Works of Art, 23 November 2020 by Webb's Auction House

W W W. DA D E L S Z E N .C O M

The ‘WORLD Legacy Charity Project’ this year approached established New Zealand Artists to donate works to raise funds for the IHC Art Awards. This auction will be held at Webb’s on Monday 23rd November 2020. Dame Denise L’Estrange-Corbet, WORLD Co-founder and Ambassador for the IHC Art Awards, pictured with artwork by Gregor Kregar.

www.worldbrand.co.nz

ihc.org.nz

www.webbs.co.nz

Photography by Thievery. The Execution Agency. Dame Denise would like to expressively thank the following artists for their generous contributions: Billy Apple ONZM, Judy Darragh ONZM, Dick Frizzell MNZM, Weston Frizzell, Max Gimblett ONZM, Bill Hammond, Paul Hartigan, Gavin Hurley, Gregor Kregar, Judy Millar, John Reynolds, Greer Twiss ONZM and Pamela Wolfe.

THE ART OF REVEALING NATURE

PLEASE DRINK RESPONSIBLY

Modern, bespoke kitchen design demands the finest appliances. At the UnserHaus showroom and event space you can experience three premium German brands, all under one roof. It’s a place to play, touch, connect and enjoy – you’ll leave feeling inspired.

Showroom 65 Parnell Rise Auckland 1052 unserhaus.co.nz 0800 245 708

Inspiration for your place, at ours.

For sale

20 Martin Avenue, Remuera

Roy Champtaloup

Harry Champtaloup

027 555 5557 roy.champtaloup@raywhite.com

022 036 3015 harry.champtaloup@raywhite.com

Megan Jaffe Real Estate Limited Licensed (REAA 2008)

remuera.co.nz/rmu29529 champtaloup.rw

martell xo

Mark your martell xo martell xo efining Moments Mark your Mark your ENJOY RESPONSIBLY Defining Moments Defining Moments ENJOY RESPONSIBLY

ENJOY RESPONSIBLY

21/7/20 5:22 pm

Business idea.

After Alex Wang business loan.

Bank mortgage.

Alex Wang mortgage.

alexwang.co.nz | Boutique Broker | 021 903 421

SHOWROOM 5 NEWTON ROAD, GREY LYNN

M E A D O W L A R K . C O. NZ

Auctions Private Sales Valuations webbs.co.nz

Ralph Hotere untitled 1965 acrylic on paper signed Hotere, dated 65 and inscribed Red Square series in ink verso 495 Ă&#x2014; 510mm Price Realised: $21,927

Entries Invited Works of Art March 2021

Charles Ninow Head of Art charles@webbs.co.nz +64 21 053 6504

Entries Invited Séraphine Pick untitled 1987 monoprint on paper, 1/1 signed and dated 475 × 630mm

Auctions Private Sales Valuations webbs.co.nz

Adrienne (AD) Schierning Manager, Art ad@webbs.co.nz +64 27 929 5609

December 2020

$3,000 — $5,000

Art to Date

est

Australasian Art & Culture

ISSUE 32 OUT NOW

SUBSCRIBE NOW AND RECEIVE YOUR COPY OF VAULT MAGAZINE FIRST

AUS $19.95 NZ $25.00

THE FUTURE IS FEMALE: CIGDEM AYDEMIR, YEVGENIYA BARAS, BONITA ELY, EMMA FREEMAN, MICHELLE HAMER, YUKI KIHARA, WANGECHI MUTU, GLENDA NICHOLLS, ROSE NOLAN, IZABELA PLUTA, BHENJI RA, MARIKIT SANTIAGO, COLLIER SCHORR, KAYLENE WHISKEY, ANNE ZAHALKA & MORE ISSU E 32 Â· NOV E M BER 2020 to J A N UA RY 2021

The Future is Female: Cigdem Aydemir, Yevgeniya Baras, Bonita Ely, Emma Freeman, Michelle Hamer, Yuki Kihara, Wangechi Mutu, Glenda Nicholls, Rose Nolan, Izabela Pluta, Bhenji Ra, Marikit Santiago, Collier Schorr, Kaylene Whiskey, Anne Zahalka & more

SUBSCRIBE NOW VAULTART.COM.AU

YUKI KIHARA After Tsunami Galu Afi, Lalomanu (From series Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?), 2013 c-print Courtesy the artist and Milford Galleries, Dunedin

02.03.21 Don Binney: A Prayer for Pure Air An auction of drawings and photographs from the artist's studio archives

Auctions Private Sales Valuations webbs.co.nz

‘Whether or not [my work] relates to any or some of the canons of art topicality I cannot say, though I see nothing inappropriate in offering a prayer for pure air, clean water and growing life in this and the coming century; hence the act of drawing.’ —Don Binney

Exhibition catalogue for New Zealand Drawing, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki, 1976.

Charles Ninow Head of Art charles@webbs.co.nz +64 21 053 6504

Adrienne (AD) Schierning Manager, Art ad@webbs.co.nz +64 27 929 5609

Foreword

There is a very long shelf in the Webb’s library that holds the full set of the company’s auction catalogues. The first of these was published in 1978 using a typewriter and photocopier. Every catalogue on that shelf is an important part of New Zealand’s cultural history and each tells a story about who we are in Aotearoa. And here we are in 2020 – the future. This year has brought with it many milestones for Webb’s. Some of them challenged us to rethink established wisdom. It was the first time I have ever had to postpone an auction and we ended up having to do it more than once. Others were cause for celebration, and one of these was the sale of Tony Fomison's Watcher on the Shore (1982–1983) for $480,500 – a record price for Fomison. Working with this painting has been one of the highlights of my career thus far. In this catalogue we have the rare privilege of presenting a pair of paintings that share the same ‘DNA’ as Watcher on the Shore. The first of these is Garden of Eden Aotearoa (lot 27), one of Tony Fomison’s revered coastal landscapes of the early 1980s. This is the very first time that a painting from this series has been presented at auction. The other is Buddha Vietnam (lot 29) by Philip Clairmont, one of the most important and, dare I say it, beautiful works made during the artist’s short career. Fomison and Clairmont were close friends, both members of that spectacular generation of neo-expressionist painters taught by Rudolph Gopas at the Canterbury University School of Fine Arts. Both later moved to Tāmaki Makaurau, three years before that first Webb’s catalogue was printed. They sought new, surreal lenses through which to view the ordinary world. Fomison became fascinated with Pasifika culture and spirituality, basing the faces he painted on Polynesian sculpture and eventually getting a pe‘a (traditional Sāmoan tattoo). Clairmont turned inward to the psychedelic, and both were drawn to a world outside of middle-class Pākehā suburbia. There is a Marti Friedlander photograph from around 1976 showing Fomison and Clairmont together in Maddox’s living room, two bohemians sharing a joke and a ‘cigarette’. In contrast to this happy scene, they lived fast, dramatic lives and in the romantic tradition of modernist painters, misunderstood in their time. Ultimately though, they have been vindicated; their mysterious, dreamlike paintings indisputably part of the national canon. This catalogue includes incredible works by many other New Zealand luminaries. It also includes two works by celebrated Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, famous for her obsession with dots and I can’t wait to share them all with you. Ngā mihi nui, Charles Ninow Webb's

November

Charles Ninow Head of Art

Philip Clairmont and Tony Fomison together in Maddox’s living room photographed by Marti Friedlander, c. 1976. 16

Auction Highlights

3 Notable highlights from 2020 so far include various works that have sold at record prices. 1 Bill Hammond Zoomorphic Detail 1999, acrylic on canvas, 595 × 400 mm est $60,000 - $80,000 Price Realised $93,116 2 Michael Smither Manifesto Café 2001, oil on board, 790 × 1200mm est $75,000 - $125,000 Price Realised $134,540 3 Colin McCahon Load Bearing Structures, Series 2 1978-79, acrylic on canvasboard, 277 × 355mm est $65,000 - $85,000 Price Realised $109,314 4 Tony Fomison Watcher on the Shore 1982-83, oil on jute on board, 920 × 1200mm est $150,000 - $250,000 Price Realised $480,500 Webb's

2020

OFFICIAL CHAMPAGNE PARTNER

DONâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;T SAIL AND DRINK DRINK RESPONSIBLY

Works of Art

Auction Monday 23 November 6:30pm

Specialist Enquiries Charles Ninow Head of Art charles@webbs.co.nz +64 21 053 6504 AD Schierning Manager, Art ad@webbs.co.nz +64 27 929 5609 Condition Reports Tasha Jenkins Administrator, Art art@webbs.co.nz +64 9 529 5600 Webb's

2020

CITTADESIGN.COM

Table of Contents

Programme 23 WORLD Legacy Charity Project

Plates 41

Webb's

Terms & Conditions

119

Index of Artists

122

Absentee Bid Form

123

2020

List of Essays

Webb's

November

Michael Parekōwhai Portrait of Elmer Keith No.1 By Andrew Clark

50-51

Michael Parekōwhai Kapa Haka By Jemma Field

54-55

Richard Killeen How Do We Learn? By Neil Talbot

58-59

Fiona Pardington A001171 By Andrew Paul Wood

62-63

Max Gimblett Homage to Colin McCahon By Tasha Jenkins

66-67

Don Binney Te Henga By Rachel Kleinsman

70-71

Tony Fomison Garden of Eden Aotearoa By Victoria Wynne-Jones

76-77

Philip Clairmont Buddha Vietnam By Andrew Paul Wood

80-81

Michael Smither Sarah After Bath By Christie Simpson

84-85

Bill Hammond Living Large 3 By Samantha Taylor

88-89

Yayoi Kusama Gown for Two By Victoria Munn

96-97

Pat Hanly Pacific Hope Vessel By Neil Talbot

100-101

Ralph Hotere Visual Kind of Starvation By Samantha Taylor

104-105

Billy Apple untitled By Sylvia Burgess

112-113

Programme

Preview Evening Tuesday 17 November

6pm – 8pm

Gallery Hours Wednesday 18 November

10am – 5pm

Thursday 19 November

10am – 5pm

Friday 20 November

10am – 5pm

Saturday 21 November

10am – 4pm

Sunday 22 November

10am – 4pm

Monday 23 November

10am – 1pm

WORLD Legacy Charity Project Monday 23 November

6pm

Works of Art Auction Monday 23 November

Webb's

2020

6:30pm

Plates

2020

1 Robin White Sam's Place, Bottle Creek 1971 screenprint on paper, artist's proof 1/2 signed ROBIN WHITE, dated AUGUST '71, and inscribed ARTIST'S PROOF 1/2/FROM BOTTLE CREEK, WITH LOVE/SAM'S PLACE, BOTTLE CREEK in graphite lower edge 560 × 370mm est $4,000 — $8,000 Provenance Collection of Don and Phillipa Binney, Auckland. Exhibitions Another from the edition exhibited at Barry Lett Galleries, Auckland, December 1971. Literature Alister Taylor, Robin White New Zealand Painter (Martinborough: Alister Taylor, 1981), 94. Webb's

November

2 Pat Hanly Rainbow Over Mt Eden 1972 signed P Hanly dated ‘72’ and inscribed Rainbow Over Mt Eden/ 25/40 in graphite lower edge screenprint on paper, 25/40 510 × 520mm est $3,000 — $4,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland. 42

3 Gordon Walters Kura 1982 screenprint on paper, printer’s proof 750 × 560mm est $12,000 — $18,000

Collections Another from the edition held in the collection of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki.

Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Webb's

2020

4 Marti Friedlander Ngapera Paraki, Rangi Ruri, Rea Rewiri. (From the Moko Series) 1970 gelatin silver print 205 × 260mm

5 Marti Friedlander Mere Brown. Te Teko, 1970 (From the Moko Series) 1970 gelatin silver print 200 × 245mm est $3,000 — $5,000

est $3,000 — $5,000

Literature Leonard Bell, Marti Friedlander (Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2009), 74.

Provenance Private collection, Auckland.

Webb's

November

6 Marti Friedlander South Island 1969 gold toned gelatin silver print signed Marti Friedlander in ink verso 475 Ă&#x2014; 475mm est $5,000 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; $7,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Acquired from FHE Galleries, Auckland, 2015. Literature Ron Brownson, Marti Friedlander Photographs, (Auckland: Random House, 2001), 34. Webb's

2020

7 Stephen Bambury Buddha's Foot Prints 2006 chemical action, silver leaf and aluminum on MDF signed Bambury, dated 06 and inscribed 'BUDDHA'S FOOT PRINTS'/STEPHEN BAMBURY/.06/CHEMICAL ACTION, SILVER LEAF 7 ALUMINIUM ON M.D.F in ink verso 455 × 880mm est $12,000 — $18,000 Provenance Private collection, Wellington. Acquired from Mark Hutchens Gallery, Wellington, 2006. Exhibitions Ghost Paintings, Mark Hutchins Gallery, Wellington, 16 May - 10 June 2006. Webb's

November

8 Jude Rae Untitled 1991 oil on canvas signed RAE, dated '91, and inscribed Untitled '91 in ink verso (left panel); signed RAE, dated '91 and inscribed "UNTITLED" '91/centre horizontal in ink verso (centre panel); signed RAE and dated 91 in ink verso (right panel) 450 × 450mm (each panel) est $8,000 — $16,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland. 46

9 Michael Smither Nude in Blue Armchair 1971 oil on board signed MDS and dated 71 in brushpoint lower right; signed MDS, dated 1971 and inscribed 6 in graphite on frame 340 × 230mm

10 Michael Smither Nude in Blue Armchair 1971 oil on board signed MDS and dated 71 in brushpoint lower left; signed MDS, dated 71 and inscribed 7 in graphite on frame 315 × 310mm

est $15,000 — $25,000

Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Acquired from John Brebner, Fielding, c1971.

