IMPORTANT & RARE ART Auction 7:00pm Tuesday 27 July 2021
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Lot 41 Colin McCahon
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IMPORTANT & RARE ART Live Auction 7:00pm Tuesday 27 July Viewing Times International Art Centre, 202 Parnell Road, Auckland Wednesday
21 July
11:00am - 5:00pm
Thursday
22 July
9:00am - 5:30pm
Friday
23 July
9:00am - 5:30pm
Saturday
24 July
10:00am - 4:00pm
Sunday
25 July
11:00am - 4:00pm
Monday
26 July
9:00am - 5:30pm
Tuesday
27 July
9:00am - 5:00pm
Parking During Viewing: Allocated carparks located directly behind International Art Centre Parking During Auction: Upper and lower carparks at rear of International Art Centre Further parking at St John’s Car Park, entry at 244 Parnell Road, 40 metres up from International Art Centre
Cover illustration: Lot 49 Back cover illustration: Lot 44
Directors Richard Thomson & Frances Davies 202 Parnell Road, Auckland, New Zealand Telephone + 64 9 379 4010 Toll Free 0800 800 322 www.internationalartcentre.co.nz
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Lot 23 Michael Illingworth Lot 44 Toss Woollaston
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Contacts Richard Thomson Ph +64 9 379 4010 richard@artcntr.co.nz Mobile 0274 751 071 Maggie Skelton Ph +64 9 379 4010 maggie@artcntr.co.nz Luke Davies Ph +64 9 379 4010 luke@artcntr.co.nz If you are unable to attend the live auction register directly with International Art Centre’s online bidding platform www.internationalartcentre.co.nz Visit www.internationalartcentre.co.nz for instructions. With a single sign on you can easily browse catalogues, watch lots and place bids all from the comfort of your mobile device or computer. Conditions of Sale p. 171 Absentee & telephone bids p. 165
202 Parnell Road, Auckland, New Zealand Telephone + 64 9 379 4010 Toll Free 0800 800 322 www.internationalartcentre.co.nz
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REUBEN PATERSON Untitled (Koru), 2009 Glitter on canvas 61 x 50.8cm
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The Silich Collection
CHARLES DECIMUS BARRAUD Mount Cook with Surveyor’s Camp, 1885 Watercolour 54 x 97cm
Despite living most of his 73 years in Europe, David Silich (1944 - 2018) remained a proud New Zealander. This is reflected in his art collecting and his philanthropy. A generous benefactor, he supported both his old school, Whangarei Boys’ High School, and the University of Auckland, where he had completed a degree in Mathematics in the mid-1960s. Once he and his Swiss wife Corina made the decision to purchase a farm here a decade ago, he had a vision to build a major collection which would combine traditional landscapes with bold modernist works. Knowledgeable, and with a keen eye, he chose works that to him expressed the unique characteristics of this country and its people. Commencing with a Single Owner Auction in Spring 2021 and continuing with several online only auctions presented on our Bidding Platform and the International Art Centre App, the Silich Collection will be offered for sale over the coming months. The offering sees one of the largest private collections ever offered for sale in New Zealand comprising of over 700 diverse works of art spanning three centuries of New Zealand painting.
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30 MARCH IMPORTANT & RARE ART HIGHLIGHTS In April 2016, International Art Centre became the first auction house in New Zealand to sell a painting for over a million dollars. This historic event saw Charles Frederick Goldie's A Noble Relic of a Noble Race realise $1.37 million. Five years later, at our recent Important & Rare Art auction that record was surpassed when, after thirteen minutes of spirited bidding from the floor, phones and internet Banksy's, Keep It Real sold for $1.74 million. As auctioneer Richard Thomson paused for breath, the room filled with exuberant applause which continued throughout the evening as further record prices were achieved. For directors Richard Thomson, Frances Davies and the International Art Centre family the jubilation was welcomed as a fitting soundtrack to the celebration of our 50th Anniversary year. Record prices for Contemporary New Zealand art were numerous and in lot order included works by: Anne Shelton - $13,810, Paratene Matchitt - $36,030, Nigel Brown - $32,433, Stanley Palmer - $46,645, Robin White - $216,200, Robyn Kahukiwa - $64,867. A record price for early 20th century painter, E G Edwards of $33,600 was also achieved. Returning to the international Banksy market, world records were attained for two of the five Banksy prints offered. Choose Your Weapon (Soft Yellow) fetched $468,450 and Morons achieved $255,855. International Art Centre is one of the top three performers in the global Banksy market. Since June 2020 the inclusion of works by Banksy has lead to our auction catalogues being viewed by an extensive international audience; the benefits of this are ongoing, with one of the most pleasing aspects being increased off-shore interest in New Zealand art. Along with this, we continue to attract interesting international paintings such as the keenly contested work by German artist Sigmar Polke. This work sold for $204,200 to a New Zealand collector who succeeded against off-shore interests.
Other highlights contributing to a sale total of $5.35 million included Bill Hammond's Choreograph Screen - $144,000, Gretchen Albrecht's Floe $120,010, Don Binney's Mexico D.F. - $120,010 and Frances Hodgkins The Cow - $132,130. A photograph by Fiona Pardington achieved $51,000 and one of six works by Toss Woollaston made $54,054. A work by Philip Clairmont exceeded estimate selling for $34,235 as did an oil by Karl Maughan which went for $40,800. There were two works by Michael Smither on offer, one from the collection of the artist's daughter which made $70,200. Peter Siddell's Old House, Avondale, estimated at $15,000 - 25,000 sold for $50,450. Traditional works by Peter McIntyre, John Barr Clarke Hoyte, Charles Blomfield, Laurence William Wilson, Sydney Lough Thompson also performed extremely well. Our thanks to all who attended the sale both in person or online through our bidding platform and App, along with our telephone bidders. It was a night to remember and positive confirmation of the value of art on so many levels. Prices quoted include buyer’s premium.
Banksy - $1.74 million
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Bill Hammond - $144,000
Robyn Kahukiwa - $64,867
Robert Ellis - $36,030
Don Binney - $39,640
Banksy - $468,450
Fiona Pardington - $51,000
Paratene Matchitt - $36,030 Pat Hanly - $26,867
Max Gimblett- $42,245
Colin McCahon - $57,050
Peter McIntyre $40,840
Frances Hodgkins - $132,130
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25 MAY COLLECTABLE ART highlights
Gretchen Albrecht realised $36,600
Nigel Brown realised $24,025
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Banksy realised $108,110
Raymond Ching realised $11,400
Sam Mitchell realised $5,405 Banksy poster realised $10,810
Reuben Paterson realised $3,720
J Bevan Ford realised $10,210
Michael Smither realised $22,800
Ralph Hotere realised $12,010
Jack Trolove realised $18,300
Helen Brown realised $8,709
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ART at HOME 8 held june 10 - 16 OUR EIGHTH ONLINE ONLY AUCtiON HIGHLIGHTS
Toss Woollaston realised $7,808
Peter Beadle realised $4,925 Max Gimblett realised $3,910
Dean Buchanan realised $4,925
Michael Blow realised $2,280
Barry Brickell realised $510
Dave Goodwin realised $3,360 Nigel Brown realised $2,640
C F Goldie books realised $1,680
Rata Lovell Smith realised $1,320
Henryk Szydlowski realised $6,606
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Michel Tuffery realised $2,640
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MICHAEL HIGHT (b. 1961) Arataki Diptych Oil on canvas 25 x 76 Signed & dated 2000 verso $5,000 - 8,000
PROVENANCE Private Collection, Auckland Purchased from Gow Langsford Gallery, 2000 EXHIBITED Northern Landscapes, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, 2000
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EMMA CAMDEN (b. 1966) Tower Cast glass, 1/1, 60 x 16 Signed & dated 2000 on base $2,500 - 3,500
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MARTI FRIEDLANDER (1928 - 2016) Ralph Hotere - The Artist’s Studio, Port Chalmers, 1979 Silver gelatin print 24.5 x 19 Signed on label affixed verso $4,000 - 8,000
PROVENANCE Private Collection, Auckland Purchased from FHE Galleries Label affixed verso Ralph. Such a beautiful man. We first met in 1978 and I spent quite a long time with him. I remember his house, his paintings, his hospitality when I arrived, the sweetness, the ease of being with him, and his kindness. Marti Friedlander Ralph Hotere - The Artist’s Studio, Port Chalmers is part of a series of portraits of New Zealand artists by Marti Friedlander taken between 1977 and 1979. She was inspired to photograph living artists after reading Alexander Liberman’s book The Artist in his Studio. In doing so, Friedlander created an invaluable and insightful photographic record of young artists, many of whom would go on to become leading lights of New Zealand art. In this work, Ralph Hotere is relaxed and contemplative, his gaze reflects a penetrating awareness, framed by the intense light falling on his face and hair. Hotere’s hand is cupping his cigarette.
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ADRIENNE MARTYN (b. 1950) Louise Henderson, 1990 Gelatin silver print 28 x 27 Inscribed verso $1,500 - 2,500
Dame Louise Henderson (1902–1994) studied with the French cubist artist Jean Metzinger (1883–1956). This photograph is one of a series of New Zealand artists which Adrienne Martyn was commissioned to take by the National Art Gallery of New Zealand. Martyn’s work is noted for her interest in surfaces and textures, and for the subtle way she brings out the personality of her subjects. She has photographed Louise Henderson in her domestic environment, without any visual references to her art.
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5 JOHN TOLE (1890 - 1967) One Tree Hill Oil on board 24 x 31.5 Signed Original artist’s label affixed verso $8,000 - 12,000 PROVENANCE Private Collection, Auckland Contemporary & Traditional New Zealand & European Art, International Art Centre, 28/04/1997
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CHARLES TOLE (1903 - 88) Industrial Buildings Oil on board 25 x 29.5 Signed & dated 1945 $8,000 - 12,000
PROVENANCE Private Collection, Auckland John Leech Gallery label affixed verso
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7 CHARLES TOLE (1903 - 88) Post Office Garage (From Constitution Hill) Oil on hardboard 24 x 30.5 Signed $5,000 - 10,000
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JAMES TURKINGTON attributed (1895 - 1979) Figures on a Beach Oil on hardboard 30.5 x 40.5 $15,000 - 20,000
PROVENANCE Private Collection Purchased from Webb’s, 1999 ILLUSTRATED Art Market Begins to Brush Up National Business Review, July 16, 1999 Facsimile article attached verso
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ISRAEL TANGAROA BIRCH (b. 1976) Atakura Lacquer on etched stainless steel 80 x 80 Signed & dated 2016/17 verso $7,000 - 10,000
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STEPHEN BAMBURY (b. 1951) The Natural Colour of Materials Must Also Disappear Acrylic & aluminium paint on canvas 72.5 x 72.5 Signed, inscribed The Natural Colour of Materials Must Also Disappear & dated 1988 - 89 verso $8,000 - 12,000
PROVENANCE Private Collection, Auckland Purchased from Jensen Gallery
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JOHN PULE (b. 1962) Momoui Oil on canvas 200 x 200 Signed & dated 2005 $25,000 - 35,000
PROVENANCE Private Collection, Auckland Commissioned 2005 by current owner
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TWO LATE ENTRIES BY JOHN PULE
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JOHN PULE (b. 1962) Taulani Oil on canvas 202 x 181.5 Signed & dated 2003 $30,000 - 40,000
PROVENANCE Private Collection, Auckland Purchased from Jonathan Smart Gallery, Christchurch, 2003
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DON BINNEY (1940 - 2012) Rakino Northwards Oil & acrylic on canvas 62 x 51 Signed & dated 2007 $90,000 - 150,000
PROVENANCE Private Collection, Auckland Purchased from The Diversion Gallery 2007
LATE ENTRY BY DON BINNEY
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KARL MAUGHAN (b. 1964) Sentinel Road 6 Oil on canvas 180 x 200 Signed, inscribed Sentinel Road 6 & dated 2019 verso $30,000 - 40,000
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12 ANN ROBINSON (b. 1944) Pod 45% lead Crystal with a shaft of blue glass inset into the lip on an angle, hitting both sides of the vessel, Unique 1/1, 30 x 35 x 25.5 Signed & dated 11/10/94 $14,000 - 18,000 PROVENANCE Private Collection, Auckland Purchased directly from the artist, 1994
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KARL MAUGHAN (b. 1964) January Enneaptych Oil on nine canvas panels 95 x 95 Signed & dated 1997 verso $28,000 - 38,000
PROVENANCE Private Collection, United Kingdom Purchased from the artist’s studio, 1997
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RALPH HOTERE (1931 - 2013) Polaris Burnished steel, acrylic, paper presented in original Roger Hicken frame 76 x 76.5 Signed, inscribed Polaris & dated Port Chalmers 1983 -‘84 $40,000 - 60,000
PROVENANCE Private Collection, Wellington EXHIBITED Paper Chase, Robert McDougall Gallery, Christchurch, 1984. Ralph Hotere produced his first Polaris series in London in 1962, as the world teetered on the brink of war during the Cuban Missile Crisis. UGM-27 Polaris was the United States of America’s first nuclear-armed ballistic missile, launched from an attack submarine. In late 1983 and early 1984, with American nuclearpowered ships visiting New Zealand as part of the ANZUS alliance, and their controversial policy to neither confirm nor deny whether their vessels carried nuclear weapons, Hotere revisted his Polaris theme with a new sense of urgency.
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Working with sheets of stainless steel rumoured to have been ‘repurposed’ from a Fisher & Paykel factory, he worked with his buffer, grinder and blowtorch to create ravaged surfaces, that thrummed with violence and a powerful voice.
