Important & Rare Art 7:00pm Tuesday 27 NOVEMBER 2018
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Important & Rare Art 7:00pm Tuesday 27 NOVEMBER 2018
Conditions of Sale p. 135 Absentee Bid Form p. 133 Index p. 138
202 Parnell Road, Auckland Telephone + 64 9 379 4010 www.internationalartcentre.co.nz
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Viewing exhibition times
AUCTION contacts
International Art Centre, 202 Parnell Road, Auckland
Richard Thomson
Tuesday
20 November
10.00am - 5:30pm
Ph +64 9 379 4010
Wednesday
21 November
9:00am - 5:30pm
richard@artcntr.co.nz Mobile 0274 751071
Thursday
22 November
9:00am - 5:30pm
Friday
23 November
10:00am - 5:30pm
Saturday
24 November
10:00am - 4:00pm
Maggie Skelton
Sunday
25 November
11:00am - 4:00pm
Ph +64 9 379 4010 maggie@artcntr.co.nz
Monday
26 November
9:00am - 5:30pm
Tuesday
27 November
9:00am - 3:00pm Luke Davies
Auction commences 7:00pm Tuesday 27 November
Ph +64 9 379 4010
Please join us for pre-auction refreshments from
luke@artcntr.co.nz
6:00pm on evening of sale
Location and car parking 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
202 Parnell Road, Auckland Telephone + 64 9 379 4010 www.internationalartcentre.co.nz
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2018 Charles F Goldie $933,000 C F Goldie $922,000
A YEAR OF SUCCESS EXPERIENCE EQUALS RESULTS
Charles F Goldie $594,000 C F Goldie $594,000
Charles F Goldie $456,800 C F Goldie $456,000
Karl Maughan Maughan $98,000 $98,000 Karl
Peter Siddell Siddell $113,000 $113,000 Peter
C F Goldie $265,500 Arthur Boyd $285,540
C F Goldie $124,900 Peter McIntyre $124,900
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* Prices include buyers premium
Toss Woollaston $168,900
Stanley $29,100 April Stanley Palmer Palmer $29,100
Bill Hammond print $10,100
J B C Barr Hoyte $48,700 John Clark HoyteApril $47,700
Don Binney $416,000
MargaretOlley Olley$76,100 $76,100 Margaret
Peter Siddell Siddell $121,000 $121,000 Peter
Don Binney $303,000
Gottfried Lindauer $236,700
Louis John Steele $226,000
Frances Hodgkins $41,600 Trevor Moffitt $11,800
Felix Kelly $42,800 Michael Illingworth $90,400
Paul Beadle $7,500 Allen Maddox $10,700
Heather Straka $40,400
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IMPORTANT & RARE ART AUCTION: APRIL 2019 consignments accepted until 12 march 2019
JOHN BARR CLARKE HOYTE View of Auckland City and Harbour - Sold for $48,700 August 2018
Confidential no obligation appraisals Richard Thomson richard@artcntr.co.nz Phone +64 9 379 4010 Mob. 0274 751 071
Important & Rare Art auctions are the proven, pre-eminent sale category for major works of art offered for sale in New Zealand
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CHARLES FREDERICK GOLDIE Te Hei A Chieftainess of the Ngati Raukawa Tribe Sold for $594,000 - Important & Rare Art April 2018 From the Dame Kiri Te Kanawa Collection
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COLLECTABLE ART
ENTRIES INVITED NOW
AUCTION: FEBRUARY 2019 / CONSIGNments accepted UNTIL 6 DECEMBER
ROSS LEE Tasman Valley, Mt Cook National Park Oil on canvas 61 x 122cm
PETER BEADLE Mt Cook & Tasman River MacKenzie Country Oil on board 45 x 60cm
To consign contact: Maggie Skelton maggie@artcntr.co.nz Luke Davies luke@artcntr.co.nz Phone +64 9 379 4010
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ERNEST BUCKMASTER Puketutu Island (detail) Fetched $6,540 June 2018
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HIGHLIGHTS FROM 4 OCTOBER 2018
MODERN & CONTEMPORARY ART
Liam Barr $11,100
Judy Millar $9,360
Peter Siddell $9,480
Allen Maddox $9,600
Max Gimblett $8,650
Mike Petre $7,920
Peter Stichbury $6,600
Mike Crawford $3,360
Louise Henderson $8,400
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* Prices include buyers premium Full results www.fienartauction.co.nz
MODERN & CONTEMPORARY ART
ENTRIES INVITED NOW
Jack Trolove Alchemy Oil on canvas 140 x 120cm
AUCTION: FEBRUARY 2019 / CONSIGNments accepted UNTIL 20 DECEMBER Richard Thomson richard@artcntr.co.nz Phone +64 9 379 4010 Mob. 0274 751 071
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iris iris iris Until 24 Feb 2019
Major partner
Exhibition partner
In collaboration with
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Production support
Courtesy of the artist and Hopkinson Mossman, Auckland/Wellington
Dane Mitchell Iris, Iris, Iris 2017 Installation view: Auckland Art Gallery, 2018 Photo courtesy of the artist
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GORDON WALTERS Arahura Screenprint, edition 9/125, 57.5 x 49 Signed, inscribed & dated 1982 $12,000 - 16,000
Provenance: Purchased 1982 by current owner
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LEN CASTLE Untitled - Waka Bowl Glazed ceramic 14 x 92.5 Initialled on base $2,000 - 3,000
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GAVIN HURLEY
Neptune, 2006 Found papers, glue 29 x 36 Inscribed $500 - 1,000
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GAVIN HURLEY
Pictures from My Hall, 2006 Found papers, glue 65 x 52 $800 - $1,200
Provenance Lots 3 & 4: Mary Newton Gallery, Wellington
Provenance: Private Collection 25 years
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ISRAEL BIRCH Kikorangi Lacquer on stainless steel 80 x 80 Signed, inscribed & dated 2015 verso $3,000 - 5000
Provenance: Murmuration, White Room Co, Palmerston North, 2015
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KARL MAUGHAN Mt Curl Oil on linen 137 x 152 Signed, inscribed & dated June 2015 verso $25,000 - 35,000
Provenance: Private Collection, Waikato
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LISA REIHANA Maori Chief (In Pursuit of Venus) Pigment print on paper, edition of 5, 126 x 84 Signed & dated 2016 $15,000 - 20,000
Provenance: Milford Galleries, Dunedin Original label affixed verso Exhibited: Lisa Reihana: Cinemania Campbelltown Arts Centre, January - March 2018 Sydney Arts Festival, 2018 Critically acclaimed and openly acknowledged as one of the most important artworks produced by a New Zealand artist this century, In Pursuit of Venus is a multi-disciplinary masterwork exploring the events, cultural contact and narratives of Captain Cook’s three voyages, and in that process of revisiting our identity and history are illuminated. Over ten years in the making, In Pursuit of Venus was a massive undertaking involving hundreds of actors. Each scene and event was individually choreographed, every actor costumed. Built sequence by sequence, frame by frame, involving studio filming, photography and other media techniques, the mesmeric visual dexterity and artistic cohesiveness achieved belies the works technical complexity.
Maori Chief (In Pursuit of Venus) reveals the modern sensibility that underpins the entire work. Here, the imperial gaze has been turned back and repackaged. Maori identity is celebrated, social structure revealed as aristocratic and continuous, with the abstract language forms (chevron patterns, moko, thigh tattoo) and objects (cloak, tiki, patu, feathers) shown as fundamental to and expressive of a unique and significant cultural identity.
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LISA REIHANA Hodges (in Pursuit of Venus) Pigment print on paper, edition of 5, 126 x 84 Signed & dated 2016 $8,000 - 12,000
Provenance: Fehily Contemporary at Auckland Art Fair May 2016
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HEATHER STRAKA The Escort - from Blood Lust Type C print, edition 1/5, 96 x 132 Signed, inscribed & dated 2012 verso $4,000 - 6,000
Provenance: Jonathan Smart Gallery, Christchurch
Exhibited: Lisa Reihana: Cinemania Campbelltown Arts Centre, January - March 2018 Sydney Arts Festival, 2018
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LISA REIHANA Pelt-Camarillo, 2010 Pigment print on paper, edition of 10, 120 x 120 Signed, inscribed & dated 2010 $14,000 - 18,000
Provenance: Milford Galleries, Dunedin Original label affixed verso Portraiture is central to all of Lisa Reihana’s work but in her hands the boundaries of time are altered, identities become mutable, cultural and social norms crossed. Pelt-Camarillo is an unnervingly beautiful work, where the subject has been deliberately de-eroticised, where the familiar and the strange sit finely balanced in a space which exists somewhere and nowhere, in a world apart. Reihana creates a mysterious visual narrative where time seems suspended. The subject, portrayed in perfect profile, gazes intently beyond the picture plane, seemingly oblivious of the viewer. Her animal elements of plumage and pelt convey a sense of the mythological, albeit with a contemporary vibe.
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JEFFREY HARRIS Survivor from Warsaw Oil on canvas 30 x 41 Signed, inscribed & dated 1999 verso $7,000 - 10,000
Provenance: Private Collection, Wellington since 1999
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STAR GOSSAGE Aroha Mai Oil on canvas 152 x 110 Signed, inscribed Pakiri & dated 2005 verso $14,000 - 18,000
Provenance: Private Collection, Wellington
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MICHAEL SMITHER Early Morning Railway Station, New Plymouth Oil on board 44 x 60 Signed & dated 1965 $10,000 - 15,000
Provenance: Private Collection Purchased from artist, c. 1965
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MICHAEL SMITHER Blue Mast II (Okahu Bay) Oil on board 120 x 62 Signed & dated 1998 $22,000 - 32,000
Provenance: Private Collection, Blenheim Purchased, John Leech Gallery, Auckland 1998
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DICK FRIZZELL Tarawera Rest Stop Oil on canvas 150 x 171.5 Signed, inscribed & dated 3/10/1989 $30,000 - 40,000
Provenance: Corporate Collection, Auckland The Tarawera Rest Stop is the approximate half way point on State Highway 5, between Napier and Taupo.