Webb's

2020

11 André Hemer Deep Surfacing NYC #8 2017 acrylic and pigment on canvas signed André Hemer, dated 2017 and inscribed Deep Surfacing NYC #8/New York in graphite verso 1240 × 890mm est $12,000 — $16,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Acquired from Neon Parc, Melbourne, 2017. Webb's

November

Exhibitions Material Art Fair, Mexico City, 2017. 48

12 Michael Parekōwhai Portrait of Elmer Keith No. 1 2004 c-type print, edition of 10 1250 × 1010mm est $15,000 — $20,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Webb's

2020

Michael Parekōwhai – Portrait of Elmer Keith No. 1 Essay by ANDREW CLARK

There is an element of wry humour in ascribing these masculine, aggressive-sounding names to small, apparently inoffensive creatures such as rabbits and sparrows, more evocative of the anthropomorphic tales of Beatrix Potter than of gun-club patrons. Indeed, these animals seem as likely to have been the victims of the gun club, perverse trophies celebrating the demises of small woodland creatures. This image is part of a series entitled The Beverly Hills Gun Club, which consists of a number of works involving taxidermy specimens of sparrows and rabbits. Some of these works take the form of close-up photographs of said specimens, all shot against the same vivid orange-red background. The crisp, immaculate nature of this photo, where each feather and glinting glass eye is captured in perfect focus, suggests an advertisement or magazine spread, as does the vividly coloured backdrop, with its sense of placeless, nervous energy. Adding to the aura of artificiality that surrounds the work is the fact that this is a photograph of another representation. The object depicted is not an animal, but a carefully prepared example of taxidermy, using the skin and feathers of a real creature to create a representative simulacrum of it, devoid of life or substance but retaining an appearance of vitality that is at once disturbing and oddly appealing. These are images that are thoroughly curated, chosen and presented as part of a coherent strategy, a completely mediated experience. But what exactly is being represented, and why? The title of the series, as well as the title of each individual photograph, has a great deal of bearing on this question. As with many of Parekōwhai’s works, language plays a key role in the encoding and decoding of meaning—the image itself is only a part of the puzzle. Each rabbit and sparrow photographed has been given a name: Elmer Keith, Ed Brown, Jimmy Rae, Larry Vickers, and Lou Lombardi. These are not the type of names associated with animals, but oddly specific human names, names that suggest something about their owners. The title of the series implies that these human-sounding animals are part of the eponymous club, a cadre of heavily armed creatures hailing from a location intimately associated with wealth and privilege. A small amount of internet research reveals that some of these names belong to people who could plausibly belong to such a club: Elmer Keith was the name of an American gun enthusiast who developed a new type of ammunition for revolvers, while Ed Brown appears to be the name of a firearms manufacturer, with a Webb's

November

possible reference to Edwin Brown, a nineteenth-century English naturalist and taxidermy collector. Jimmy Rae is more opaque, possibly referring to either an American NFL player, a Scottish footballer, or the name of a song by Canadian singer Corey Hart, although none of these solutions seems completely satisfactory. Likewise, there is a Larry Vickers who claims to be an ex-US Army Delta Force operative who works in the firearms industry as a consultant, although the more likely reference would be to the Vickers machine gun, a World War One-era firearm. Lastly, Lou Lombardi is a television actor who played an FBI agent in The Sopranos, offering a further connection to both popular and gun culture. There is an element of wry humour in ascribing these masculine, aggressive-sounding names to small, apparently inoffensive creatures such as rabbits and sparrows, more evocative of the anthropomorphic tales of Beatrix Potter than of gun-club patrons. Indeed, these animals seem as likely to have been the victims of the gun club, perverse trophies celebrating the demises of small woodland creatures. However, in the context of New Zealand’s native ecosystem, species such as rabbits, sparrows, possums and deer may as well have come equipped with an arsenal of weaponry, for all the destruction their introduction has caused. These unsettling, subtly morbid portraits are equally readable as mugshots of aggressive invaders, simultaneously cataloguing their crimes and perhaps offering them a backhanded notoriety otherwise denied such lowly creatures. Other works by Parekōwhai have positioned rabbits in the guise of old west gunfighters (Roebuck Jones and the Cuniculus Kid, from 2001) or as immense presences like Japanese kaiju monsters in public spaces (Cosmo McMurty and Jim McMurty, from 2006). The photographs in The Beverly Hills Gun Club series echo these gestures, asking the viewer to reconsider their perceptions of what is “cute” and what is threatening or dangerous. Taxidermy, whether intentionally or not, often traffics in this dichotomy; small animals appeal to humans because of their large eyes, a characteristic that is associated with passivity and infancy, but our knowledge that the animal itself is dead works to undermine these warm feelings, leaving instead a sense of revulsion or morbid curiosity. Parekōwhai mobilises these conflicting responses, directing the viewer to re-examine their own perceptions of the postcolonial environment. The positioning of these Europeansounding names behind the visages of invasive pest species speaks eloquently about the colonial history of New Zealand, a topic itself buried beneath layers of guilt, political narrative, wilful ignorance and historical revisionism. Parekōwhai offers a reminder that the British colonial project was a multifaceted, aggressive operation, seeking to elide or eradicate both the people and the ecology of colonised places. The ubiquity of introduced species such as rabbits and sparrows, and the extent to which they are considered normal, almost invisible parts of New Zealand’s landscape, shows how pervasive colonialism is as an ecological and cultural force. The reference to Beverly Hills adds an additional layer of meaning to the work, suggesting that the multinational nature of American popular culture represents itself a further wave of colonisation.

12 Michael Parekōwhai Portrait of Elmer Keith No. 1 2004 c-type print, edition of 10 1250 × 1010mm est

Webb's

$15,000 — $20,000

2020

13 Max Gimblett Branching Streams 2004 gesso, acrylic and epoxy on board signed MAX GIMBLETT, dated 2004 and inscribed "BRANCHING STREAMS"/P3925 in brushpoint and ink verso 635 × 635mm est $12,000 — $16,000 Provenance Private collection, Wellington. Acquired from Bartley Nees Gallery, Wellington, 2004. Exhibitions Holy Relics Collection, Mark Hutchins Gallery, Wellington, 2006. Webb's

14 Michael Parekōwhai Kapa Haka 2015 fibreglass and automotive paint, 12/15 640 × 170 × 170mm (widest points) est $28,000 — $36,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland.

November

Michael Parekōwhai – Kapa Haka Essay by JEMMA FIELD

The use of repetition in Kapa Haka draws attention to issues of identity, since Parekōwhai’s mannequins are afforded scant individuality. Apart from their identifying colour tags, in this instance white, they are lumped together in an undifferentiated mass: Parekōwhai thus makes a poignant comment on Aotearoa race relations and the tendency for Māori to be viewed as a non-specific entity. Webb's

November

Executed in 2003, Michael Parekōwhai’s installation piece Kapa Haka was commissioned for the exhibition Paradise Now? Contemporary Art from the Pacific (2004) held at the Asia Society Museum in New York. The fifteen near-identical, life-sized, glossy fibreglass figures, posed as security guards, were originally positioned outside the museum as though guarding the precious treasures within. Measuring around six feet tall and solid in stature, each of the guards stood with legs apart and arms staunchly crossed, collectively packing a powerful punch. This work, Kapa Haka (2015), stands in a smaller stature and is part of another edition of fifteen, each with identical white security tags. The figure’s head is slightly tilted up, and even at 640mm high and standing alone the work has a certain presence and strength of stature. In a similar manner to his earlier work Poorman, Beggarman, Thief (1999), which was modelled on Parekōwhai’s father, the security guard that stars repeatedly in Kapa Haka is modelled on the artist’s brother, Paratene, who is indeed a security guard. The use of repetition in Kapa Haka draws attention to issues of identity, since Parekōwhai’s mannequins are afforded scant individuality. Apart from their identifying colour tags, in this instance white, they are lumped together in an undifferentiated mass: Parekōwhai thus makes a poignant comment on Aotearoa race relations and the tendency for Māori to be viewed as a non-specific entity. The various iterations of Kapa Haka are only differentiated by small features. By crafting a crowd of identical sameness, Parekōwhai invites the spectator to imagine the full spectrum of difference and individuality that quietly thrives under the pretence of an apparently indistinguishable exterior and, in the process, to register the difference between what people assume about Māori en masse and what Parekōwhai knows about his brother as an individual person. The title Kapa Haka refers to a specific and time-honoured Māori tradition that involves both song and dance, and works as a medium through which a unique cultural identity is expressed. In the context of Parekōwhai’s work, this custom is ironically and playfully appropriated in a frozen performance piece. In Aotearoa, the larger fibreglass Kapa Haka figures were initially exhibited at Michael Lett on Karangahape Road, Auckland, where five of them stood motionless inside the front window and unabashedly guarded the empty gallery space. As art objects, the figures are instantly alluring with their lustrous, glossy finish and their curious sameness, which, in the same manner as identical twins, cannot fail to pique the viewer’s curiosity and insist on close consideration. Parekōwhai’s infinitely layered pieces that comprise Kapa Haka are successful in their multiplicity of meaning. Their heavy physical presence demands that the spectator reconsider inherited assumptions concerning racial stereotyping, while their brusque pose, blank expression and flawless polish allow them to be appreciated as aesthetic objects.

14 Michael Parekōwhai Kapa Haka 2015 fibreglass and automotive paint, 12/15 640 × 170 × 170mm (widest points) est

Webb's

$28,000 — $36,000

2020

15 Peter Robinson untitled acrylic on gelatin silver print (four panels) 220 × 223mm; 215 × 290mm; 210 × 300mm; 295 × 205mm (left to right) est $5,000 — $8,000 Provenance Private collection, Wellington. Acquired from Peter McLeavy Gallery, Wellington. Webb's

November

16 Richard Killeen How Do We Learn? 1992 acrylic and collage on aluminium signed Killeen, dated 1992 and inscribed How do we learn?/Cat no. 1458 in ink lower edge 1090 Ă&#x2014; 1215mm (variable) est $25,000 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; $35,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Acquired from Peter McLeavy Gallery, Wellington, c1998. Webb's

2020

Richard Killeen â&#x20AC;&#x201C; How Do We Learn? Essay by NEIL TALBOT

As much a collector of modes of depiction and invented things as of things that actually exist; the boundaries between natural and artificial become strangely elusive. The artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s unstoppable documentation of the world turns into the part-by-part fabrication of a totally surrogate reality. Webb's

November

“No ideas but in things,” said the famous American modernist poet William Carlos Williams. This is an aspiration that comes as second nature to Richard Killeen. There are plenty of ideas within Killeen’s practice, but they are constructed with bits and pieces, by dispersed particles, by visual and physical incidents. Killeen's work has always been about congeries of parts, concatenations of bright things, particular shapes and coloured configurations, which one feels prompted to pick up and rearrange. In fact, since 1978 (the year of his first cut-outs), Killeen has literally acted out and fostered this stimulus to pick up a pictorial fragment, and to seize and reposition the optical universe bit by bit. Killeen’s busy visual arrays involve simplifications and reductions of the world’s profusion into graphic signs, diagrammatic units and snappy motifs. It is as if the artist has set himself the lifelong task of codifying, item by item, as much of the planet as possible in order to fill a huge graphic Noah’s Ark: a manic compendium of the visible, a visual primer of everything translated into memorable icons for storage against some cataclysmic future forgetting. Even Killeen’s title, How Do We Learn?, implies the careful work of matching and categorisation employed by encyclopaedists and fastidious cataloguers submitting small details to the demands of their overarching systems. When Killeen made his first cut-outs in 1978, every shape was painted in one flat colour so that each piece of lacquered aluminium read as a declarative silhouette. The artist’s attraction to things cleanly delineated and to the dialectic of figure and ground was apparent in his earliest figure compositions, and then intricately mapped in the tessellated geometric abstractions that followed. The shapes – of animals, birds, fish, insects, tools and less recognisable abstract objects – appeared as flat designs on plain grounds in several 1977 paintings. In the actual cut-outs, the pieces of aluminium became the ‘figure’ to the white gallery wall’s ‘ground’; in this way the paintings extended themselves into the literal space of the art gallery – they started to ingest their surrounding environments. How Do We Learn? (1992) is a series of numerous rectangular and square cut-out aluminium pieces, some hung at an angle to create a diamond shape, disrupting a grid of pieces and creating a more random look to the grouping. The parts of the whole are awash with creamy, light-yellow brush strokes, with more-detailed elements that sit on top. A hand, a kitchen knife, a dog, a vessel and some beetle wings, to name some of the easily identifiable visual aids. Others are abstracted forms, undefinable. Perhaps the title is a reference to how we learn to read a painting and build a visual language. The assortment of ‘image things,’ or visual objects, is typical of many of Killeen’s paintings in its mixing up of the natural and artificial worlds: birds, teeth, seed pods and plants, with chair legs, cutting tools, chevrons and combs. As Killeen’s methods of graphic simplification and associational shapeshifting proceed, he becomes as much a collector of modes of depiction and invented things as of things that actually exist; the boundaries between natural and artificial become strangely elusive. The artist’s unstoppable documentation of the world turns into the part-by-part fabrication of a totally surrogate reality.