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15 RALPH HOTERE (1931 - 2013) Drawing for a Black Window Pastel & crayon on paper 55 x 75 Signed, inscribed Drawing for a Black Window & dated Sydney IV 1982 $20,000 - 30,000
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16 RALPH HOTERE (1931 - 2013) Drawing for Song Cycle Watercolour & acrylic on paper 38.5 x 28.5 Signed, inscribed Drawing for Song Cycle, Poems Bill Manhire, Music Jack Body, Barry Morgan, Dance Casserly Hammel & dated 8/1976 $15,000 - 25,000
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RALPH HOTERE (1931 - 2013) Untitled Lithograph, edition 22/22, 74.5 x 52 Signed & dated 1992 $6,000 - 8,000
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RALPH HOTERE (1931 - 2013) Winter Solstice II Lithograph, edition 20/22, 75 x 57 Signed, inscribed & dated 1996 $6,000 - 8,000
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JOHN SHOTTON PARKER (1944 - 2017) The Beaten Silver Plain Oil on canvas 175 x 240 Signed & dated 2000 $9,000 - 12,000
PROVENANCE: Private Collection, Auckland Purchased from Judith Anderson Gallery, 2000
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FIONA PARDINGTON (b. 1961) Mother & Daughter Huia, Otago Museum, 2006 Silver gelatin, edition 1/5, 42 x 55 Signed & dated 2006 verso $15,000 - 20,000
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FIONA PARDINGTON (b. 1961) Tiki, 2019 Pigment inks on Hahnemuhle, edition 3/10, 170 x 138 Signed verso $25,000 - 35,000
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22 MICHAEL ILLINGWORTH (1932 - 88) Mr and Mrs Thomas Piss-Quick Oil on canvas 101 x 116.5 Signed, inscribed Mr and Mrs Thomas Piss- Quick & dated 1967 verso $250,000 - 350,000 PROVENANCE: Purchased by Mr Jack Ferrier, along with the remaining seventeen paintings in the original exhibition at Barry Lett Galleries 1965 Private Collection, Auckland Fine Paintings, Jewellery & Decorative Arts, Webb’s 19/09/2006, Lot No. 59 EXHIBITED Illingworth: An Exhibition of Recent Work, Barry Lett Galleries, Auckland 1–12 November 1965 REFERENCE A Tourist in Paradise Lost: The Art of Michael Illingworth, Kevin Ireland, Aaron Lister and Damian Skinner, City Gallery, Wellington, 2001, p. 52. Collector buys Seventeen Paintings by One Artist, New Zealand Herald, 23 May 1967
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Stylistically, Illingworth’s figures are instantly recognisable. The shape of my heads I take from that which nature has drafted as the shape strongest for protection (seen in such as an egg). My bodies come from the pyramid. The head I make is often to act as a canopy against nuclear fallout. The pyramid seems a sensible fallout shelter also. p. 22 Aaron Lister and Damian Skinner, A Tourist in Paradise Lost: The Art of Michael Illingworth, City Gallery Wellington, 2001. Illingworth’s figures often developed into specific characters that came to frequent his paintings. The Piss-Quicks began to appear in Illingworth’s paintings in the early 1960s. Thomas Piss-Quick was said to have represented the type of man that Illingworth had observed while in London. Such men would move quickly through art exhibitions, barely glancing at the art on view, before asking directions to the toilet. This combination of money and attire suggest wealth, but not necessarily fine taste or a discerning eye. The idea of critical vision is central to Illingworth’s projected artistic identity, continually rehearsed in notions of seeing through the façade of civilisation, or identifying the extraordinary and poetic in nature. On another level, the eye, and its gaze, is fundamental to the meanings produced within Illingworth’s paintings, since seeing, or its lack, characterises much of the social dysfunction Illingworth describes through the Piss-Quicks with their vacuous stares and blank faces.
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MICHAEL ILLINGWORTH (1932 - 88) Tawera As Adam and Eve, c. 1963 Fibreglass & applied pigment sculpture 145.5 x 90 x 48.7cm $50,000 - 75,000
PROVENANCE Ex Artist’s Estate Collection Private Collection, Auckland EXHIBITED Illingworth: An Exhibition of Recent Work’, Barry Lett Galleries, Auckland, 1–12 November 1965
As Adam and Eve intends to shock — both through its comically explicit nudity and its simplified style which breaks landscape and human forms down into interchangeable shapes and patterns. Illingworth claimed that ‘only lovers’ would face this painting. He meant those able to enjoy the pleasures of the flesh and of modern art without hang-ups. He presents us with his alternative ideal for Aotearoa New Zealand — agrarian, utopian and
Illingworth believed that an ability to experience the true majesty of the natural order set him apart. His stylised treatment of the landscape is often called ‘mythic’ or ‘poetic’. It moves beyond ‘what we all can see’, revealing deeper truths that most are blind to. Both paintings are essentially about seeing. They encourage us to glimpse the wonders of nature, see through the trappings of materialist culture and conservative morality, and look to art and Māori for inspiration. Both stare back at us. They address us as lovers, or chastise us as traitors to our true selves. Aaron Lister New Zealand Art at Te Papa Reproduced courtesy of Aaron Lister and Te Papa Adam and Eve - Collection of Te Papa Tongarewa
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24 ROBERT ELLIS (b. 1929) Motorway Journey Oil on board 89.5 x 89.5 Signed & dated 1970 Inscribed Motorway Journey B.L Ex. No. 7 verso $30,000 - 40,000 PROVENANCE Private Collection, Auckland Ex ICI Collection, label affixed verso EXHIBITED Barry Lett Galleries, Auckland, 1970 Exhibition No. 7
Robert’s Motorway paintings were all about the energy of a particular place - a place to which the artist now felt he belonged - Hamish Keith
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I paint to still the anguish I feel in my heart, to order the chaos I sense is just outside the magic circle I draw around me with my painting Gretchen Albrecht
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GRETCHEN ALBRECHT (b. 1943) Exile Acrylic on canvas 183 x 366 Signed & dated 1985 Inscribed verso Original artist’s label affixed verso $90,000 - 120,000
PROVENANCE Private Collection, Auckland EXHIBITED Gretchen Albrecht Seasonal/Four Paintings, Artist’s Project, Auckland Art Gallery, 13 December 1985 - 7 March 1986 Curated by Alexa M Johnston ILLUSTRATED p. 58 Gretchen Albrecht Illuminations, Ron Brownson with contributions by Mary Kisler and Bronwyn Fletcher, Auckland Art Gallery, Toi O Tamaki, Godwit, 2002
p. 139 Gretchen Albrecht Between Gesture and Geometry, Luke Smythe, Massey University Press, 2019
Front cover: Gretchen Albrecht Seasonal/Four Paintings, Auckland Art Gallery, 1985
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REFERENCE p. 136,137, 287 & 257 Gretchen Albrecht Between Gesture and Geometry, Luke Smythe, Massey University Press, 2019 Gretchen Albrecht Seasonal/Four Paintings, Auckland Art Gallery, 1985 Gretchen Albrecht Illuminations, Ron Brownson with contributions by Mary Kisler and Bronwyn Fletcher, Auckland Art Gallery, Toi O Tamaki, Godwit, 2002
For a 1985 solo project at Auckland City Art Gallery, Gretchen Albrecht made four works which addressed the cycle of the seasons; Ardour, Blossom, Exile and Orchard (for Keats). They were made using a technique she had been testing since 1984: the addition of sweeps and strokes of oil paint to her stained acrylic grounds. This two stage painting process allowed her to add texture to the hemispheres in the form of discrete strokes of oil paint. It also allowed her to develop tonal contrasts between opaque passages of oil and translucent washes of acrylic. Leveraging these new possibilities, she created her most painterly and chromatically varied hemispheres to date, each compelling in its own right but also redolent of the season that it referenced.
The imagery of Exile, the cycle’s winter painting, was informed by two key experiences: her observation of the Southern Alps at sunset on a flight to Dunedin, and her recollections of a verse from Ovid’s Metamorphosos, in which winter is personified as an old man with icy hair. The glinting pink tinged snowcaps of the alps give the painting its prevailing tonality. Its central blasts of chilly blue can be seen as a hanging beard or frozen tresses. Reference: Gretchen Albrecht between Gesture and Geomentry Luke Smythe, Massey University Press, 2019
Words, as titles are an intrinsic part of Gretchen’s paintings, leading us over the decades through the milestones of human existence. Her love of poetry is equalled by her acute observation of nature in all its fire and beauty - Mary Kisler 49
four RARE WORKS FROM TREVOR MOFFITT’S STANLEY GRAHAM SERIES
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TREVOR MOFFITT (1936 - 2006) Graham in the Hollow Tree From the Stanley Graham Series Oil on board 58 x 58 Signed & dated 1987 $20,000 - 30,000
For Lots 26 - 29 see text overleaf for exerts Trevor Moffitt A Biography, by Chris Ronayne, author of David Ling Publishing, 2006
PROVENANCE Private Collection, Auckland
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Chris Ronayne, author of Trevor Moffitt A Biography, David Ling Publishing Limited, 2006 Towards the end of 1985, with his own life having settled down a bit, Trevor started to research Stanley Graham the West Coast murderer. He read all the material available on the case but did not go to see the recently released film because ‘I did not want to be influenced by it’. During the school holidays Trevor spent a couple of weeks in ‘Hokitika and visited all the relevant sites and the remains of [Stan’s] house which the locals burned down’ soon after Graham died. ‘I was able to speak to people, who if they hadn’t known Graham, had certainly met some of the people he killed, so that was interesting’. However, there was a general reticence by West Coasters to talk about the shootings and when Trevor obliquely introduced his name into the conversation while having a drink in the public bar, he was told: ‘Bloody good bloke, Stan was. Pity he didn’t take more of the bastards with him’. ‘The only thing that remains now of where the killings took place is the concrete bases of fireplaces — it’s all very spooky; moss grows on the telephone poles, mists rise around you and there seems to be a thousand pairs of eyes on you’. The year was 1941 and Stanley Graham was a fortyyear old farmer living at Koiterangi, near Hokitika. He was a skilled bushman and excellent marksman, but was known to have a bad temper. Mrs Graham was supportive of her husband, although she had been a barmaid in Rakaia and was never really accepted into the community. ‘The wives ganged up on her. She didn’t get invited to the morning tea parties and things like that’. All was reasonably well until Graham’s cowshed was condemned as insanitary by a local dairy factory inspector. One of his cows died and he thought it had been poisoned. Graham and his wife suspected that his neighbours were plotting against him, possibly to try and force them off their land. In response to Graham threatening one or two neighbours while being armed with a rifle, the local constable arrived at his farmhouse supported by Sergeant Billy Cooper (born and bred in Waikaia) and two constables from Hokitika. The initial meeting with Graham was cordial but soon after they left a neighbour reported that he was seen with a gun. The policemen returned and in what could be summarised as their attempts to take Graham’s rifle from him all were shot.
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Two died on the spot, most unusually from a single bullet. A third died soon after, and the fourth a few days later. A field instructor from the Canterbury Education Board, George Ridley, went to investigate, while being covered by an armed neighbour. Ridley eventually made a nervous move towards Graham and was shot, subsequently dying of his wounds over a year later. Graham fled into the bush and remained at large for twelve days. This was despite the enlistment of around one hundred policemen, some brought down from Auckland, plus about fifty soldiers and close to fifty locals, some being Home Guardsmen for the period of the War. Graham made two night time shadowy attempts to return to his farmhouse but was spotted on both occasions. Shots were exchanged, and Graham killed two of the locals, but on the second occasion he received a wound in his shoulder, but still escaped. Eventually he was sighted and shot at relatively close range. While injured on the ground he said, ‘You’ve got me, I’ve paid in full’. Stanley Graham died the following day to be eventually recorded as killing seven men. Until the Aramoana murders in 1990, Graham had the dubious distinction of committing the most murders in New Zealand’s history. The first showing of the Stanley Graham series was at the Carnegie Gallery, in the Carnegie Centre, Dunedin, in August 1987. It was a joint exhibition with Bing Dawe and Barry Cleavin, with nine or ten of Moffitt’s works on show. None of his paintings sold, but unbeknown to anyone associated with the exhibition, the daughter of George Ridley, the Education Board field instructor shot by Graham, turned up at the preview: I’d gone outside for a cigarette and Grahame Sydney [the artist] came rushing out and said, ‘Oh my God, there’s all sorts of things happening in there. This woman screaming and yelling. We asked her if she’d like to meet you, and the next thing she went past at about 300 mph and disappeared into the night’. I never heard of her since. But she apparently was highly upset at being confronted by a couple of paintings of her father being shot. It was a bit insensitive I suppose, but I didn’t know she was going to be there.
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TREVOR MOFFITT (1936 - 2006) The School Teacher Evelyn Gibson Arrives, October 1941 From the Stanley Graham Series Oil on board 58 x 58 Signed & dated 1987 Inscribed verso $20,000 - 30,000
PROVENANCE Private Collection, Auckland
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Chris Ronayne, author of Trevor Moffitt A Biography, David Ling Publishing Limited, 2006
The exhibition was reviewed in the Otago Daily Times by John Reid, Jr. Of Moffitt’s works he noted: ... the Stanley Graham tragedy. This incident has become folklore in New Zealand and the subject of intense interest. Perhaps he represents some archetypal New Zealand character - violent, depressed and very alone. Action or the immediate moments before and after are Moffitt’s subjects. (I’ll blow your bloody guts out all over the grass). ... They are disturbing paintings of mad stretched moments of agony. In November, the major part of the Stan Graham Series was exhibited at the Louise Beale Gallery, that had become Trevor’s dealer gallery of choice. Moffitt sent up thirty works, four priced at $3,000 and the rest at $1,500, although six of these had already been sold direct from the artist. However, Trevor put these sales through Louise’s gallery and she was most appreciative of this. Trevor travelled up for the show and was delighted when Sue Mercer, arriving back in New Zealand after a year overseas, flew direct from Auckland to attend the opening as a surprise. Considering the lack of sales of the small sample exhibited in Dunedin, Moff was happily astonished that all but six of the works had been sold by the time the Wellington show closed. However, this success did have its corollary. It produced a tax bill of about $16,000 and as Trevor retired from teaching the month after the exhibition, it did affect what appeared to be a buoyant situation, particularly as he did not sell another painting until the second half of 1988. Although, at this time, the fallout from the October 1987 share market crash was being felt throughout the country. The Evening Post interviewed Moffitt about the series but did not review the paintings. Trevor said that following the death of Alison: ... he had empathy for Graham. The whole world fell on his head, with one event building on top of another.