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RALPH HOTERE
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RALPH HOTERE
Aoraki is the Mountain, Waitaki the River Lithograph, edition 2/15, 67 x 50 Signed, inscribed & dated 2004 $4,000 - 6,000
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RALPH HOTERE
Provenance: Private Collection, Auckland Purchased International Art Centre, 2002
God Bless America Lithograph, edition 6/18, 69 x 53 Signed, inscribed & dated 1991 $4,000 - 6,000
Tumoana -Drawing for a Church Window at Mitimiti Ink on paper 76.5 x 55.5 Signed, inscribed & dated 1982 $24,000 - 28,000
There are few things I can say about my work that are better than saying nothing - Ralph Hotere, 1996 Tumoana - Drawing for a Church Window at Mitimiti is from a series of works painted in 1982, the year of his father’s death. The works feature places along the West coast of Muriwhenua, including Hione, the cemetery at Mitimiti. Although Hotere spent much of his adult life in Dunedin, Drawing for a Church Window at Mitimiti series illustrates the
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artist’s ongoing connection to Mitimiti: the place of his birth, where his ancestors are buried, and the place where Ralph himself was laid to rest in 2012. The name Mitimiti translates to lap, or to lick up and refers to the site at which spirits leaving the earth from Cape Reinga would stop and quench their thirst from the fresh stream water seeping through the sand.
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COLIN MCCAHON
Mapua Landscape, 1938 Watercolour 20 x 23.5 $15,000 - 20,000 Provenance: McCahon database record number cm001785
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TOSS WOOLLASTON
Mahana circa 1938 Oil on board 47 x 48 Signed $15,000 - 20,000 Provenance: William Henry Allen Collection Sheila Allen Estate Collection
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ANNA LOIS WHITE
Age and Youth, c. 1934 Pencil and watercolour 19 x 22.5 Signed $8,000 - 12,000 Provenance: Ex Sir Ivor and Lady Richardson Collection Purchased from Peter McLeavey Gallery, Wellington, 1984, original receipt affixed verso Private Collection, Wellington
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ANNA LOIS WHITE
Headland St Ives Oil on board 34 x 41 Signed $8,000 - 12,000 Provenance: Ex Artist’s Estate Collection Private Collection, Marlborough
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MIKE PETRE Field Study 319, 2016 Oil on canvas 135 x 135 Signed & inscribed $14,000 - 18,000
Provenance: Milford Galleries, Dunedin
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PETER SIDDELL Passing Clouds Oil on board 74 x 80 Signed & dated 1973 $20,000 - 30,000
Provenance: Private Collection, Auckland since 1973
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ANDY LELEISI’UAO Pa’ceania Part 2, 2010 Acrylic on canvas 76 x 152 Signed, inscribed & dated 2010 $9,000 - 11,000
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ANDY LELEISI’UAO Choirs of Plytadis Part II, 2013 Acrylic on linen 76.4 x 60.8 Signed, inscribed & dated 2013 $3,800 - 4,800
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YUKI KIHARA
Legacy, 2016 Collage on paper 29.5 x 27.8 Inscribed $3,000 - 4,000
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ALLEN MADDOX
Untitled Mixed media on card 61 x 50 Signed $4,500 - 6,500 Provenance: Private Collection, Auckland
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COLIN MCCAHON Flower, 1971 Pastel and watercolour on paper 57 x 45 Signed & inscribed For Win from Colin, 1971 $19,000 - 26,000
Provenance: Record number cm001775 www.mccahon.co.nz
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DON BINNEY Puketotara Once Bittern Oil on board 45 x 59.5 Signed & dated 1972 $120,000 - 160,000
Provenance: Private Collection, Auckland Exhibited: A Single Field (Puketotara) Don Binney Peter McLeavey Gallery, Wellington March 1976, no. 13 Original invitation, catalogue and price list available to purchaser Puketotara Once Bittern is one of a series of works featuring the cleared land around Kerikeri’s Puketotara area – a location beloved by the artist. These works were exhibited at Peter McLeavey Gallery in 1976 alongside a series of eight entitled A Tree, of Many, One named after Wordsworth’s poem Intimations of Mortality. A particularly striking point of difference about the paintings which were featured in this show is the elevated importance of landform as subject matter. This represented a shift in focus from Binney’s earlier work, in which land and sky served as background elements and were secondary in status to the birds. While the Bittern in this work possesses the same elegance, the same promise of hope and soaring upwards movement as seen in many of his earlier paintings, the relationship with the land in its specific and identifiable form is now also of great importance. Puketotara Once Bittern was reported as the standout painting of this exhibition at Peter McLeavey Gallery, and singled out in an Evening Post review as one of the most beautiful of the paintings.
Cover of exhibition brochure, Peter McLeavey Gallery, 1976
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The work possesses a light and almost playful quality reflected in the title, as well as that of the accompanying work Puketotara, Twice Shy, which was purchased by the National Gallery and is now in the collection of Te Papa Tongarewa. Of the exhibition entitled A Single Field (Puketotara) Don Binney, arts commentator for Wellington’s Evening Post, Diana Dekker wrote in March 1976: Peter McLeavey has hung his first exhibition for the year. It is of 14 recent paintings by Auckland artist Don Binney, eight on the theme of A Tree, of Many, one and six in a series on A Single Field (Puketotara) … The Tree he looks at from all angles and in all lights and through winter and summer, is a big old pohutukawa at Te Henga. Cleared land on Puketotara is the subject for A Single Field (Puketotara). One of the most beautiful of the paintings is Puketotara Once Bittern, the study of a standing bird, graceful neck extended, merging in outline and colour into the lines of the landscape.
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DON BINNEY Lower Kaiaraara Kotare Oil and acrylic on canvas 91.5 x 75 Signed & dated 2002 $180,000 - 260,000
Provenance: Private Collection, Auckland Diversion Gallery, 2002
Kaitiakitanga is a Maori concept referring to guardianship and care for the environment, encompassing the interconnected nature of humanity, land and the natural world. Whilst an awareness of this holistic notion may well inform the viewer’s understanding of any of Don Binney’s bird paintings, it is particularly relevant in the case of this special depiction of a kotare or sacred kingfisher. Binney felt the natural environment not to be made up of disparate elements, but an asset to be treasured as a living and interwoven fabric. Through this work, we encounter a vibrant and joyous expression of nature untouched; of sanctity, sanctuary and rarity. Lower Kaiaraara Kotare possesses all the markers of Binney’s most iconic and quintessential paintings: bird, sea, land and sky have been expressed in majestic and typically bright and modular form. That said, the kotare’s blended presence against the foreground hills makes for an interesting departure from the artist’s traditional approach to composition. Rather than suspending the bird against a vast and contrasting hue of sky, he has chosen to present it as part of the surrounding topography, distinctly formed while at
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the same time partially blended. It is through this act of integration, with the green of the bird being echoed in the surrounding bush, and its curvilinear form in the outlines of the hills, that we perceive the artist’s expression of kaitiakitanga. In the background of the painting, framed between an impressive cloud formation and lush green bush, there is the outlined form of Great Barrier Island, pictured from a point looking out towards the lower Kaiaraara valley. Although the significance of environmental and ecological concerns in Binney’s work is almost always implicit, it assumes an even greater significance herein given the artist’s personal connection to this sanctuary: he was a patron of the Hauturu Trust which protected Little Barrier Island Nature Reserve, Hauturu-o-Toi. In what may be considered an affirmation of the cyclical nature of life which Binney sought to express in this painting, his ashes were scattered near this very place following his death in 2012.
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COLIN MCCAHON The First Waterfall Oil on hardboard 54.7 x 76.3 Signed & dated May 1956 Inscribed verso $200,000 - 300,000
Provenance: Private Collection McCahon database record number cm000248 www.mccahon.co.nz When thinking about Colin McCahon, we are inclined to associate the term waterfall with the artist’s iconic series from the 1960s. The First Waterfall, however, belongs to a separate period. For McCahon, the impetus for creating this work was not part of a seriesbased exploration, but a by-product of his Titirangi years.
By this point in his career, his relationship with cubism had been clearly developed. The First Waterfall was created after McCahon’s original forays into cubist treatments of landscape, notably the French Bay Series, and following his preliminary explorations of text in painting which were to culminate in the Elias Series.
Evoking a feeling of ancient, testamental origin, the work’s title has an almost biblical quality. It speaks to McCahon’s desire to communicate with the land through a language of natural and universal symbolism. The bulbous blue and white forms comprising the waterfall – each little droplet of water existing in a sphere of its own newness and purity – also possess a spiritual quality, and recall the artist’s kauri paintings.
While this is an exceptionally solitary work, it should also be appreciated as a precursor to the later Waterfall works. From the perspective of subject matter and the artist’s spiritual connection to the land, it is interesting to compare this with the later series. While McCahon’s 1960s paintings were characterised by singular stylised waterfalls cutting across the canvas plane, often depicted with a sharpness reminiscent of Barnett Newman’s zip paintings (these works represent McCahon’s keenest take on Abstract Expressionism), in the case of The First Waterfall it was clearly a unified expression of fluidity and ambiguity; an exquisite interplay of light and colour and immersive depth which the artist sought to prioritise.
Part of what makes The First Waterfall so interesting is that it was produced during a quieter period of artistic output for McCahon. In 1956, the focus of his work was largely on drawing, and he completed relatively few paintings throughout that year. Perhaps it was because this time represented a watershed for the artist as he was restlessly looking to develop new ideals.
