986, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 91.0 x 120.0 cm, in the collection of Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art, Queensland
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TREVOR NICKOLLS (1949 – 2012) MAGIC OF THE BOOMERANG SPIRIT, 2009 synthetic polymer on linen 91.0 x 182.5 cm signed and dated verso: NICKOLLS 09 ESTIMATE: $15,000 – 20,000
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PROVENANCE Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London, acquired from the above in 2009 EXHIBITED Trevor Nickolls: New + Important Early Paintings & Drawings, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, 12 May – 13 June 2009, cat. 23 (illus. in exhibition catalogue)
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TREVOR NICKOLLS
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(1949 – 2012) HOLDEN BOOMERANG DREAMING IN SUMMER TIME, 2000 synthetic polymer paint on canvas 91.0 x 121.5 cm signed and dated lower right: NICKOLLS 2000 ESTIMATE: $15,000 – 20,000
PROVENANCE Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London, acquired from the above in 2009 EXHIBITED Masterwork, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, 11 October – 4 November 2006 Trevor Nickolls: New + Important Early Paintings & Drawings, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, 12 May – 13 June 2009, cat. 18 (illus. in exhibition catalogue) RELATED WORK Family in Blue Holden, 1998, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 121.5 x 152.5 cm in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
With a singular emphasis on the human condition and reflecting a continual internal struggle in his life regarding the balancing act between his indigenous and non-indigenous heritage, the art of Trevor Nickolls resonates widely today. Mesmerising and full of personal symbolism, his work was shaped by multifarious influences as diverse as the masterpieces of European art, his love of landscapes, Indigenous history and mythology, comic book characters and observations of daily urban life. However, his overarching concern was the conflict between what he saw as the alienation of urban industrialism and the symbiosis between rural indigenous life and nature; the contrasts between white and black societies. Born to an indigenous mother from Moonta in South Australia and an English/Irish father, Nickolls began to paint at a young age and drawing became a refuge for him during difficult and unhappy times at school in Adelaide, a place where he did not fit in. His early drawings combined observations of the world around him together with caricatures, figures and cartoon heroes. He later studied at the South Australian School of Art followed by a teaching degree and post graduate studies at the Victorian College of Arts. Holden Boomerang Dreaming in Summertime, 2000 is a typical Nickolls dreamscape, with its festival of colour, activity, juxtaposed Australian icons and both obvious and obscure meanings. The painting
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employs an assortment of formal elements developed early in his career and provides an insight into his world, moving between tradition and modernity, or what he called ‘dreamtime’ and ‘machinetime’.1 We have the superheroes and comic book influences of his youth, city buildings crowded together dwarfing the small Wanjina figure (dressed in western garb), a large non-indigenous rock musician playing to diminutive indigenous dancing figures and larger than life, an FJ Holden, the major focus of this work and also Nickolls’ first and most loved car. The scene is illuminated by the radiating sun and references to country, city, ancestors, night and day and a myriad of characters that heighten our ongoing examination and enjoyment of this work and its performative elements Trevor Nickolls exhibited nationally and internationally for over thirty years and was prominent in the emergence of an urban Indigenous art. In 1990 he was selected, together with Rover Thomas, as Australia’s representative at the Venice Biennale and in 2009 a retrospective exhibition was held at the Ian Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne, touring to the Northern Territory, South Australia and regional Victoria in 2010. 1. Beier, U., Dream Time - Machine Time: The Art of Trevor Nickolls, Robert Brown and Associates, and the Aboriginal Artists Agency, Sydney, 1985, p. 14. CRISPIN GUTTERIDGE
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DOROTHY NAPANGARDI ROBINSON (c.1950 – 2013) SALT ON MINA MINA, 2002 synthetic polymer paint on linen 122.0 x 197.0 cm bears inscription verso: artist’s name, size and Gallery Gondwana cat. 6918DW ESTIMATE: $8,000 – 12,000
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PROVENANCE Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs, Northern Territory (stamped verso) Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London EXHIBITED An Appetite for Painting: Contemporary Painting 2000 – 2004, Museet for Samtidskunst, Oslo, Norway, 12 September 2014 – 4 January 2015
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TOMMY WATSON (c.1935 – 2017) UNTITLED, 2004 synthetic polymer paint on canvas 98.0 x 202.5 cm
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PROVENANCE Irrunytju Arts, Irrunytju, Western Australia Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London
ESTIMATE: $20,000 – 30,000
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DOROTHY NAPANGARDI ROBINSON (c.1950 – 2013) KARNTAKURLANGU JUKURRPA, 2002 synthetic polymer paint on linen 152.0 x 91.0 cm signed verso: Dorothy bears inscription verso: artist’s name, size and Gallery Gondwana cat. 7385DN ESTIMATE: $4,000 – 6,000
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PROVENANCE Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs, Northern Territory (stamped verso) Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London, acquired from the above in 2003 EXHIBITED Dorothy Napangardi - Mina Mina - My Country, Vivien Anderson Gallery in association with Gallery Gondwana, Melbourne, 4 – 20 December 2003, cat. 2
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DOROTHY NAPANGARDI ROBINSON (c.1950 – 2013) MINA MINA, 2003 synthetic polymer paint on linen 122.0 x 122.0 cm bears inscription verso: artist’s name, and Gallery Gondwana cat. 8029DN ESTIMATE: $4,000 – 6,000
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PROVENANCE Gallery Gondwana, Alice Springs, Northern Territory (stamped verso) Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London, acquired from the above in 2003 EXHIBITED Dorothy Napangardi - Mina Mina - My Country, Vivien Anderson Gallery in association with Gallery Gondwana, Melbourne, 4 – 20 December 2003, cat. 6
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RICARDO IDAGI born 1957 BAIZAM TIRIG (SHARKS TEETH) MERIAN MASK/HEADDRESS (TORRES STRAIT ISLANDS), 2008 bamboo, coconut leaf, pandanus raffia, natural pigments, feathers, mussel shell, seed pods, goa nuts and cane 86.0 x 30.0 x 40.0 cm ESTIMATE: $8,000 – 12,000
PROVENANCE Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London, acquired from the above in 2008 EXHIBITED Ricardo Idagi: Sor Peklam – From The Shell, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, 15 October – 8 November 2008, cat. 6 (illus. in exhibition catalogue) This work was included in a group of four masks at Western Australian Indigenous Art Awards that were awarded the $50,000 first prize. These headdresses and masks are created using traditional tools and materials such as shell, feathers, seeds, hair, cane, raffia, nuts and ochre. They are a celebration of the living culture of the Torres Strait Islands, and the fusion of its religion, law and art.
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SAMUEL NAMUNJDJA born 1965 LORRKON natural earth pigments and PVA fixative on stringybark hollow log 163.0 cm height ESTIMATE: $4,000 – 6,000
PROVENANCE Maningrida Arts and Culture, Maningrida, Northern Territory The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London
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SAMUEL NAMUNJDJA
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born 1965 UNTITLED (GUNGURA), 2006 natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark 100.0 x 36.0 cm (irregular) ESTIMATE: $4,000 – 6,000
PROVENANCE Maningrida Arts and Culture, Maningrida, Northern Territory (cat. 518-06, label and certificate of authenticity attached verso) Josh Lilley Fine Art, London (label attached verso) The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London EXHIBITED Rarrk - London, Josh Lilley Fine Art in conjunction with Maningrida Arts and Culture, London, 20 September – 7 October 2007 This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Maningrida Arts and Culture, Maningrida, Northern Territory.