16 Richard Killeen How Do We Learn? 1992 acrylic and collage on aluminium signed Killeen, dated 1992 and inscribed How do we learn?/Cat no. 1458 in ink lower edge 1090 × 1215mm (variable) est

Webb's

$25,000 — $35,000

2020

17 Dick Frizzell The Huka Falls 1987 oil on board signed FRIZZELL, dated 19/6/87 and inscribed THE HUKA FALLS in brushpoint lower right 1200 × 1300mm est $35,000 — $55,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Webb's

November

18 Fiona Pardington A001171 2019 signed F Pardington in ink verso pigment ink on Hahnemühle photo rag, edition of 10 1100 × 1460mm est $25,000 — $35,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Webb's

2020

Fiona Pardington – A001171 Essay by ANDREW PAUL WOOD

As with her photographs of taonga, Pardington takes a reparative, aesthetic approach that draws us in with the beauty of the image before we have a chance to consider all its implications and possible meanings. A tight focus and concentration of multiple sources of light – fluorescent, LED and incandescent – on the subject. Webb's

November

Fiona Pardington (MNZM, Chevalier Ordre des Arts et des Lettres) (Ngāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe and Ngāti Kahungunu and Clan Cameron of Erracht) found this figure among a collection of similar objects in the Wellcome Collection in London, on loan to the Science Museum Group. Nineteenth-century pharmaceutical entrepreneur Henry Wellcome (1853–1936) was an avid collector of medical antiquities, an interest that extended to the health and spiritual practices of other cultures. At first glance it looks like a hei-tiki, but it isn’t a genuine taonga and therein lies the mystery. It is clearly not a massproduced tourist tchotchke either—care and attention has gone into its making. We are unlikely to ever find out who made it, Māori, Pākehā, or perhaps even a German carver from the workshops of Saxony or Rhineland. From this strange collection Pardington created the TIKI: Orphans of Māoriland suite of photographs in 2019. Wellcome purchased these faux-tiki from London auction houses. What we can say about them is that they were most likely made for the local Pākehā, or European, market. Art historian Roger Blackley called it the “curio economy,” the trade in Māori artifacts that flourished between 1880 and 1910. In this colonial period New Zealand was sometimes referred to as ‘Maoriland’ —when Pākehā were developing a nascent sense of national identity distinct from Britain, and Māori were fighting to keep control of their identity, representation, culture and land.¹ Pardington, viewing these objects through the lens of her own bicultural Māori and Pākehā ancestry, felt drawn to these objects and their cultural liminality. The resulting photographs offer an interesting counterpoint to Pardington’s photographs of genuine hei-tiki, but her interest in bicultural in-betweenness and hybridity can be traced all the way back to her 1996 photograph of a bar of ‘Taniwha’ brand soap. As with her photographs of taonga, Pardington takes a reparative, aesthetic approach that draws us in with the beauty of the image before we have a chance to consider all its implications and possible meanings.² A tight focus and concentration of multiple sources of light – fluorescent, LED and incandescent – on the subject, in interaction with the light-absorbing qualities of the black velvet backcloth, invests it with a luminous aura of animistic presence and significance. The smearing effect of the exposure animates the artefact as if it is moving, ghostly and somehow alive. Pardington recognises that these objects have something to say about where we’ve come from and perhaps were we are going. They are not insincere. They are not kitsch. They have an existence and an integrity all in their own right. They’re trying to tell us something and Pardington’s photographs ask that we stop and listen to what that might be.

18 Fiona Pardington A001171 2019 signed F Pardington in ink verso pigment inks on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag, edition of 10 1100 × 1460mm est

$25,000 — $35,000

1 Roger Blackley, Galleries of Maoriland: Artists, Collectors and the Māori World, 1880–1910. (Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2018) 2 Susan Best, Reparative Aesthetics: Witnessing in Contemporary Art Photography. (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015.) Chapter 4 passim. Webb's

2020

19 Peter Siddell Customhouse 1975 oil on board signed PETER SIDDELL and dated 1975 in brushpoint lower edge 790 Ă&#x2014; 715mm est $20,000 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; $30,000 Provenance Private collection, Wellington. Acquired from Contemporary & Traditional New Zealand & European Art, International Art Centre, Auckland, 9 November 2000, lot 7. Webb's

November

20 Max Gimblett Homage to Colin McCahon 2012 acrylic, ink and silver leaf on canvas signed MAX GIMBLETT, dated 2012 and inscribed “HOMAGE TO COLIN MCCAHON” in brushpoint verso 1220 × 1020mm est $35,000 — $45,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Acquired from Page Blackie, Wellington, 2015. Webb's

2020

Max Gimblett – Homage to Colin McCahon Essay by TASHA JENKINS

With an almost fluorescent yellow background, Homage to Colin McCahon retains Gimblett’s signature gestural ink swirls and marks. The angular silver form on the right gives a nod to fellow New Zealand artist Colin McCahon. McCahon’s modernist paintings of New Zealand landscapes, religious iconography, and the use of text have made him New Zealand’s most well-known artist. Webb's

November

Max Gimblett has cemented himself as one of the most recognisable contemporary abstract painters in Aotearoa. Gimblett’s bold works range in colour, size and medium. His calligraphic-like marks, shiny layered surfaces and inventive shapes are always expertly crafted. Gimblett’s confident and intuitive marks, often created at a grand scale, have a power that is both disruptive and provocative to the viewer. Gimblett’s diverse influences span Eastern spirituality, psychology, abstract expressionism, modernism, and ancient cultures. Although he has lived in New York since the 1970s, Gimblett continues to exhibit work in New Zealand, and still has an affinity to his home country – as implied by the title of this work. Homage to Colin McCahon (2012) is part of a series of homage paintings by Gimblett. The Homage series extends to show a scope of influence that has informed Gimblett’s practice over the years. In the series Gimblett pays homage to a range of artists from Japanese painter Kagaku Murakami – whose work depicts Buddhist subject matter – through to German expressionist painter Max Beckmann. With an almost fluorescent yellow background, Homage to Colin McCahon retains Gimblett’s signature gestural ink swirls and marks. The angular silver form on the right gives a nod to fellow New Zealand artist Colin McCahon. McCahon’s modernist paintings of New Zealand landscapes, religious iconography, and the use of text have made him New Zealand’s most wellknown artist. While it may first seem that McCahon is an unlikely muse for Gimblett, it is inevitable that McCahon has in some way influenced almost all contemporary New Zealand artists. Like McCahon’s, Gimblett’s paintings emphasise form, shape and line. Homage to Colin McCahon is perhaps an homage to McCahon’s Jump series – a large series of paintings from the 1970s. McCahon was moved to conceive these works after seeing fledglings in a local Muriwai gannet colony taking their first flight from their ‘protection rock.’ McCahon masterfully simplified the scene into the key elements of a broken directional line on the left and a tall dark tower of rock on the right. It is this tower shape that Gimblett has used here, reimagined as a simple line in metallic silver leaf. The silver line in Gimblett’s work could also be a reference to McCahon’s Waterfall series, painted in the 1960s. Inspired by the Fairy Falls in the Waitākere Ranges, McCahon has simplified the scene into a thick, white curving line, dropping suddenly away and dividing the background in two. Many of the waterfalls have only three planes of simple colours, usually black, white, and ochre, which became a prominent colour palette for McCahon. In Homage to Colin McCahon, Gimblett has updated the ochre and white of the palette into a neon yellow and bright silver.

20 Max Gimblett Homage to Colin McCahon 2012 acrylic, ink and silver leaf on canvas signed MAX GIMBLETT, dated 2012 and inscribed “HOMAGE TO COLIN MCCAHON” in brushpoint verso 1220 × 1020mm est

Webb's

$35,000 — $45,000

2020

21 Teuane Tibbo Panga Island Fiji 1976 oil on canvasboard signed Teuane Tibbo and dated 1979 in brushpoint lower right 605 × 765mm

22 Don Binney Te Henga 1967 oil on canvas signed DON BINNEY, dated 1967 and inscribed TE HENGA in brushpoint lower left; inscribed Grove,Te Henga/N.F.S in ink verso 835 × 745mm est $85,000 — $125,000

est $10,000 — $15,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Passed by bequest; collection of Dr Ross Dreadon.

Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Webb's

November

Webb's

2020

Don Binney â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Te Henga Essay by RACHEL KLEINSMAN

The tradition of modern New Zealand art is interwoven with that precious relationship which we, in our collective national identity, treasure in oneness with the whenua, or land. Possessing a distinctive identity and artistic raison d'ĂŞtre from the outset of his career, Binney's instantly recognisable and iconic visual language instilled his impressive oeuvre with a common thread of life, richness and vivacity. Webb's

November

There is an exquisite serenity to Don Binney's 1967 depiction of the West Auckland coastline near Te Henga, which, in its striking simplicity, articulates a powerful ode to a part of the country which Binney held dear. The plein air style in which Binney has executed his paintings since the late 1960s fills this work with a sense of freshness, immediacy and serene majesty. The landscape appears to multiply in an almost primal, cellular manner from the bottom right-hand of the canvas; Binney has applied a topographical dedication to charting the territory with which he was so intimately engaged. This is further emphasised by the stark and enduringly brilliant simplicity and lightness of both sea and sky. In this way, we, as viewers, come to engage purely and exclusively with the landscape as the artist perceived it and spiritually received it. There is something interesting to be gleaned through understanding Binney's approach to modernism which, at one point, was actually considered to be somewhat outdated. For just as Binney sought to engage with the formal aesthetic of a pared-back, stylised modernism and interpret the New Zealand landscape in this very unique and identifiable way, he was also rejecting the high-minded philosophical and formal concerns of modernism in favour of preserving a deeply intimate relationship with the landscape. More than anything, what is striking in this encounter with Binney's landscape depiction is the pure, untouched nature which he has captured. Here is a landscape unmarred by industrialisation, deforestation and human presence. This certainly resonates when considering Binney's own political and environmental concerns, which were central to his work at the time. The tradition of modern New Zealand art is interwoven with that precious relationship which we, in our collective national identity, treasure in oneness with the whenua, or land. Possessing a distinctive identity and artistic raison d'ĂŞtre from the outset of his career, Binney's instantly recognisable and iconic visual language instilled his impressive oeuvre with a common thread of life, richness and vivacity. Needless to say, the immediate association one draws with Binney's work is to his magnificent depiction of birds. In any work of art, the omission of a trademark stylistic feature, subject matter or particular visual narrative considered synonymous with an artist (in Don Binney's case, the depiction of New Zealand birds) calls into question the associations which we, as viewers, would usually take for granted. As such, through our own awareness of this avian omission, the landscape is thus transformed and Te Henga compels a much more profound engagement with the artist's oeuvre. Where, in any of Binney's emblematic bird paintings, the landscape would traditionally serve as a presence to focalise and frame a majestic bird form, in this case it has been presented in, of and for itself. The implied bird sanctuary has, therefore, become one of direct and impressionable intimacy for the viewer: a mirror reflecting the charm and importance which this part of the land held for Binney.