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Graham sought pleasure through violence. He bred fighting cocks. It was [Moffitt] said, interesting to note that all the people shot by Graham were killed on Graham’s own property. He believed Graham had a strong drive to defend what was his. For some, the resurrection of the Graham saga unearthed bad memories ... ‘It was an emotional experience for a lot of people’, .... He had spoken on the telephone to a relative of Graham’s wife, who asked why he was ‘raking it up’. At a later date, Terry McNamara for the New Zealand Herald, commented: ... [The] image of Graham carried on a farm gate, his eyes rolling in agony and lunacy. It is unforgettable. This is more than illustration, it is a monumental painting of the end of an outlaw and the beginning of a legend. Back in Christchurch, Allison Gregory interviewed Trevor for an article in the Christchurch Star in mid December: ‘I felt an empathy for him. Things were stacked up against him’... 51 oil paintings, roughly a chronological description of Graham’s lifestyle leading into the shootings and manhunt. ‘The narrative was important - how Graham was and how his life got out of control. Moffitt did a series ... Mackenzie the sheep rustler. Both Mackenzie and Graham impressed him not as heroes, but as individuals whose contribution to New Zealand history was worthy of record. Graham in particular was as much a victim as the people he shot, Moffitt said. ‘The lessons of the man are still to be learnt - that lack of communication leads to violence in society’. I’ve been tryin to disguise myself as Arkwright the grocer for years’.
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TREVOR MOFFITT (1936 - 2006) George S. Ridley Attempts to Disarm Graham From the Stanley Graham Series Oil on board 58 x 58 Signed & dated 1987 Inscribed verso $20,000 - 30,000
PROVENANCE Private Collection, Auckland
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Chris Ronayne, author of Trevor Moffitt A Biography, David Ling Publishing Limited, 2006 Moffitt’s brother-in-law, Ian Hamilton, was a dentist living in Paroa on the West Coast at the time the Stan Graham Series was in the news elsewhere: You could say that they [the paintings] were pretty well ignored on the Coast and nobody discussed it. ... No publicity given to [it] ... I think they saw it as digging around in Coast stuff that should be left at home. In a February 1988 edition of The New Zealand Listener Pam Walker provided a dramatic review of the Stan Graham Series. Illustrated with a reproduction of Graham Fleeing into the Night Wounded it stated: This narrative ... [has been] carried out in restrained, symbolic colour which blunted its violence and set a matter-of-fact distance between protagonist and spectator. ... McCahon’s influence, and Frizzell’s and Nigel Brown’s kinship, were evident in the boldly simplified forms and in the unity linking people and landscape, as blockily uncouth figures confronted each other in static poses of stylised realism. In the 1988 Winter edition of Art New Zealand Penny Orme wrote an article on Trevor Moffitt. While illustrated with images from the latest Stan Graham Series she also referenced Mackenzie, My Father’s Life, and Artist as a Solo Father to highlight that, ‘In depicting the courses of these lives, Moffitt manifests his concern for the human condition’.
Stanley Graham
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Pat Condon and his wife Marilyn had been long-term collectors of paintings prior to them opening the Canterbury Gallery in Papanui Road, Christchurch. In August 1988 when the Gallery opened in the old 1883 Eyre Cottage, there were four Stan Graham Series exhibited. This was the beginning of Moffitts association with the Gallery that would last for a number of years. During the period of Stan Graham Leo Bensemann died in 1986. Leo was a very good friend of Moffs, a kind of mentor to him, and probably seen by Trevor as a kindred spirit who lived life to the full, slightly outside the ‘establishment’, with them both paying for their indulgence by not receiving their full recognition as artists. Bensemann was seriously ill for quite sometime before his death, and some time around 1976 Moffitt recorded over two hours of interviews with him. Also at this time, Trevor was involved in helping a young student battle bureaucracy. Reproduced with permission from Chris Ronayne, author of Trevor Moffitt A Biography, David Ling Publishing Limited, 2006
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TREVOR MOFFITT (1936 - 2006) Being Best Forced to Confess From the Stanley Graham Series Oil on board 58 x 58 Signed & dated 1987 Inscribed verso $20,000 - 30,000
PROVENANCE Private Collection, Auckland
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30 BANKSY (British b. 1974) Love is in the Air, 2003 Screenprint on wove paper, edition 115/500, 50 x 70 Unsigned (Signed in plate) $175,000 - 260,000
PROVENANCE Private Collection, Christchurch Purchased from Eat My Handbag Bitch, London, 2004 by current owner
This work is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity from Pest Control
ILLUSTRATED Front cover, Wall and Piece, Banksy, 2005 Love Is In The Air, also known as Flower Thrower first appeared in 2003 as large format, stencilled graffiti in Jerusalem shortly after the construction of the West Bank Wall. It was graffitied on the wall separating Palestine from Israel. The wall rapidly became a giant canvas for paintings and writings protesting against its construction. Banksy returned to the region in 2005 to paint a series of nine provocative works supporting freedom and equality. In 2015 he contributed again, painting four new pieces amongst the ruins of a bombed city with the intention of highlighting the plight of those living in the Gaza Strip. In Banksy’s iconic and characteristic signature stencilled style, Love Is In The Air depicts a protestor wearing a baseball cap and a bandana to mask the lower half of his face.
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The artist adds an inevitable twist, placing a bunch of flowers into the thrower’s hand instead of a molotov cocktail or grenade. Despite what appears to be anger and frustration in the subjects pose, he prepares to launch a universal symbol of love and peace as opposed to a weapon. Love Is In The Air is one of Banksy’s most iconic and sought after works. It has been reproduced on posters, phone covers, T-shirts and other merchandise all over the world. The image also features across the cover of the 2005 publication Wall and Piece, Banksy. Although completed in 2003, this image with it’s masked subject possesses a powerful relevance.
love is in the air
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31 BANKSY (British b. 1974) Barcode Screenprint, edition 428/600, 50 x 70 Embossed POW stamp Unsigned (Stamped in plate) $80,000 - 120,000 PROVENANCE Private Collection, Auckland Purchased from Pictures on Walls, 2005 This work is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity from Pest Control Barcode dates back to 2002. The monochrome screen print is among Banksy’s most famous and now one of the most sought-after works. There were only 150 Barcode prints signed by the artist and 600 unsigned prints with the red stamp. Depicting a majestic leopard seemingly emerging from a barcode that resembles a cage on wheels, the subject remains open to numerous interpretations. Barcodes were introduced in the mid-1970s. Here it is used by Banksy as a symbol of consumerism and capitalism. It resembles a cage from which there is escape. The leopard can be seen to be demonstrating the ability we all have to free ourselves from the shackles of consumerism.
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Banksy maybe linking the choice of the leopard and the barcode by their unique character. Both leopards and barcodes have unique patterns. The big cat suggests diversity of form, whereas the notion of consumerism suggested through the image of the barcode evokes homogeneity. This link can also be seen to refer to the way in which an individuals unique and private information is now easily bought and sold, to be integrated into giant data banks. The work could also been seen as a less complex comment on the treatment of wild animals placed in cages for amusement. As always Banksy makes a bold and memorable statement
BARCODE
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32 BANKSY (British b. 1974) Happy Chopper, 2003 Screenprint, edition 569/750, 70 x 50 Unsigned (Signed in plate) $70,000 - 100,000 PROVENANCE Private Collection, Canterbury Purchased from Pictures on Walls, 2005 This work is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity from Pest Control Happy Chopper was created for the occasion of Banksy’s Santa’s Ghetto, a temporary art gallery located on Oxford Street, next to the Tottenham Court Road Tube Station. The artist told The Guardian that he felt the spirit of Christmas was being lost, and the aim of this 23 day show was to exhibit some of the world’s finest underground artists.
Happy Chopper was intended to draw attention to the Israel-Palestinian conflict and the poverty of the West Bank. The original Happy Chopper appeared as a sprayed mural on a wall outside London’s Whitecross Street Market, Islington in 2002. Since then, Banksy has revisited his helicopter motif many times, making Happy Chopper an iconic part of his repertoire.
HAPPY CHOPPER
The greatest crimes in the world are not committed by people breaking the rules but by people following the rules. It’s people who follow orders that drop bombs and massacre village - Banksy
33 BANKSY (British b. 1974) Gangsta Rat, 2004 Screenprint, edition 38/350, 49.5 x 35.4 Embossed POW stamp Unsigned $75,000 - 100,000 PROVENANCE Private Collection, Canterbury Purchased from Pictures on Walls, 2005 This work is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity from Pest Control Gangsta Rat was originally a mural that appeared in Farringdon in 2004, then Old Street in 2006 and finally New York in 2013 on the occasion of the artist’s painting residency: Better Out Than In. In 2004 it was subsequently produced as a screenprint in Banksy’s iconic spray-stencil style. The work depicts a rat sitting next to a boombox wearing accessories typical of “gangster” street wear, such as a New York Mets baseball cap, an ear piercing and a long chain. In the background the tagged letters IPOW appear as a central splash of colour. This is an ironic social commentary on the ubiquity of Apple products and POW is a reference to Banksy’s print publisher, Pictures on Walls.
The rat character portrayed is reminiscent of the New York underground style that emerged across the United Kingdom in the 1980s and 90s, also drawing inspiration from Blek Le Rat, the French graffiti artist who originally started using rats as his symbol. In the publication Wall and Piece, Banksy said: Every time I think I’ve painted something slightly original, I find out that Blek le Rat has done it as well, only 20 years earlier.
GANGSTA RAT
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34 BANKSY (British b. 1974) Bomb Middle England Screenprint, edition 428/500, 34 x 98.7 Unsigned (Signed in plate) $60,000 - 80,000 PROVENANCE Private Collection, Auckland Purchased from Santa’s Grotto exhibition Dragon Bar, London, 2002 This work is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity from Pest Control Bomb Middle England is one of Banksy’s early screenprints. It was released by Pictures On Walls, the artist’s original United Kingdom print house as an edition of 450 unsigned prints. On first glance the work depicts an idyllic scene of three senior women players in bowling attire. They stand on a smooth strip of grass created from two horizontal planes of green. The three subjects are painted in Banksy’s signature black and white stencil style.
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On closer examination the possible explosive quality of the scene is revealed as the bowling balls are seen to be metal cannonballs, all with lit fuses. As always, the artist’s works can be interpreted in a variety of ways
BOMB MIDDLE ENGLAND
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35 BANKSY (British b. 1974) Have a Nice Day Screenprint, edition 432/500, 34 x 98.7 Unsigned $70,000 - 100,000 PROVENANCE Private Collection, Auckland Purchased from Santa’s Grotto exhibition Dragon Bar, London, 2002 This work is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity from Pest Control In one of the first screenprints released by Banksy, the artist portrays law enforcement in a bold and striking way in Have a Nice Day. Twenty seven military or riot police are depicted in a single, intimidating line. In the centre of the group is a black and grey tank, underneath which the words Have A Nice Day are written.
Whether or not Banksy intended Have a Nice Day to intimidate or amuse, the artwork certainly speaks both to the idea that the police force are not all they seem, perhaps even hiding behind their smiles.
The police are kitted out in riot gear, marching in unison against an unseen threat or in fact towards the viewer. The faces of the police, which in reality would be covered with protective visors, are covered with bright yellow acid-house style smiley faces; a motif we see fairly regularly in Banksy prints, particularly when it comes to portraying figures that use fear as a means of control.
HAVE A NICE DAY
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36 BANKSY (British b. 1974) Golf Sale Screenprint, edition 428/750, 32 x 47 Unsigned $45,000 - 65,000 PROVENANCE Private Collection, Auckland Purchased from Santa’s Grotto, London, 2005
This work is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity from Pest Control
Golf Sale was one of the first Banksy prints to be officially released. It was printed by Pictures on Walls of London as an edition of 750, comprising 150 signed and 600 unsigned prints. It was distributed through Pictures on Walls, Art Republic and Santa’s Grotto. Golf Sale references the Tiananmen Square Tank Man photograph taken by press photographer Jeff Widener in 1989. Sometimes called the Unknown Protester, the incident took place in the aftermath of the Chinese military’s violent suppression of the Democracy Movement. A man stood directly and defiantly in front of Chinese military tanks attempting to block their path through Beijing.
It is widely considered one of the most notable acts of non-violent intervention and is an iconic image of the 20th century. Banksy recreates the scene in black and white, as is typical of his style, the protester stands in front of three imposing tanks, and into his hand, Banksy has placed a placard, simply reading GOLF SALE. In Banky’s 2001 publication Banging Your Head Against A Brick Wall, the artist said We can’t do anything to change the world until capitalism crumbles. In the meantime, we should all go shopping to console ourselves.