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TERRY NGAMANDARRA born 1952 GULAIDJI (WATERLILIES) AT BULPERNERDA, 1990 natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark 190.0 x 105.0 cm (irregular) ESTIMATE: $4,000 – 6,000
PROVENANCE Maningrida Arts and Crafts, Maningrida, Northern Territory (cat. NGA57, certificate of authenticity attached verso) Deutscher Gertrude Street, Melbourne The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London, acquired from the above in 1990 This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Maningrida Arts and Crafts, Maningrida, Northern Territory.
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JOHN MAWURNDJUL
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born 1952 DUPAN, c.1980 natural earth pigments on hollow log 93.5 cm height ESTIMATE: $4,000 – 6,000
PROVENANCE Maningrida Arts and Crafts, Maningrida, Northern Territory Dorothy Bennett, Darwin Private collection, South Australia Deutscher~Menzies, Melbourne, 27 June 2000, lot 515 The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London EXHIBITED Rarrk – John Mawurndjul: Journey Through Time in Northern Australia, Museum Tinguely, Basel, Switzerland, 21 September 2005 – 29 January 2006; Sprengel Museum, Hannover, Germany, 19 February – 5 June 2006 LITERATURE Kaufmann, C., et al., rarrk – John Mawurndul: Journey Through Time in Northern Australia, Crawford House Publishing Australia, Belair, South Australia, 2005, pp. 88 (illus.), 227
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OWEN YALANDJA
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born 1960 YAWKYAWK, 2006 ochre and pigments with PVA fixative on carved kurrajong 219.5 cm height ESTIMATE: $5,000 – 7,000
PROVENANCE Maningrida Arts and Culture, Maningrida, Northern Territory Josh Lilley Fine Art, London The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London
OWEN YALANDJA born 1960 YAWKYAWK, 2006 ochre and pigments with PVA fixative on carved kurrajong 209.5 cm height ESTIMATE: $4,000 – 6,000
PROVENANCE Maningrida Arts and Culture, Maningrida, Northern Territory Josh Lilley Fine Art, London The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London
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JAMES IYUNA born 1959 DJURL – SPIRIT BEING, 1989 natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark 224.0 x 58.5 cm (irregular) ESTIMATE: $3,000 – 4,000
PROVENANCE Maningrida Arts and Crafts, Maningrida, Northern Territory (cat. IYU72, certificate of authenticity attached verso) Deutscher Gertrude Street, Melbourne The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London, acquired from the above in 1989 EXHIBITED Kunwinjku: Bark paintings by James Iyuna, John Mawurndjul and Ivan Namirikki, Deutscher Gertrude Street, Melbourne, 12 – 28 July 1989 This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Maningrida Arts and Crafts, Maningrida, Northern Territory.
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JAMES IYUNA
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born 1959 NGALYOD – RAINBOW SERPENT, 1989 natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark 231.0 x 77.0 cm (irregular) ESTIMATE: $4,000 – 6,000
PROVENANCE Maningrida Arts and Crafts, Maningrida, Northern Territory (cat. IYU76, certificate of authenticity attached verso) Deutscher Gertrude Street, Melbourne The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London, acquired from the above in 1989 EXHIBITED Kunwinjku: Bark paintings by James Iyuna, John Mawurndjul and Ivan Namirikki, Deutscher Gertrude Street, Melbourne, 12 – 28 July 1989 This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Maningrida Arts and Crafts, Maningrida, Northern Territory.
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DJAWIDA NADJONGORLE
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(c.1943 – 2008) SARATOGA, c.1980 natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark 24.0 x 84.0 cm (irregular) bears inscription on labels verso: artist’s name, title, language group and area Oenpelli along with details of story depicted ESTIMATE: $1,500 – 2,500 PROVENANCE Painted in the Oenpelli region of Western Arnhem Land, Northern Territory Jim Davidson, Melbourne Deutscher~Menzies, Melbourne, 27 June 2000, lot 467 The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London
JIMMY DELMINY (1946 – 2003) GURRUMATJI (MAGPIE GEESE), c.1988 natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark 128.0 x 106.0 cm (irregular) bears inscription verso: artist’s name, title and cat. BP0392 ESTIMATE: $2,000 – 3,000 PROVENANCE Bula’bula Arts, Ramingining, Northern Territory The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London
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DAVID (MALANGI) DAYMIRRINGU (1927 – 1999) GUMIRRINGU CEREMONY, c.1960 natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark 70.0 x 47.5 cm (irregular) bears inscription verso: artist’s name and cat. M09
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PROVENANCE Painted in Central Arnhem Land, Northern Territory Private collection Deutscher~Menzies, Melbourne, 27 June 2000, lot 518 The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London
ESTIMATE: $3,000 – 4,000
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DJIRRIRRA WUNUNGMURRA born 1969 BUYKU (FISH TRAP), 2008 natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark 136.0 x 45.0 cm (irregular) bears inscription verso: artist’s name, cat. 33086 and cat. 0208GAN ESTIMATE: $3,000 – 4,000
PROVENANCE Buku-Larrngay Mulka Art Centre, Yirrkala, Northern Territory (label attached verso) Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London, acquired from the above in 2009 EXHIBITION Djirrirra Wunungmurra: Buyku – Tapestries of the Fish Trap, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, 2 September – 3 October 2009, cat. 18 (illus. in exhibition catalogue)
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DHUWARRWARR MARIKA
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born c.1946 MILNGURR, 2008 natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark 149.0 x 65.0 cm (irregular) bears inscription verso: artist’s name, Buku-Larrngay Mulka Art cat. 3325W and 0308YIRR ESTIMATE: $5,000 – 7,000
PROVENANCE Buku-Larrngay Mulka Art Centre, Yirrkala, Northern Territory Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London, acquired from the above in 2008 EXHIBITED Dhuwarrwarr Marika: Milngurr – The Sacred Spring, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, 7 – 28 June 2008, cat. 3 (illus. in exhibition catalogue)
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WOLPA WANAMBI born 1970 GUNDIMOLK, 2001 natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark 160.0 x 108.0 cm (irregular) bears inscription verso: artist’s name, cat. 202AF and cat. 050 – YL ESTIMATE: $3,000 – 4,000
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PROVENANCE Buku-Larrngay Mulka Art Centre, Yirrkala, Northern Territory Niagara Galleries, Melbourne The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London EXHIBITED Wolpa Wanambi, Niagara Galleries, Melbourne, 4 – 29 June 2002, cat. 3
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DHUWARRWARR MARIKA born c.1946 DJAN’KAWU, 2006 natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark 140.0 x 88.0 cm (irregular) bears inscription verso: artist’s name, Buku-Larrngay Mulka Art cat. 29770 and cat. 0806YIRR ESTIMATE: $5,000 – 7,000
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PROVENANCE Buku-Larrngay Mulka Art Centre, Yirrkala, Northern Territory Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London, acquired from the above in 2008 EXHIBITED Dhuwarrwarr Marika; Milngurr – The Sacred Spring, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, 4 – 28 June 2008 (illus. in exhibition catalogue)
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DHUWARRWARR MARIKA
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born c.1946 MILNGURR, 2008 natural earth pigments on hollow log 207.0 cm height ESTIMATE: $4,000 – 6,000
PROVENANCE Buku-Larrngay Mulka Art Centre, Yirrkala, Northern Territory Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London, acquired from the above in 2008 EXHIBITED Dhuwarrwarr Marika: Milngurr – The Sacred Spring, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, 7 – 28 June 2008, cat. 4 (illus. in exhibition catalogue)