22 Don Binney Te Henga 1967 oil on canvas signed DON BINNEY, dated 1967 and inscribed TE HENGA in brushpoint lower left; inscribed Grove,Te Henga/ N.F.S in ink verso 835 Ă&#x2014; 745mm est

Webb's

$85,000 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; $125,000

2020

23 Michael Stevenson Extra Mild 1993 oil on board signed M STEVENSON and dated 1993 in brushpoint upper right 700 × 700mm est $16,000 — $20,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Acquired from Anna Bibby Gallery, 2003. Webb's

November

24 L Budd untitled acrylic on turntables and found display rack 930 × 785 × 580mm (widest points) est $5,000 — $7,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Acquired from Webb's, Important Paintings and Contemporary Art, 7 August 2017, lot 15; private collection, Auckland. Acquired from Hamish McKay Gallery, March 1993. Exhibitions Hamish McKay Gallery, March 1993. 72

25 Allen Maddox Me Again, I'm Back 1977 oil on canvas dated Nov 77 and inscribed me again, I'm Back in graphite lower edge 1460 Ă&#x2014; 1825mm est $14,000 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; $18,000 Provenance Private collection, Wellington. Webb's

2020

26 Ralph Hotere Song Cycle 1975 ink and gouache on paper signed Hotere, dated '75 and inscribed SONG CYCLE in graphite lower edge; inscribed Cat no 7/ Vic University/Title SONG CYCLE/55 × 41 cm in ink verso 550 × 400mm est $20,000 — $30,000 Provenance Private collection, Wellington. Acquired from Victoria University Library, Wellington, c1977. Webb's

November

27 Tony Fomison Garden of Eden Aotearoa 1980—81 oil on jute on board, artist’s frame signed Fomison, dated 1980-1981 and inscribed Underpainting: mid-December-1980: Indian Red/ Overpainting: Prussian Blue 13-14/1/81/a sea added bout same time, and sand, 25.2.81. (yellow ochre)/ Finished 28.5.81/[No Title As Yet] in graphite verso; inscribed TONY FOMISON 'UNTITLED'/198081/24A in ink on label affixed verso; Janne Land gallery stamp verso 855 × 1375mm est $300,000 — $600,000 Provenance Private ownership. Acquired from Janne Land Gallery, Wellington, c1982. Webb's

2020

Exhibitions Tony Fomison, Janne Land Gallery, Wellington, 1982. 75

Tony Fomison – Garden of Eden Aotearoa Essay by VICTORIA WYNNE-JONES

After all, the painting was completed in 1981, by which time the artist had received the Sāmoan pe‘a from tufuga te tatau Sulu‘ape Paulo II, together with friend Fuimaono Tuiasau.³ Fomison’s Eden is testament to his drive to depict landscape in all of its multi-layered and multi-modal complexities; as he said, “I somehow had to convey a vision of the whole culture.”4

A sandy, sunny promontory stretches thinly out into cool waters, below a powder-blue sky. The view of this serene harbour is crowded by an immense rock formation. Parts of the rock are illuminated from above, a soft light spills over a rounded curve and settles into long hollows in the undulating form. A wizened tree casts its shadow. Another shadow, one tremendously long and dark, is created by some unseen entity. A slender figure climbs up a reddish, rocky mound. Caught mid-stride, this attenuated creature appears wind-swept, her dark hair caught in a briny updraught; her pale form and long limbs seem loose and supple as she moves with ease. In the foreground the red rocks become a reflective blue–grey, they hump from left to right in repeated, wave-like shapes, piling and building upwards to reveal a seated figure, dwarfed by the wall of stone. He sits hunched, arms relaxed, in profile he seems to look towards the approaching woman. Bleached by sun and salt, another branch, this time a fallen one, spikes upwards from the rocks like a warning with wavering arms. What is to be made of this version of the Garden of Eden by Pākehā painter Tony Fomison? The landscape seems to bear very little resemblance to a fertile plain or garden of delight, though the warm-toned stones recall the clay from which Adam himself was moulded. The textured jute support provides an uneven ground for a complex interplay of light and darkness. Piercing sunlight beats mercilessly on sand and sea. Water and light bounce around and off the surfaces of boulders worn smooth by the ebb and flow of tides. Perhaps it is the light that introduces an element of the paradisical – together with the generous-sized boulders it almost evokes the sensation of sun-warmed stone on skin. Is Fomison trying to say that the threshold space of a coastal area or a sunny New Zealand beach is the closest one can ever get to paradise? Eden belongs to the Christian Bible’s Old Testament, together with its vengeful Creator–God. The centre of the Webb's

November

composition is home to a dramatic lighting effect, an oppressive, foreboding, almost-black shape that fills nearly one third of the frame with darkness. This obscurity divides the picture plane in two, ensuring the figures of Eve and Adam are kept separate, apart. Space is filled up with layers and layers of stone that press heavily upon each other, the only relief provided by a broad corner of azure and a triangle of negative space framing sea, sand and sky. A fraught atmosphere of contestation and opposition is evoked; not exactly good versus evil, more like positive and negative. The bright blue of the clear sky contrasts with the predominance of earthen dark umber, warm browns and creamy silver–grey. A play of warm and cold like a cool breath blowing on a hot, raw wound. All is soft and out of focus, outlines are blurred and fuzzy. There is a lack of clarity about the image, as though it is seen through a gauzy veil of tears, sleep or recollection. Yet there is also something less monotheistic apparent in this painting. The modelling of the enormous stony edifice hints that the forces at play in its formation were not entirely geological. Folds, cleavage and wrinkles appear almost fleshy, as though what has really been depicted is a broad-shouldered deity or ancestor hewn from the very land itself. This immense figure appears to be leaning insouciantly on one elbow so that Eve stands by his right upper arm and Adam is before his breast. According to such a reading, might the upper-most branch be the giant’s Fomison-esque horn? For writer Simon During, paintings like Garden of Eden Aotearoa involve landscapes that are subtly anthropomorphised: “in ways that turn us simultaneously towards non-modern, ‘mythic’ cosmologies and towards Hollywood.”¹ Indeed this larger-scale work depicts what During has described as “little white men dancing on the bodies of Polynesian giants,” and within its single frame is contained “a micro-second of mysterious possibilities.”² On the one hand Fomison evokes what During calls “the dark space of the movie house” and its attendant cinematic devices, including 76

miniaturisation and special effects enabled by camera trickery and immense studio lots. On the other hand what is depicted in Garden of Eden Aotearoa is something much more ancient and elemental, a cosmological realm in which gods, demi-gods and ancestors dwell. After all, the painting was completed in 1981, by which time the artist had received the Sāmoan pe‘a from tufuga te tatau Sulu‘ape Paulo II, together with friend Fuimaono Tuiasau.³ Fomison’s Eden is testament to his drive to depict landscape in all of its multi-layered and multi-modal complexities; as he said, “I somehow had to convey a vision of the whole culture.”⁴ This is where Aotearoa comes in: the biblical Eden of Christian missionaries and European settlers is commingled with Māori creation narratives and the stories brought to these Pacific shores from Sāmoa. Perhaps this hybrid painting was inspired and informed by what Fomison has referred to as a “vision of a shared society.”⁵ If so, the vision is an uneasy one, filled with shadows and the play of dark and light. The image is dominated by the towering, earthen sea-cliff deity – he diminishes the presence of the tiny humans and the sunlit beach beyond. There is another reason the human figures are so small – it points towards humility. The vision of one man, of one painter, can only ever be partial. As art historian Peter Brunt explains, paintings like Garden of Eden Aotearoa can be understood as part of Fomison’s attempt to respond to the imaginary needs of various cultures and communities.⁶ Though an exemplary figure, Brunt argues, of “the living of biculturalism and multiculturalism,” Fomison is always peering through the colonial frame.⁷ The artist has ventured onto dangerous territory: just as it was in the Garden of Eden, there is a lot at stake – knowledge, power, betrayal and shame. Transgression is very likely.

27 Tony Fomison Garden of Eden Aotearoa 1980—81 oil on jute on board, artists frame signed Fomison, dated 1980-1981 and inscribed Underpainting: midDecember-1980: Indian Red/Overpainting: Prussian Blue 13-14/1/81/a sea added bout same time, and sand, 25.2.81. (yellow ochre)/Finished 28.5.81/[No Title As Yet] in graphite verso; inscribed TONY FOMISON 'UNTITLED'/1980-81/24A in ink on label affixed verso; Janne Land gallery stamp verso 855 × 1375mm est

$300,000 — $600,000

1 Simon During, “Here’s Trouble: Some Comments on Tony Fomison and his Work,” in Fomison: What Shall We Tell Them? ed. Ian Wedde (Wellington: City Gallery, 1994), 46. 2

Ibid., 45.

3 Fuimaono Tuiasau, “Interview with Fuimaono Tuiasau,” in Wedde, Fomison, 81. 4 Natasha Conland, “Telling Pictures: Narrative and Tony Fomison” (MA thesis, The University of Auckland, 1998), 72. 5

Ibid., 73.

6 Peter Brunt, “Framing Identity,” in Wedde, Fomison, 65. 7 Webb's

Ibid., 72. 2020

28 Judy Millar untitled 2007 acrylic on canvas signed Millar, dated 2007 and inscribed 00722SC in brushpoint verso 1380 Ă&#x2014; 970mm est $14,000 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; $18,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Acquired from Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland. Webb's

November

Exhibitions Butter for the Fish, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, 2007. 78

29 Philip Clairmont Buddha Vietnam 1971 acrylic on hessian dated 1971 and inscribed Bhudda [sic]: Vietnam in brushpoint upper left 1236 Ă&#x2014; 906mm

Exhibitions Philip Clairmont, Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui, Whanganui, 1987; The Face, Govett Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, 1994; 30 Plus, Robert McDougall Art Gallery, Christchurch, 25 August - 13 September 1971.

est $100,000 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; $200,000

Literature Jim and Mary Barr, Philip Clairmont, (Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui, Whanganui, 1987), 17.

Provenance Private collection, Canterbury. Acquired directly from the artist, 1971.

Collections Formerly on long term loan to the Govett Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth.

Webb's

2020

Philip Clairmont â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Buddha Vietnam Essay by ANDREW PAUL WOOD

In its palette, deconstruction and decay, we sense a spiritual oneness with the world as it splinters and disintegrates under the mass psychosis of war. The Summer of Love arrived in New Zealand a few years overdue, and Buddhism was also enjoying widespread interest as an alternative to mainstream Western spirituality and philosophy. Webb's

November

As a teacher at the University of Canterbury School of Fine Arts, the eccentric Rudolf Gopas (1913–1983) cultivated several spectacular neo-expressionist painters in the mid-twentieth century. Of these, three stand out as perhaps being the most exceptional talents, for their closeness as friends, and for their substance abuse and struggles with mental health: Allen Maddox (1948–2000), Tony Fomison (1939–1990) and Philip Clairmont (1949–1984). Clairmont was the first of the three to succumb to the impossible tenor of their existence, dying by his own hand at what was arguably the height of his career. Buddha Vietnam (1971) was completed the year after Clairmont graduated from Canterbury. It is one of a discrete group of similarly themed paintings including Self Portrait (Indo China), Vietnam Paranoia, and a handful of smaller drawings and collages including Vietnam: Past and Future?, Vietnam Apparition, Vietnam Body Count and Statistics of Death. Clairmont wrote in his notebook that the painting was intended to show “War and Western corruption scarring – contaminating centuries of religious belief.”¹ With that in mind it is tempting to also group it with Clairmont’s 1972 study Cathedral Attacked by Demons. Ironically, it is probably some of the most serene work of his entire career. In Buddha Vietnam, which shows the influences of André Masson, Ivan Albright, Max Beckmann and Ludwig Kirchner in its palette, deconstruction and decay, we sense a spiritual oneness with the world as it splinters and disintegrates under the mass psychosis of war. The Summer of Love arrived in New Zealand a few years overdue, and Buddhism was also enjoying widespread interest as an alternative to mainstream Western spirituality and philosophy. At the time, the Vietnam War was in full swing, the first such conflict to make its way to television and a major rallying point for youth counterculture. Author Martin Edmond identifies this work as the “key work,” associating the paintings with the King Crimson song 21st Century Schizoid Man from their 1969 debut album In the Court of the Crimson King. Edmond notes that Clairmont frequently drew on the lyrics of this song, particularly the line “At paranoia’s poison door.”² “I think he probably saw quite deeply into the psycho-side of the US involvement in Vietnam,” says Edmond, “and he would have been interested too in all the tales of drug use that came through in the early 1970s. Buddha Vietnam resolves nicely into an image which is serene but which also holds within it (and outside of it) the whole crazy demonology loosed on the poor country.”³

29 Philip Clairmont Buddha Vietnam 1971 acrylic on hessian dated 1971 and inscribed Bhudda [sic]: Vietnam in brushpoint upper left 1236 × 906mm est

$100,000 — $200,000

Philip Clairmont and Tony Fomison photographed by Marti Friedlander, c1976.

1 Jim and Mary Barr, Philip Clairmont, (Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui, Whanganui, 1987), 17. 2 Martin Edmond, email correspondence with the author, 2 November 2020. 3 Ibid. Webb's

2020

30 Don Peebles Relief Painting 1963-64 acrylic and wire on wood signed DON PEEBLES, dated 1963/64 and inscribed "RELIEF PAINTING" in graphite verso 350 × 270 × 120mm (widest points)

31 Michael Smither Sarah After Bath 1967 oil on board signed M D Smither and dated 1967 in brushpoint lower right; signed M D Smither and dated 67 in brushpoint verso; dated 1968 and inscribed Sarah after bath/300 in graphite on frame 910 × 610mm

est $8,000 — $12,000

est $80,000 — $160,000

Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Acquired from New Vision Gallery, Auckland, c1960.

Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Acquired from John Brebner, Fielding, c1971.