GOLF SALE
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37 BANKSY (British b. 1974) Queen Vic, 2003 Screenprint, edition 100/500, 70 x 50 Unsigned (Signed in plate) $60,000 - 80,000 PROVENANCE Private Collection, Sydney This work is accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity from Pest Control Queen Vic is one of Banksy’s most controversial artworks. It was released in 2003 by Pictures on Walls, the artist’s original United Kingdom print house as an edition of 50 signed prints and 500 unsigned prints. In this work, the long serving British monarch is irreverently and rather startlingly depicted. Whilst Banksy retains and reproduces the familiar head and shoulders portrait of Queen Victoria in full regalia with crown and sceptre, the lower half of the work is a radical departure to another time and place.
Both characters are realised in Banksy’s readily identifiable black and white stencil style against a red background. At the time this work was created, Banksy was well known for his criticism of the British Monarchy. Some believe that in more recent times he has made an informal peace with the Monarchy, and has not returned to the subject he mocked in his 20s.
QUEEN VIC
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38 DAMIEN HIRST (British b. 1965) Honesty From The Virtues series Laminated Giclee print on aluminium composite panel, edition 505/728, 120 x 96, Heni editions catalogue number H9-5, 120 x 96 Signed verso $15,000 - 20,000
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39 DAMIEN HIRST (British b. 1965) Loyalty From The Virtues series Laminated Giclee print on aluminium composite panel, edition 825/1067 120 x 96, Heni editions catalogue number H9-7, Signed verso $15,000 - 20,000
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40 COLIN MCCAHON (1919 - 1987) Truth From the King Country: Load Bearing Structures: Series Three Acrylic on board 22.8 x 30.5 Signed Inscribed & dated 1978 verso $55,000 - 75,000 PROVENANCE Private Collection, Auckland Truth From the King Country is one of the most numerous of McCahon’s series, comprising at least 35 individual paintings in five sub-series painted in 1978-79. It was his last extensive series, and also the last in which extensive landscape imagery is seen. Uniquely for McCahon these works were painted on commercial canvasboards, a humble support much used by amateur artists and readily available from art supply shops. The canvasboards came in differing sizes, all quite modest in scale but varying from 233 x 235mm for the smallest to 253 x 335mm for the largest, each sub-series being differentiated by the size of the boards. The third series, to which this work belongs, consisted of six paintings. Truth from the King Country was never exhibited as a whole. Initially McCahon intended to give them away to friends and many were disposed of in this fashion, though eventually some were made available for sale through his Wellington dealer, Peter McLeavey. Each work in the series consists of variations of the same two elements – a dark T-shape in the foreground against a richly coloured background of sky and/or hills. The main title, Truth from the King Country gives priority to the landscape setting, identified with the King Country, the remote and hilly region of the central North Island, so named because of its association with the Maori King movement during the New Zealand wars of the nineteenth century.
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The sub-title Load Bearing Structures relates to the foreground T-shape, which may be read either, first, as a bridge or viaduct, a man-made structure common in the region as a means of spanning deep valleys for road or rail, or, second, as a cross, the T-shaped or Tau cross generally favoured (though not exclusively) by McCahon, especially in his later work. The works may therefore be read both as realism (bridges or viaducts against skies and hills viewed at sunrise or sunset – hence the vivid colour), and as symbolism (as explorations of faith or belief). In this particular example the structure is placed centrally with the horizontal arm stretching from edge to edge. The range of lowish or distant dark hills also extends from edge to edge leaving extensive space for the glowing sky extending both below and above the arms of the cross. The work is exquisitely painted, as particularly evident in the subtle variations of colour in the sky and the refined delicacy of the long horizon, now clear, now obscured by cloud.
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COLIN MCCAHON (1919 - 1987) Kauri Tops Oil on hardboard 60.5 x 43 Signed, inscribed Titirangi & dated May - June 1957 verso $250,000 - 300,000
PROVENANCE Private Collection, Auckland REFERENCE Colin McCahon database no. cm000421 www.mccahon.co.nz ILLUSTRATED p. 188 Colin McCahon: The Titirangi Years, 1953 – 1959 Peter Simpson, Auckland University Press, 2007 p. 220 There is Only One God, Vol. I 1919 - 1959, Peter Simpson, Auckland University Press, 2019 EXHIBITED Colin McCahon: Recent Oils Peter Webb Gallery, Auckland 2 - 10 December 1957 As Kauri Tops, Titirangi
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COLIN MCCAHON (1919 - 1987) Waterfall Oil on board 22.2 x 24.5 Signed & dated 1964 $40,000 - 60,000
PROVENANCE Private Collection, Auckland
How many Waterfalls did McCahon paint? The McCahon website currently lists almost 100 and there are certainly others not previously recorded, including the present example. There were some precursors (one as early as 1956), and some as late as 1967, but the great majority of Waterfalls date from 1964, a watershed year for McCahon. He left his job at Auckland City Art Gallery after twelve years (195364), and began his seven year stint teaching at Elam School of Fine Arts, 1964-71. The first 44 Waterfalls were shown at Ikon Fine Arts, Lorne Street, Auckland in September 1964. Most of these were quite small in size (similar to the present example), though some larger works were also included, some as large as around a metre square. Because of the mainly small size many of the works shown were relatively inexpensive, many as low as 11 guineas (equivalent to around $2000 in today’s dollars). This contributed to unusually large sales; in fact much to McCahon’s surprise the show was almost a sell-out, his first commercial success. Previous to this McCahon’s work had sold only to a handful of close friends and family. Waterfalls have remained among his most popular works ever since – some of the most recognisable and iconic of his images.
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This particular Waterfall has a number of distinguishing features. First is colour: black, white and brick red. The red hillside in the lower right quarter, its profile echoing closely the curve of the white waterfall, is (in its colour) an unusual though not unique feature. The colour combination is similar to that of Maori design (as in kowhaiwhai rafter paintings) which was beginning to enter McCahon’s painting at about this time. Second is texture: the rough, slightly grainy texture shows that McCahon has mixed either sawdust or sand with his oil paint. Third: corner off. This is one of relatively few Waterfalls which employ this device of cutting off one or more corners with a diagonal, creating a triangular patch of contrasting colour. One effect of this device is to move the work away from realism towards abstraction. Some identify the triangle in McCahon’s work with the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost) thus opening the possibility of a symbolic reading – the flow of redemptive water (or light) into a dark world. However the meaning of the painting is interpreted, in execution it is beautifully balanced, coherent and resolved.
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43 MICHAEL SMITHER (b. 1939) Hostages Oil on board 120 x 180 Signed & dated 1978 $200,000 - 300,000 PROVENANCE Private Collection, Auckland Purchased directly from the artist, c. 1979 ILLUSTRATED p. 155 Michael Smither, Trish Gibben, Ron Sang Publications 2004 This image was the last of the ‘Paintings for the Revolution’. It is based freely on a news photo of the Irish troubles. I used the faces of friends. Tom Mutch has always seen me giving him a bloody eye in this work as some sort of demonic wish fulfilment. About this time he became a studio assistant, wanting to learn to paint. This was my way of saying that painting is often a painful business. Michael Smither p. 154 Michael Smither, Trish Gibben, Ron Sang Publications 2004 The Paintings for the Revolution series was made up of several important works: St Francis in a Red Jacket, Gifts, Muldoon on TV and Cancer Victim.
Hostages was stimulated by a newspaper image of the Irish troubles. I have used my fellow artists as models. The site of the ‘Hostages’ painting is the toilet block by the Herakawe Stream in New Plymouth. It has since been demolished. In the painting, out to sea is a supply vessel for the oil industry’s drilling sites at sea. It chugs by. The beach is scattered with my stones, missiles for the protestors. The hostages are John Francis, painter, Ross Harris, composer, Tom Mutch, painter, and Dave also a painter. I have forgotten his surname. I have never taken advantage of historical incidents, rather preferred to pay homage to people I have shared time with. I wished to draw comparisons to global events that all of us were touched by. This is my life, as the observer and artist, involved but still able to put echoes of reality into my work. In a very real sense, these events gather momentum in time and stand witness for not only what has happened but also what can happen again. People have been made captive, executed, thrown into jail, left to rot in shattered buildings while the whole world watches on tv. Michael Smither CNZM. 20 5 2021 Otama
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What we see and what we understand are often at odds. All these paintings in this series are stimulated by real events Michael Smither
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CHARLES FREDERICK GOLDIE Tamaiti Tukino - an Arawa Chieftainess $325,000 - 425,000
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CHARLES FREDERICK GOLDIE (1870 - 1947) Tamaiti Tukino - an Arawa Chieftainess Oil on panel 18.8 x 13.7 Signed & dated 1915 $325,000 - 425,000
Inscribed on original artist’s label affixed verso Tamaiti Tukino an Arawa Chieftainess by C F Goldie £8-8-0 PROVENANCE Private Collection, Bay of Plenty In this painting Goldie depicts the ninety year old Chieftainess, Tamaiti Tukino, a descendant of the paramount chief of the Tuwharetoa tribe, Te Heuheu Tukino, (1780-1846). The tribe Ngati Tuwharetoa takes its name from this powerful chief who lived near present day Kawerau. Te Heuheu Tukino descended from the lines of Te Arawa, the primary Iwi in the central North Island. Ngati Tuwharetoa’s tribal territory is located in the Lake Taupo water catchment area; Tamaiti Tukino lived at Tokaanu. This small, jewel-like portrait is presented in it’s original kauri frame. Another rendition of this subject, dated 1919 exists. The later work is also painted on a small wood panel, but portrays Tamaiti Tukino in profile. The work offered here is dated 1915 and is in three-quarter profile with detailed facial tattooing.
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The finely painted portrait is sensitively and concisely rendered with the sitter’s head occupying the majority of the picture plane. There is also a strong connection between this work and the similarly small and intimate portrait by Goldie of Hera Puna in the Auckland War Memorial Museum collection. Both works were painted during Goldie’s ‘golden’ period, when he was at the height of his technical prowess and imaginative involvement with his subject.
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CHARLES FREDERICK GOLDIE The Widow, Ngaheke, Perira te Kahikura, 1915 $350,000 - 450,000
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CHARLES FREDERICK GOLDIE (1870 - 1947) The Widow, (Ngaheke) Oil on canvas 24.5 x 19.5 Signed & dated 1915 $350,000 - 450,000
PROVENANCE Formerly in the Collection of Olive Goldie Purchased from her by a family friend Private Collection, Wellington Charles Frederick Goldie captures the reticence of Perira te Kahikura, also known as Ngaheke - The Widow. She was a descendant of Te Rangihiroa of the Ngati-Tutea hapu of the Tuhourangi tribe, recognised as the paramount hapu of the Tuhourangi because its two main chiefs were of unbroken senior male descent from Puhaorangi. Goldie painted Perira te Kahikura on numeorus occasions often with a downward gaze, grieving for her husband. The artist took a small half-plate camera with him on his visits to Rotorua and Taupo to photograph his subjects which were later used as reference along with his pencil sketches. Reference: C F Goldie, His Life and Painting by Alister Taylor and Jan Glen, 1977
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A photograph taken by Goldie of Perira te Kahikura
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Through his lifetime and legacy, Charles Frederick Goldie greatly influenced our nation’s artistic and cultural consciousness. Born in Auckland on 20 October 1870, one of eight children from the marriage of Maria Partington and David Goldie, he was named after his maternal grandfather, Charles Frederick Partington, builder of the landmark Auckland windmill. In 1883 the young Goldie was enrolled at Auckland Grammar School. His youthful artistic talents shone, and it was not long before he was winning prizes at the Auckland Society of Arts. On leaving school, Louis John Steele became his mentor and tutor. Two of the young artist’s still life paintings so impressed Sir George Grey, that he convinced David Goldie to allow his 22 year old son to attend the Académie Julian in Paris. Goldie spent over four years at the Académie Julian tutored by leading lights of the Paris Salon such as William-Adolphe Bouguereau. In 1898, fully informed in the French academic style, the artist returned to New Zealand and began collaborating with his former tutor Louis John Steele. The two worked on a number of paintings including The Arrival of the Maoris in New Zealand, a large scale history painting after Gericault’s Raft of the Medusa. Before long, however, the relationship deteriorated likely caused by tensions around the former student’s growing success. Goldie went on to open his own studio and establish himself as a successful portraitist of Maori. A visit to Rotorua in 1901 was the first of several field trips during which the artist was introduced to local Maori and persuaded them to sit for portraits. Goldie’s works from this point forward strongly reflect the European tradition in which he was trained, and possess a stunning power and visual clarity. On the one hand, his remarkable dedication to realism belies an ethnographic interest. At the same time, he was also striving to capture the mana of his sitters who included chiefs, tohunga and kaumatua.
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Goldie formed long-standing relationships with several Maori he met and painted around this period, including Wiremu Patara Te Tuhi and Te Aho-o-terangi Wharepu (Ngati Mahuta), Ina te Papatahi (Nga Puhi), and Wharekauri Tahuna (Ngati Manawa). Over the next two decades, Goldie gained national and international acclaim and steady demand formed a strong market for his portraits, a number of which would later be exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in London and the Paris Salon throughout the 1930s. In 1920 the artist moved to Sydney, where despite original plans to continue on to Paris, he was married, at age fifty to thirty five year old Olive Cooper. Marriage in Sydney circumvented the Goldie family disapproval of the relationship between Auckland’s famous artist and the milliner from Karangahape Road. After two years in Sydney, apparently disillusioned with his work at this time and suffering from health problems Charles and Olive returned to New Zealand. Goldie’s return to Auckland in 1924, ultimately represented a moment of artistic reckoning. Goldie received encouragement to resume painting from Governor General Lord Bledisloe. Devoting himself once again to his work, he began to apply a more liberal, impressionistic approach to the realisation of his portraits and repainted a number of his former subjects. Works from this later period are distinguished by their soft luminescence, offering a rhythmic departure and disconnection from the rigours of formalism to which he had so strictly adhered in the past. Goldie died in Auckland in 1947, his exquisite, spiritually-charged, often unsettling and ever powerful portraits of Maori having made an unsurpassed contribution to the history of art in New Zealand.