DJIRRIRRA WUNUNGMURRA born 1969 BUYKU (FISH TRAP) LARRAKITJ, 2009 natural earth pigments on hollow log 198.0 cm height ESTIMATE: $4,000 – 6,000
PROVENANCE Buku-Larrngay Mulka Art Centre, Yirrkala, Northern Territory Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London, acquired from the above in 2009 EXHIBITION Djirrirra Wunungmurra: Buyku – Tapestries of the Fish Trap, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, 2 September – 3 October 2009, cat. 8 (illus. in exhibition catalogue)
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LARRTJANGA GANAMBARR (1932 – 2000) DJANGGAWUL, c.1970 natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark 124.0 x 62.5 cm (irregular) bears inscription verso: artist’s name, cat. FE25 and cat. 16 ESTIMATE: $2,000 – 3,000
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PROVENANCE Buku-Larrngay Mulka Art Centre, Yirrkala, Northern Territory The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London
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MILLUPURN (1908 – deceased) CREATION STORY, c.1970 natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark 173.0 x 71.0 cm (irregular) bears inscription verso: cat. RC9RW and cat. G2054-2 ESTIMATE: $3,000 – 4,000
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PROVENANCE Painted in the Yirrkala region of North East Arnhem Land, Northern Territory Jim Davidson, Melbourne Private collection, Melbourne Deutscher~Menzies, Melbourne, 29 June 2000, lot 311 The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London
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GAWIRRIN GUMANA born c.1935 GANGAN, 2008 natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark 194.0 x 51.0 cm (irregular) bears inscription verso: artist’s name, cat. 3346W and cat. 0408GAN ESTIMATE: $3,000 – 4,000
PROVENANCE Maningrida Arts and Culture, Maningrida, Northern Territory (label attached verso) The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London
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GAWIRRIN GUMANA
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born c.1935 GANGAN, 2008 natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark 193.0 x 42.5 cm (irregular) bears inscription verso: artist’s name, cat. 3323Z and cat. 0308GAN ESTIMATE: $3,000 – 4,000
PROVENANCE Maningrida Arts and Culture, Maningrida, Northern Territory (label attached verso) The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London
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WATURR GUMANA born 1957 BIRRKUDA II, 2007 natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark 159.0 x 48.5 cm (irregular) bears inscription verso: artist’s name, cat. 3119T and cat. 0307GAN ESTIMATE: $3,000 – 4,000 PROVENANCE Buku-Larrngay Mulka Art Centre, Yirrkala, Northern Territory Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London, acquired from the above in 2007 EXHIBITED Waturr Gumana: Bark Paintings and Hollow Logs from the Dhalwangu and Marrangu Clans, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, 18 April – 12 May 2007, cat. 1 (illus. in exhibition catalogue)
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WATURR GUMANA
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born 1957 GAYAMIRRILLI, 2005 natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark 183.0 x 56.0 cm (irregular) bears inscription verso: artist’s name and Buku-Larrngay Mulka Arts cat. 75IJ ESTIMATE: $3,000 – 4,000 PROVENANCE Buku-Larrngay Mulka Art Centre, Yirrkala, Northern Territory Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London, acquired from the above in 2007 EXHIBITED Waturr Gumana: Bark Paintings and Hollow Logs from the Dhalwangu and Marrangu Clans, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, 18 April – 12 May 2007, cat. 10 (illus. in exhibition catalogue)
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WATURR GUMANA
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born 1957 MARRANGU (LARRAKITJ), 2005 natural earth pigments on hollow log 232.0 cm height ESTIMATE: $4,000 – 6,000
PROVENANCE Buku-Larrngay Mulka Art Centre, Yirrkala, Northern Territory Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London, acquired from the above in 2007 EXHIBITED Waturr Gumana: Bark Paintings and Hollow Logs from the Dhalwangu and Marrangu Clans, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, 18 April – 12 May 2007, cat. 3 (illus. in exhibition catalogue)
WATURR GUMANA born 1957 BIRRKUDA (LARRAKITJ), 2006 natural earth pigments on hollow log 250.0 cm height ESTIMATE: $4,000 – 6,000
PROVENANCE Buku-Larrngay Mulka Art Centre, Yirrkala Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London, acquired from the above in 2007 EXHIBITED Waturr Gumana: Bark Paintings and Hollow Logs from the Dhalwangu and Marrangu Clans, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, 18 April – 12 May 2007, cat. 2 (illus. in exhibition catalogue)
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TIMOTHY WULANJBIRR born 1969 BARDALEYE AT BULKAI, 2006 natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark 237.0 x 64.0 cm (irregular) ESTIMATE: $1,500 – 2,500
PROVENANCE Maningrida Arts and Culture, Maningrida, Northern Territory (cat. 2612-06, label and certificate of authenticity attached verso) Josh Lilley Fine Art, London (label attached verso) The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London
EXHIBITED Rarrk - London, Josh Lilley Fine Art in conjunction with Maningrida Arts and Culture, London, 20 September – 7 October 2007 This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Maningrida Arts and Culture, Maningrida, Northern Territory.
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DJIRRIRRA WUNUNGMURRA
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born 1969 BUYKU, 2009 natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark 176.5 x 39.0 cm (irregular) bears inscription verso: artist’s name, cat. 3560-0 and cat. 0309GAN ESTIMATE: $2,500 – 3,500 PROVENANCE Buku-Larrngay Mulka Art Centre, Yirrkala, Northern Territory Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London, acquired from the above in 2009 EXHIBITION Djirrirra Wunungmurra: Buyku – Tapestries of the Fish Trap, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, 2 September – 3 October 2009, cat. 7 (illus. in exhibition catalogue)
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IVAN NAMIRRKKI born 1961 GINGA – CROCODILE AT A BILLABONG AT KABABABULDI, 1989 natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark 154.0 x 51.0 cm (irregular) ESTIMATE: $3,000 – 4,000
PROVENANCE Maningrida Arts and Crafts, Maningrida, Northern Territory (cat. NAM69, label attached verso) The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Maningrida Arts and Crafts, Maningrida, Northern Territory.
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LOFTY NABARDAYAL NADJAMERREK (1926 – 2009) BARRAMUNDI, c.1960 natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark 32.0 x 101.0 cm (irregular) bears inscription verso: artist’s name and location descriptive label attached verso
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PROVENANCE Painted in the Oenpelli region of Western Arnhem Land, Northern Territory Private collection Deutscher~Menzies, Melbourne, 27 June 2000, lot 465 The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London
ESTIMATE: $4,000 – 6,000
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SAMUEL NAMUNJDJA born 1965 NGALYOD – RAINBOW SERPENT, 1997 natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark 96.0 x 59.0 cm (irregular) bears inscription verso: artist’s name, NPF ESTIMATE: $2,000 – 3,000
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PROVENANCE Maningrida Arts and Culture, Maningrida, Northern Territory (cat. 7766, label and certificate of authenticity attached verso) Niagara Galleries, Melbourne Private collection, Melbourne Deutscher~Menzies, Melbourne, 27 June 2000, lot 504 The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity from Maningrida Arts and Culture, Maningrida, Northern Territory.