Webb's

November

Webb's

2020

Michael Smither â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Sarah After Bath Essay by CHRISTIE SIMPSON

There is a tangible element of human warmth and emotive intimacy present in Sarah After Bath, a work whose viewing experience is governed by an acute awareness of the relationship present between both painter and subjects, and the two painted figures. Webb's

November

Art historian Bernard Smith appositely describes Michael Smither as an “artist who uses paintings as a language which reveals every aspect of his personal experience.” This statement rings particularly true when one considers the present work, an intimate portrayal of Smither’s daughter unclothed after bathing. For Smither, the construction of familial scenes began in 1964, when his eldest child, Sarah – the subject of this work – was born. Sarah’s birth marked the beginning of a new artistic divergence for Smither, whose subsequent observation-inspired domestic narratives are among his most celebrated works. This significant shift in his personal life to embrace the caring required for parenthood is directly reflected in the care and love for humanity shown in the narrative works post 1964. There is a tangible element of human warmth and emotive intimacy present in Sarah After Bath, a work whose viewing experience is governed by an acute awareness of the relationship present between both painter and subjects, and the two painted figures. This sentiment of fatherly tenderness enhances Sarah’s vulnerability and further emphasises the viewer’s awareness of her exaggeratedly awkward stature in comparison to the crouching adult form of her mother behind her. Despite the familial closeness of this scene, however, it is crucial to acknowledge that Smither yields no stylistic deference to sentimentality: on the contrary, the tender undertones of the work are brilliantly tempered by the stark, almost jarring quality of Smither’s hyper-realistic style. Acknowledging the significance of this realism is key to appreciating the work: the carefully planned and tightly constructed canvas has been stripped down to its essentials. Vividness of colour, extreme linear clarity and painstakingly constructed treatment of human form therefore combine to effect a sense of contrived theatricality in the work. This is present, for example, in the way Sarah is encircled by her mother Elizabeth’s arms: the resulting pose, combined with her naked form, is reminiscent of Classicism and the traditional pose of Madonna and child. The subjects glow, luminescent with life, with Sarah central to the framing of embracing arms. There is an obvious close relationship between the figures in the painting and the artist: wife and mother Elizabeth, daughter Sarah, and painter, father and husband Michael Smither. This relationship is emphasised in the careful way Elizabeth drapes the towel over Sarah, her eyeline focused down towards her daughter; and is echoed in the careful way Smither paints the two of them together. Elizabeth’s arms and hands, stretched out of proportion and into the foreground, accentuate the protective nature of the gentle embrace. While only the two female figures are visible, Sarah’s sharp eyes look slightly right of the viewer, focusing on her father, closing the triangular connection between the three members of the family. The distinctive hard-edged realist style seen here has become emblematic of Smither’s painting. The artist has been able to apply his own regionalist realism to a variety of subject matter, from Taranaki landscapes to still life and imagery of his daughter. Sarah After Bath is a triumphant example of Smither’s ability to juxtapose a deeply intimate and sentimental moment with a highly realist and formal composition.

Webb's

$80,000 — $160,000

2020

32 Peter Robinson Evil Doers 2002 acrylic and oilstick on paper on canvas signed Peter Robinson and dated 2002 in graphite lower right 1495 × 990mm est $20,000 — $30,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Acquired from Important Paintings and Contemporary Art, Art+Object, Auckland, 15 August 2013, lot 100. Webb's

November

Exhibitions Tiho o Te Taniwha, Southland Museum and Art Gallery, Invercargill, November 2003 - February 2004; Te Puawai o Ngāi Tahu : Twelve Contemporary Ngāi Tahu Artists, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, Christchurch, 10 May - 24 August 2003. Literature Anna Rogers (ed), Te Puawai o Ngāi Tahu : Twelve Contemporary Ngāi Tahu Artists (Christchurch Art Gallery, Te Puna o Waiwhetū, Christchurch, 2003), 78. 86

33 Bill Hammond Living Large 3 1995 acrylic on paper on canvas signed W D Hammond, dated 1995 and inscribed LIVING LARGE 3 in brushpoint upper edge 1990 × 1070mm est $200,000 — $300,000 Provenance Private collection, Wellington. Acquired from Peter McLeavey Gallery, Wellington, 1995. Webb's

2020

Exhibitions Living Large, Peter McLeavey Gallery, Wellington, 24 October - 11 November 1995. Collections Another from the series held in the collection of Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui; Christchurch Te Puna Waiwhetū (aquired 2009). 87

Bill Hammond – Living Large 3 Essay by SAMANTHA TAYLOR

The birds in the Living Large series are seen playing instruments, and in Living Large 3 we see a bird-like musician playing the double bass with a hunting dog resting at his foot, poised to perform to a full theatre of birds. Within this work we also see a female huia sitting at an upright piano – a colonial setting, with her dress and the instrument she plays depicting and evoking a certain time and place. Bill, or WD, Hammond was born in Christchurch in 1947, and has lived most of his life in the idyllic port town of Lyttelton. Hammond, who studied at Ilam School of Fine Arts, has worked as a full-time artist since the 1980s. Hammond was named as one of the ‘pencil-case painters’ a group of Christchurch artists including Saskia Leek, Séraphine Pick, Shane Cotton and Tony de Lautour. His paintings are most known for his personification of New Zealand’s native birds, the freedom of his dripping paint marks and his references to popular song titles when naming his works. It is difficult to say whether Bill Hammond’s hybrid bird– human creatures are from a primordial past or exist in some imagined future mythic island. His bird-people are most like sea birds, with fish-catching bills, streamlined heads and taut, muscular bodies. They stand erect, impeccable posture emphasised by the forward thrust of their sharp-beaked heads and the strange swoop of wings protruding from their human shoulder-blades. They are light-footed sentinels, dancers, angels. They have wings, but we rarely see them in flight. Perhaps, like the pūkeko – slender, red-legged cousin of the takahē – Hammond’s bird-people can fly, but hate to, preferring to run and hide. Pūkeko cower beneath harakeke (flax), bird-people find themselves a dingy bar where they can lay low, stiff drink in hand. In his early years Hammond had a diversity of creative outlets, making intricate wooden toys, playing the washboard and spoons in the Hope Jug Band and drawing satirical cartoons for university publications. His love of music is not only evident through his use of referential titles, but we see within his compositions continued musical performances: from early on in his 1985 painting Radio On to the bird-like performers in the Living Large series. Hammond stays under the radar – refusing invitations to be interviewed and shying away from the limelight that his paintings sit under. Though reclusive, the information we have about his journey as an artist is fascinating: Don Peebles was one of Hammond’s early tutors and challenged him to Webb's

November

experiment with the way he worked on a composition. In many of his works, early and to date, we see a layering of pictorial elements to tell a story. In 1989, before Living Large 3 was painted, the artist embarked on a journey that would influence both this work and many others to follow. Jennifer Hay comments: “Travelling to the otherworldliness of the sub-Antartic Auckland Islands south of Bluff with fellow artists Laurence Aberhart, Lloyd Godman and Gerda Leenards in 1989 initiated a transformation in Hammond’s practice.”¹ The group’s destination was the remote Enderby Island, the largest in the Auckland Islands archipelago, and home to many species including the yellow-eyed penguin, lightmantled sooty albatross and lounging Hooker's sea lion. Here the land was relatively untouched, with impressive forests of towering native trees and thriving birdlife creating a “birdland”² that became a pivotal muse for Hammond. It was at this time that Hammond’s practice really captured the attention of curators, critics and collectors. The birds in the Living Large series are seen playing instruments, and in Living Large 3 we see a bird-like musician playing the double bass with a hunting dog resting at his foot, poised to perform to a full theatre of birds. Within this work we also see a female huia sitting at an upright piano, a colonial setting, with her dress and the instrument she plays depicting and evoking a certain time and place. The picture plane is divided into three distinct scenes, the huia set within the central plane and holding the other elements around her. Below are examples of native trees, which sit solitary on the edge of a path leading into a distance, lined with harakeke. At the top of the composition a male figure in hunting regalia fires a pistol into the distance. Living Large 3 was painted at a similar time to Hammond’s Watching for Buller (1994) and carries the same narrative of the colonial ‘explorer’ and the destructive practices of ‘discovery’ that sat at odds with Hammond’s own relationship with nature. “We are reminded of misdeeds conducted in a paradise lost and indeed recent debates regarding the discovery and ownership of New Zealand.”³ Watching for Buller and the Buller series all depict Victorian ornithologist and lawyer Sir Walter Lawry Buller (1838–1906). Hammond was taken by the passion Walter Buller had for trading in native bird specimens and the resulting devastation his practice had on bird populations. Buller’s lust for collecting specimens, and the surrounding commercial trade of these specimens, was set to pose an important signifier within Hammond’s works of the series. Buller was a symbol of New Zealand society of colonial and post-colonial times. “This crucial series affirms Buller’s skill and innovation in ornithology but also damns his reputation as a marauding trophy hunter who assisted with the extinction of New Zealand bird species.”⁴ Inky blue and saturated with the trademark Hammond drips, Living Large 3 tells a story through three elements in the composition each tied together by fluid, dripping pigment. At a staggering almost two metres tall, the work has a presence that both implores and commands the viewer to consider the elements of the history of Aotearoa portrayed in such a poetic and nostalgic hue. Hammond’s affinity with the native birds of Aotearoa has continued throughout his works to date, and Living Large 3 is an impressive example of a work made at such an important juncture for the artist.

1 Jennifer Hay, in Bill Hammond: Jingle Jangle Morning (Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, 2007), 25. 2 Quoted in Gregory O’Brien, “Bill Hammond: Song and a Picture Book,” in Lands and Deeds: Profiles of Contemporary New Zealand Painters (Auckland: Godwit Publishing, 1996), 58. 3 Hay, Bill Hammond: Jingle Jangle Morning, 26. 4 Ron Brownson, in Bill Hammond: Jingle Jangle Morning, 55. Webb's

2020

34 Don Binney untitled 1984 oil on board signed DON BINNEY and dated 1984 in brushpoint upper right 605 Ă&#x2014; 810mm est $18,000 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; $26,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Webb's

November

35 Stanley Palmer untitled 1994 oil on linen signed S PALMER and dated 95 in brushpoint lower right 1090 Ă&#x2014; 1590mm est $18,000 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; $26,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Webb's

2020

36 Ralph Hotere Port Chalmers 1981 pastel, oil based enamel and ink on paper signed Hotere, dated 81 and inscribed Port Chalmers in ink upper left 380 Ă&#x2014; 280mm est $16,000 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; $20,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Webb's

November

37 Ralph Hotere Port Chalmers gouache on paper signed Hotere and inscribed Port Chalmers in ink lower right 385 Ă&#x2014; 585mm est $25,000 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; $35,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Webb's

2020

38 Yayoi Kusama Pumpkin (Yellow Y) かぼちゃ(黃) 1992 screenprint on paper, 83/120 signed Yayoi Kusama, dated 1992 and inscribed 83/120/かぼちゃ(黃) in graphite lower edge 630 × 730mm est $75,000 — $95,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Acquired from OMNI Gallery, Tokyo, 2017. Webb's

November

39 Yayoi Kusama untitled 無題 1970 ink on paper signed YAYOI KUSAMA and dated 1970 in ink upper right; signed YAYOI KUSAMA and dated -70 in ink lower left 760 × 560mm est $100,000 — $200,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Note YAYOI KUSAMA Inc. registration number: 04063 94

Webb's

2020

Yayoi Kusama – Gown for Two Essay by VICTORIA MUNN

Political activism punctuates the work Kusama produced in New York, where she was based for sixteen years, 1958 to 1973. In untitled 無題 (1970), the two faces are fused together with thick blue lines. In the centre sits an almond shape with a single capitalised word: GAY. Her avant-garde performance art ‘happenings’ took place across New York City in the 1960s and expanded into other US and European cities. “Love can now be free, but to make it completely free it must be liberated from all sexual frustrations imposed by society.” So stated the invitations and press release announcing an event officiated by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, “the first Homosexual Wedding ever to be performed in the United States.”¹ Taking place in in a New York loft, in November 1968, Kusama designed the wedding costume for the couple: a single ‘gown for two.’ Political activism punctuates the work Kusama produced in New York, where she was based for sixteen years, 1958 to 1973. In untitled 無題 (1970), the two faces are fused together with thick blue lines. In the centre sits an almond shape with a single capitalised word: GAY. Her avant-garde performance art ‘happenings’ took place across New York City in the 1960s and expanded into other US and European cities. Enabling both artistic expression and political comment, impressive media attention was afforded to Kusama and the happenings, positioning the artist as a cultural zeitgeist. Through art, performance and protest, Kusama opposed the Vietnam War and capitalist institutions, and embraced sexual liberation and gay rights. Kusama’s New York period also saw the creation of her Infinity Nets. Denying the viewer a focal point, the picture plane is filled with thousands of tiny interconnected arcs. Kusama would be consumed by the painting process, obsessively rendering these intricate networks of arcs, often painting large canvases for fifty or sixty hours on end. Initially monochrome, different colours were gradually introduced to the nets. Though these paintings took a toll on Kusama’s mental health, they enabled her to explore notions of infinity, accumulation and immersion, an exploration which would continue to inform her work for decades to come. Certainly, repetitive pattern would become integral to her visual vocabulary. Having produced art for over eight decades, Kusama’s oeuvre naturally transcends the confines of a specific art

38 Yayoi Kusama Pumpkin (Yellow Y) かぼちゃ(黃) 1992 screenprint on paper, 83/120 signed Yayoi Kusama, dated 1992 and inscribed 83/120/かぼちゃ(黃) in graphite lower edge 630 × 730mm est Webb's