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46 MILAN MRKUSICH (1925 - 2018) Achromatic with Cadmium Yellow Deep, 1991 Alkyd on three linen stretchers 167.5 x 213.5 Signed, inscribed Achromatic with Cadmium Yellow Deep & dated 1991 verso $90,000 - 120,000 PROVENANCE Private Collection, Auckland EXHIBITED Milan Mrkusich Sue Crockford Gallery Auckland May 2 - 26 1995 TRANSFORM The Abstract Art of Milan Mrkusich Gus Fisher Gallery 6 March - 2 May 2009 ILLUSTRATED plate 82 Installation shot, Mrkusich The Art of Transformation, Alan Wright & Ed Hanfling, Auckland University Press, 2009 Achromatic with Cadmium Yellow Deep 1991 is a “compound shaped painting”, which means it is a single work made of multiple painted canvases. It has three such panels and is from a series of three such works (there is a red one and a blue one). The three 1991 Colour/Achromatic paintings were shown together at the Sue Crockford Gallery, Auckland, in 1995, while this yellow one featured individually in the City Gallery Wellington exhibition, TransForm: The Abstract Art of Milan Mrkusich, in 2010. It is resplendently representative of an approximately twelve year period in Mrkusich’s career, from 1986 to 1997, during which compound shaped paintings were a particular focus, beginning with the Journey
paintings of 1986 to 1989 (Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki and the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa hold fine examples of those). By taking standard rectangular canvases and joining them, the artist could set in motion a range of rhythms and resonances. Each panel declares a fact – of colour (such as yellow) or non-colour (such as grey) – but together the chromatic and achromatic shapes and relationships have the capacity to produce an experience that frees the mind from the constraints of ordinary language and social conventions. Mrkusich stands apart from other New Zealand artists, largely because of the extraordinary rigour and refinement of his work, and for his sustained involvement with the big issues – not “issues” in the sense of current affairs, political upheavals, and so forth (which are measly matters, really, for making art about), but our feeling for more fundamental physical and metaphysical realities. In the compound shaped paintings, Mrkusich gave himself the freedom of, as it were, building the panels into space. What likely strikes the viewer first about Achromatic with Cadmium Yellow Deep, apart from its unusual overall shape, is the sheer expansiveness of the yellow colour field – grand, resounding and thrilling. It seems free and open, not least because of the narrow panels that edge it left and top, lending the sense of a picture that grows outwards to wherever it wants to end, rather than kept in check by a framing edge. Think of the architect’s floor plan blueprint. Think of a daringly cantilevered building. Or think about a painting that looks integral to an architectural interior, its beautifully crafted surfaces floating forward of the wall, yet acknowledging its presence, as opposed to the “hole” that the traditionally rendered and framed picture gouges out of the wall (Frank Lloyd Wright despised pictures that messed with his architecture, while Piet Mondrian said that representational paintings were better turned face to the wall). Mrkusich’s art takes place in real space. For seventy years or so, while generations of New Zealand writers maundered on about those artists they claimed depicted “the human condition”, or preached it, Mrkusich quietly went about the business of making things, which is the human condition. He made propositions about life, and Achromatic with Cadmium Yellow Deep is, to my mind, an especially unfettered and generous one. EDWARD HANFLING
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TONY FOMISON (1939 - 90) Carcinoma of the Tongue (small version) Oil on pre-used canvas stretcher 40 x 27.5 Signed, inscribed Carcinoma of the Tongue (small version) & dated April 1970 verso $35,000 - 55,000
PROVENANCE Collection of the late Jo Hardy (Artist and friend of Tony Fomison) Purchased from Tony Fomison’s exhibition at the Canterbury Society of Arts CSA, 1970 EXHIBITED Canterbury Society of Arts CSA, 1970 Fomison was working as Exhibitions Officer at the CSA at this time Original exhibition label affixed verso
CONDITION REPORT Available on request
Note left by Jo Hardy to her son: I first met Tony in 1969 when my Christchurch flatmate came home with the newly released Van Morrison LP ‘Astral Weeks’. It was so exciting, he said we must take this around to my friend Tony Fomison, so we hopped on my motorbike and took ‘Astral Weeks’ to Tony’s Beveridge Street studio where he was doing a large pencil drawing later published as a centrefold in Canta (University of Canterbury Student Newspaper). We remained friends until his death. We said goodbye (the day before he died), at the adobe cottage, Long Beach, Russell, February 5 1990. I DO NOT agree with the suggestion in Martin Edmonds book ‘The Resurrection’, Auckland University Press, 1999 that Tony and Phil (Philip Clairmont) deliberately sabotaged the archival soundness of their paintings in a principled stance against wealthy collectors. Both Tony and Phil cared about their materials, it was just that, as impoverished painters, sometimes they had to use whatever meagre materials were at hand. The paint on this work has deteriorated markedly over the years. I think Tony used an acrylic undercoat then painted black oil paint, diluted with turpentine over the top then rubbed it off in places to create the toned edges. I think the turpentine has separated from the acrylic undercoat, creating the bloom.
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Christchurch born Fomison studied under Rudi Gopas at the Canterbury School of Fine Arts. In 1963 he received a travel grant from the Arts Council enabling travels to England, Italy and Spain. He lived in Spain for three years and had the opportunity to view the influential works of Goya. In 1967 Fomison returned to Christchurch. His work, including a larger rendition of this subject, was shown at Auckland’s New Vision Gallery in 1972. The show marked the beginning of Fomison’s rise to national prominence as a painter and foreshadowed his move to Auckland the following year. In Auckland Fomison met Colin McCahon,an important friend and mentor and pursued his early interest in Polynesian art. There is a confronting, nightmarish quality to much of Fomison’s work, it both intrigues and repels. Carcinoma of the Tongue is a powerfully memorable image, aptly rendered in stark chiaroscuro. Fomison referenced medical publications seeking out images of the diseased and disfigured, he battled the personal demon of drug addiction and died aged 50 at Waitangi, during the Waitangi Day ceremony. In 1994 a major retrospective of his work was held at Wellington’s City Gallery.
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48 ALAN GAZIER (French b. 1956) L’Entrée Royale Oil on canvas 200 x 200 Signed $40,000 - 60,000 Alain Gazier was born Paris, 1956. Gazier prepares his blank canvases with gesso primer, a mineral based substance that contains marble. This technique gives his paintings a unique texture. The paintings of Alain Gazier show images of the past with the faithfulness of the present. The walls whisper songs from the past, the stones breathe, the marble, the stairways, the columns and a divine light that comes from the windows. Pure imagination from an artist that dreams with beauty. He invites us into his world of silent interiors, where he plays so successfully with light and perspective.
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Three works by Frances Hodgkins The Rialto Steps, Venice Baby with Beads Cornish Window With essays by Mary Kisler
Frances Hodgkins in her studio
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49 FRANCES HODGKINS (1869 - 1947) The Rialto, Venice Watercolour 63 x 47.5 Signed & dated 1906 Inscribed The Rialto Steps, Venice verso $70,000 - 100,000
To put Venice into words is impossible
PROVENANCE Private collection, Italy, since 1970s
be expressed - FH
likewise is it impossible to put it into paint … There is a fairy enchantment about it, a sort of Wizardry that can’t
EXHIBITED: Paris, November Societe Internationale des Aquarellistes, Galerie Georges Petit, Le Rialto 16-31 November 1906 no. 157
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It is enormously exciting when an unknown work by Frances Hodgkins comes on the market, not least when its location is incontrovertible. The Rialto was painted when Hodgkins stayed in Venice from early April to mid-July 1906. She had left New Zealand on 1 January that year after a two-year visit home. An engagement to American Thomas Wilby had been broken off, causing Hodgkins much heartache, so that her mother Rachel finally relented and allowed Frances to continue her work abroad. Hodgkins wrote guiltily from Venice begging her mother not to blame her, ‘for I have been through a very wretched time but I hope now that I have succeeded in resolutely putting past things from me & am setting my face to the future as bravely as I can… (1)’
away from the water, this sense of movement enhanced by her skirt trailing slightly behind her. Simply dressed, her dark hair is uncovered, and a black shawl hangs in long points over her dress. She has turned to look back at the gondola, as if catching a last glance of someone out of sight. Her pose is reminiscent of courtesans in Japanese ukiyo-e prints, who are often depicted from ¾ or behind, to emphasise their highly patterned kimono and obi. Ukiyo-e prints had become highly influential among Parisian artists in the late 19th century, a practice that Hodgkins was obviously familiar with. Elegant yet reserved, the work’s almost monochromatic palette allows a focus on architectural structure, its central, mysterious figure implying a narrative that we can only guess at.
Rapidly falling under La Serenissima’s spell, Hodgkins wrote again, ‘To put Venice into words is impossible likewise is it impossible to put it into paint … There is a fairy enchantment about it, a sort of Wizardry that can’t be expressed. It is better to be silent about it all than to use the wrong word or the wrong color… (2) She and her pupils stayed at Casa Frollo, a rather grand former convent with a lovely garden on the tranquil island of Giudecca. From there they could take the ferry across to Dorso Duro, and then walk to locations where they could sketch with ease, including crossing one of several bridges if they wished to go to San Marco or locations along the Grand Canal. Inevitably the canal was a favoured area, providing vistas of faded yet elegant palazzi and the wending back and forth of narrow black gondolas. However, it was also problematic because of the inevitable throngs of tourists, not to say the inquisitive local children; necessitating rising early in order to set up in a favoured corner before the streets became too crowded. The other side of the canal was more problematic, being the site of Venice’s bustling fruit and vegetable market.
While works of art lend themselves to multiple interpretations, it is often on the reverse that its history can reveal its path through time. In this instance, there is a framing sticker with the number 5299 on the upper right of the backing board, and the number 12 in white chalk. A further sticker in the centre tells us that it was framed by Jules Leboucq, 112 avenue de Villiers in Paris, shortly before it was exhibited in November 1906 as Le Rialto at the Societé Internationale des Aquarellistes, Galerie Georges Petit. A further inscription on the back of the paper itself states ‘No 1, Le Rialto, Venise, 500 francs’, suggesting it may have been hung first as one entered the gallery. An Atlantic shipping sticker, inscribed LOEB 29, indicates that it was shipped abroad from Paris at some point, possibly to America, but whether it had been acquired or lent to an exhibition is currently unknown. This label is placed over the remains of the central label after it had been removed. Lastly, a further handwritten label confirms that it was acquired for 500 francs, identifies the artist (although linking her to the Australian School), and that it was painted in ’06. Written in Italian, rather than French, it provides the ultimate clue to its more recent owner. Although much travelled, the work has remained quietly hidden in Italy ever since.