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Colin McCahon
The First Waterfall 51
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DON BINNEY Egretta Intermedia, Piha III Mixed media on paper 67 x 50 Signed & dated 1990 $35,000 - 45,000
Provenance: Private Collection, Auckland Auckland Society of Arts, 1990
When considering this study of an egret, or heron, the viewer recognises it as a representation of a single bird, depicted in profile, in a particular spot. What makes this work compelling is that, departing from that initial moment of recognition, it takes on an undeniable energy – a vibration of colour and form – transporting the viewer away from any singularity of interpretation. It is apparent that the location is somewhat nondescript. A generic cloudy sky, rocky landscape, a uniform blanket of green grass on which the bird is perched. Is this indeed somewhere, i.e. Piha, or could it be anywhere? Now, the heron becomes more than a solitary creature. It may even be considered an emblem of its species, an idea reinforced by Binney’s titular application of its Latin name, which gives it a scientific, documentary feel.
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Egretta Intermedia, Piha III also invites a more conceptual consideration of the relationship between paint and paper in Binney’s work. The elegant outlines of the bird appear to move back and forth from the picture plane, giving the impression of a cut out and emphasising the strength and individuality of Binney’s distinct modernist style.
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CHARLES FREDERICK GOLDIE The Weariness of the Aged - Kapi Kapi an Arawa Chieftainess Aged 102 Years Oil on canvas 25.8 x 20.3 Signed & dated 1918 $280,000 - 350,000
Provenance: Ex collection Sir Henry Brett, Takapuna, Auckland Private Collection, Auckland Illustrated Brett’s Christmas Annual, 1 December 1924 p. 251 C F Goldie His Life & Painting, Alister Taylor & Jan Glen, Alister Taylor publishing 1977 ‘The Weariness of the Aged’ features a portrait of Ahinata Te Rangituatini, also known as Kapi Kapi, of Rotorua (c.1800 -1902) who was one of Goldie’s favourite sitters and he painted her at least twenty two times. She was an Arawa Chieftainess, a member of the Tuhourangi tribe living at Whakarewarewa. The sister of the Arawa chief Haerehuka, Kapi Kapi survived the 1886 Tarawera eruption and witnessed the assault of Pukeroa Pa at Ohinemutu. On her shoulders were scars of wounds self-inflicted with pieces of obsidian as a sign of mourning. According to the historian and friend of Goldie, James Cowan, Kapi Kapi worked until the end of her long life, evidence, in his opinion, that the ‘old-time Maori’ were ‘truly a Spartan race’. Kapi Kapi was renowned for her moko, which Goldie depicted in fine detail.
According to Cowan, she was the only Maori woman painted by Goldie who had a rare spiral nostril tattoo. She died at the age of 102 after falling into a hot pool, it is said deliberately as was the custom among some of the aged Maori. Reproduced with the kind permission of Alister Taylor. C F Goldie: His Life & Painting and C F Goldie: Prints, Drawings & Criticism, Alister Taylor & Jan Glen, 1979
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CHARLES FREDERICK GOLDIE Justice and Divine Vengeance Pursuing Crime, After Pierre-Paul Prud’hon c. 1805 - 1806 Oil on canvas 32 x 40 Signed, inscribed After Prud’hon, Paris & dated 1897 $55,000 - 75,000
Provenance: Private Collection, Auckland In Pierre-Paul Prud’hon’s dramatic mythological painting, Justice and Divine Vengeance Pursuing Crime, a dead man lies sprawled across the foreground. Blood seeps into the ground from a wound in his neck and his murderer flees with the victim’s belongings in his arms. Divine Vengeance, illuminating the way with a torch, and Justice, armed with sword and scales, pursue the criminal. Pierre-Paul Prud’hon created a monumental painting destined to hang behind the judges’ bench in the criminal courtroom of the Palace of Justice, Paris. Today it is held in the J Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. Prud’hon used quick, sweeping strokes of paint lending movement and energy to the figures. Strong contrasts of light and dark accentuate the drama of the situation. Moonlight illuminates the faces of the avenging personifications and highlights the torso of the dead man, while the face of the murderer is cast in darkness. Inspired by the Roman poet Horace’s adage that retribution rarely fails to pursue the evil man, Prud’hon conveyed the message that the course of justice is relentless if sometimes slow. C F Goldie created his version of this famous painting on the same scale, soon after his arrival as a young student in Paris where he attended the famous Académie Julian. It is there, the young Aucklander received a strong grounding in drawing and painting. Whilst painted in his late teens, Justice and Divine Vengeance Pursuing Crime, After Pierre-Paul Prud’hon shows the remarkable skills of an artist destined to become New Zealand’s internationally famous portrait painter.
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GARTH TAPPER
Dawn Parade, Puhoi Oil on canvas 73 x 98 Signed Dated 1986 verso $18,000 - 24,000 Provenance: Private Collection, Auckland Purchased from artist, 1986
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GARTH TAPPER Rugby Players, East Coast Oil on canvas board 110 x 94.5 Signed & dated 1990 $25,000 - 35,000
Provenance: Private Collection, Auckland Purchased from artist 1990
Lots 36 and 37 speak to Garth Tapper’s status as one of our nation’s great visual storytellers, and it is interesting to compare them. In the case of the impressive Dawn Parade, Puhoi, there is a sense of stiff formality to the figures. Having donned their suits and medals they have lined up in front of the local pub. This somewhat rigid alignment of four men brings a sense of reverence and commemoration to the early morning event. Two are pale-faced; two are ruddy-cheeked; all are solemn. Inside, we can make out the profile of a woman, likely a pub owner or worker. Her presence adds depth and complexity to this scene, in which the full complement of a limited colour palette has been utilised. This was one of a series of Puhoi works Tapper completed. While harnessing the expressive capacity of monochromatic grey was an impressive skill of Tapper’s, he also revelled in the liberal use of colour. This is clearly so in Rugby Players, East Coast, where clarity of palette has been replaced by an emergent quasi-cubist chaos, and spatial logic abandoned.
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A Ruatoria match plays out in full force, with monumental figures physically clashing. Though pictured as hulking and in motion, the players appear to each be looking in different directions, almost arrested in mid-air by their thoughts. Throughout his career Garth Tapper developed aspects of both cubism and formal realism in his work. The application of these different styles is reflected in these two paintings. However, it was the artist’s choice of subject matter and his ability to capture cultural snapshots and insights into New Zealand life which set his work apart. Tapper excelled in capturing the essence and energy of his subjects, weather it be sports matches, get-to-gethers at the local pub, the drama of the law courts or scenes from rural life, he had the ability to go to the heat of the matter, instilling his work with an enduring sense of nationally resonant truth.
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seven RARE WORKS BY WILLIAM HENRY ALLEN FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE ARTIST’S DAUGHTER SHEILA William Herbert Allen (1894-1988) was one of a group of British art teachers recruited in the 1920s by William Sanderson La Trobe, the nation’s Superintendent of Technical Education, whose intention it was to greatly improve the quality of art education in New Zealand. W H Allen had attended London’s Royal College of Art from 1919 to 1923. His contemporaries there included Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth; fellow students Roland Hopkins, Jenny Campbell and Robert Nettleton Field also immigrated to New Zealand and became lifelong friends. The contribution of the La Trobe artists, particularly W H Allen and R N Field had an on-going and profound effect on the development of New Zealand art. Their teaching of early modernism opened the door to an avant gard post-impressionist period in New Zealand’s art history. They influenced artists such as Toss Woollaston, Colin McCahon and Doris Lusk who embraced these new ideas, attitudes and techniques. Hocken Librarian Sharon Dell says the influence of W H Allen and his fellow La Trobe teachers produced landscapes and portraits in a style that was at first deeply unacceptable to painters and art societies in New Zealand - still entrenched in their Victorian style of art. W H Allen taught in Dunedin and Nelson. He was President of the Suter Art Gallery Society, teaching Workers Education Association (WEA) classes and participating in the Canterbury Summer Schools which attracted artists Doris Lusk and Leo Bensemann to Nelson. Colin McCahon and Toss Woollaston also regularly spent their summers there.
After returning to England in the late 1930s, W H Allen’s art and reputation as a teacher were all but lost and until recently, little research done on his contribution to New Zealand art. Following the family’s return to England in 1946 W H Allen taught at the South West Essex School of Art, London, retiring in 1961. In 2008 a significant collection of W H Allen’s work was repatriated from the United Kingdom and gifted to Dunedin’s Hocken Library. The Tui Rata Frowd bequest contained about 80 artworks including oil paintings and works on paper, and a large archival collection of letters, correspondence, photographs, catalogues and articles relating to William Allen. In 2015 the Hocken Library held a major exhibition, W H Allen & The La Trobe Effect. This exhibition shone a light on W H Allen’s contribution to the emergence of early regionalism in New Zealand. In addition to showcasing W H Allen’s practice the show included works by his La Trobe peers, several of Allen’s students and a sample of work by the early twentieth century British artists associated with the Camden Town Group whose post-impressionist style and subject matter inspired W H Allen, his peers and a swathe of this country’s regionalist painters. International Art Centre wishes to thank Robyn Notman and Sharon Dell of Hocken Library for their assistance.
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WILLIAM HENRY ALLEN
Nelson College Oil on canvas 50 x 60 Signed $15,000 - 20,000 Provenance: Sheila Allen Estate Collection
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Sheila Allen was the daughter of W H Allen. She was born in New Zealand in 1926 and lived in Dunedin until the age of four. The family then returned to England, remaining there for three years until her father was offered a teaching position in Nelson. Shelia remembers her New Zealand childhood as idyllic. Most of her life was spent in England, where she trained to be a silversmith in her 70s. Travelling to New Zealand for the opening of the W H Allen exhibition, Shelia delighted everyone with the information and personal stories relating to her father and his work, she died in early 2018. Sheila Allen (clockwise from left) at the La Trobe Effect exhibition opening, Hocken Library 2015, with her sister Tui (left) as children, and in a W H Allen woodblock print.