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MICK KUBARKKU
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(c.1922 – 2008) THE ALAPUNJA FISH, c.1965 natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark 61.5 x 56.5 cm (irregular) bears inscription verso: artist’s name, #4 and cat. GU143 ESTIMATE: $1,500 – 2,500 PROVENANCE Maningrida Arts and Culture, Maningrida, Northern Territory The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London
BENNY BANDAWANGA
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(working from 1980s) SNAKE AND PANDANUS, c.1980 natural earth pigments on eucalyptus bark 210.0 x 74.0 cm (irregular) bears inscription verso: artist’s name, cat. DB136, no. 382, 331 ESTIMATE: $2,000 – 3,000 PROVENANCE Maningrida Arts and Culture, Maningrida, Northern Territory Private collection, Darwin Deutscher~Menzies, Melbourne, 27 June 2000, lot 308 The Peter and Renate Nahum Collection of Aboriginal Art, London
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1. PRIOR TO AUCTION CATALOGUE SUBSCRIPTIONS Catalogues can be obtained at Deutscher and Hackett offices or by subscription (see the Catalogue Subscription Form at the back of this catalogue or online for more information). PRE-SALE ESTIMATES The price range estimated against each lot reflects the opinion of our art specialists as to the hammer price expected for the lot at auction and is informed by realised prices for comparable works as well as the particularities of each lot including condition, quality, provenance and rarity. While presale estimates are intended as a guide for prospective buyers, lots can be sold outside of these ranges. Pre-sale estimates include GST (if any) on a lot but do not include the buyer’s premium or other charges where applicable.
prospective buyers and sellers guide ALL PARTIES ARE STRONGLY URGED TO READ THE CONDITIONS OF AUCTION AND SALE INCLUDED IN THIS CATALOGUE
RESERVES The reserve is the minimum price including GST (if any) that the vendor will accept for a lot and below which the lot will not normally be sold. PRE-AUCTION VIEWINGS In both Sydney and Melbourne pre-auction viewings are scheduled for several days in advance of each auction. Deutscher and Hackett specialists are available to give obligation free advice at viewings or by appointment and prospective buyers are strongly encouraged to thoroughly examine and request condition reports for potential purchases. Pre-auction viewings are open to the public and are free to attend. SYMBOL KEY ▲ Unless ownership is clearly stated in the provenance, this symbol is used where a lot is offered which Deutscher and Hackett owns in whole or in part. In these instances, Deutscher and Hackett has a direct financial interest in the property or means that Deutscher and Hackett has guaranteed a minimum price. ● Used to indicate lots for sale without a reserve. EXPLANATION OF CATALOGUING PRACTICE AND TERMS All information published in Deutscher and Hackett catalogues represent statements of opinion and should not be relied upon as fact. All dimensions are listed in centimetres, height before width and are approximate. All prices are in Australian dollars. ARTIST’S NAMES All reference to artists make use of common and not full names in accordance with the standards outlined in the National Gallery of Australia reference publication Australian Art: Artist’s working names authority list. For instance, John Brack rather than Cecil John Brack; Roy de Maistre rather than Leroy Leveson Laurent De Maistre; Rosalie Gascoigne rather than Rosalie Norah Gascoigne. Terms used in this catalogue have the meanings ascribed to them below: a. NICHOLAS CHEVALIER: in the opinion of Deutscher and Hackett, a work by the artist. b. Attributed to NICHOLAS CHEVALIER: in the opinion of Deutscher and Hackett, probably a work by the artist, in whole or in part. c. Circle of NICHOLAS CHEVALIER: in the opinion of Deutscher and Hackett, a work showing the influence and style of the artist and of the artist’s period. d. Studio/Workshop of NICHOLAS CHEVALIER: in the opinion of Deutscher and Hackett, a work possibly executed under the supervision of the artist. e. School of NICHOLAS CHEVALIER: in the opinion of Deutscher and Hackett, a work by a follower or student of the artist. f. Manner of NICHOLAS CHEVALIER: in the opinion of Deutscher and Hackett, a work created in the style, but not necessarily in the period, of the artist. g. After NICHOLAS CHEVALIER: in the opinion of Deutscher and Hackett, a copy of a work by the artist. h. “signed” / “dated” in the opinion of Deutscher and Hackett, the work has been signed/dated by the artist. i. “bears signature” / “bears date” in the opinion of Deutscher and Hackett, the work has possibly been signed/dated by someone other than the artist.
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PROVENANCE Where appropriate, Deutscher and Hackett will include the known provenance, or history of ownership of lots. Non disclosure may indicate that prior owners are unknown or that the seller wishes to maintain confidentiality. 2. THE AUCTION Auctions are open to the public and are free to attend. Deutscher and Hackett may exclude any person at any time in its discretion. REGISTRATION Bidders must register to bid prior to the commencement of an auction. Deutscher and Hackett may impose other obligations on the registration of bidders in its discretion. CONDUCT OF AUCTION Lots are offered for sale on a consecutive basis. Deutscher and Hackett will determine the conduct of the auction in its absolute discretion, including the regulation of bidding. Consecutive or responsive bids may be placed by the auctioneer on behalf of the vendor up to the reserve.
3. AFTER THE AUCTION PAYMENTS Payment must be made within seven days of the date of sale in Australian dollars by cash, cheque, direct deposit, approved credit cards or electronic funds transfer. If payment is made by credit card the price will increase by any merchant fees payable by Deutscher and Hackett (1.15% (including GST) for Visa and Mastercard and 1.65% (including GST) for American Express). In certain circumstances, extension of payment may be granted at the discretion of Deutscher and Hackett. Cleared funds will be held in an interest bearing trust account by Deutscher and Hackett until remitted to the vendor. Deutscher and Hackett will be entitled to retain any interest earned during this period. Payment by the vendor of any charge to Deutscher and Hackett is to be made within fourteen days of invoice. PURCHASE PRICE AND BUYER’S PREMIUM The purchase price will be the sum of the final bid price (including any GST) plus a buyer’s premium set at 25% (inclusive of GST) of the final bid price. Buyers may be liable for other charges reasonably incurred once ownership has passed.
ABSENTEE OR COMMISSION BIDS AND TELEPHONE BIDS As a courtesy service, Deutscher and Hackett will make reasonable efforts to place bids for prospective buyers in absentia provided written or verbal instructions (as indicated on absentee bid forms included at the back of this catalogue or online) are received 24 hours prior to auction. Where successful, lots will be purchased at the lowest possible bid and in the event of identical absentee bids, the bid received earliest will take precedence. Deutscher and Hackett accepts no responsibility for errors and omissions in relation to this courtesy service and reserves the right to record telephone bids.
GOODS AND SERVICES TAX Buyers are required to pay a 10% G.S.T which sum is: a. included in the final bid prices where buying from a GST registered vendor; and b. included in any additional fees charged by Deutscher and Hackett; and c. included in the buyer’s premium. Where GST applies to some lots the final bid price will be inclusive of the applicable GST. If a buyer is classified as a “non-resident” for the purpose of GST, the buyer may be able to recover GST paid on the final purchase price if certain conditions are met.
RESERVE Unless indicated otherwise, all lots are subject to a confidential reserve price determined by the vendor. Deutscher and Hackett or the auctioneer may place any number of bids on behalf of the vendor below the reserve price and is not obliged to identify that the bids are being placed on behalf of the vendor.
COLLECTION Lots paid for in full may be collected from Deutscher and Hackett premises the day after the auction occurs but lots paid for by cheque may not be collected until all funds have cleared. Proof of identification is required upon collection and lots not collected within seven days of the sale may incur costs associated with external storage and freight.