While the richly coloured large scale watercolour Venice (Ravenscar Trust, Christchurch) shows unidentified palazzi that line the canal, here the Riva del Vin, with its deep steps leading down to the water at the foot of the Rialto Bridge, is immediately identifiable in The Rialto, each elegantly carved balustrade glinting in the early morning sun. Although two women pass in front of a line of shuttered shops in the background, Hodgkins has paid more attention to the architectural backdrop which frames the scene. Appearing to have alighted from the gondola tied up in the foreground, a young woman walks up the stairs
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MARY KISLER (1) https://completefranceshodgkins.com/ objects/29258/letter-from-frances-hodgkins-torachel-hodgkins (2) https://completefranceshodgkins.com/ objects/29257/letter-from-frances-hodgkins-torachel-hodgkins
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50 FRANCES HODGKINS (1869 - 1947) Baby with Beads Oil on canvas 43.5 x 44.5 Signed $45,000 - 65,000 PROVENANCE Private Collection, Auckland Ferner Gallery Jonathan Grant Galleries [as Baby with Beads] While closely following the development of her sister Isabel’s burgeoning family Frances Hodgkins recognised that having a family herself would curtail her determination to work as a professional artist. Instead, family groups, babies and children became recurring subjects in her work, both in the early years in New Zealand and then in Europe. She also painted for children, showing two watercolours in John Baillie’s Second Annual Children’s Exhibition in Bond Street, London, in January 1909, and, more famously, had two miniature works in Sydney Burney’s model gallery for children in 1934. Her most prolific period, however, was during the war in St Ives, Cornwall, when artists were forbidden to paint out of doors for security reasons. She now relied on portraiture financially, finding her subjects among the older residents of St Ives; the Belgian refugees who arrived in 1916; and young mothers eager to capture their children’s infancy. Such subjects were not always easy, Hodgkins writing to her mother in July 2016 when staying briefly at Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire; ‘I am painting babies … but they (the babies) all seem to come out like Winston Churchill”…(1)’ Most of Hodgkins’ studies were in watercolours, a medium in which she was adept and ideal for capturing fidgety infants. In 1918 twenty-two of these were included in the 24th International Society exhibition at the Grosvenor Gallery, causing Hodgkins to write gleefully to her brother-in-law Will Field; ‘Yesterday I sold a 12 gn [guinea] baby. Item: Paint more babies! In fact keep the cradle full to quote an old friend of yours’…(2)’ She elaborated in a letter to her mother; ‘They are small pictures mostly at easy prices – all babies & mothers & children … Dear women all of them with husbands fighting & one a prisoner who had never seen his beautiful baby’.(3)’
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Hodgkins’ technique and subject matter suggest the influence of Parisian artists Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt, whose work she was familiar with from living in Paris between 1908 – 1914, but also influenced by the post-Impressionist use of black set against strong colour. In Paris she had briefly taken lessons in oil painting, but found the viscous material difficult to work with, not least when she was so skilled in the use of watercolour. However, once settled in St Ives, Hodgkins set herself the challenge of coming to terms with oil painting. Unlike the watercolours, Baby with Beads was probably a private commission for a family with means, as oils were expensive and slow, waiting for each layer of colour to dry – but with the advantage that she could adapt her composition, unlike watercolour. Hodgkins would have begun with a preliminary sketch at close quarters, cleverly using the abacus to keep the baby’s attention until she had captured the detail she needed. In the finished work, she has eradicated details that might define a cot, a couch, or some other support against which the infant is propped. The brushwork and focus on pattern are like that used in The Edwardians (Auckland Art Gallery). Outlines are deliberately smudged in certain areas, whereas delicate lines draw attention to the baby’s hand and the abacus in the foreground. The delicate pinks of the rosy quilt and the soft blues and smudgy whites, laid on in thick impasto, create a halo effect behind the baby’s head, and Hodgkins has reduced the use of black to a spherical shape in the lower left-hand side. One senses the pleasure gained from the composition, the artist enjoying the tactile nature of oil paint, but also the concentrated gaze and determined reach of the baby as it struggles to grasp the brightly coloured beads. MARY KISLER (1):
https://completefranceshodgkins.com/ objects/29445/letter-from-frances-hodgkins-torachel-hodgkins (2):
https://completefranceshodgkins.com/ objects/29479/letter-from-frances-hodgkins-to-willfield#field_description (3):
https://completefranceshodgkins.com/ objects/29487/letter-from-frances-hodgkins-torachel-hodgkins#field_description
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51 FRANCES HODGKINS (1869 - 1947) Cornish Window, c. 1932 Charcoal on paper 45.8 x 35.6 Signed $25,000 - 35,000 Bears original Alex, Reid & Lefevre (The Lefevre Galleries), label verso PROVENANCE 2004 Christie’s, London 20th Century British Art, Lot 99, Illustrated on p. 121 EXHIBITED: 1933, October - November Lefevre Gallery, London, New Watercolour Drawings, no 38. After her arrival in Bodinnick, Cornwall in December 1931, Frances Hodgkins complained to her friend Dorothy Selby: ‘It is too cold to work out of doors – Besides which the colour is so dark & sodden with damp – Bracken is bright red – black ships on the river’ (1). Instead, Hodgkins produced a series of nocturnes, accommodating the gloom that descended in the late afternoon. Nocturnes still need light sources, and Hodgkins’ view from her bedroom window at the Nook in the tiny village of Bodinnick placed her almost at water of the river Fowey in Cornwall. The more elevated window in the lounge of the Old Ferry Inn (a location that also provided warmth and a glass of wine) provided a more panoramic vista , allowing her to capture the reflection of light from the larger village of Fowey across the river, or the rare nights when moonlight danced across the water. From these vantage points Hodgkins produced a remarkable series of drawings, watercolours and oil paintings that helped promote her burgeoning reputation as a leading English modernist. Whereas she initially produced a preparatory drawing for Tate London’s version of *Wings over Water that focused on pattern rather than form (held at Te Papa), (later paring back extraneous details in the finished painting), she then moved on to a series of exhibition drawings that demonstrate remarkable strength and clarity of vision. (2) Cornish Window, 1932, is one of those.
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*Wings over Water
The paper is left untouched to create the paler tones of the flowers in the jug and the reflection of moonlight on water. Elsewhere there are varying tones of black - paler in the foreground and sinking into inky darkness in the background, shaded, horizontal strokes and patches of stippling possibly created by using a graphite stick on its side. The anemones that sit in a cut glass vase in both the Te Papa drawing and finished painting at Tate, now rise above the jug in the background, as if they are growing out of the hill behind rather than sitting in a vase. The sprig of leaves and berries (also found in the oil paintings) float in mid-air above a pot of gloxinias, balancing the composition. MARY KISLER (1) https://completefranceshodgkins.com/
objects/29929/letter-from-frances-hodgkins-todorothy-selby (1) Sea
Landscape with Flowers [Bodinnick], Fletcher Trust Collection, and Still Life in Landscape, Bodinnick, Cornwall (Te Papa) are two other examples.
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52 NORMAN LINDSAY (Australian 1879 - 1969) Carmen c. 1922 Watercolour 35 x 27 Signed $6,000 - 10,000
The Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps was a female auxiliary of the New Zealand Military Forces during World War II. Many WAAC’s served in the Middle East. After graduating from London’s Slade School of Art, McIntyre joined the New Zealand Expeditionary Force supporting the British Armies in Cairo. Taking his paints and paper, he is appointed official New Zealand War Artist by Major General Bernard Freyberg in 1940.
53 PETER MCINTYRE (1910 - 95) Service Women Returning from World War II Watercolour 31.5 x 40 Signed $20,000 - 30,000
In McIntyre’s own words, his job was to provide an ‘intimate impression of the drama, colour, humour and tragedy of war’. In this work, six young service women, returning from the Middle East aboard the liner Strathmore, are seated on deckchairs and a tartan rug.
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CHARLES BLOMFIELD (1848 - 1926) White Terraces, Rotomahana Oil on canvas 44 x 59.5 Signed & dated 1896 $50,000 - 75,000
PROVENANCE Private Collection, Rotorua Charles Blomfield has long been recognised as the most popular early New Zealand painter of the Pink and White Terraces and the surrounding region of Rotorua and Lake Tarawera. Blomfield first visited the region during a camping trip in December 1875, commenting that Tarawera and it’s Terraces were exceedingly beautiful and graceful. Returning in 1883 he spent six weeks documenting the Pink and White Terraces and their surroundings. Blomfield’s meticulous sketches and finished paintings are some of the most important historical records we have of the region. It was reported that by September 1885 orders for his work had been received from throughout Europe, America, Australia and other places. Following the Tarawera eruption, Blomfield realised that the paintings he had made of the Terraces were a valuable record, and declined to sell them. He went on to paint and sell scale copies of these works, for which the prices soon trebled. The story of the Tarawera eruption is a dramatic chapter in New Zealand’s history. Eleven days before the eruption, both Maori and European visitors, including the famous Guide Sophia, reported seeing a ghostly Maori war canoe paddling across Lake Tarawera. Guide Sophia consulted her tribe’s tohunga, or priest, Tūhoto Ariki, and he interpreted the phantom canoe as a bad omen. He believed Maori would be punished for exploiting the area for money without paying due respect to their ancestors. In the early hours of 10 June, 1886 Tūhoto Ariki’s prophecy was fulfilled. At Te Wairoa village, people were woken after midnight by a series of strong earthquakes. Around 2am Tarawera erupted with fountains of glowing lava and a cloud of ash up to ten kilometres high, through which intense lightning flickered. At Te Wairoa, more than sixty
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people sheltered in Guide Sophia’s sturdy hut, which remarkably survived the eruption. Later, craters on the south-west side of the mountain blasted open and a crack 17 kilometres long emitted tons of mud and ash. The Tikitapu bush was completely covered by ash and earthquakes were felt throughout the North Island with the noise of the eruption heard as far south as Blenheim. At the time, many Aucklanders thought they were hearing distant cannon fire. Blomfield decided to see the devastation for himself and returned to the area in October to paint several scenes of the terrible destruction. A world away, fourteen Charles Blomfield paintings were being greatly admired in South Kensington, London at the 1886 Colonial and Indian Exhibition. This major exhibition, which in the words of the Prince of Wales was intended to: stimulate commerce and strengthen the bonds of the British Empire was opened by Queen Victoria and received over five million visitors. Charles Blomfield died at his residence in Wood Street, Freemans Bay, Auckland in 1926. The White Terraces were at the north end of Lake Rotomahana and faced away from the lake at the entrance to the Kaiwaka Stream. They descended to the lake edge forty metres below. The additional sunlight received from facing north created their bleached white appearance. The White Terrace was the larger of the two formation, covering in excess of three hectares. They were reportedly the largest silica sinter deposits on earth.
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JOHN WATSON GORDON PRSA RA (Scottish, 1788 - 1864) Portrait of John Logan Campbell (1817-1912), the Father of Auckland, New Zealand Oil on canvas 77 x 64 Signed & dated 1837 verso Presented in period gilt frame; verso with framer’s label of Doig, Wilson & Wheatley, 90 George Street, Edinburgh (the firm was established in 1840 but traded under this name 1895-1957), together with manuscript labels with title and date $20,000 - 30,000
A rare portrait painting, by John Watson Gordon, a significant Scottish artist, of John Logan Campbell (1817-1912), painted shortly before his departure for Australia and New Zealand. Campbell arrived at Auckland in April, 1840, and is often referred to as the Father of Auckland. As a businessman, politician and philanthropist, his contribution to the development of the city was unequalled by any of Auckland’s other prominent citizens during the 19th century. This portrait captures the integrity, astuteness and vision of the handsome and capable young Scotsman in the prime of youth. The identity of the sitter is corroborated by another portrait of Campbell painted in the following year by Mungo Burton (1799-1882), held in the Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, titled John Logan Campbell in the club dress of the Edinburgh Alleion Archers (1838). The only other known painted portraits of Campbell were done very late in his life: by Mabel Hill in 1901 (National Library of New Zealand), and by Louis John Steele, first in 1903 sold by International Art Centre in August 2017 and realising $425,000, a record for the artist), and then again in 1910 held in the collection of Auckland Art Gallery. The artist of the present work, John Watson Gordon (Scottish, 1788-1864), ‘was training to become an army engineer when, encouraged by his uncle, the painter, George Watson, and Raeburn, who was a family friend, he decided to become an artist. His first works were subject pictures but, after Raeburn’s death in 1823, he established himself as the leading portrait painter in Scotland. His style was at first closely based on Raeburn but was later more influenced by his admiration for Velázquez. In 1850 he was elected
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President of the Royal Scottish Academy, appointed Queen’s Limner for Scotland and knighted.’ (National Galleries of Scotland). John Logan Campbell was born at Edinburgh on 3 November 1817. His father was Dr John Campbell (1784–1867), son of Sir James Campbell, of Aberuchill and Kilbryde, and his mother was Catherine née Logan (1788–1865). It seems that it was because of parental pressure rather than of a love for medicine that John Logan went to Edinburgh University, where he graduated M.D. and F.R.C.S. Determined to see something of the world, he sought a commission as medical officer in the East India Company; but as opportunities for settlement were offering in Australia, he decided to emigrate there, and sailed in the Palmyra as ship’s doctor on 3 July 1839, arriving in Australia later that year. His gifts to Auckland city are too numerous to list, but he gave generously to such institutions as children’s homes and St. John Ambulance – in fact, any organisation which was of benefit to the citizens of Auckland had his practical sympathy. His greatest gift, however, was that of the magnificent Cornwall Park. Originally purchased in 1845 by Thomas Henry, it was bought by Brown and Campbell in 1853. In 1901, when the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York visited New Zealand, Campbell was made Mayor to receive them and to present the citizens’ address of welcome. He had intended to bequeath the park to the city, but it seemed to him a fitting opportunity to present it to “the people of New Zealand” through the hands of their Royal Highnesses. Campbell’s own name for it had been Corinth Park, but in honour of the royal visitors, he changed it to Cornwall Park. Campbell was knighted in 1902 and died at Parnell’s Kilbryde, June 1912 in his ninety-fifth year. John Logan Campbell became one of Auckland’s best known and respected citizens. Although always known as ‘Dr Campbell’, he concerned himself little with medicine, a profession which held no attractions for him and which, as a calling, he considered much inferior to business. Reference: Father of Auckland - An Encyclopedia of New Zealand, Enid Annie Evans
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56 JOHANNES GERARDUS KEULEMANS (Holland 1842 - 1912) Red-Billed Gull & Black-Billed Gull Watercolour 48 x 36 Signed $16,000 - 22,000 PROVENANCE Private Collection, Bay of Plenty Important, Early & Rare, International Art Centre, 20/11/2013 Commissioned by the late Sir Walter Buller, author of Manual of Birds of New Zealand, and came by descent to his niece the late Gwendolin Buller, who bequeathed it to a close friend, Captain Charles Hamish Pelham Burn. John Gerrard Keulemans was born in Rotterdam in 1842. The son of a fashionable military tailor, he chose, at an early age, to reject what would have been an assured place in the family trade to pursue the less secure life of an artist and naturalist. Keulemans initial interest lay in ornithology, and he began his career at the Leyden Museum as a freelance taxidermist. It was whilst at the Leyden that he came under the guidance of Professor Hermann Schlegal, who had in the past been a strong influence on the career of the eminent illustrator Joseph Wolf. It was Schlegel who instructed Keulemans in lithography, a skill which was to be a valuable asset in his later career, and it was he also who gave him his first professional commission illustrating. “Notes from the Leyden” As Keulemans skill as an artist grew, so naturally did his discontentment with the inanimate subject matter available to him at the Leyden, he wanted to travel and indulge his passion for bird painting using live subjects in their natural habitat. It was for this reason that he joined a collecting expedition to West Africa, but this journey was to be ill fated as he contracted yellow fever and was forced to return to Europe and the less lively, if safer, atmosphere of the Leyden Museum, where he was to remain until 1869.