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WILLIAM HENRY ALLEN Country Lane Near Nelson Oil on canvas 60 x 50 $8,000 - 12,000
Provenance: Sheila Allen Estate Collection
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WILLIAM HENRY ALLEN
Bathers, Abel Tasman National Park Oil on canvas 50 x 49 Signed $10,000 -15,000 Provenance: Sheila Allen Estate Collection
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WILLIAM HENRY ALLEN
Swimming Hole, Golden Bay Oil on canvas 50 x 60 Signed $8,000 - 12,000 Provenance: Sheila Allen Estate Collection
It was to Allen and his companion teacher R N Field that we owe our first introduction to the teaching of modern art in Otago, and indeed their impact could be shown to have deeply affected art in New Zealand as a whole. Looking at this modest display today with its portraits and landscapes ‌ all basically decorative in style and designed with skill, it is hard to remember how unacceptable they were at first to painters and art societies. It is also easy to see how such works led the way to new approaches to painting. Review of W H Allen Retrospective, H V Miller , 1970.
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WILLIAM HENRY ALLEN
Auckland Harbour from Mt Eden Oil on canvas 55 x 59 Signed $5,000 - 8,000 Provenance: Sheila Allen Estate Collection
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WILLIAM HENRY ALLEN
Folkestone Kent Oil on board 35.5 x 45.7 Signed $4,000 - 6,000 Provenance: Sheila Allen Estate Collection
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WILLIAM HENRY ALLEN
Cotswold Village Oil on canvas laid on board 44 x 37 Signed Inscribed on original artist label affixed vers0 $4,000 - 6,000 Provenance: Sheila Allen Estate Collection
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ALFRED SHARPE
Remuera Watercolour 42.5 x 66 Signed $70,000 - 100,000 Provenance: Private Collection, Auckland Illustrated: Plate 5, The Lively Capital, Una Platts Avon Fine Prints, 1971
Front Cover, A Fine Prospect, A History of Remuera, Meadowbank and St Johns, Jenny Carlyon and Diana Morrow Random House, 2011
When Alfred Sharpe painted this enchanting picture of the sunlit slopes of Remuera and the harbour beyond, he was probably sitting on the verandah of David Graham’s The Towers, built in about 1855 on the Remuera or Tamaki Road. Ellerslie House, belonging to his brother Robert and built in 1853, was not far away, and the road Ladies Mile was made to provide easy access between the two homes. These were only two of the large, rather ostentatious houses to be built at about this time in the outer suburbs. The complex of buildings a little to the right betokens one of the prosperous farms in the neighbourhood. The houses on the waterfront would have been somewhere in the area of what is now Burwood Crescent. In 1872 The Towers was bought by James McCosh Clark (the son of Archibald Clark), who already owned property contiguous to it. In 1896 it became the home of the newly established King’s College; in 1922, when the College moved to Otahuhu, it became King’s Preparatory School. Text: The Lively Capital, Una Platts Avon Fine Prints, 1971
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ALFRED SHARPE Entrance to Cadman’s Creek, Coromandel Watercolour 44.3 x 66.7 Signed & dated 1880 $70,000 - 100,000
Exhibited: Alfred Sharpe Auckland City Art Gallery 5 March - 16 May 1993 Te Papa Tongarewa - 28 May - 1 August 1993 Dunedin Public Art Gallery - 12 August - 2 October 1993 llustrated: p. 45 The Art of Alfred Sharpe, Roger Blackley, Auckland City Art Gallery in association with David Bateman Ltd, 1992 Reference: p. 47 The Watercolours of Alfred Sharpe, Published, Auckland City Art Gallery, 1973 p. 58 & 61 The Art of Alfred Sharpe, Roger Blackley, Auckland City Art Gallery in association with David Bateman Ltd, 1992.
Alfred Sharpe’s original manuscript label affixed verso reads: Entrance to Cadman’s Creek, Coromandel, by Alfred Sharpe - Price £15.15.0
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Felix Kelly is one of New Zealand’s most interesting expatriate artists. Born in Epsom in 1914 he claimed to be two years younger most of his adult life. Kelly studied briefly, and even seems to have taught drafting at Elam School of Fine Art. He was only 21 when he left New Zealand in 1935. He never returned. In London Kelly continued his New Zealand occupation of graphic design, working for Lintas, the advertising wing of Unilevers. He also freelanced as an illustrator and cartoonist, especially for Lilliput. His cartoons are not unlike those of the slightly younger Ronald Searle. After the war and the RAF, the focus of his graphic art shifted to book illustration, dust-jacket design and contributions on interior decoration to such fashion magazines as Ideal Home and Harper’s Bazaar. In the 1950s and 60s he was acknowledged as one of England’s top designers for the theatre, working with the likes of Sir John Gielgud and Dame Sybil Thorndike. Kelly’s ambition had always been to succeed as a painter. Emerging in the context of Surrealism and British Neo-Romanticism, he exhibited alongside important British artists such as Lucian Freud, John Piper and Frances Hodgkins. He attracted the attention of the prominent critic and writer, Herbert Read. Kelly’s paintings are characterised by his interest in a world forgotten by progress, great houses falling into dilapidation, wind-blasted trees, abandoned locomotives often invested with an eerie watchfulness. Rapidly, Kelly assembled a client list resembling a page from Who’s Who or De Brett’s. In late career, his knowledge of architecture
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led to involvement in house design, most notably his collaboration on the redesign of Highgrove for the Prince of Wales. His most celebrated project was, however, the mural cycle at Castle Howard associated with the filming of Brideshead Revisited in the 1980s. Kelly travelled a great deal. Paintings of Spain and Italy in the 1940s were followed by West African scenes in the 50s and ante-bellum houses in America’s Deep South in the 60s. Trips to Russia, Thailand, India and Egypt in the 70s and 80s each led to an exhibition of exotic paintings. In late career, Kelly would execute a small sketch characterised by loose brush-work, which would then be converted into a carefully executed big-scale painting. Both types of work appear for sale from time to time. Kelly completed paintings of Auckland subjects done decades after he had left home. Auckland’s West Coast beaches or Takapuna with Rangitoto beyond, or paddle-steamers on the Waitemata, were evoked with an increasing degree of fantasy well into the 1960s. A quirky humour pervades his work. Felix Kelly has to be one of New Zealand’s most individual artistic exports. A comprehensive exhibition of his earlier work, curated by Donald Bassett and mounted by the Hawke’s Bay Museum and Art Gallery, toured several New Zealand centres in 2008-9. A second edition of Donald Bassett’s book Fix; The Art and Life of Felix Kelly, was published in 2013.
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FELIX KELLY Riverboat and Railroad, Daytime Oil on board 43.2 x 56 Signed & dated 1976 $25,000 - 35,000
Provenance: Exhibited at Kennedy Galleries Inc. New York, USA #FK54, 1976 Original gallery label affixed verso
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RAYMOND MCINTYRE In London Oil on panel 31 x 22 Signed indistinctly Original artist label affixed verso Unfinished female portrait study verso $15,000 - 25,000
Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist by Major Frederick Charnley, MC, Indian Army, RWF, RA, RE who lived in Chelsea, London at the time when McIntyre was painting there. Charnley family collection, Europe
Unfinished portrait study verso
Raymond Francis McIntyre was born in Christchurch in 1879. The musical and artistic McIntyre family lived in central Christchurch, and later in the suburb of New Brighton. The artist’s father, George McIntyre was mayor of New Brighton Borough in 1901–2. Raymond was educated at Warwick House School until the age of 15 when he went to the Canterbury College School of Art where he studied under Alfred Walsh and Robert Herdman-Smith until 1908. Progressive local painters had formed a sketch club which McIntyre joined. Sydney Thompson, recently returned from four years’ studying and working in Europe, was also a member and the group met regularly at his studio in Cambridge Terrace. McIntyre was able to observe the fresh techniques of impressionism in 1906–7 when 20 works by the New English Art Club painters were shown at the New Zealand International Exhibition in Christchurch. He had been exhibiting landscapes and portraits regularly with the Canterbury Society of Arts since 1899 and by 1908 his loosely brushed paintings blended influences from Petrus van der Velden with
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English impressionism. Local critics were not always impressed. This lack of critical and local artistic success seems to have convinced McIntyre that he should pursue his artistic career in Britain. Arriving in London in February 1909, McIntyre began a period of intensive study and painting. He was taught by William Nicholson, George Lambert and Walter Sickert, among others. He also became socially active in London’s artistic, literary, musical and theatrical circles. He exhibited frequently over the next decade, especially at the Goupil Gallery Salon, the leading international gallery in London at the time. His work diversified in content to include street scenes, a subject McIntyre shared with the Camden Town Group, though his techniques differed greatly from these artists. From late 1920 he also began to paint rivers and parks. He continued exhibiting at the Goupil Gallery Salon and finally had a painting accepted for exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1924. He ceased to exhibit his work after 1926 although he still painted for his own enjoyment. Continued overleaf . . .
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RAYMOND MCINTYRE Chelsea, 1913 Oil on panel 31 x 22 $15,000 - 25,000
Provenance: Acquired directly from the artist by Major Frederick Charnley, MC, Indian Army, RWF, RA, RE who lived in Chelsea, London at the time when McIntyre was painting there. Charnley family collection, Europe
Raymond McIntyre c. 1909 Photographer Unknown
McIntyre was also a writer, printmaker, photographer, theatre and music critic. In 1923 he began contributing art reviews to the London journal Architectural Review. Artists he singled out for praise included Ben Nicholson, Ferdinand Hodler, Erich Heckel and Paul Signac. It was not until several decades after his death that his own achievements were fully recognised. Colin McCahon was a key figure in this process, in 1962 he helped organise an exhibition at the Auckland City Art Gallery, Six New Zealand Expatriates which included twelve of McIntyre’s paintings. In 1984–85 the same gallery organised a retrospective of McIntyre’s work. Stylistic similarities can be found between McIntyre’s fauvist works painted around 1918 and held at the Auckland City Art Gallery – and the early works of Toss Woollaston, or of McCahon himself.
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McIntyre’s paintings featured twice on the cover of Art New Zealand during the 1970s. McIntyre never married, he died in London on 24 September 1933. Along with his family he had become a member of the Church of Christian Science soon after the first congregation was formed in New Zealand in 1907. Believing that disease could be healed by faith, he had not had a curvature of his spine treated and in 1933 refused an operation which resulted in his death.