$75,000 — $95,000 November

movement or an individual cause. Yet she has consistently sought to respond to the human experience – both personal and collective. Kusama explains: “In creating art pieces, I translate a number of images and ideas existing within myself into works, not just covering canvases with paints.”² Indeed, the recurrent polka dot is often discussed in terms of Kusama’s early hallucinations, but also explores our place in the universe and concepts of infinity. Especially when combined with a matching outfit, fullscale polka-dot installations, such as Dots Obsession (1996), work to assimilate or obliterate the artist and/or participant into their environment. A similar effect is achieved in this untitled ink drawing from 1970. The figures are formed using the same methodical striped pattern, in the same colours, as the work’s border. Without the strong blue outlines, the figurative forms would be almost totally enveloped into the pattern. While this work is connected to Kusama’s New York work both visually and politically, Pumpkin (Yellow Y) かぼちゃ(黃) (1992) was produced almost twenty years after she returned to Japan in 1973, eventually voluntarily residing in a Tokyo psychiatric hospital and working in a nearby studio. Though her provincial Japanese upbringing meant familial resistance to her artistic pursuits, it also greatly informed Kusama’s practice. Her soft sculptures of phallic-shaped protuberances introduced to the New York art scene in 1961, for example, were psychosomatic responses to the repressive, negative attitude to sex proffered by her education and home environment. Both polka dot and pumpkin are motifs deeply rooted in Kusama’s psyche, and constant players in her oeuvre. Kusama’s autobiography Infinity Net (2002) recalls her first encounter with a pumpkin, visiting a seed-harvesting ground with her grandfather near her childhood home in Matsumoto, Japan. She was drawn to their solidity, their humorous form, their human-like curvature. Indeed, the screen print Pumpkin (Yellow Y) かぼちゃ(黃) does not depict a perfect gourd, but rather an asymmetrical form, weighty and uneven. The varying size of the adorning dots creates quintessentially Kusama modelling. The polka-dot pattern has subconsciously but consistently appeared in Kusama’s oeuvre, beginning with childhood drawings of her mother covered in spots. Ever since, the pattern has been embraced by Kusama as her trademark.³ “Bring on Picasso, bring on Matisse, bring on anybody,” Kusama challenges. “I would stand up to them all with a single polka dot.”⁴ But while both the untitled work and Pumpkin (Yellow Y) かぼちゃ(黃) demonstrate Kusama’s embrace of repetition, pattern and motif, in no sense does her work feel stagnant or exhausted. “From the point of view of one who creates,” Kusama explains, “everything is a gamble, a leap into the unknown.”⁵

39 Yayoi Kusama untitled 無題 1970 ink on paper signed YAYOI KUSAMA and dated 1970 in ink upper right; signed YAYOI KUSAMA and dated -70 in ink lower left 760 × 560mm est

$100,000 — $200,000

1 Yayoi Kusama, Infinity Net, trans. Ralph McCarthy (London: Tate Publishing, 2011), 126. 2 Seung-duk Kim, Yayoi Kusama (Paris: Les presses du reel/Janvier, Studio Kusama, 2001), 36. 3 Kusama, Infinity Net, 102. 4

Ibid., 24.

Ibid., 126.

Webb's

2020

40 Shane Cotton Proverbs 2009 acrylic on linen signed S.Cotton, dated 2009 and inscribed Proverbs in brushpoint lower right 2000 × 1500mm est $60,000 — $80,000 Provenance Private collection, Wellington. Acquired from Hamish McKay Gallery, Wellington, 2009. Webb's

November

Exhibitions Shane Cotton: The Hanging Sky, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney, City Gallery Wellington Te Whare Toi, Wellington, Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, Chistchurch, 2013. Literature Justin Paton, Elliott Weinberger, Geraldine Kirrihi Barlow and Robert Leonard, Shane Cotton: The Hanging Sky (Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, 2013), 93. 98

41 Pat Hanly Pacific Hope Vessel 1984 oil on board signed Hanly and dated 84 in brushpoint lower right; signed HANLY, dated 84. and inscribed “PACIFIC HOPE VESSEL.” in ink verso 840 × 1190mm est $130,000 — $160,000 Exhibitions The Fire This Time, Fisher Gallery, Auckland; 7 June - 5 July 1987.

Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Webb's

2020

Pat Hanly – Pacific Hope Vessel Essay by NEIL TALBOT

The clear white-sailed yacht pushes forward into a fiery conflagration. The painting is passionate, red, full of gusto and bold colour; the statement clear and concise. Yet, as the title reiterates, there is also a profound sense of the possibility of positive outcomes founded on hope: ‘David’ may vanquish ‘Goliath’; hope may quench the fire. Webb's

November

100

The mid 1980s were a period of significant political, social and economic change in New Zealand. One issue that grew to enjoy a hitherto unprecedented level of consensus was our anti-nuclear stance. Whereas the preceding years had been characterised by various forms of civil protest on this and other contentious issues, the declaration of the country as nuclear free in 1987 became a matter of national pride and collective agreement after a decade of social division. Galvanised perhaps by the French foreign intelligence services’ bombing of the Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior and the death of crew member Fernando Pereira on 10 July 10 1985, the notion of the South Pacific ‘David’ standing firm against the ‘Goliath’ of the Western nuclear powers took popular hold. Such a level of national unity marked a shift from the fraught response earlier to visits of military vessels such as HMS Invincible or Regent or the USS Pintato, Queenfish, Texas or Truxton. A pacifist, Pat Hanly was active in the Peace Movement for many years, including as a founding member of VAANA (Visual Artists Against Nuclear Arms). Coinciding with this was his revisiting of his first major series, the Fire works produced in London in 1959 and 1960. The Fire This Time series was executed between 1984 and 1986, and can be seen as having a direct and polemical message and intent. This is especially true of those works undertaken around the time of the bombing at Auckland’s Marsden Wharf. Pacific Hope Vessel is one of these charged paintings, dated a year before the Rainbow Warrior bombing. While it is an overtly political painting and a call to action, it is important to register that the fundamental attitude Hanly promotes is that of hope, as stated so plainly in the title. The clear white-sailed yacht pushes forward into a fiery conflagration. The painting is passionate, red, full of gusto and bold colour; the statement clear and concise. Yet, as the title reiterates, there is also a profound sense of the possibility of positive outcomes founded on hope: ‘David’ may vanquish ‘Goliath’; hope may quench the fire. To this end, it is a remarkably optimistic painting while still responding to a real and terrible threat. “Hanly believed in the capacity of art to be a provocation as well as an inspiration; the role of the artist, here and elsewhere, was to call the population to attention and to – in the parlance of the time – ‘raise consciousness’.”¹ In a very real way, this optimism in the face of the most unimaginable horror is reflective of the climate of unity, defiance and hope that came to characterise the national psyche with respect to the nuclear-free issue. As Hanly commented to dealer Rodney Kirk Smith: “We are looking toward a Pacific free of nuclear fire, the holocaust – which was what the first Fire series was really about – just that.”² he joyous declaration of Hanly’s VAANA mural “No nuclear fire for Amber” on the Karangahape Road reservoir is treated more allegorically in this painting, but the underpinning and defining quality of hope is similarly assured.

41 Pat Hanly Pacific Hope Vessel 1984 oil on board signed Hanly and dated 84 in brushpoint lower right; signed HANLY, dated 84. and inscribed “PACIFIC HOPE VESSEL.” in ink verso 840 × 1190mm est

$120,000 — $160,000

1 Gregory O'Brien, Pat Hanly, (Auckland: Ron Sang Publications 2012), 122. 2 “The Barry Lett Gallery and RKS Art: Two Decades: A Conversation with Pat Hanly,” Art New Zealand 35 (Winter 1985), 50-53; 51. Webb's

2020

101

42 Ralph Hotere Black Window - Mungo at Aramoana 1982 oil based enamel on board; villa sash window frame signed Hotere, dated '82 and inscribed Port Chalmers in brushpoint lower right; inscribed BLACK WINDOW in brushpoint upper left; inscribed MUNGO at Aramoana in brushpoint lower left; inscribed 22 1/4/34 in ink verso 1040 × 660mm est $80,000 — $120,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Acquired from Brooke/Gifford Gallery, Christchurch, 1982. Webb's

November

Exhibitions Towards Aramoana, Black Windows, Brook/Gifford Gallery, Christchurch, 1982. 102

43 Ralph Hotere Port Chalmers 1984 oil-based enamel on stainless steel, Roger Hickin frame signed Hotere, dated '84 and inscribed Port Chalmers/Ninteen Eighty Four in brushpoint lower edge; signed Ralph Hotere and inscribed Port Chalmers in ink verso 770 Ă&#x2014; 770mm est $60,000 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; $80,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Acquired from Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, c1988. Webb's

2020

103

Ralph Hotere – Visual Kind of Starvation Essay by SAMANTHA TAYLOR

42 Ralph Hotere Black Window Mungo at Aramoana 1982 oil based enamel on board; villa sash window frame signed Hotere, dated '82 and inscribed Port Chalmers in brushpoint lower right; inscribed BLACK WINDOW in brushpoint upper left; inscribed MUNGO at Aramoana in brushpoint lower left; inscribed 22 1/4/34 in ink verso 1040 × 660mm est Webb's

$80,000 — $120,000 November

Hone Papita Ruakura “Ralph” Hotere (Te Aupōuri, Te Rarawa) was born in Mitimiti, a small settlement on the Hokianga Harbour, Northland in 1931. He initially studied art at the Dunedin School of Art in 1952, and later was granted a fellowship that supported him to study at the Central School of Art and Design in London. He travelled through Europe and was influenced by the development of contemporary movements – pop and op art. He returned to Dunedin in 1965 and was the Frances Hodgkins Fellow at the University of Otago in 1969. Hotere’s Black Window series found its impetus in a significant event in New Zealand’s cultural history: the Save Aramoana campaign that commenced in 1974 and stood in opposition to the planned construction of an aluminium smelter at the Aramoana settlement on the Otago Peninsula. The campaign was motivated by the fact that the development of the smelter would displace the communities of both Aramoana and the nearby village of Te Ngaru, and it resulted in the settlement’s reactionary measure of declaring itself a sovereign state, a ‘micro nation’ with its own border posts and passports, on 23 December 1980. The campaign would eventually prevail over the movement to build the smelter and, to Hotere, the events that unfolded in Aramoana were significant not because of the fact that a small community eventually triumphed over a much larger oppressor, but rather because the campaign’s central concern was the right of an Indigenous community to self-determination. In Hotere’s work, the references to Aramoana do not simply refer to a conflict over an aluminium smelter. Instead, the Aramoana threat was emblematic of the plight that the tangata whenua continue to face under the system of governance imposed by the Treaty of Waitangi. Like a functional architectural window, Black Window – Mungo at Aramoana (1982) seeks to present the viewer with a carefully selected vantage on a world outside of their own immediate physical environment. The work presents a bleak outlook, with the harsh metallic picture plane against a black ground. The colour black has a ubiquitous presence in Hotere’s practice – the artist’s friend and colleague, Hone Tuwhare, refers to its presence as a “visual kind of starvation”¹ – and in Black Window – Mungo at Aramoana the dark matter is held up like a blockade and denies the viewer any scenery or perspective. While Ralph Hotere’s practice is deeply politicised, it was not until the early 1980s, when his Black Window series was produced, that he openly engaged with contemporary political discourse. Prior to this, the concerns echoed in Black Window were present, however they were often hidden behind a complex set of reference points. For example, Hotere’s Black Paintings of the late 1960s and early 1970s engaged with the aroha of the tangata whenua by constructing a waiata from abstract visual harmonics; and his Sangro series of the late 1970s engaged with the issue of self-determination by recalling the death of his brother Jack in the Second World War. Black is absolute. Set at the end of the chromatic scale, it forms the boundary to hues both warm and cold and, depending on the mattness or glossiness of its application, it can negate or synthesise colour. This idea is boldly illustrated in the lustrous lacquer surfaces that constitute Ralph Hotere’s Black Paintings. This series of minimal, emblematic paintings engaged with many of the formal devices that would become defining features of the artist’s practice. In Hotere’s Black Paintings, line, colour and black harmoniously converge to create a works of exquisite detail and beauty. Hotere’s Black Window paintings were a departure from his earlier practice because their message was not infused into lush visual heraldry. Rather than quietly persuading the viewer as to the merits of its cause, Black Window – Mungo at Aramoana gives physical form to the unequal power relationship that is the basis of New Zealand’s nationhood. Mungo National Park is a protected reserve in South Western New South Wales, Eastern Australia. Here significant archaeological discoveries of ancient human remains have taken place, termed the ‘Mungo Man’ and 104

the ‘Mungo Lady’; the Mungo Lady is one of the world’s oldest cremations. “Hotere visited the site in 1982 with a group of archaeologist friends. The names and colours of the gold, red ochre and grey layers of sand that have formed on the lakeshore find their way into Hotere’s images: Mungo, Zanci, Gol Gol.”² The reference to this ancient being is perhaps a comment on our temporal existence: the fiery inferno of the aluminium smelter a cremation of atoms and transformation. Port Chalmers (1984) is a slightly later work that, like many of his works that year, riffs off George Orwell’s classic novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. The steel surface of this work is glossy in areas, reflecting the viewer; in other areas an expressive burnishing creates a charged energy – perhaps symbolic of Orwell’s dystopia and a reflection of political issues that were infiltrating the artist’s thoughts. Nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll would inspire another series of works that started in 1984. Through all of Hotere’s works we see a deep connection to Aotearoa and the land here, his works offer a window into his poetic understanding of the world around him. This glimpse of understanding also poses a line of questioning in which his highly reflective surfaces will sit before us as a mirror, forcing the viewer to be within and seek beyond the work before them.