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At this time London was the centre for ornithological and zoological journals and it was a natural progression for Keulemans to move to England to pursue his career. As he had collaborated with the English artist Richard Bowdler Sharpe in the past, whilst still working at the Leyden, his reputation was to some extent already established and in 1869 he moved to England where he was to spend the rest of his life. Keulemans skill as a Lithographer and his detailed and meticulous work were to create for him a reputation which made his name a by-word in ornithological illustration in the late 19th century. He succeeded Joseph Wolf as illustrator with the prestigious journal, Ibis, continuing to be in demand as a freelance illustrator working alone and in collaboration with other artists on several volumes. His most notable works, however, are; Sir Walter Buller’s, A History of the Birds of New Zealand, considered by many to contain some of his most beautiful and versatile illustrations, and the earlier volumes of Lord Lilford’s Coloured Figures of the Birds of the British Islands, a gargantuan task which, due to ill health he was finally to hand over to Archibald Thorburn who completed its illustration. In the early work, however, Keulemans skill is evident and he displayed not only the accurate eye of a naturalist but also the truly aesthetic sense of an artist. Keulemans continued to contribute to various journals, claiming that by the time he was fifty he had drawn over 20,000 species of birds. Although he wrote only one volume himself, A Natural History of Cage Birds, his illustrations for the works of others created for him an acknowledged reputation as one of the finest Victorian ornithological illustrators. This lot accompanied with a copy of Buller’s Birds of New Zealand, Whitcombe & Tombs, 1967
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57 VERA CUMMINGS (1891 - 1949) A Maori Chief Oil on canvas 29.5 x 24 Signed $15,000 - 25,000 PROVENANCE Private Collection, USA Acquired from a Californian estate, circa 2008 120 IMPORTANT & RARE ART 7:00pm Tuesday 27 July
58 VERA CUMMINGS (1891 - 1949) Princess Te Puea Herangi Oil on canvas 29.5 x 24 Signed $10,000 - 15,000 PROVENANCE Private Collection, USA Acquired from a Californian estate, circa 2008
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PAT HANLY (1932 - 2004) Vacation Screen Acrylic & enamel on three panel wooden screen, 184.5 x 192 Signed & dated 1987 $35,000 - 45,000
60 EDWARD BULLMORE (1933 - 78) Leaf Eye, London Pavement Series Mixed media on canvas 103 x 73 Signed $20,000 - 30,000
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PROVENANCE Acquired directly from the artist 1981, by current owner
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TONY FOMISON (1939 - 90) Standing Figure Carved wooden sculpture 48 x 9 $4,000 - 6,000
PROVENANCE Acquired directly from the artist
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PAUL HARTIGAN (b. 1953) Song Bird, 2003 C-type print, edition 3/3, 160 x 160 Signed inscribed Song Bird & dated 2003 $4,000 - 6,000
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IAN SCOTT (1945 - 2013) Small Lattice No. 283 Acrylic on canvas 63.8 x 63.8 Signed, inscribed & dated 2008 verso $14,000 - 16,000
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64 TREVOR MOFFITT (1936 - 2006) Big Jack Oil on board 56 x 47 Signed & dated 1971 Inscribed Big Jack verso $10,000 - 15,000
65 GARTH TAPPER (1927 - 99) Character Witness from the Law and its People Series Oil on board 50 x 54 Signed $3,000 - 5,000
PROVENANCE Private Collection, Northland Acquired directly from the artist
PROVENANCE Gifted to the present owner’s late father, a lawyer, who was present at Garth Tapper’s Gisborne exhibition, circa 1980
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66 PETER MCINTYRE (1910 - 95) Vulcan Lane, Auckland Watercolour & ink on paper 42.5 x 53 Signed $15,000 - 25,000 PROVENANCE Private Collection, Wellington Purchased from International Art Centre 20 November 2008 Private Collection, Auckland Purchased from International Art Centre 4 April 2017
128 IMPORTANT & RARE ART 7:00pm Tuesday 27 July
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DICK FRIZZELL (b. 1943) Sawmill after Tibor Gergely Oil on canvas 150 x 150 Signed, inscribed Sawmill after Tibor Gergely & dated 15/3/2001 $28,000 - 38,000
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68 SYDNEY LOUGH THOMPSON (1877 - 1973) Fishermen, Concarneau Oil on canvas 48 x 60 Signed $25,000 - 35,000 PROVENANCE Private Collection, Christchurch Sydney Lough Thompson was born in Oxford, North Canterbury in 1877 and studied at Canterbury College School of Art with Petrus van der Velden before departing for Europe in 1900 to further his studies. His first journey abroad lasted five years and by the time of his return in 1905 he had achieved a reputation as both a landscape and figurative painter. However, it was during the years between 1911 and his visit back to New Zealand in 1923, that he established his niche with paintings of life in the fishing village of Concarneau, Brittany. Throughout the years this region had attracted many artists, amongst them Frances Hodgkins, Paul Gauguin and Claude Monet and it became a major source of inspiration for Thompson’s work. Over the next seventy years of his working life, he spent more than half that time living and painting in France.
130 IMPORTANT & RARE ART 7:00pm Tuesday 27 July
Each time Thompson returned to New Zealand the public response to his work grew steadily more favourable as his particular form of impressionism resonated with the New Zealand public. Thompson’s long career as a New Zealand artist in France ended in 1973 with his death at the age of ninety-six. He was laid to rest in his beloved Concarneau. In 1990 Christchurch Art Gallery held a major retrospective of his work entitled Home and Abroad. In France, regional recognition came in 1992 with a retrospective at the Musée de Pont-Aven, near Concarneau. Thompson.
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SYDNEY LOUGH THOMPSON (1877 - 1973) Saint Clair Oil on canvas 40 x 46 Signed & dated 1915 $15,000 - 25,000
132 IMPORTANT & RARE ART 7:00pm Tuesday 27 July
70 SYDNEY LOUGH THOMPSON (1877 - 1973) Les Pêcheurs, Concarneau Oil on board 23 x 32 Signed $8,000 - 12,000 PROVENANCE Private Collection, NSW
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71 SYDNEY LOUGH THOMPSON (1877 - 1973) Pohutukawa at Mahurangi, North Auckland Oil on canvas 38 x 45 Signed $8,000 - 12,000 PROVENANCE From the collection of owners father, who acquired it from his Aunt, wife of Sydney Thompson
134 IMPORTANT & RARE ART 7:00pm Tuesday 27 July
72 SYDNEY LOUGH THOMPSON (1877 - 1973) Bridge Over Canal, Grasse Oil on board 32.5 x 26.5 Signed Inscribed Our Bridge over Canal, Grasse, France verso $5,000 - 8,000 PROVENANCE Private Collection, Auckland Purchased directly form the artist by current owners family
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136 IMPORTANT & RARE ART 7:00pm Tuesday 27 July
74 73 RHONA HASZARD (1901 - 1931) The Forbidden Fruit Oil on board 44 x 33 Signed $15,000 - 25,000 PROVENANCE: Private Collection, Auckland EXHIBITED New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts, 1924 Rhona Haszard, an Experimental Expatriate Artist, Auckland Art Gallery, 2004
74 MARGARET OLROG STODDART (1865 - 1934) Gathering Bluebells Watercolour 27.5 x 39 Signed $8,000 - 12,000
PROVENANCE Private Collection, Auckland Contemporary & Traditional New Zealand & European Art, International Art Centre 28/07/2000
ILLUSTRATED p. 71 Art New Zealand, Issue 113 Summer 2004-05
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MARY ELIZABETH TRIPE (1867 - 1939) The Brass Cleaner Oil on canvas 67 x 57.5 Signed & dated 1918 $12,000 - 18,000
138 IMPORTANT & RARE ART 7:00pm Tuesday 27 July
76 GIROLAMO PIERI BALLATI NERLI (1860 - 1926) Organ Grinder with Monkey Oil on canvas 52.5 x 39 Signed $5,000 - 10,000
PROVENANCE Arthur Collection, Wellington c.1952. Private Collection, Wellington ILLUSTRATED p. 96 Nerli, An exhibition of paintings and drawings, Peter Entwistle, Michael Dunn and Roger Collins, Dunedin 1988
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ROBERT ELLIS (b. 1929) Maunga - a - Reipae Mixed media on paper 98 x 68 Signed, inscribed & dated 2010 $6,000 - 8,000
140 IMPORTANT & RARE ART 7:00pm Tuesday 27 July
78 ROBERT ELLIS (b. 1929) Rakaumangamanga Oil on linen 212 x 175 Signed, inscribed & dated 1988 $20,000 - 30,000
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MAX GIMBLETT (b. 1935) Remembrance Silkscreen on lacquered brass quatrefoil, 7 parts, 25 x 25 $14,000 - 18,000
142 IMPORTANT & RARE ART 7:00pm Tuesday 27 July
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BILLY APPLE (b. 1935) 30 Days Ciro Coffee Enamel on passivated steel 26 x 40 Certificate of Authenticity from Ferner Galleries affixed verso $10,000 - 15,000
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81 ANNA LOIS WHITE (1903 - 84) Flax and Fern with Self Portrait affixed verso (Two paintings) Oil on board 65 x 50 Signed $4,000 - 6,000 PROVENANCE Private Collection, Auckland Acquired directly from the artist, who was a neighbour of the current owner
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PAT HANLY (1932 - 2004) Hot Banana Mixed media on paper 44 x 59 Signed, inscribed Hot Banana & dated 1994 $10,000 - 15,000
PROVENANCE Private Collection, Auckland Purchased from Fine New Zealand & European Art, International Art Centre, 29/07/2004
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PAT HANLY (1932 - 2004) Embrace Ink & watercolour on paper 24.5 x 30 Signed, inscribed Embrace & dated 1966 $2,500 - 3,500
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NIGEL BROWN (b. 1949) Cass Acrylic on canvas 59 x 89 Signed & dated 8/3/02 $8,000 - 12,000
PROVENANCE Private Collection, Auckland Purchased from Fine NZ & European Paintings, International Art Centre, 29 July 2004
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NIGEL BROWN (b. 1949) Entrepreneur Acrylic on linen 136 x 75 Signed & dated 2003 Various inscriptions $8,000 - 12,000
PROVENANCE Private Collection, Auckland
FIVE WORKS BY NIGEL BROWN FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, AUCKLAND LOTS 84- 88 146 IMPORTANT & RARE ART 7:00pm Tuesday 27 July
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NIGEL BROWN (b. 1949) Table Series III Oil on board 42 x 33.5 Signed & dated 1975 $4,000 - 6,000
PROVENANCE Private Collection, Auckland Purchased from Contemporary & Traditional New Zealand & European Art, International Art Centre, 05/03/1999
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NIGEL BROWN (b. 1949) Damaged Landscape with Drinker Oil on cotton duck 111 x 44 Signed & dated 1990 $5,000 - 8,000
PROVENANCE Private Collection, Auckland Purchased from Important, Early & Rare New Zealand Art, International Art Centre, 28/07/2009
148 IMPORTANT & RARE ART 7:00pm Tuesday 27 July
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NIGEL BROWN (b. 1949) A Candle in a Stark Room Oil on linen 82 x 49 Signed & dated 2002 $6,000 - 8,000
PROVENANCE Private Collection, Auckland
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EUAN MACLEOD (b. 1956) Triptych Oil on three canvas panels 90 x 150 Signed, inscribed & dated 2000 verso $8,000 - 12,000
PROVENANCE Private Collection, Christchurch Purchased from Small Gallery, Christchurch, circa 2000
90 JEFF THOMSON (b. 1957) New Zealand Corrugated iron in three pieces 140 x 60 Signed $3,500 - 5,500 90
150 IMPORTANT & RARE ART 7:00pm Tuesday 27 July
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JOANNA BRAITHWAITE (b. 1962) Look Out Oil on canvas 72 x 72 Signed, inscribed Look Out & dated 2006 verso $3,500 - 4,500
PROVENANCE Private Collection, Christchurch Purchased from Brooker Gallery Christchurch, circa 2006
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92 ZENA ELLIOTT (b. 1976) Koha Acrylic & spray paint on canvas stretcher 80.5 x 80.5 Signed, inscribed Koha & dated 2014 verso $4,000 - 5,000
152 IMPORTANT & RARE ART 7:00pm Tuesday 27 July
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MIKE PETRE (b. 1964) Field Study 353 Ink, graphite, oil & acrylic on canvas 90.2 x 90 Signed verso $9,000 - 10,000
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MICHAEL SMITHER (b. 1939) The Danger Zone set Five original mono screenprints 76 x 76 One signed and four signed verso $4,000 - 6,000
95 MICHAEL SMITHER (b. 1939) Self Portrait Oil on board 68 x 47 Inscribed Mill Road & dated 1964 verso $4,000 - 8,000 94
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154 IMPORTANT & RARE ART 7:00pm Tuesday 27 July
In the 1960s the French were testing atomic weapons in the Pacific. Maurice Shadbolt published his novel Danger Zone. I made designs for flags based on babies bottles, milk jugs, all vessels that would eventually carry the contaminated beverage we would feed our children. The flags were never to be seen....at the time we were in a hurry to stop the fiasco so domestic flags never made it up the mast. They have however survived in a couple of collections, printed on brown paper.
My father went along with my mad schemes. He did the printing for me. I like to think he felt- thoughtwe might make a difference. He spent his time as a soldier during WW2 collecting shells, learning to dance the hula with people he admired and felt were worth dancing with. The only story he told me later on his return was the despair he felt being one of the soldiers to apprehend an American deserter and delivering him to his death by execution. MDS. CNZM. 21.5.2021. Otama.