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SYDNEY LOUGH THOMPSON
A Breezy Day, Concarneau, Brittany Oil on canvas 50 x 61 Signed Inscribed verso $20,000 - 30,000 Provenance: An Estate Collection, Auckland After making a grand tour of Italy with a group of American students, Thompson made his way to Brittany. He intended to stay there for the summer, before returning to Paris. Concarneau became his base for the remainder of his stay. Over the years the region attracted artists from around the world. Frances Hodgkins, Paul Gauguin and Claude Monet, to name a few. Rapid changes in city life resulting from modernisation, commercial and industrial expansion led to the creation in the last decades of the 19th century of a rural ideal, a life lived close to nature. To the artist, ports were not inanimate, but living places which appeared to absorb and express the personalities of the sailors and fishermen who made and used them. In his work, Thompson evolved a technique which made a direct statement. He worked to identify colour with tone so that each supported the other. The subject of fishermen and their wives on the digue was a common sight at Concarneau. They gathered daily to unload the catch from the Tunny Boats at the quay. Thompson sought personal expression and symbolic meaning creating an overall atmosphere of drama. Paint was loaded on to the canvas in a variety of directional strokes. The dark shapes of men and women on the wharf are set against the sails and green fields of Brittany, reminiscent of his former tutor Petrus van der Velden. Thompson was one of the first New Zealand born painters to develop a professional career, but unlike Frances Hodgkins and Raymond McIntyre, the advanced artists of his generation, he did not cut his ties with New Zealand or attempt to define himself within the context of modern British art. Thompson shared the attitudes and aspirations of many New Zealanders of his time and background, and became one of the country’s most popular painters. A retrospective exhibition in Christchurch in 1990 confirmed the continuing nostalgic appeal of his practice. In France, regional recognition came in 1992 with a retrospective at the MusÊe de Pont-Aven, near Concarneau. Thompson, who died in 1973, is buried at the cemetery at Concarneau.
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GRAHAME SYDNEY Catherine Sleeping Oil on linen 58.5 x 71.5 Signed, inscribed Dunedin & dated 1987 $45,000 - 65,000
Provenance: Private Collection, Christchurch Purchased from Watsons, 2007
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COLIN MCCAHON
Northland, April 59 Brush, ink on paper 62 x 49.5 Signed, inscribed & dated 1959 $32,000 - 38,000
Provenance: Peter McLeavey Collection Bootham Collection, Wellington Inscription verso reads; From the Collection of the artist, to Peter McLeavey to Ivan Bootham
Exhibited: 1959 Colin McCahon. Recent Paintings, November 1958 - August 1959 Gallery 91, Christchurch 6/10/1959 - 18/10/1959
This work on paper from McCahon’s Northland Series precedes art historical explanation. Partly, this is because it is so instantly recognisable in both subject matter and style - Northland, April 59 captures the essence of McCahon’s deeply spiritual relationship with the land. It expresses the purity of that point of convergence between sky and landmass. McCahon’s use of an ink on paper medium lends immediacy to this work: a raw aesthetic smudginess to the conception of Northland geography which the artist knew intimately. And directly his ability to transcend our human condition, and express something of Aotearoa’s unique identity - not in a nationalistic sense, but through a more broadly existential lens.
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The richness and evolution of New Zealand’s art tradition is built on a foundation of intermediary dialogue and exchange. At the very heart of this is the path forged by Colin McCahon. The physical trajectory of Northland, April 59 is emblematic of this – its market origins were with Gallery 91, Christchurch, Peter McLeavey Gallery, and the work has since been part of the renowned Bootham art collection.
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PETER MCINTYRE
Sunlit Cliff, Whakapapa River Oil on board 60 x 75 Signed $25,000 - 35,000 Provenance: An Estate Collection, Auckland Reference: A sketch of this scene features as the final plate in Peter McIntyre Kakahi, A H & A W Reed, 1972 The Whakapapa River originates at Whakapapa skifield on Mount Ruapehu, running down the steep western slopes of the mountain through Owhango before the cool trout filled water merges with the Whanganui River just east of Kakahi. Peter McIntyre had a home at Kakahi overlooking the confluence of the Whanganui and Whakapapa rivers, and painted several landscapes of the Whakapapa River. Ironically after his death the Whakapapa River undermined the white pumice cliffs where his house was built and claimed the house as its own.
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PETER MCINTYRE
The Ponte della Paglia & Ducal Palace Watercolour 51 x 70.5 Signed $10,000 - 15,000 Provenance: Private Collection, Auckland McGregor Wright Gallery label affixed verso
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PETER MCINTYRE
Rock Pool Oil on board 90 x 125 Signed $22,000 - 28,000 Provenance: Private Collection, Auckland Corporate Collection, Wellington Purchased, International Art Centre 1999
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Peter McIntyre (1910 - 1995) was born in Dunedin. His father, a lithographic artist, founded Dunedin's Caxton Printing Company. Young McIntyre attended Otago Boys' High School and the University of Otago. He studied painting under Dunedin artist Alfred O'Keeffe. McIntrye left New Zealand to study at London's Slade School of Art from 1931 until 1934. He worked in Britain as a free-lance artist until enlisting in 1939 with the 34th Anti-Tank Battery, a New Zealand unit formed in London. In 1941 whilst serving in Egypt, he was appointed as New Zealand's official war artist by Major General Freyberg. From 1941 to 1945 McIntyre recorded action in Crete, North Africa and Italy. His work was exhibited in New Zealand and Europe and reproduced in magazines such as the Illustrated London News and the New Zealand Listener.
His work from this period belongs to the collection of war art at the National Archives in Wellington. Returning to New Zealand in 1946 McIntyre began a long and illustrious post war career. He lived and exhibited in Wellington, frequently undertaking painting trips abroad. In 1962 A H & A W Reed published The Painted Years, the first of eight books he would illustrate and write between then and 1981. In 1970 McIntyre was awarded an OBE. A retrospective exhibition of McIntyre's war paintings was held at the City Gallery in Wellington in 1995. Opening on 22 July, the show had been visited by more than 22,000 people when the artist died in Wellington on 11 September.
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RUSSELL CLARK
Two Heads and Flowers, 1949 Oil on board 38.5 x 49.5 Signed $18,000 - 26,000 Provenance: Collection Mrs V Glubb, Christchurch, (label verso) Private Collection, Christchurch Exhibitied: Touring Exhibition Russell Clark 1905 - 1966, Auckland City Art Gallery Retrospective Exhibition 1975 Catalogue no. 32 Robert McDougall Art Gallery
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Russell Clark emerged onto the New Zealand art scene in the 1930s: a multidisciplinary artist whose approach to modernism distinguished itself by virtue of a bold and unassuming authenticity. Close to a century after he first started to paint, the importance of Clark's work endures. In the case of Two Heads and Flowers, the fluid energy of his practice seems to hum vibrantly from within the frame. The viewer will readily perceive the artist's mastery of a number of formal concerns: light, perspective and colour are expressed to their full potential. This painting elevates the remit of the still-life tradition beyond the confines of a formal exercise exploring the question of mortality; it speaks an essential visual language that is uniquely from, and about, New Zealand. In Two Heads and Flowers, each arranged object (but most notably the heads) do not seem to be passively regarded, but to invite an exchange of dynamism.
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PETER MCINTYRE
Hallett Bay, Antarctica Oil on board 61.5 x 76.5 Signed $15,000 - 20,000 Provenance: Purchased from International Art Centre 30/9/1991
I sailed into this bay on an American navel icebreaker and was enchanted. There was no night and a hundred thousand Charlie Chaplans in white ties and tails performed for me. This, and Cook's Bay in Moorea, are two of the most beautiful bays in the whole of the Pacific. Peter McIntyre, Peter McIntyre’s Pacific, A H & A W Reed, 1964
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DOUGLAS MACDIARMID
Girl in a Chair at Night (Danuta), 1947 Oil on canvas 31.5 x 21 Signed $5,000 - 7,000 Provenance: Judith Anderson Collection
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DOUGLAS MACDIARMID
Untitled French Landscape Oil on canvas 35.4 x 53 Signed $2,000 - 3,000 Provenance: Private Collection, Auckland
Reference: Colours of a Life, the Life and Times of Douglas MacDiarmid, Anna Cahill, 2018 Art History MacDiarmid, Dr Nelly Finet, 2002 The subject of this painting, The Girl in a Chair at Night is Danuta, Douglas MacDiarmid’s married lover in London during the 1940s. She was one of a number of highly cultured Polish war refugees he tutored in English on his first overseas stay. For Douglas, swept up in their dislocation and intensity, Danuta was London. A journalist and academic, she was a stunning, intellectual and quite manipulative individual who came and went from Douglas’ life causing his long-time partner Patrick more grief than any of Douglas’ other female friends. Fifteen years after their time in London, MacDiarmid and Danuta resumed their volatile relationship, remaining close, despite arguments and personal conflicts, until her tragic death in a traffic accident in Bangkok in 1988.
He then settled in France and has lived there for decades, based in Montmartre where he continues to paint and exhibit now well into his 90’s.
Girl in a Chair at Night was brought to New Zealand in 1949 when MacDiarmid returned here for a year.
Thanks to Anna Cahill, author of Colours of a Life, the Life and Times of Douglas MacDiarmid, 2018
A similar painting remains with Danuta’s family in the United States. In the 2002 publication, Art History MacDiarmid, published in both french and english, Dr Nelly Finet of Paris writes about this painting: A certain elliptical refinement of drawing, choice of object, general composition, reveal now the influence of Matisse…..Danuta, comfortably settled in an armchair, holds the book just read. Finet notes that the face is not the main objective; rather, in the manner of Bonnard, there is the implication of inner life evoked through this intimate unity.