BIDDING INCREMENTS Bidding usually opens below the listed pre-sale estimate and proceeds in the following increments (the auctioneer may vary the bidding increments at his or her discretion): $500 – 1,000 by $50 $1,000 – 2,000 by $100 $2,000 – 3,000 by $200 $3,000 – 5,000 by $200 / $500 / $800 $5,000 – 10,000 by $500 $10,000 – 20,000 by $1,000 $20,000 – 30,000 by $2,000 $30,000 – 50,000 by $2,000 / $5,000 / $8,000 $50,000 – 100,000 by $5,000 $100,000 – 200,000 by $10,000 $200,000 – 300,000 by $20,000 $300,000 – 500,000 by $20,000 / $50,000 / $80,000 $500,000 – 1,000,000 by $50,000 $1,000,000+ by $100,000 SUCCESSFUL BIDS The fall of the auctioneer’s hammer indicates the final bid and the buyer assumes full responsibility for the lot from this time. UNSOLD LOTS Where a lot is unsold, the auctioneer will announce that the lot is “bought in”, “passed”, “withdrawn” or “returned to owner”.
LOSS OR DAMAGE Risk in the lot, including risk of loss or damage, will pass to the buyer on either the date payment is due, whether or not it has been made, or on collection by the buyer, whichever is earlier. The buyer is therefore encouraged to make arrangements to ensure comprehensive cover is maintained from the payment due date. TRANSPORT AND SHIPPING Deutscher and Hackett directly offers services including storage, hanging and display, appraisals and valuations, collection management and research and in all instances will endeavour to coordinate or advise upon shipping and handling, insurance, transport, framing and conservation at the request and expense of the client. Deutscher and Hackett does not accept liability for the acts or omissions of contracted third parties. EXPORT Prospective bidders are advised to enquire about export licences — including endangered species licences and cultural heritage permits, where relevant — prior to bidding at auction. Telephone the Cultural Property and Gifts Section, Museums Section, Ministry for the Arts, on 1800 819 461 for further information. The delay or denial of such a licence will not be grounds for a rescission of sale. COPYRIGHT The copyright in the images and illustrations contained in this catalogue may be owned by third parties and used under licence by Deutscher and Hackett. As between Deutscher and Hackett and the buyer, Deutscher and Hackett retains all rights in the images and illustrations. Deutscher and Hackett retains copyright in the text contained in this catalogue. The buyer must not reproduce or otherwise use the images, illustrations or text without prior written consent.
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The terms and conditions of business set forth below are subject to amendment by verbal or written notice prior to and during the auction and sale. They constitute the entire contractual agreement with the buyer in respect to any lot offered at auction. By bidding at auction in any manner compliant with bidding procedures, the buyer and all bidders agree to be bound by these terms and conditions and the terms of the prospective buyers and sellers guide contained in this catalogue, as amended. To the extent that an agent acts on behalf of the buyer, liability for obligations arising from these conditions of business will pass to the buyer. Multiple buyers are jointly and severally liable for obligations arising from this agreement. DEFINITIONS 1. Definition of terms: a. The ‘buyer’ refers to the party with the highest accepted bid for any lot at auction and/or such party’s principal where bidding as agent. b. The ‘vendor’ refers to the party consigning property for sale and/or such party’s principal where acting as agent.
conditions of auction and sale
c. ‘Deutscher and Hackett’ refers to Deutscher and Hackett Pty Ltd ACN 123 119 022, its subsidiaries, officers, employees and agents. d. The ‘hammer price’ refers to the final bid price (including any GST) accepted by the auctioneer, or in the case of a post-auction sale, the agreed sale price (including any GST). e. The ‘buyer’s premium’ refers to the 25% (inclusive of GST) payable by the buyer calculated as a percentage of the hammer price. f. ‘GST’ refers to the goods and services tax imposed by the A New Tax System (Goods and Services) Act 1999 as amended.
ALL PARTIES ARE STRONGLY URGED TO READ THE CONDITIONS OF AUCTION AND SALE INCLUDED IN THIS CATALOGUE
g. The ‘lot’ refers to the item(s) described against any lot number in the catalogue. h. The ‘reserve’ refers to the minimum price (including any GST) the consignor will accept for a lot. PRELIMINARY CONDITIONS AND DISCLAIMER 2. Agency: Deutscher and Hackett acts as agent for the vendor and the contract of sale for the lot will be between the buyer and the vendor. 3. Property is sold ‘as is’: To the extent permitted by law: a. no guarantees, warranties or representations are made (express or implied) by Deutscher and Hackett or the vendor in relation to the nature and condition of any lot; and b. Deutscher and Hackett disclaims liability for any misrepresentations, errors or omissions, whether verbal or in writing, in the catalogue or any supplemental material. All factual information provided by the vendor is merely passed on by Deutscher and Hackett from the vendor or other source. Deutscher and Hackett has made no attempt to verify this information. All additional statements of opinion represent the specialist opinions of Deutscher and Hackett employees and should not be relied upon as statements of fact. 4. Responsibility to inspect: Responsibility remains with the buyer to satisfy its, his or her self by inspection and evaluation prior to purchase as to the nature and condition of any property. CONDITIONS AT AUCTION 5. Registration: Bidders must register to bid and obtain a bidder’s paddle prior to the commencement of the auction. Registration requires that bidders provide proof of identity and Deutscher and Hackett may impose other obligations on the registration of bidders in its discretion. 6. Auctioneer’s discretion: Deutscher and Hackett reserves the right to absolute discretion over the conduct of the auction including the regulation of bidding and its increments. This discretion extends to the challenge or rejection of any bid, the right to withdraw any lot and the right to determine the successful bidder or reoffer a lot in the event of a dispute. The prospective buyers and sellers guide details an indicative process for the conduct of auctions. All parties are strongly urged to read the prospective buyers and sellers guide included in this catalogue.