$60,000 — $80,000

1 Hone Tuwhare, Deep River Talk: Collected Poems, (Auckland: Godwit Press, 1993) 51. 2 Kriselle Baker, Ralph Hotere, (Auckland: Ron Sang Publications, 2008,) 169. Webb's

2020

105

44 Doris Lusk Mikinui and Amuri Bluff 1972 watercolour and paper collage on paper signed D Lusk and dated 1972 in brushpoint lower right 530 Ă&#x2014; 790mm est $6,000 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; $8,000 Provenance Private collection, Wellington. Webb's

November

106

45 Séraphine Pick And Be With You 2010 oil on linen signed S Pick and dated 2010 in brushpoint lower right 650 × 2000mm est $60,000 — $80,000 Provenance Private collection, Wellington. Acquired Hamish McKay Gallery, Wellington, 2010. Webb's

2020

Exhibitions Pocket Full of Rainbows, Hamish McKay Gallery, Wellington, 2010. 107

46 Pat Hanly New Order 47, Part II 1963 oil on canvas on board signed Hanly, dated 63 and inscribed New Order 47. Part II in brushpoint upper left 720 × 595mm est $60,000 — $80,000

Exhibitions Almost Blue, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, 20 Feburary - 16 March 2019.

Provenance Gow Family collection, Auckland.

Literature Gregory O'Brien, Pat Hanly (Auckland: Ron Sang Publications, 2012), 58.

Webb's

November

108

47 Colin McCahon Manukau 2 1954 watercolour and gouache on paper signed McCahon, dated Jan 54 and inscribed Manukau 2 in brushpoint lower left 534 × 730mm est $45,000 — $65,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Webb's

2020

Exhibitions The Group Show, Durham Street Art Gallery, Christchurch, 2 - 17 November 1954. Literature Peter Simpson, Colin McCahon: The Titirangi Years, 1953–1959 (Auckland: Auckland University Press, 2008), 84; Marja Bloem and Martin Browne, Colin McCahon: A Question of Faith (Nelson: Craig Potton, 2002), 180. 109

48 Julia Morison Myriorama OEAEO 2008 gesso, acrylic, ink, synthetic wax finish on aluminium and polyurethane laminate signed Julia Morison on artist's label affixed verso 1700 × 905mm (widest points)

49 Michael Smither Red Yacht 2015 alkyd on canvas signed M.D. Smither in brushpoint verso; inscribed RED YACHT (From Gone Fishing Series) Exhibited Feb-Mar 2018/Signed: M.D.Smither/Alkyd on canvas/2015/Inscribed, signed verso beneath frame in ink in another hand on Diversion Gallery label affixed verso 750 × 750mm

est $15,000 — $25,000

est $15,000 — $18,000

Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Acquired from 64zero3, Christchurch, 2008.

Provenance Private collection, Wellington.

Exhibitions Myriorama:01, 64zero3, Christchurch, 2008. Webb's

November

Exhibitions Pleasure Boats – Michael Smither 2018, The Diversion Gallery, Picton, 14 February - 10 March 2018. 110

50 Milan Mrkusich Three Part Painting (Alchemical) Version I 1993 dated '93 and inscribed THREE PART PAINTING (Alchemical) 1993 Version I/First Panel in graphite verso; inscribed THREE PART PAINTING (Alchemical) 1993/Version I/Centre Panel in graphite verso; inscribed THREE PART PAINTING (Alchemical) 1993/Version I/End Panel in ink verso 460 × 460mm (each panel)

51 Billy Apple untitled c2018 pigment ink on canvas 800 × 1800mm

est $22,000 — $28,000

Provenance Private collection, Auckland.

Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Acquired from Sue Crockford Gallery, Auckland, 2002.

Exhibitions From the Billy Apple Collection, Hamish Mckay Gallery, Wellington, 11 May - 2 June 2018.

Webb's

2020

est $30,000 — $60,000

111

Billy Apple â&#x20AC;&#x201C; untitled Essay by SYLVIA BURGESS

Apple has always found himself in the thick of pop-art history making, graduating from the RCA alongside Derek Boshier, David Hockney, Allen Jones, R. B. Kitaj and other rising British pop artists. On his arrival in New York, he immediately slotted into the booming world of pop art. Webb's

November

112

Produced in 2018, this untitled work by Billy Apple references many aspects of the artist’s long career as one of the most remarkable artists in Aotearoa. Vibrant green on a white background, bearing the artist's name, the apple is a careful study of aesthetics, designed through the application of Fibonacci’s sequence, or the golden ratio. Originally designed with Saatchi and Saatchi’s Derek Lockwood, this apple motif marks the evolution of Billy Apple not just as an artist but also as a brand. This is made clear here with the copyright symbol to the lower right of the apple, referencing the artist’s long exploration of copyright and artists’ legal rights to their creations and ideas. Born Barrie Bates in Auckland in 1935, Apple’s transformation came not long after his graduation from the Royal College of Arts in London. Aided by a can of Lady Clairol Instant Crème Whip, used to bleach the artist’s eyebrows and hair, Billy Apple was born. The choice of apple is significant, selected by the artist as a reference to Apple records and prior to the now saturated Apple computer logo. Billy Apple recognised the alluring draw of the simple fruit, so tempting it led to the first recorded sin. The work is undoubtedly pop in its aesthetic and sits within the language of branding and advertising. Apple has always found himself in the thick of pop-art history making, graduating from the RCA alongside Derek Boshier, David Hockney, Allen Jones, R. B. Kitaj and other rising British pop artists. On his arrival in New York, he immediately slotted into the booming world of pop art. Apple holds the significant title of being the only artist from the Southern Hemisphere to have exhibited in the iconic American Supermarket exhibition at the Bianchini Gallery. This show was a who's who of great pop artists at the time and introduced the wider public to the genre. Presented as a supermarket, all products available for purchase were made by artists including Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns and New Zealand’s own Billy Apple. Apple’s contributions included a half-eaten watermelon slice made of bronze and of course his apples, presented on badges, not yet pared back to the iconic motif we see on this canvas today. Since moving back to New Zealand Apple has further developed his image as the artist-as-brand. In the early 2000s he experimented with making a genetically modified ‘Billy’ apple that would grow into the proportions of the golden ratio. He officially trademarked his name in 2008 and now has a line of ciders all bearing the same iconic apple logo. Although simple, this work references a decades-long refinement of a career that has established artist-as-brand and artist-as-commodity. Clearly referencing pop imagery, this work also interrogates many of the current dilemmas of the art world. Do you buy the work or the artist's name? Is the value in the idea or the aesthetic? This is all done through a clean logo of an apple bearing the artist’s name, repeated in the two half apples, cut off as if to show there is a continuation of Billy Apple’s work extending beyond the canvas.

51 Billy Apple untitled c2018 pigment ink on canvas 800 × 1800mm est

Webb's

$30,000 — $60,000

2020

113

52 Bill Hammond untitled 1995 oil on canvas, pvc piping and rope signed W D Hammond and dated 1995 in brushpoint 6420 Ă&#x2014; 3210mm (widest points) est $35,000 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; $55,000 Provenance Private collection, Canterbury. Webb's

November

114

53 Ralph Hotere untitled 1992 pastel and watercolour on paper signed Hotere and dated '92 in graphite lower right 755 × 525mm

54 Geoff Thornley Risen 1972 acrylic on paper signed Thornley, dated 1972 and inscribed “Risen”. papalangi Series no. 1 42'42. in brushpoint verso 1445 × 1070mm

est $15,000 — $25,000 est $6,000 — $12,000 Provenance Private collection, Christchurch. Gifted by the artist, 1992. Webb's

2020

Provenance Private collection, Auckland. 115

56 Peter McIntyre The Manaburn Dam - Central Otago ink and watercolour on paper signed Peter McIntyre in brushpoint lower right 515 × 745mm

57 J C Hoyte Auckland Harbour from Midway Between Flagstaff & O'Neill's Point c1870 watercolour on paper signed JC Hoyte in brushpoint lower left 335 × 535mm

est $15,000 — $25,000

Webb's

November

116

58 Ralph Hotere Port Chalmers 1989 oil based enamel and burnished steel on board signed Hotere, dated '89 and inscribed Port Chalmers in brushpoint lower left; signed Hotere, dated '89 and inscribed OPUTAE PORT CHALMERS in ink verso 645 × 705mm

59 Robert Ellis Rakaumangamanga 1983 oil on canvas signed Robert Ellis, dated 24 Akuhata 1983 and inscribed Rakaumangamanga with incision upper left 1720 × 1885mm

est $35,000 — $65,000

est $15,000 — $25,000

Webb's

2020

117

Better furniture, for hire.

www.arkade.co.nz

Terms and Conditions The terms and conditions of sale listed here contain the policies of Webb’s Ltd. They are the terms on which Webb’s Ltd and the Seller contract with the Buyer. They may be amended by printed Saleroom Notices or oral announcements made before and during the sale. By bidding at auction you agree to be bound by these terms.

1. Background to the Terms used in these Conditions

The property is otherwise sold “AS IS”

The conditions that are listed below contain terms that are used regularly and may need explanation. They are as follows:

2. Catalogue and Other Descriptions All statements by Webb’s in the catalogue entry for the property or in the condition report, or made orally or in writing elsewhere, are statements of opinion and are not to be relied upon as statements of fact. Such statements do not constitute a representation, warranty or assumption of liability by Webb’s of any kind. References in the catalogue entry to the condition report to damage or restoration are for guidance only and should be evaluated by personal inspection by the bidder or a knowledgeable representative. The absence of such a reference does not imply that an item is free from defects or restoration, nor does a reference to particular defects imply the absence of any others. Estimates of the selling price should not be relied on as a statement that this is the price at which the item will sell or it’s value for any other purpose. Neither Webb’s nor The Seller is responsible for any errors or omissions in the catalogue or any supplemental material.

“the Buyer” means the person with the highest bid accepted by the Auctioneer. “the Lot” means any item depicted within the sale for auction and in particular the item or items described against any lot number in the catalogue. “the Hammer price” means the amount of the highest bid accepted by the auctioneer in relation to a lot. “the Buyer’s Premium” means the charge payable by the Buyer to the auction house as a percentage of the hammer price. “the Reserve” means the lowest amount at which Webb’s has agreed with the Seller that the lot can be sold. “Forgery” means an item constituting an imitation originally conceived and executed as a whole, with a fraudulent intention to deceive as to authorship, origin, age, period, culture or source, where the correct description as to such matters is not reflected by the description in the catalogue. Accordingly no lot shall be capable of being a forgery by reason of any damage or restoration work of any kind (Including re-painting). “the insured value” means the amount that Webb’s in its absolute discretion from time to time shall consider the value for which a lot should be covered for insurance (whether or not insurance is arranged by Webb’s). All values expressed in Webb’s Ltd catalogues (in any format) are in New Zealand Dollars (NZD$). All bids, “hammer price”, “reserves”, “Buyers Premium” and other expressions of value are understood by all parties to be in New Zealand Dollars (NZD$) unless otherwise specified. 2.

Webb’s Auctions as Agent

Except as otherwise stated Webb’s Ltd acts as agent for the Seller. The contract for the sale of the property is therefore made between the Seller and the Buyer. 3.

Before the Sale

3.1. Examination of Property Prospective Buyers are strongly advised to examine in person any property in which they are interested before the Auction takes place. Neither Webb’s nor the Seller provides any guarantee in relation to the nature of the property apart from the Limited warranty in the paragraph below.

Webb's

2020

Images are measured height by width (sight size). Illustrations are provided only as a guide and should not be relied upon as a true representation of colour or condition. Images are not shown at a standard scale. Mention is rarely made of frames (which may be provided as supplementary images on the website) which do not form part of the lot as described in the printed catalogue. An item bought “on Extension” must be paid for in full before it will be released to the purchaser or his/her agreed expertising committee or specialist. Payments received for such items will be held “in trust” for up to 90 days or earlier, if the issue of authenticity has been resolved more quickly. Extensions must be requested before the auction. Foreign buyers should note that all transactions are in New Zealand Dollars so there may be a small exchange rate risk. The costs associated with acquiring a good opinion or certificate will be carried by the purchaser. If the item turns out to be forged or otherwise incorrectly described, all reasonable costs will be borne by the vendor. 3. Buyers Responsibility All property is sold “as is” without representation or warranty of any kind by Webb’s or the Seller. Buyers are responsible for satisfying themselves concerning the condition of the property and the matters referred to in the catalogue by requesting a condition report. No lot to be rejected if, subsequent to the sale, it has been immersed

119

in liquid or treated by any other process unless the Auctioneer’s permission to subject the lot to such immersion or treatment has first been obtained in writing. 4.