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LEONARD VICTOR MITCHELL The Separation of Rangi and Papa Oil on canvas 117 x 117 Signed & dated 1969 $12,000 - 18,000
Provenance: Artist’s Estate Collection Illustrated: p. 262 Mitchell and Mitchell: A Father & Son Arts Legacy, Alsop, Reed, Wolfe 2018 Victor Leonard William Mitchell was born in Palmerston North, 1925, the son of Leonard Cornwall Mitchell, an artist and internationally recognised stamp designer. Encouraged by his father, at age fourteen, young Leonard Mitchell who showed artistic talent from a very early age, commenced his studies as the Wellington Technical College School of Art with tutors Frederick Ellis , Alex Fraser and Nugent Welch. The art department’s head, Frederick Ellis, thought Mitchell’s work outstanding and wanted him to continue his training at the Canterbury College School of Art. Instead, Mitchell felt it his duty to join the New Zealand army. He was bound for Okinawa as a war artist but, after the American invasion in 1945, was employed at home guarding Japanese Prisoners of War at Featherston. The vivid drawings he made of the prisoners are held in the collection of Alexander Turnbull Library. A series of intricate etchings of circus performers, done in 1949, shows Mitchell’s technical prowess. Between 1952 and 1959 he exhibited at the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts and became New Zealand’s most fashionable portrait painter. His sitters included Ngaio Marsh, Walter Nash and Peter McIntyre. In October 1954 Mitchell opened the Lambton Art Galleries, one of the first galleries in New Zealand to be run by artists in residence. Many important artists of the day exhibited here, including Nugent Welch, Mervyn Taylor, John Drawbridge and the potter Len Castle. In 1956 Mitchell completed a major public commission for the newly built Lower Hutt War Memorial Library.
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The commission comprised of three canvas murals entitled Their Sacrifice, Preserved Freedom and Human Endeavour, the third containing 50 life-sized figures which represent different aspects of human endeavour, including education, farming and the arts. Mitchell won the inaugural Kelliher prize in 1956 with his work Summer in the Mokauiti Valley and again in 1958 with Stormlight and Snow, Ruahine Mountains. Mitchell was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, London and in 1959 was awarded the Netherlands Government Art Fellowship by the Netherlands Institute for International Cultural Relations. He held his final New Zealand exhibition at the New Lambton Gallery in September the same year. Mitchell married flautist, Patricia Marian Nickalls in 1960. They left for Holland to take up Mitchell’s Fellowship and later settled in Essex. In September 1971 Mitchell was awarded the Gold Medal from the Royal Society of Watercolour Painters, London. It was presented by the Cultural Attaché a l’Ambassade de France, Madame Bridgette Marger. The ceremony was presided over by the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Robert Bellinger. Mitchell passed away in England in 1980. Leonard Mitchell featured in a documentary titled Leonards Legacy on the TVNZ show Sunday Sunday 29 April 2018 - It can be viewed on demand here https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/sunday/clips/ leonard-s-legacy
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MARGARET OLROG STODDART
Primroses Watercolour 24 x 34 Signed $7,000 - 10,000
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MARGARET OLROG STODDART
Mount Cook Lillies Watercolour 27.5 x 38 Signed $7,000 - 10,000
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GEORGE O’BRIEN Mosgiel Wool Mill Watercolour 40 x 30 Signed & dated 1878 $20,000 - 30,000
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CHARLES BLOMFIELD White Terraces, Rotomahana Oil on canvas 50 x 90 Signed & dated 1903 $20,000 - 30,000
Provenance: Private Collection The Collections of Doctor Neville Hogg, Webb’s, Auckland, August, 1993 Important, Early & Rare Ex Sir Ron Brierley Collection International Art Centre, October 2009 Dunedin’s Mosgiel Woollen Mill, opened in 1871. The mill became an integral part of the town, providing major employment until its closure in the year 2000. The area is now an industrial estate known as Mill Park.
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ROY GOOD Pacific Corporation Series No. 7, 1985 Acrylic on jute 143 x 41 Signed, inscribed & dated 1985 on stretcher verso $4,000 - 6,000
Provenance: Private Collection Exhibited Artis Gallery, Auckland 1985 Reference: In Good Form, The Abstract Art of Roy Good 1967 - 2007, Ed Hanfling, Lopdell House 2008 Of his Pacific Corporation Series Roy Good makes the comment, Pacific Corporation can infer place, organisations and their image. My experience as a corporate designer is a key reference point here and I have attempted to see a parallel in the New Zealand artist’s endeavour to establish local style and content, that is unique to our place in the South Pacific.
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GRETCHEN ALBRECHT Pohutukawa - Stamen (Tumult) Acrylic on canvas 90 x 150 Signed, inscribed & dated 2006 verso $25,000 - 35,000
Provenance: Private Collection Mike Hutchins Gallery, Wellington Exhibited: Christchurch Arts Festival, Canterbury Museum, July - August 2007 Since the beginning of her career the colours and textures of New Zealand grasses, trees, foliage and flowers have been a recurrent source of inspiration for Gretchen Albrecht. Early abstract interpretations of botanical forms can be seen in her Garden Series of the early 1970s, with washes of pure pigment applied to unprimed large scale canvases. Flora remained an important source of reference for Albrecht. As she began exploring the hemisphere form in the 1980s, her work became more geometrically defined. The
abstract linear brushwork of the earlier Garden Series was replaced with solid colour broadly applied in arching sweeps. The Pohutukawa make its first appearance in her work in the late 1990s and remained a subject frequently revisited for two decades. Like many New Zealanders, Albrecht spent most of her summers at the beach or near the coast where Pohutukawa trees were ever present. For over 20 years now she has enjoyed the close proximity of an ancient grove of Pohutukawa surrounding her beach house at Piha on Auckland’s west coast. Although she relishes the flowering of Pohutukawa each summer, she doesn’t base her abstract responses to specific trees or locations. Each work in her Pohutukawa Series draws deeply on the collective memories she has of countless trees in flower experienced over many years. Although the Pohutukawa she has seen most recently obviously impact, so too do memories of many others; trees she has climbed as a child, been shaded by and picnicked under at various times and places throughout her life – an enduring metaphor for every sun drenched New Zealand summer.
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ROBERT NETTLETON FIELD
Untitled Oil on board 41 x 60.5 Signed $2,500 - 3,500
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ROBERT NETTLETON FIELD Hongi’s Track Mixed media on paper 49 x 62 Signed & dated 1964 $1,000 - 2,000
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DICK FRIZZELL Corner of a French Cemetery Oil on board 37.5 x 47.5 Signed, inscribed & dated 20/11/1988 $6,000 - 8,000
Provenance: Corporate Collection, Auckland
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JOHN GULLY
Lake Wakatipu, c. 1876 Watercolour 36 x 63 Signed Original framers label with inscription ‘The Port’, affixed verso $12,000 - 16,000
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JOHN GULLY Awatere Valley Watercolour 21 x 62 Signed & dated 1886 $8,000 - 12,000
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DAME EILEEN MAYO
Springing Fern Screenprint, Artist’s proof VIII, 48.5 x 29 Signed, inscribed & dated Jan-May 1983 $1,000 - 1,500
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ALAN INGHAM
Reclining Figure Bronze, edition of 12, 22 x 25 Signed $4,000 - 6,000
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THOMAS JACQUES SOMERSCALES British 1842 - 1927 Making Sail After a Blow Oil on canvas 29.5 x 45 Signed & dated 1904 $12,000 - 18,000
Provenance: A Wellington Estate Long Term Loan Collection, Wellington Museum, since 1989 A great natural talent, Somerscales took a rather unorthodox route to becoming a recognized marine art sensation in his native England. Educated as a teacher, he sketched and painted while serving onboard ships in the Royal Navy as a schoolmaster. Influenced early on by the beauty of J M W Turner’s compositions, Somerscales’ work possesses his acute sense for the world’s creative nature, and the deep strength of its challenging oceans. Some of his earliest known works are of exotic locales in Tahiti, painted years before Gauguin’s time there. The son of a master mariner, fate and circumstances put him ashore in Chile in 1869 when he contracted malaria. On his recovery Somerscales excelled as a local artist and in 1872 exhibited a series of landscapes in Santiago. When war broke out between Chile and Peru in 1879, Somerscales began painting the naval battles and there was soon a tremendous national demand for his marine pictures.
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At the end of 1892, at the age of fifty he returned to England having been away for nearly thirty years. In the following year he exhibited his first picture at the Royal Academy, London. Although a relatively unknown artist in Britain, the work spoke for itself and was acclaimed as a tour de force by the critics. His reputation soared and he showed the famous, and much reproduced Off Valparaiso at the Royal Academy in 1899. This work is now in the collection of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London. His life has been detailed in the book, Thomas Somerscales, Marine Artist by Alex A Hurst. His paintings are held in the collections of the National Gallery, London, The National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, The Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Chile and Christchurch Art Gallery.