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7. Bidding: Deutscher and Hackett may sell each lot to the highest bidder at auction provided the reserve price has been met or where the net amount accounted to the vendor is at least equivalent to the net amount that would have been achieved for a sale at the reserve price. The fall of the auctioneer’s hammer marks the acceptance of the highest bid and the conclusion of a contract for sale between the vendor and the buyer. Unless otherwise agreed in writing with Deutscher and Hackett, the individual physically present at the auction who signals the bid accepts personal liability to pay the purchase price, including the buyer’s premium and all additional fees, taxes and charges. GOODS AND SERVICES TAX 8. Amounts inclusive of GST: Unless otherwise specified, all amounts specified in this section as payable by the buyer, or otherwise used to calculate payment to Deutscher and Hackett, are inclusive of any GST component. Deutscher and Hackett will provide buyers with a tax invoice that meets the requirements of the Australian Taxation Office. 9. Application of GST to buyers: Buyers are required to pay a 10% GST which sum is: a. included in the final bid prices where buying from a GST registered vendor; and b. included in any additional fees charged by Deutscher and Hackett; and c. included in the buyer’s premium. If a buyer is classified as a “non-resident” for the purpose of GST, the buyer may be able to recover GST paid on the final purchase price if certain conditions are met. POST-SALE CONDITONS 10. Post auction private sale: Should the lot fail to sell at auction, Deutscher and Hackett is authorised to sell the lot privately for a period of seven days in which event this agreement shall apply to the relevant buyer to the full extent of its provisions. 11. Payment: The buyer will not acquire title until payment has cleared in full. Interest at a rate of 17.5% p.a. will be charged over outstanding accounts where no extension of terms has been granted. Interest will be payable from the payment due date. With respect to each lot purchased, the buyer agrees to make the following payments within seven days from the date of sale: a. The hammer price. b. In exchange for services rendered by Deutscher and Hacket t, a buyer’s premium calculated at 25% (inclusive of GST) of the hammer price. c. Post sale packing, handling, shipping and storage where applicable. d. If payment is made via Visa, Mastercard or American Express, any merchant fees payable by Deutscher and Hackett on the transaction as indicated in the prospective buyers and sellers guide. Payment must be made within seven days of the date of sale in Australian dollars by cash, cheque, direct deposit, approved credit cards or electronic funds transfer using the form and/or trust account details provided at the back of this catalogue. In certain circumstances, extension of payment may be granted at the discretion of Deutscher and Hackett. Once funds have cleared, the proceeds of the sale less the buyer’s Premium, GST and any commission or costs charged as agreed will be remitted to the vendor within thirty-five days of the date of sale provided payment has been received in full. Funds will be held in an interest bearing account by Deutscher and Hackett until remitted to the vendor. Deutscher and Hackett will be entitled to any interest earned during this period. Application for a cultural heritage export licence or any other licence in no way affects the buyer’s obligation to make payment or collection within the periods specified in sections 10 and 13a. 12. Risk and Title: Risk in the lot, including risk of loss or damage, will pass to the buyer on the earlier of: a. the date payment is due, whether or not it has been made; and b. collection by the buyer. The buyer assumes risk for the property in all respects from this date and neither Deutscher and Hackett nor the vendor will be liable for loss or damage occurring after the payment due date. The buyer is encouraged to make arrangements to ensure comprehensive cover is maintained from this date. Title in the lot does not pass to the buyer, even if the lot is released to the buyer, until the buyer has paid all sums owing to Deutscher and Hackett. If a buyer makes a claim against Deutscher and Hackett for damage or loss after sale, the buyer’s premium and the final bid price shall be payable notwithstanding.
13. Freight: a. The buyer may only remove a lot from the Deutscher and Hackett premises once payment has been cleared in full and must be removed no later than seven days after the date of sale. Should items not be removed by this time, storage and insurance costs may be charged to the buyer. If a lot has not been collected within 30 days after the date of sale and alternative arrangements have not been with Deutscher and Hackett, the lot may be re-sold by Deutscher and Hackett without reserve at the next auction and Deutscher and Hackett may set off any amounts owed for storage and insurance costs and its standard commission before remitting the proceeds to the buyer. b. Buyers are required to make their own arrangements for packing, handling, shipping and transit insurance for their property. Deutscher and Hackett does not accept responsibility or liability for the acts or omissions of any third party, such as a shipping agent, whether or not such a party has been recommended or suggested by Deutscher and Hackett. 14. Limited Warranty of Authorship: If a buyer is able to establish that a lot is a forgery in accordance with these conditions for sale within five years of the date of sale, the buyer shall be entitled to rescind the sale and obtain a refund of the hammer price from the vendor. The buyer must return the lot in the state in which it was sold within fourteen days of notifying Deutscher and Hackett of the forgery allegations. For a lot to be established as a forgery, the following conditions must be satisfied: a. the buyer must supply two independent expert testimonies attesting to the forgery. Deutscher and Hackett is entitled to request further expert evidence where it deems the evidence provided to be unsatisfactory; b. there must be no conflict of opinion among accepted experts in the field; and c. the forgery must be able to be proven through means that at the time of publication of the catalogue were commonly employed and that will not damage or otherwise put the lot in jeopardy. The limited warranty and the right to rescind the sale is not assignable and the buyer must have retained title to the lot without disposing of any interest in it up until the buyer notifies Deutscher and Hackett of the forgery allegations. The buyer acknowledges that it has no rights directly against Deutscher and Hackett if a lot is established to be a forgery. 15. Termination, Breach and Legalities: a. Deutscher and Hackett breach: To the extent permitted by law, the sole and maximum remedy to a buyer for breach of warranty is a refund of original purchase price, including buyer’s premium. In such an event the sale contract shall be rescinded and all costs associated with returning the property (in the state in which it was sold) to the premises of Deutscher and Hackett are to be borne by the buyer. Deutscher and Hackett is not liable for any indirect or consequential loss or damage for any matter arising directly or indirectly as a result of the sale. b. Buyer breach: Deutscher and Hackett may, in addition to other remedies available by law, exercise one or more of the following rights or remedies for breach: i. Cancel the sale and retain any payment or property in Deutscher and Hackett custody as collateral or liquidated damages. ii. Charge the buyer interest at the rate of 2% above the rate fixed under section 2 of the Penalty Interest Rates Act 1984 (Vic). iii. Resell the property without reserve at the next auction or privately on five days notice. Any disparity between sale and resale prices, including associated costs such as, but not limited to, legal, storage and sale expenses, will be to the account of the defaulting buyer. iv. Apply any part payment received from the buyer in respect of any lots at its discretion. v. Retain any of the buyer’s property held by Deutscher and Hackett until the buyer has satisfied its obligations to Deutscher and Hackett. vi. Take any other action Deutscher and Hackett deems necessary or appropriate. vii. Refuse to permit the buyer to participate in future auctions. viii. Provide the vendor with the buyer’s details to permit the vendor to take action against the buyer to recover the money. 16. Governing law and jurisdiction: These terms and conditions and any matters concerned with the foregoing fall within the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the state in which the auction is held. 17. Severability: In the event that any provisions of this agreement should be found unenforceable in a court of law, that part shall be discounted and the remaining conditions shall continue in full force and effect to the extent permitted by law.
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EXHIBITS ELEGANCE
EACH OF THE 2,772 BOTTLES PRODUCED FROM THE 2014 VINTAGE IS A CELEBRATION OF THIS NOBLE VARIETY; ONE OF A TINY RELEASE THAT IS DESTINED TO BE REMEMBERED LONG AFTER IT’S BEEN ENJOYED.
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SALE CODE: HUMMOCK SALE NO.: 061 IMPORTANT AUSTRALIAN + INTERNATIONAL FINE ART MELBOURNE AUCTION 15 JULY, 7:00 PM LOTS 1 — 129 105 COMMERCIAL ROAD SOUTH YARRA VIC 3141
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please email, post or fax this completed form to: DEUTSCHER AND HACKETT 105 COMMERCIAL ROAD SOUTH YARRA VIC 3141
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ATTENDEE PRE-REGISTRATION FORM SALE CODE: HUMMOCK SALE NO.: 061 IMPORTANT AUSTRALIAN + INTERNATIONAL FINE ART
(Mr/Mrs/Ms/Miss) Name (please print)
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Address
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MELBOURNE AUCTION 15 JULY, 7:00 PM LOTS 1 — 129 105 COMMERCIAL ROAD SOUTH YARRA VIC 3141
please email, post or fax this completed form to: DEUTSCHER AND HACKETT 105 COMMERCIAL ROAD SOUTH YARRA VIC 3141
tel: 03 9865 6333 fax: 03 9865 6344 info@deutscherandhackett.com
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TELEPHONE BID FORM SALE CODE: HUMMOCK SALE NO.: 061 IMPORTANT AUSTRALIAN + INTERNATIONAL FINE ART MELBOURNE AUCTION 15 JULY, 7:00 PM LOTS 1 — 129 105 COMMERCIAL ROAD SOUTH YARRA VIC 3141
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please email, post or fax this completed form to:
LOT NO.