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96 THOMAS ARTHUR MCCORMACK (1883 - 1973) Moving Forms Watercolour 56 x 74 Signed $2,000 - 3,000
97 RITA ANGUS (1908 - 70) Portrait of Jenny Jones (Artist’s Niece) Oil on board 45 x 35 Signed $12,000 - 18,000 PROVENANCE Private Collection Ferner Galleries label affixed verso
156 IMPORTANT & RARE ART 7:00pm Tuesday 27 July
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98 BRENT WONG (b. 1945) Cloud, Finial, Chimney Oil on board 27.5 x 32 Signed, inscribed Cloud, Finial, Chimney & dated 2003 verso $7,000 - 10,000
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158 IMPORTANT & RARE ART 7:00pm Tuesday 27 July
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GRETCHEN ALBRECHT (b. 1943) Study for Charcoal Measure Acrylic & watercolour on paper 58 x 77 Signed, inscribed & dated 1999 $6,000 - 8,000
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ANDY LELEISI’UAO (b. 1969) Waking up to the Obscurity People Part I Acrylic on canvas 76 x 152 $8,000 - 12,000
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NEIL FRAZER (b. 1961) Time Lapse Study Diptych Oil on linen 54.5 x 105 Signed, inscribed Time Lapse Study & dated 2011 verso $8,000 - 12,000
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160 IMPORTANT & RARE ART 7:00pm Tuesday 27 July
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CHARLES BLOMFIELD (1848 - 1926) Settlers River Crossing Oil on canvas 29 x 44 Signed & dated 1918 $4,000 - 6,000
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CHARLES BLOMFIELD (1848 - 1926) Wanganui River Oil on canvas 45 x 59 $4,000 - 6,000
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CHARLES DECIMUS BARRAUD (1850 - 97) Manawatu Gorge Watercolour 39.5 x 71 Signed & dated 1873 $8,000 - 12,000
PROVENANCE Collection of the late Muriel Williams, granddaughter of the artist and author of Charles Blomfield, His Life & Times Hodder and Stroughton, 1980
ILLUSTRATED p. 59 Charles Blomfield, His Life & Times, Muriel William, Hodder and Stroughton, 1980
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105 HUGH SAWREY (Australian 1919 - 99) When Quigley Got the Outsider Home, Boulia Picnic Races Queensland Oil on canvas 57 x 61 Signed $12,000 - 18,000
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162 IMPORTANT & RARE ART 7:00pm Tuesday 27 July
FRANCIS MCCRACKEN (1879 - 1959) Claire in Green Oil on canvas board 123 x 73 Signed & number 87 verso $8,000 - 12,000
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107 LOUISE HENDERSON (1902 - 94) Texture Watercolour 34 x 50 Signed Inscribed Texture verso $3,000 - 5,000 PROVENANCE Collection of Wilfred Stanley Wallace (1891 - 1957) by descent Acquired directly from the artist
164 IMPORTANT & RARE ART 7:00pm Tuesday 27 July
108 JOHN BARR CLARKE HOYTE (1835 - 1913) Queen Charlotte Sound Watercolour 36 x 69 Signed $7,000 - 10,000
109 DAVID COX SNR (English 1783 - 1859) The Ruins of Mayfield Place, Sussex Watercolour 18 x 27 Signed $6,000 - 8,000
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A New Masterpiece | Now Available
Lawrence Leitch Evening’s Last Kiss, Queenstown | Acrylic on board | 90 x 190 cm
202 Parnell Road Parnell Auckland New Zealand www.internationalartcentre.co.nz 09 366 6045 fran@artcntr.co.nz
Important & Rare Art
COLLECTABLE ART
Important & Rare auctions are the proven, pre-
The buzz generated by our Collectable Art auctions
eminent sale category for major works of art offered
reflects the popularity of these sales: an event at
for sale in New Zealand. These auctions take place
which seasoned connoisseurs and budding collectors
three times annually. As we fast approach our 50th
alike converge to appreciate one of the most eclectic
year in business, experience continues to equal
and diverse offerings available to the market. Works
results. 2014 saw Important & Rare auctions realise
span the vital period from mid-century modernism
five of New Zealand’s top ten auction prices. The
through to the cutting-edge of today’s Contemporary
following year saw new records set with the two top
art in New Zealand.
prices in Auckland achieved. With the addition of the record $1.377 million paid for a C F Goldie in April’s
This sale category is an increasingly significant event
2016 sale, International Art Centre achieved the three
in our auction calendar. Offering a number of lower-
highest art auction prices in New Zealand’s history.
priced works from highly-sought after artists in print
Due to an appreciative, and greatly valued clientele of
and edition form, as well as quality works from artists
nationwide and international buyers and sellers we
whose presence on the secondary market is just
look forward to breaking new ground.
beginning to crystallise.
ALWAYS CONSIGNING ENTRIES NOW INVITED 168 IMPORTANT & RARE ART 7:00pm Tuesday 27 July
Single Owner Auctions
ART AT HOME ONLINE only Auctions
From time to time, the secondary market is fortunate
A quick, easy and reliable solution to affordable consignments. During the 2020 nationwide lockdowns we stayed connected to our clients, keeping them close to our art. The time was spent productively, resulting in the development of our own online bidding platform and App, successfully auctioning works of art with no exhibition viewing, no printed catalogue, while using state-of-the-art technology. All transactions were contactless and we reduced our carbon footprint along the way. While the personal service, excitement and atmosphere of our famous live Parnell Road auctions remain and will continue to grow, the success of this online only platform has encouraged us to retain this as a permanent sale category.
enough to be exposed to one of those rare collections which transcends the value of its individual works of art, and stands to represent something iconic in its entirety. Our team is well-versed in the process of offering single-owner collections for sale, and take pride in the process of curating a single-owner sale when the opportunity arises. We offer a targeted marketing campaign and maximise the use of both electronic and print-based collateral to effectively showcase such collections to maximum effect. The strong networks we have established locally and internationally are reflected in some of the private collections which have been entrusted to us in recent years.
CONTACT Richard Thomson Ph +64 9 379 4010 M. 0274 751 071 E. richard@artcntr.co.nz Maggie Skelton Ph +64 9 379 4010 E. maggie@artcntr.co.nz Luke Davies Ph +64 9 379 4010 E. luke@artcntr.co.nz www.internationalartcentre.co.nz 202 Parnell Road, Auckland
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valuation SERVICES www.internationalartcentre.co.nz
International Art Centre provides formal valuations for insurance purposes, specialising in the preparation of catalogued and photographed inventories. Written valuations can be arranged by appointment. We provide free informal, verbal estimates for any of the works in your collection.
Rhona Haszard The Blue Wrap, 1925 Oil on canvas board 30 x 37cm Reproduced courtesy of The Fletcher Trust Collection
International Art Centre | Appointed Valuers of The Fletcher Trust Collection
For valuation enquiries & quotes contact Maggie Skelton maggie@artcntr.co.nz
170 IMPORTANT & RARE ART 7:00pm Tuesday 27 July
202 Parnell Road, Auckland, New Zealand Telephone + 64 9 379 4010 Toll Free 0800 800 322
Absentee Bid Form IMPORTANT & RARE ART 7:00pm Tuesday 27 July 2021 I instruct International Art Centre to bid on my behalf for the following lots up to the prices indicated below. I understand my bids are to be executed at the lowest attainable price level. All bids are subject to Conditions of Sale printed in this catalogue.
REGISTRATION NUMBER
We will allocate a bidding number if you don’t already have one
NAME ADDRESS EMAIL
TELEPHONE
LOT NUMBER
ARTIST NAME
MAXIMUM BID $NZ excluding buyers premium
Signature ...........................................................................................
/
/ 2021
I have read and understand the Conditions of Sale. International Art Centre offers this service to clients unable to attend sale and is not responsible for error or failure to execute bids. Email to info@internationalartcentre.co.nz before 3pm day of sale Alternatively, visit our website www.internationalartcentre.co.nz and place absentee bids online
202 Parnell Road, Auckland, New Zealand Tel + 64 9 379 4010 www.internationalartcentre.co.nz
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Index ALBRECHT G..............................................25, 99
HOYTE J B C................................................... 108
ANGUS R........................................................... 97
ILLINGWORTH M......................................22, 23
APPLE B.............................................................80
KEULEMANS J G.............................................. 56
BAMBURY S...................................................... 10
LELEISI’UAO A...............................................100
BANKSY......................... 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36
LINDSAY N........................................................ 52
BARRAUD C D................................................ 104
MARTYN A..........................................................4
BIRCH I T............................................................9
MAUGHAN K............................................... 11, 13
BLOMFIELD C.................................. 54, 120, 103
MCCAHON C......................................... 40, 41, 42
BRAITHWAITE J.............................................. 91
MCCORMACK T A............................................96
BROWN N................................. 84, 85, 86, 87, 88
MCCRACKEN F............................................... 106
BULLMORE E...................................................60
MCINTYRE P............................................... 53, 66
CAMDEN E.......................................................... 2
MCLEOD E........................................................89
COX SNR D...................................................... 109
MOFFITT T................................26, 27, 28, 29, 64
CUMMINGS V............................................. 57, 58
MRKUSICH M...................................................46
ELLIOTT Z.........................................................92
NERLI G P B...................................................... 76
ELLIS R.................................................. 24, 77, 78
PARDINGTON F......................................... 20, 21
FOMISON T..................................................47, 61
PARKER J S....................................................... 19
FRAZER N........................................................101
PETRE M...........................................................93
FRIEDLANDER M.............................................. 3
ROBINSON A.................................................... 12
FRIZZELL D...................................................... 67
SAWREY H...................................................... 105
GAZIER A..........................................................48
SCOTT I.............................................................63
GIMBLETT MA................................................. 79
SMITHER M..........................................43, 94, 95
GOLDIE C F.................................................44, 45
STODDART M O............................................... 74
GORDON J W.................................................... 55
TAPPER G.......................................................... 65
HANLY P...............................................59, 82, 83
THOMPSON S L........................68, 69, 70 , 71, 72
HARTIGAN P....................................................62
THOMSON J.....................................................90
HASZARD R...................................................... 73
TOLE C............................................................. 6, 7
HENDERSON L............................................... 107
TOLE J................................................................. 5
HIGHT M..............................................................1
TRIPE M E......................................................... 75
HIRST D......................................................39, 38
TURKINGTON J..................................................8
HODGKINS F........................................ 49, 50, 51
WHITE A L........................................................ 81
HOTERE R.................................. 14, 15, 16, 17, 18
WONG B............................................................98
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Lot 00
Conditions of Sale and A Guide to Buyers The highest bidder shall be the buyer. In the event of any dispute as to the bidding in respect of any lot, that lot may be offered again at the discretion of the auctioneer whose decision shall be absolute and final. The auctioneer has the right (i) to refuse any bid; (ii) to advance the bidding at his absolute discretion; (iii) to place a reserve on any lot; (iv) to place a bid or bids on behalf of the seller; (v) to withdraw any lot from sale; (vi) to require a successful bidder to pay forthwith the whole or any part of the purchase price. The auctioneer acts as the agent of the seller and neither he nor the seller shall be responsible for any defects or faults in any lot or for any errors of description or for genuineness or authenticity of any lot and no compensation shall be paid in respect of same.
ABSENTEE BIDS Absentee bidding arranged - please refer to absentee bidding in back of catalogue. Email to info@internationalartcentre. co.nz before 3pm day of sale. Please do not be offended if a member of our staff ask for your credit card details as security. Absentee bids can also be left via our website to registered members. Our website www.internationalartcentre.co.nz acts as a useful auxiliary to the catalogue but we recommend inspection or a condition report prior to leaving a bid. Our staff will gladly supply you with a condition report on any lot. TELEPHONE BIDS Telephone bidding available to subscribers and registered bidders. There is no charge for this service. PAYMENT FACILITIES Eftpos: Available for transactions depending on your daily limit.
From the time of lot being sold, such lot will be the responsibility of the buyer.
Bank deposits: Bank instructions on invoice if paying by direct debit. Quote the Lot number(s) purchased and surname as reference.
Successful bidders are required to pay for purchases immediately on completion of sale unless otherwise arranged.
Credit cards: Visa and Mastercard with a 2% surcharge.
All intending buyers are required to register for a bidding number prior to auction commencing. Subscribers can use their permanent bidding number. We reserve the right to ask for identification if you are a first time client of International Art Centre. Each lot shall be paid for and removed at the buyers expense by no later than 4:00pm Thursday 1 April 2021 (Before Easter) unless otherwise arranged failing which the auctioneer and/ or the seller shall have the right to forfeit any deposit paid by the buyer and to resell the lot either by public or private sale and any deficiency on costs of resale shall be borne by the defaulting buyer. No lot may be collected whilst auction is in progress. Payment can also not be made until completion of auction. SUBJECT BIDS When the auctioneer declares a lot ‘subject’ this means the bid is below the set reserve and is subject to vendor accepting, rejecting or negotiating the bid. International Art Centre will endeavour to make contact with the vendor immediately after sale or the following day. If the bid is accepted, the highest bidder is obligated to make purchase.
International Art Centre no longer accepts cheques. PROTECTED OBJECTS ACT Art objects over 50 years old made by an artist or maker born in or related to New Zealand may be protected New Zealand objects, and therefore require permission from the Ministry for Culture and Heritage in order to be exported. Applications for permission to export can be made at https://mch.govt.nz/ nz-identity-heritage/protected-objects/exporting FREIGHT & PACKING International Art Centre arrange door to door delivery both nationally and internationally. Please arrange insurance on your items prior to them leaving our premises. OTHER ENQUIRIES Should you have any questions relating to the sale or if we can be of any other assistance please contact us during business hours on (09) 379 4010, Toll Free 0800 800 322 or email info@internationalartcentre.co.nz BUYERS PREMIUM 17.5% Buyers premium plus GST on premium applies to all lots. (Total buyers premium is 20.12% including GST)
ESTIMATES Estimates are provided for each entry and act as a guide only. They are prepared well in advance of sale and are subject to revision at any time. Estimates are based on hammer price and do not include buyers premium.
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CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF ART 178 IMPORTANT & RARE ART 7:00pm Tuesday 27 July
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202 Parnell Road, Auckland, New Zealand Telephone + 64 9 379 4010 Toll Free 0800 800 322 www.internationalartcentre.co.nz
180 IMPORTANT & RARE ART 7:00pm Tuesday 27 July