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JOHN WALSH Tane Tanga Oil on board 90 x 120 Signed, inscribed & dated 2005 $8,000 - 12,000
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NIGEL BROWN Pacifica Novel Assemblage, woodcut, mixed media on arches paper 41 x 81 Signed & dated 1993 $3,000 - 5,000
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BARRY LETT The Fair Isle Oil on canvas board 63.5 x 67 Signed, inscribed & dated 1978 verso $3,800 - 4,800
Provenance: Private Collection, Auckland
Exhibited: Barry Lett, 40 Years The Pah homestead - TSB Bank Wallace Arts Centre January - March 2017
Illustrated: Barry Lett, 40 Years The Pah Homestead - TSB Bank Wallace Arts Centre This painting depicts a young man wearing a short sleeved Fair Isles sweater of my own design. The title is also a play on words and refers to the idea of the national identity. Not the identity of the Shetland Islands where this sweater’s pattern originated, but the identity of our country. Are we a ‘fair’ isle? Is our society fair and just? Have we got our environmental concerns ‘fairly’ balanced? The expression of the young man indicates he has a good deal of doubt. Barry Lett, Barry Lett, 40 Years
109
78
78
79
ALVIN PANKHURST Silent Echoes Oil on canvas 77 x 102 Signed & dated 2000 $10,000 - 15,000
TONY ALBERT Here Comes the Story Acrylic and gloss medium on pigment print mounted to aluminium with infinite wall, drawing in pencil 28 x 28 Signed verso $5,000 - 10,000
Provenance: Private Collection, Auckland Purchased from Sullivan+Strumpf Melbourne Art Fair August 2014 79
110 Important & Rare Art 27 NOVEMBER 2018
80
80
NIGEL BROWN All the Jokes About Survival Acrylic on board 64 x 98 Signed, inscribed & dated 1983 $6,500 - 8,500
Provenance: Private Collection, Auckland Purchased from Warwick Henderson Gallery, Auckland 1996
81
JEFF THOMSON Aotearoa / New Zealand Three double layered and cut corrugated pieces 140 x 40 overall Signed verso $4,000 - 6,000
81
111
82
82
JOHN GIBB
Morning, Otago Heads Oil on canvas 44 x 76 Signed & dated 1886 $10,000 - 15,000
83
MAUD WINIFRED SHERWOOD
Rachel Watercolour 54.5 x 44 Signed $3,000 - 5,000 83
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Provenance: Sherwood Family Collection
84
84
JOHN BARR CLARKE HOYTE
85
MAUD WINIFRED SHERWOOD - NEE KIMBELL
Settler’s Camp Watercolour 34.5 x 60 Signed $8,000 - 12,000
Lady in Pink Silk Gown Watercolour 35 x 35 Signed $1,500 - 2,500
85
113
86
86
87
87
88
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JAMES MCLACHLAN NAIRN Mist on the Harbour, Wellington Watercolour 20 x 33 Signed, inscribed & dated 1900 $4,000 - 6,000
WALTER WRIGHT
Maori Village, Waikato River Oil on canvas 40 x 61 Signed & dated 1920 $3,000 - 5,000
88
FRANK WRIGHT
Waikato River Watercolour 25 x 37.5 Signed $2,500 - 3,500
89
89
CHARLES BLOMFIELD
Maori Settlement Lake Taupo and Central Plateau Mountains Oil on canvas 36 x 59 Signed & dated 1891 $8,000 - 12,000
90
VERA CUMMINGS
Maori Woman with Scarf and Pipe Oil on board 19.6 x 12.7 Signed $5,000 - 8,000
90
115
WORKS FROM THE ESTATE OF FREDERICK & EVELYN PAGE, WELLINGTON LOTS 91 - 96
91
93
116 Important & Rare Art 27 NOVEMBER 2018
92
94
96
95
95
91
THOMAS ARTHUR MCCORMACK
Anemones and Shells Still Life Watercolour 21.5 x 27 Signed $1,800 - 2,600
92
THOMAS ARTHUR MCCORMACK
Island Bay Watercolour 17.5 x 21.5 Signed $900 -1,200
93
94
SAM CAIRNCROSS Self Portrait Oil on board 21 x 15.5 Signed, inscribed & dated 1950 verso $1,000 - 1,500
JOANNA PAUL The Pianist Watercolour 38 x 26 Signed & dated 1967 $1,200 - 1,600
96
JOHN ARROWSMITH Map of the Colony of New Zealand from Official Documents, 1844 Hand coloured engraving 64 x 50 Various inscriptions $2,400 - 2,800
DOUGLAS MACDIARMID Still Life with Cathedral Crayon on paper 48 x 61 Signed & dated 1966 $2,000 - 3,000
Freddy and Eve Page were among MacDiarmids’ closest life long friends and persuasive older influences from his Christchurch university and military days in the 1940s their relationship continued through their children, whom Douglas and composer Douglas Lilburn used to babysit at Governors Bay, on Lyttleton Harbour. Fred was Douglas’ inspirational music professor at Christchurch College where he was studying music with a view to maybe becoming a concert pianist (the war took care of that); Evelyn introduced Douglas to his first palette of colours that set him on his painting career. They often painted together often in his Christchurch years and she was a generous guide and mentor. The Page’s sold a number of MacDiarmids works privately among their wide creative circles to keep him afloat during his early years in France. Colours of a Life, the Life and Times of Douglas MacDiarmid, Anna Cahill, 2018
117
97
TOM ESPLIN
98
TOM ESPLIN
99
TOM ESPLIN
Back Beach, Ischia Oil on board 26 x 41 Signed $3,000 - 5,000
97
Marina at Ischia Oil on board 32 x 48 Signed $4,000 - 6,000
Abington, Cotswolds Oil on board 23.5 x 33 Signed $3,000 - 5,000
98
100
99
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A AUSTEN DEANS Mount Cook Lillies in a Mountainous Landscape Watercolour 71 x 102 Signed & dated 1984 $4,000 - 6,000
100
101
101
DOUGLAS BADCOCK Spring Snow, Crown Terrace Oil on board 46.5 x 59.5 Signed & dated 1965 Inscribed verso $2,000 - 3,000
102
DOUGLAS BADCOCK Autumn, Bush Creek Oil on board 45 x 60 Signed & dated 1989 Inscribed verso $2,000 - 3,000
102
119
103
104
A AUSTEN DEANS Peel Forest / Canterbury, New Zealand Oil on board 67 x 92.5 Inscribed verso $2,750 - 3,250
105
A AUSTEN DEANS Mount Hutt, Canterbury Watercolour 34.5 x 52 Signed & dated 1973 $2,500 - 3,500
A AUSTEN DEANS Upper Rangitata Basin, Garden of Eden, Cloudy Peak Watercolour 27 x 44.5 Signed & dated 1973 $2,500 - 3,500
106
107 104
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A AUSTEN DEANS Native Clematis, New Zealand Watercolour 54.5 x 34.5 Signed & dated 1971 $1,500 - 2,500
A AUSTEN DEANS Rata Watercolour 47 x 31 Signed & dated 1970 $1,500 - 2,500
105
106
107
121
109
108
108
NIGEL BROWN Manart Humanism Oil on board 118 x 60 Signed, inscribed & dated 1990 $3,000 - 5,000
Illustrated: p. 65 Art New Zealand, #104, Spring 2002
109
NIGEL BROWN Clairmont, 1974 Woodcut, edition 9/15, 117 x 70 Signed, inscribed & dated 1974 $1,800 - 2,500
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110
AFTER JOHN & ELIZABETH GOULD
Apteryx Australis Shaw Southern Brown Kiwi Watercolour 51.5 x 62 Inscribed $6,000 - 8,000
111
SYDNEY LOUGH THOMPSON Holywell Mill Oil on board 24 x 36 Signed & dated 1918 Inscribed on original label affixed verso $3,000 - 5,000
110
112
113
MINA ARNDT Through the Studio Door Charcoal on paper 22.5 x 16.5 Original Auckland City Art Gallery Exhibition label affixed verso $1,000 - 2,000
MINA ARNDT
River Thames Near Kensington Etching 14 x 18 Signed & inscribed $500 - 1,000
Provenance Lots 112 & 113: Collection of the Artist’s Family
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112
LEN CASTLE Untitled Unique stoneware bowl with glaze centre 38.5 x 38.5 Signature impressed on base $1700 - 2,500
113
111
114
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PETER ALSOP I ANNA REED I RICHARD WOLFE
A beautiful page&hard cover book, available from Anna Reed at 124440 Important Rare Art 27 NOVEMBER 2018 Mitchell Studios – www.mitchellstudios.co.nz – or all good bookstores.
17 GANGES ROAD, KHANDALLAH, WELLINGTON
Have a Safe Happy Holiday from all of us at International Art Centre
Lawrence Leitch Southern Stars - Lake Tekapo Acrylic on board 81 x 120 cm For gallery hours during holidays please visit our website www.internationalartcentre.co.nz
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019
Important & Rare Art
Modern & Contemporary Art
Important & Rare auctions are the proven, pre-
Twice a year our Modern & Contemporary Art
eminent sale category for major works of art offered
auctions play an integral role in enabling market
for sale in New Zealand. These auctions take place
access to the most sought-after artists who have
three times annually. As we fast approach our 50th
defined New Zealand’s art narrative over the past
year in business, experience continues to equal
50-years. These sales never fail to present an exciting
results. 2014 saw Important & Rare auctions realise
offering of both painting and sculpture by a range of
five of New Zealand’s top ten auction prices. The
our modern and contemporary greats. Spanning that
following year saw new records set with the two top
vital period from the establishment of mid-century
prices in Auckland achieved. With the addition of the
modernism through to the cutting edge of our national
record $1.377 million paid for a C F Goldie in April’s
contemporary art discourse, this is an acclaimed and
2016 sale, International Art Centre achieved the three
significant event in the auction calendar. Our new
highest art auction prices in New Zealand’s history.
state-of-the-art premises will ensure contemporary
Due to an appreciative, and greatly valued clientele of
art is now exhibited and auctioned in a dynamic and
nationwide and international buyers and sellers we
appropriate environment.
look forward to breaking new ground.
ALWAYS CON
2019 ENTRIES INV 126 Important & Rare Art 27 NOVEMBER 2018
Artists’ Estates & Collectable Art
Single Owner Auctions
The buzz generated by our Artists’ Estates &
From time to time, the secondary market is fortunate
Collectable Art auctions reflects the popularity of this
enough to be exposed to one of those rare collections
sale: an event at which seasoned connoisseurs and
which transcends the value of its individual works of
budding collectors alike converge to appreciate one
art, and stands to represent something iconic in its
of the most eclectic and diverse offerings available to
entirety. Our team is well-versed in the process of
the market. Because this auction specifically caters
offering single-owner collections for sale, and take
to the more affordable end of the market - generally
pride in the process of curating a single-owner sale
presenting works valued at $5,000 and less, this is an
when the opportunity arises. We offer a targeted
exciting opportunity to unearth some real treasures.
marketing campaign and maximise the use of both
Artists’ Estates & Collectable Art auctions offer a
electronic and print-based collateral to effectively
number lower-priced works from highly-sought after
showcase such collections to maximum effect. The
artists in print and edition form, as well as quality
strong networks we have established locally and
works from artists whose presence on the secondary
internationally are reflected in some of the private
market is just beginning to crystallise.
collections which have been entrusted to us in recent years.