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DEUTSCHER AND HACKETT 105 COMMERCIAL ROAD SOUTH YARRA VIC 3141
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6. 7. 8. 9. 10. *Not including buyer’s premium or GST (where applicable). Bids are made in Australian dollars. INTERNAL USE ONLY RECEIVED BY
DATE
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Please refer to the Prospective Buyers and Sellers Guide and the Conditions of Auction and Sale in this catalogue for information regarding sales. By completing this form, I authorise DEUTSCHER AND HACKETT to contact me by telephone on the contact number(s) nominated. I understand it is my responsibility to enquire whether any Sale-Room Notices relate to any lot on which I intend to bid. I also understand that should my bid(s) be successful, a buyer’s premium of 25% (inclusive of GST), will be added to the final hammer price. I accept that DEUTSCHER AND HACKETT provides this complimentary service as a courtesy to its clients, that there are inherent risks to telephone bidding, and I will not hold DEUTSCHER AND HACKETT responsible for any error.
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ABSENTEE BID FORM SALE CODE: HUMMOCK SALE NO.: 061 IMPORTANT AUSTRALIAN + INTERNATIONAL FINE ART
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Address
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MELBOURNE AUCTION 15 JULY, 7:00 PM LOTS 1 — 129 105 COMMERCIAL ROAD SOUTH YARRA VIC 3141
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please email, post or fax this completed form to: DEUTSCHER AND HACKETT 105 COMMERCIAL ROAD SOUTH YARRA VIC 3141
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6. 7. 8. 9. 10. INTERNAL USE ONLY
*Not including buyer’s premium or GST (where applicable). Bids are made in Australian dollars. Absentee bids must be received a minimum of twenty-four hours prior to auction. All absentee bids received will be confirmed by phone or fax. In the event that confirmation is not received, please resubmit or contact our office. Please refer to the Prospective Buyers and Sellers Guide and the Conditions of Auction and Sale in this catalogue for information regarding sales. By completing this form, absentee bidders request and authorise DEUTSCHER AND HACKETT to place the following bids acting as agent on their behalf up to and including the maximum bid specified. Lots will be bought at the lowest possible bid authorised by a bidder in absentia. Should the bid be successful, the buyer will be obliged to pay the final bid price plus buyer’s premium of 25% (inclusive of GST) of the final bid price. DEUTSCHER AND HACKETT provides this complimentary service as a courtesy to clients and does not accept liability for errors and omissions in the execution of absentee bids.
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RECEIVED BY
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NOW CONSIGNING forthcoming auctions of important australian + international fine art sydney • 02 9287 0600 melbourne • 03 9865 6333 info@deutscherandhackett.com www.deutscherandhackett.com
IT’S NOT ALWAYS NECESSARY TO DIE TO BECOME AN ANGEL
You can become an art angel in your own lifetime by making a bequest to the Art Gallery of New South Wales. You might be surprised just how many have already made this gesture, contributing to the wealth of art available to all. Why do they insist on such angelic acts? Because they believe in the long term effects art has on our culture and wider community to inform, enrich, nourish and feed. The wonderful collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales could not exist without the loyalty and generosity of our many donors and benefactors. Their bequests, both large and small, benefit the Gallery in a myriad of ways, and can be comprised of money, art or other property or assets. Bequests of art can also display acknowledgement and are exempt from capital gains tax. Why not contact us for further information or to discuss your bequest in confidence, by phoning Jane Wynter, the Head of philanthropy on 02 9225 1818 or email jane.wynter@ag.nsw.gov.au
Jacopo Amigoni Bacchus and Ariadne c1740-2 oil on canvas Gift of James Fairfax 1993
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OPENING 24 JULY THE IAN POTTER CENTRE: NGV AUSTRALIA, FED SQUARE FREE ENTRY
FESTIVAL PARTNER
Destiny Deacon Kuku/Erub/Mer born 1957 Being there 1998 (detail). National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Purchased, Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists, 2016. © Destiny Deacon, courtesy Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney
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The Untold Stories of Cook and the
First Australians
NOW OPEN
The voyage of James Cook’s Endeavour changed the world forever. On the 250th anniversary of Cook’s journey up the east coast, explore stories from Indigenous communities on the shore who witnessed his passage, reframed alongside those from the ship.
FREE ENTRY Plan your visit and book a timed ticket to this landmark exhibition.
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AUSTRALIA, CANBERRA nma.gov.au/endeavour-voyage
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Erwin Fabian, Inside Out: Space and Process Erwin Fabian & AnneMarie May, installation view. Courtesy the Estate of Erwin Fabian, Australian Galleries, and Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney. Photography Christian Capurro.
D+H ONLINE & SOLO AUCTIONS 2020 A GROWING AUDIENCE WITH GROWING RESULTS DEL KATHRYN BARTON
hugo, 2013 (Archibald Prize Winner, 2013) SOLD $270,000 (inc. BP), Solo Auction, 3 June 2020 (Est. $120,000-160,000)
for appraisals and auction details please contact MELBOURNE • 03 9865 6333 SYDNEY • 02 9287 0600 info@deutscherandhackett.com www.deutscherandhackett.com
COPYRIGHT CREDITS Lot 1 Lot 2 Lot 3 Lot 5 Lot 6 Lot 7 Lot 14 Lot 16 Lot 21 Lot 22 Lot 23 Lot 24 Lot 26 Lot 27 Lot 28 Lot 29 Lot 30 Lot 31 Lot 32 Lot 33 Lot 34 Lot 35 Lot 36 Lot 38 Lot 39 Lot 40 Lot 41 Lot 42 Lot 44 Lot 45 Lot 46 Lot 47