NSIGNING
VITED NOW
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.fineartauction.co.nz 202 Parnell Road, Auckland
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HENRYK SZYDLOWSKI
Poetry of the Ginger Woman from the Orange Hill Oil on canvas 90 x 120 cm
NEW WORKS ON VIEW NOVEMBER 2018
Available for sale in the gallery Frances Davies fran@artcntr.co.nz Telephone +64 9 366 6045
128 Important & Rare Art 27 NOVEMBER 2018
A D Blake
The world’s leading maritime painter
'America' crosses the finish line First, to win the one hundred Guiness Cup, which became international sport's oldest trophy - The America’s Cup Oil on canvas 60 x 90 cm
To the sound and sight of cannon fire the schooner America crosses the finish line off the Castle, Cowes, Isle of Wight at 8.3o pm, August 22nd, 1851. America is surrounded by spectator yachts, rowing dinghies and an excursion paddle steamer, venting steam from it's boiler in celebration of America's victory over the competing fleet of British yachts. The second yacht to finish, the Aurora did not finish until 8.45 pm. The shoreline surrounding the Castle is crowded by spectators, eager to see the America finish and also to watch the fireworks that evening.
A shaft of sunlight pierces the clouds and illuminates America as she sails slowly across the finish line, against the outgoing tide. With her raking masts America needs booms to hold the job and foresail out in the light following the wind. The One Hundred Guinea Cup was renamed the America's Cup after this famous victory by America. The America’s Cup is international sport's oldest trophy and the yachting world's most prestigious trophy to win.
Available for sale in the gallery Frances Davies fran@artcntr.co.nz Telephone +64 9 366 6045
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Recent Prices Realised Prices quoted are fall of the hammer which attract buyers premium
Important & Rare Art 14 August 2018 1 15000 2 20500 3 7250 4 8500 6 9500 9 25500 10 47000 11 76000 12 17500 13 3000 14 13500 15 15000 16 4000 17 9250 19 24000 22 24500 23 350000 25 7000 26 6000 28 36000 30 384000 32 199000 33 41000 34 7500 35 5500 36 86000 37 40000 38 40000 39 102000 41 32000 42 28500 43 6500 44 23000 45 8500 46 5500 47 40500 51 48000 52 1000 54 2300 56 4200 57 3000 58 8000 59 7750 60 3800 61 10250 62 9000
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Absentee Bid Form IMPORTANT & RARE ART 7:00pm Tuesday 27 November 2018 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 NAME ADDRESS EMAIL
TELEPHONE
LOT NUMBER
ARTIST NAME
MAXIMUM BID $NZ excluding buyers premium
Signature ...........................................................................................
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/ 2018
International Art Centre offers this service to clients unable to attend sale and is not responsible for error or failure to execute bids. Fax +64 9 307 3421 or post to PO Box 37344 Parnell, Auckland 1151 before 3pm day of sale
Alternatively, register then bid online www.fineartauction.co.nz
202 Parnell Road, Auckland, New Zealand Tel + 64 9 379 4010 Fax 09 307 3421 email info@internationalartcentre.co.nz www.fineartauction.co.nz
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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. From the time of lot being sold, such lot will be the responsibility of the buyer. Successful bidders are required to pay for purchases immediately on completion of sale unless otherwise arranged. 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 5pm Thursday 29 November 2018 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. 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.
ABSENTEE BIDS Absentee bidding arranged - please refer to absentee bidding in back of catalogue. Fax to (09) 307 3421 or post to PO Box 37 344 Parnell 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.fineartauction.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. Bank deposits: Bank instructions on invoice if paying by direct debit. Quote the Lot number(s) purchased and Surname as reference. Cheques: Accepted by known clients of International Art Centre or at our discretion. When posting cheques please ensure they are sent to the following address. International Art Centre PO Box 37 344 Parnell, Auckland 1151. Make cheque payable to ‘International Art Centre’. International Art Centre reserves the right to release goods once cheque proceeds have been cleared. Credit cards: Visa and Mastercard accepted - with a 2% surcharge. EXPORTING As a general rule, anyone exporting New Zealand works over 60 years of age should apply for an export certificate from the Ministry for Culture and Heritage. This does not apply to non New Zealand works. For full details visit www.mch.govt.nz 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)
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Heather Straka Lot 00 Take six male models (from a local rugby team and gym) and a stylist – for consistency of hair, make-up and dress. Gather many carefully chosen props. And assemble in the photography suite at the Southland Institute of Technology. The artist here is literally director – a role she has played in the past, where she has photographed first, and then gone on to make a series of closely related paintings later. But back to Bloodlust – just what have we got here? A tableau – a meticulous horizontally arranged menagerie of male flesh and dead animals. All grouped in and around a big bench – a shallow space full of detail, with chalkboard and a series of formula like thought forms just behind. Dark red drapes curtain some edges like a stage, as in Teamwork (below). Aspects of the composition are like a Last Supper, except that here there are more stuffed animals and guns. Then we learn that the chemical equations behind include the molecular drawings for testosterone. I look at the young men, consider the artist’s titling, and begin to wonder. Consider this notion of bloodlust I tell myself – along with that of the southern man – for these photographs reflect Heather Straka’s time in Southland after all. She has obviously enjoyed the local dead rooms, being surrounded by the spoils of a successful hunt and the presence of many a glorious trophy. But quite what is she dressing up? Why this desire for masquerade? Does the southern man enjoy a little masquerade, a little cross-dressing, a little gender-bending perhaps? For you’d have to say that Heather Straka might do. There has always been in her work a love of surface, an almost fetishist obsession for the look and appearance, for the dressing up of things, which goes a long way back. Straka’s palette here is rich and elegant – based around creams, greys and reds – but it is at the same time utterly restrained. And the young men are
136 Important & Rare Art 27 NOVEMBER 2018
quite Aryan looking with their blonde hair, their comb-overs and their immaculate whites. So the heartbeat of the hunter pulses right through this beautifully dressed group. Witness however the work entitled Died of Natural Causes, the effete figure in red jacket delightfully splayed atop a skinned bear. S/he is provocatively androgynous at best – another recurrent theme in Straka’s work that harks back to the very first painted collars of the late 80’s. And if you’ve had the pleasure of meeting the artist, as many in Southland have, it is interesting just how she physically presents. It is also the protocols of taxidermy that is pricking Straka’s interest here – the accepted practices around what is appropriate in terms of an animal’s overall form, pose and relationship to props. The continuum from naturalism to realism provides the platform for this debate – but it is also a revealing framework from which to view the whole of Straka’s practice. Suffice to say that as an artist, Heather is much more an aroused naturalist than a realist. That is, she is someone who enjoys suggestion, who relishes the play of ideas around form, more than she enjoys the execution or meticulous reproduction of form itself. This relish of foreplay, or in this case the preparation for and excitement of the hunt itself, might matter more than the end result – a magnificently mounted trophy. It is the attitude one brings to bear in telling the story that really counts. Still, Straka’s big picture is always told through lavish attention to composition, and to the detail of colour and surface. She is the author of alluring and splendid pictures. It is just that in these pictures, she manages roles of both hunter and the hunted herself. And that is where Straka as naturalist, as conjuror of suggestion really comes to the fore. She has come out to play.
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Index ALBERT T.......................................................... 79
MADDOX A.......................................................28
ALBRECHT G....................................................66
MAUGHAN K......................................................6
ALLEN W H...................38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44
MAYO E............................................................. 72
ARNDT M..................................................112, 113
MCCAHON C................................... 19, 29, 32, 52
ARROWSMITH J.............................................. 95
MCCORMACK T A...................................... 91, 92
BADCOCK D.............................................101, 102
MCINTYRE P......................................... 53, 54, 57
BINNEY D.............................................. 30, 31, 33
MCINTYRE R..............................................48, 49
BIRCH I............................................................... 5
MCINTYRE P..................................................... 55
BLOMFIELD C............................................64, 89
MITCHELL L V..................................................60
BROWN N....................................76, 80, 108, 109
NAIRN J M .......................................................86
CAIRNCROSS S.................................................93
O’BRIEN G.........................................................63
CASTLE L.....................................................2, 114
PANKHURST A................................................. 78
CLARK R............................................................ 56
PAUL J...............................................................94
CUMMINGS V...................................................90
PETRE M ..........................................................23
DEANS A A............... 100, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107
REIHANA L............................................... 7, 8, 10
ESPLIN T...............................................97, 98, 99
SHARPE A ..................................................45, 46
FIELD R N...................................................67, 68
SHERWOOD M.................................................83
FRIZZELL D................................................ 15, 69
SHERWOOD N K M..........................................85
GIBB J................................................................82
SIDDELL P........................................................24
GOLDIE C F................................................ 34, 35
SMITHER M.................................................13, 14
GOOD R............................................................. 65
SOMERSCALES T J.......................................... 74
GOSSAGE S....................................................... 12
STODDART M................................................... 61
GOULD J & E AFTER.......................................110
STODDART M O...............................................62
GULLY J.......................................................70, 71
STRAKA H...........................................................9
HARRIS J...........................................................11
SYDNEY G..........................................................51
HOTERE R............................................. 16, 17, 18
TAPPER G.................................................... 36, 37
HOYTE J B C.....................................................84
THOMPSON S L......................................... 50, 111
HURLEY G....................................................... 3, 4
THOMSON J..................................................... 81
INGHAM A........................................................ 73
WALSH J........................................................... 75
KELLY F............................................................. 47
WALTERS G.........................................................1
KIHARA Y.......................................................... 27
WHITE A L.................................................. 21, 22
LELEISI’UAO A........................................... 25, 26
WOOLLASTON T..............................................20
LETT B............................................................... 77
WRIGHT F.........................................................88
MACDIARMID D...................................58, 59, 96
WRIGHT W....................................................... 87
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202 Parnell Road, Auckland, New Zealand Tel + 64 9 379 4010 www.internationalartcentre.co.nz