© Cressida Campbell/Copyright Agency, 2020 © Cressida Campbell/Copyright Agency, 2020 © Cressida Campbell/Copyright Agency, 2020 © Estate of Edwin Tanner © Tony Tuckson/Copyright Agency, 2020 © Estate of Fred Williams/Copyright Agency, 2020 © Hans Heysen/Copyright Agency, 2020 © Namatjira Legacy Trust/Copyright Agency, 2020 © Estate of Fred Williams/Copyright Agency, 2020 © courtesy of Wendy Whiteley © courtesy of Wendy Whiteley © Gleeson/O’Keefe Foundation © Arthur Boyd/Copyright Agency, 2020 © Garry Shead/Copyright Agency, 2020 © Garry Shead/Copyright Agency, 2020 © courtesy of The Estate of Jeffrey Smart © Rick Amor/Copyright Agency, 2020 © courtesy of the artist © Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri/Copyright Agency, 2020 © John Olsen/Copyright Agency, 2020 © courtesy of the artist © courtesy of the artist © courtesy of the artist © Gordon Bennett, managed by John Citizen Arts Pty Ltd © Gordon Bennett, managed by John Citizen Arts Pty Ltd © Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri/Copyright Agency, 2020 © Imants Tillers/Copyright Agency, 2019 © Rosalie Gascoigne/Copyright Agency, 2020 © Margaret Preston/Copyright Agency, 2020 © Margaret Preston/Copyright Agency, 2020 © Alan and Jancis Rees/Copyright Agency, 2020 © Alan and Jancis Rees/Copyright Agency, 2020
LOTS CONSIGNED BY GST REGISTERED ENTITIES Lot 15 Lot 32 Lot 35 Lot 37 Lot 40
Tom Roberts Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri Tim Storrier Shane Cotton Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri
RESALE ROYALTY Some lots consigned for this sale may be subject to the Resale Royalty Right for Visual Artists Act 2009 (Cth). Any payments due under the obligations of the Act will be paid by the vendor.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Design: Danny Kneebone Photography: Danny Kneebone © Published by Deutscher and Hackett Pty Ltd 2020 978-0-6483839-1-8
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Lot 52 Lot 53 Lot 54 Lot 55 Lot 56 Lot 57 Lot 58 Lot 59 Lot 60 Lot 63 Lot 64 Lot 69 Lot 70 Lot 76 Lot 77 Lot 78 Lot 79 Lot 80 Lot 81 Lot 82 Lot 83 Lot 84 Lot 85 Lot 86 Lot 87 Lot 88 Lot 89 Lot 91
© The Estate of Michael Shannon © Estate of Edwin Tanner © Charles Blackman/Copyright Agency, 2020 © Charles Blackman/Copyright Agency, 2020 © courtesy of Wendy Whiteley © George Baldessin/Copyright Agency, 2020 © Rick Amor/Copyright Agency, 2020 © courtesy of the artist © Antoni Clavé/Copyright Agency, 2020 © Leonard French/Copyright Agency, 2020 © John Coburn/Copyright Agency, 2020 © John Olsen/Copyright Agency, 2020 © John Olsen/Copyright Agency, 2020 © Rover Thomas/Copyright Agency, 2020 © Rover Thomas/Copyright Agency, 2020 © John Mawurndjul/Copyright Agency, 2020 © John Mawurndjul/Copyright Agency, 2020 © Jimmy Njiminjuma/Copyright Agency, 2020 © Jimmy Njiminjuma/Copyright Agency, 2020 © Namerredje Guymala/Copyright Agency, 2020 © Yirawala/Copyright Agency, 2020 © Emily K Kngwarreye/Copyright Agency, 2020 © Angelina Ngale Apwerl (Pwerle)/ Copyright Agency, 2020 © Angelina Ngale Apwerl (Pwerle)/ Copyright Agency, 2020 © Minnie Motorcar Apwerl (Pwerle)/ Copyright Agency, 2020 © Minnie Motorcar Apwerl (Pwerle)/ Copyright Agency, 2020 © Minnie Motorcar Apwerl (Pwerle)/ Copyright Agency, 2020 © Trevor Nickolls/Copyright Agency, 2020
Lot 92 Lot 93 Lot 95 Lot 96 Lot 98 Lot 99 Lot 100 Lot 101 Lot 102 Lot 103 Lot 104 Lot 105 Lot 108 Lot 109 Lot 111 Lot 114 Lot 117 Lot 118 Lot 123 Lot 124 Lot 125 Lot 126 Lot 127 Lot 128
© Trevor Nickolls/Copyright Agency, 2020 © Dorothy Napangardi Robinson/ Copyright Agency, 2020 © Dorothy Napangardi Robinson/ Copyright Agency, 2020 © Dorothy Napangardi Robinson/ Copyright Agency, 2020 © Samuel Namunjdja/Copyright Agency, 2020 © Samuel Namunjdja/Copyright Agency, 2020 © Terry Ngamandara/Copyright Agency, 2020 © John Mawurndjul/Copyright Agency, 2020 © Owen Yalandja/Copyright Agency, 2020 © Owen Yalandja/Copyright Agency, 2020 © James Iyuna/Copyright Agency, 2020 © James Iyuna/Copyright Agency, 2020 © David Malangi Daymirringu/ Copyright Agency, 2020 © courtesy of the artist and Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre © Wolpa Wanambi © courtesy of the artist and Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre © Gawirrin Gumana/Copyright Agency, 2020 © Gawirrin Gumana/Copyright Agency, 2020 © Timothy Wulanjbirr/Copyright Agency, 2020 © courtesy of the artist and Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre © Ivan Namirrkki/Copyright Agency, 2020 © Lofty Bardayal Nadjamerrek/ Copyright Agency, 2020 © Samuel Namunjdja/Copyright Agency, 2020 © Mick Kubarkku/Copyright Agency, 2020
index A
H
AMOR, R.
30, 58
R
HAMMOND, B.
65
RAE, I.
APWERL (PWERLE), ANGELINA NGALE 85, 86
HEYSEN, H.
14
REES, L.
HEYSEN, N.
18
ROBERTS, T.
APWERL (PWERLE), MINNIE MOTORCAR 87, 88, 89
HIRSCHFELD-MACK, L.
66
ROBINSON, W.
HODGKIN, E.
61
ROONEY, R.
11 46, 47 15 25, 71 4
RUSSELL, J.P.
B BALDESSIN, G.
57
BANDAWANGA, BENNY
129
BECKETT, C.
17
BENNETT, G.
38, 39
BLACKMAN, C.
54, 55
BONNARD, P.
IDAGI, RICARDO IYUNA, JAMES
97 104, 105
J JACKSON, J.R.
50
73, 74, 75
BOYD, A.
26
SHANNON, M.
52
SHEAD, G.
27, 28
SMART, J.
29
STORRIER, T.
31, 34, 35, 36, 59
128
1, 2, 3
T TANNER, E.
5, 53
TAYLOR, H.
9
90
M
60
MARIKA, DHUWARRWARR 110, 112, 113
THOMAS (JOOLAMA), ROVER
COBURN, J.
64
MAWURNDJUL, JOHN
TILLERS, I.
COTTON, S.
37
McCAHON, C.
CAMPBELL JUNIOR, ROBERT CLAVÉ, A.
78, 79, 101 8
MILLUPURN 116 D DAYMIRRINGU, DAVID (MALANGI) DE MAISTRE, R.
108 19, 20
DELMINY, JIMMY
107
N 126
NADJONGORLE, DJAWIDA
106
NAMIRRKKI, IVAN
F FOX, E. P.
12
FRENCH, L.
63
FULLBROOK, S.
67, 68
G GANAMBARR, LARRTJANGA
NAMUNJDJA, SAMUEL
100
NJIMINJUMA, JIMMY
80, 81
115 O
GLEESON, J.
24
OLSEN, J.
GRUNER, E.
48, 49 117, 118 119, 120, 121, 122
GUYMALA, NAMERREDJE
98, 99, 127
91, 92
42
GUMANA, WATURR
125
NICKOLLS, TREVOR
GASCOIGNE, R.
GUMANA, GAWIRRIN
16
NAPANGARDI ROBINSON, DOROTHY 93, 95, 96 NGAMANDARA, TERRY
82
76, 77 41
TJAPALTJARRI, MICK NAMARARI TUCKSON, T.
32, 40 6
V
NADJAMERREK, LOFTY BARDAYAL NAMATJIRA, ALBERT
62
84
KUBARKKU, MICK
CAMPBELL, C.
S
STRASSER, R.
K KNGWARREYE, EMILY KAME
C
72
I
33, 69, 70
VON GUÉRARD, E. W WANAMBI, WOLPA
111
WATSON, TOMMY
94
WHITELEY, B.
PASSMORE, J.
51
PIGOTT, G. H.
43
PRESTON, M.
44, 45
22, 23, 56
WILLIAMS, F.
7, 21
WITHERS, W.
13
WULANJBIRR, TIMOTHY
123
WUNUNGMURRA, DJIRRIRRA 109, 114, 124 Y YALANDJA, OWEN
P
10
YIRAWALA
102, 103 83
215
216
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