At the Sale

4.1. Refusal of Admission Webb’s reserves the right at our complete discretion to refuse admission to the auction premises or participation in any auction and to reject any bid. 4.2. Registration Before Bidding Any prospective new buyer must complete and sign a registration form and provide photo identification before bidding. Webb’s may request bank, trade or other financial references to substantiate this registration. 4.3. Bidding as a Principal When making a bid, a bidder is accepting personal liability to pay the purchase price including the buyer’s premium and all applicable taxes, plus all other applicable charges, unless it has been explicitly agreed in writing with Webb’s before the commencement of the sale that the bidder is acting as agent on behalf of an identified third party acceptable to Webb’s and that Webb’s will only look to the principal for payment. 4.4. International Registrations All International clients not known to Webb’s will be required to scan or fax through an accredited form of photo identification and pay a deposit at our discretion in cleared funds into Webb’s account at least 24 hours before the commencement of the auction. Bids will not be accepted without this deposit. Webb’s also reserves the right to request any additional forms of identification prior to registering an overseas bid. This deposit can be made using a credit card, however the balance of any purchase price in excess of $5,000 cannot be charged to this card without prior arrangement. This deposit is redeemable against any auction purchase and will be refunded in full if no purchases are made. 4.5. Absentee Bids Webb’s will use reasonable efforts to execute written bids delivered to us AT LEAST 24 Hours before the sale for the convenience of those clients who are unable to attend the auction in person. If we receive identical written bids on a particular lot, and at the auction these are the highest bids on that lot, then the lot will be sold to the person whose written bid was received and accepted first. Execution of written bids is a free service undertaken subject to other commitments at the time of the sale and we do not accept liability for failing to execute a written bid or for errors

Webb's

or omissions which may arise. It is the bidder’s responsibility to check with Webb’s after the auction if they were successful. Unlimited or “Buy” bids will not be accepted. 4.6. Telephone Bids Priority will be given to overseas and bidders from other regions. Please refer to the catalogue for the Telephone Bids form. Arrangements for this service must be confirmed AT LEAST 24 HOURS PRIOR to the auction commencing. Webb’s accepts no responsibility whatsoever for any errors or failure to execute bids. In telephone bidding the buyer agrees to be bound by all terms and conditions listed here and accepts that Webb’s cannot be held responsible for any miscommunications in the process. The success of telephone bidding cannot be guaranteed due to circumstances that are unforeseen. Buyers should be aware of the risk and accept the consequences should contact be unsuccessful at the time of Auction. You must advise Webb’s of the lots in question and you will be assumed to be a buyer at the minimum price of 75% of estimate (i.e. reserve) for all such lots. Webb’s will advise Telephone Bidders who have registered at least 24 hours before the auction of any relevant changes to descriptions, withdrawals or any other sale room notices. 4.7. Online Bidding Webb’s offers an online bidding service. When bidding online the buyer agrees to be bound by all terms and conditions listed here by Webb’s. Webb’s accepts no responsibility for any errors, failure to execute bids or any other miscommunications regarding this process. It is the online bidder’s responsibility to ensure the accuracy of the relevant information regarding bids, lot numbers and contact details. Webb’s does not charge for this service. 4.8. Reserves Unless otherwise indicated, all lots are offered subject to a reserve, which is the confidential minimum price below which the Lot will not be sold. The reserve will not exceed the low estimate printed in the catalogue. The auctioneer may open the bidding on any Lot below the reserve by placing a bid on behalf of the Seller. The auctioneer may continue to bid on behalf of seller up to the amount of the reserve, either by placing consecutive bids or by placing bids in response to other bidders. 4.9. Auctioneers Discretion The Auctioneer has the right at his/ her absolute and sole discretion to refuse any bid, to advance the bidding in such a manner as he/she may decide, to withdraw or divide any lot, to combine any two or more lots and, in the case or error or dispute and whether during or

November

after the sale, to determine the successful bidder, to continue the bidding, to cancel the sale or to reoffer and resell the item in dispute. If any dispute arises after the sale, then Webb’s sale record is conclusive. 4.10. Successful Bid and Passing of Risk Subject to the auctioneer’s discretion, the highest bidder accepted by the auctioneer will be the buyer and the striking of his hammer marks the acceptance of the highest bid and the conclusion of a contract for sale between the Seller and the Buyer. Risk and responsibility for the lot (including frames or glass where relevant) passes immediately to the Buyer. 4.11. Indicative Bidding Steps, etc. Webb’s reserves the right to refuse any bid, withdraw any lot from sale, to place a reserve on any lot and to advance the bidding according to the following indicative steps: Increment Dollar Range Amount $20 $0–$500 $50 $500–$1,000 $100 $1,000–$2,000 $200 $2,000–$5,000 $500 $5,000–$10,000 $1,000 $10,000–$20,000 $2,000 $20,000–$50,000 $5,000 $50,000 – $100,000 $10,000 $100,000–$200,000 $20,000 $200,000–$500,000 $50,000 $500,000–$1,000,000 Absentee bids must follow these increments and any bids that don’t follow the steps will be rounded up to the nearest acceptable bid. 5.

After the Sale

5.1. Buyers Premium In addition to the hammer price, the buyer agrees to pay to Webb’s the buyer’s premium. The buyer’s premium is 17.5% of the hammer price plus GST. (Goods and Services Tax) where applicable. 5.2. Payment and Passing of Title The buyer must pay the full amount due (comprising the hammer price, buyer’s premium and any applicable taxes and GST) not later than 5 days after the auction date. The buyer will not acquire title to the lot until Webb’s receives full payment in cleared funds, and no goods under any circumstances will be released without confirmation of cleared funds received. This applies even if the buyer wishes to send items overseas. Payment can be made by direct transfer, cash (not exceeding NZD$10,000, if wishing to pay more than NZD$10,000 then this must be deposited directly into a Bank of New Zealand branch and bank receipt supplied) and EFTPOS (please check the daily limit). Payments can also be made by credit card in person

with a 2.2% merchant fee for Visa and Mastercard and 3.3% for American Express. Invoices that are in excess of $5,000 and where the card holder is not present, cannot be charged to a credit card without prior arrangement. Personal cheques are accepted, but funds must be cleared before goods will be released. Bank cheques are subject to five days clearance. The buyer is responsible for any bank fees and charges applicable for the transfer of funds into Webb’s account. 5.3. Collection of Purchases & Insurance Webb’s is entitled to retain items sold until all amounts due to us have been received in full in good cleared funds. Subject to this, the Buyer shall collect purchased lots within 5 days from the date of the sale unless otherwise agreed in writing between Webb’s and the Buyer. At the fall of the hammer, insurance is the responsibility of the purchaser. 5.4. Packing, Handling and Shipping Webb’s will be able to suggest removals companies that the buyer can use but takes no responsibility whatsoever for the actions of any recommended third party. Webb’s can pack and handle goods purchased at the auction by agreement and a charge will be made for this service. All packing, shipping, insurance, postage & associated charges will be borne by the purchaser. 5.5. Permits, Licences and Certificates Under The Protected Objects Act 1975, buyers may be required to obtain a licence for certain categories of items in a sale from the Ministry of Culture & Heritage, PO Box 5364, Wellington. 5.6. Remedies for Non-Payment If the Buyer fails to make full payment immediately, Webb’s is entitled to exercise one or more of the following rights or remedies (in addition to asserting any other rights or remedies available under the law) 5.6.1. to charge interest at such a rate as we shall reasonably decide. 5.6.2. to hold the defaulting Buyer liable for the total amount due and to commence legal proceedings for its recovery along with interest, legal fees and costs to the fullest extent permitted under applicable law. 5.6.3. to cancel the sale. 5.6.4. to resell the property publicly or privately on such terms as we see fit.

120

5.6.5. to pay the Seller an amount up to the net proceeds payable in respect of the amount bid by the defaulting Buyer. In these circumstances the defaulting Buyer can have no claim upon Webb’s in the event that the item(s) are sold for an amount greater than the original invoiced amount. 5.6.6. to set off against any amounts which Webb’s may owe the Buyer in any other transactions, the outstanding amount remaining unpaid by the Buyer. 5.6.7. where several amounts are owed by the Buyer to us, in respect of different transactions, to apply any amount paid to discharge any amount owed in respect of any particular transaction, whether or not the Buyer so directs. 5.6.8. to reject at any future auction any bids made by or on behalf of the Buyer or to obtain a deposit from the Buyer prior to accepting any bids. 5.6.9. to exercise all the rights and remedies of a person holding security over any property in our possession owned by the Buyer whether by way of pledge, security interest or in any other way, to the fullest extent permitted by the law of the place where such property is located. The Buyer will be deemed to have been granted such security to us and we may retain such property as collateral security for said Buyer’s obligations to us. 5.6.10. to take such other action as Webb’s deem necessary or appropriate. If we do sell the property under paragraph (4), then the defaulting Buyer shall be liable for payment of any deficiency between the total amount originally due to us and the price obtained upon reselling as well as for all costs, expenses, damages, legal fees and commissions and premiums of whatever kinds associated with both sales or otherwise arising from the default. If we pay any amount to the Seller under paragraph (5) the Buyer acknowledges that Webb’s shall have all of the rights of the Seller, however arising, to pursue the Buyer for such amount.

Webb's

5.7. Failure to Collect Purchases Where purchases are not collected within 5 days from the sale date, whether or not payment has been made, we shall be permitted to remove the property to a warehouse at the buyer’s expense, and only release the items after payment in full has been made of removal, storage handling, insurance and any other costs incurred, together with payment of all other amounts due to us. 6.

Extent of Webb’s Liability

Webb’s agrees to refund the purchase price in the circumstances of the Limited Warranty set out in paragraph 7 below. Apart from that, neither the Seller nor we, nor any of our employees or agents are responsible for the correctness of any statement of whatever kind concerning any lot, whether written or oral, nor for any other errors or omissions in description or for any faults or defects in any lots. Except as stated in paragraph 7 below, neither the Seller, ourselves, our officers, agents or employees give any representation warranty or guarantee or assume any liability of any kind in respect of any lot with regard to merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, description, size, quality, condition, attribution, authenticity, rarity, importance, medium, provenance, exhibition history, literature or historical relevance. Except as required by local law any warranty of any kind is excluded by this paragraph. 7.

Limited Warranty

Subject to the terms and conditions of this paragraph, the Seller warrants for the period of thirty days from the date of the sale that any property described in this catalogue (noting such description may be amended by any saleroom notice or announcement) which is stated without qualification to be the work of a named author or authorship is authentic and not a forgery. The term “Author” or “authorship” refers to the creator of the property or to the period, culture, source, or origin as the case may be, with which the creation of such property is identified in the catalogue. The warranty is subject to the following: it does not apply where a) the catalogue description or saleroom notice corresponded to the generally accepted opinion of scholars and experts at the date of the sale or fairly indicated that there was a conflict of opinions, or b) correct identification of a lot can be demonstrated only by means of a scientific process not generally accepted for use until after publication of the catalogue or a process which at the date of 2020

the publication of the catalogue was unreasonably expensive or impractical or likely to have caused damage to the property. the benefits of the warranty are not assignable and shall apply only to the original buyer of the lot as shown on the invoice originally issued by Webb’s when the lot was sold at Auction. the Original Buyer must have remained the owner of the lot without disposing of any interest in it to any third party. The Buyer’s sole and exclusive remedy against the Seller in place of any other remedy which might be available, is the cancellation of the sale and the refund of the original purchase price paid for the lot less the buyer’s premium which is non-refundable. Neither the Seller nor Webb’s will be liable for any special, incidental nor consequential damages including, without limitation, loss of profits. The Buyer must give written notice of claim to us within thirty days of the date of the Auction. The Seller shall have the right, to require the Buyer to obtain two written opinions by recognised experts in the field, mutually acceptable to the Buyer and Webb’s to decide whether or not to cancel the sale under warranty. the Buyer must return the lot to Seller in the same condition that it was purchased. 8. Severability If any part of these Conditions of Sale is found by any court to be invalid, illegal or unenforceable, that part shall be discounted and the rest of the Conditions shall continue to be valid to the fullest extent permitted by law. 9. Copyright

Webb’s publishes with each catalogue our opinion as to the estimated price range for each lot. These estimates are approximate prices only and are not intended to be definitive. They are prepared well in advance of the sale and may be subject to revision. Interested parties should contact Webb’s prior to auction for updated presale estimates and starting prices. 12.

Sale Results

Webb’s will provide auction results, which will be available as soon as possible after the sale. Results will include buyer’s premium. These results will be posted at www.webbs.co.nz. 13.

Goods and Service Tax

GST is applicable on the hammer price in the case where the seller is selling property that is owned by an entity registered for GST. GST is also applicable on the hammer price in the case where the seller is not a New Zealand resident. These lots are denoted by a dagger symbol † placed next to the estimate. GST is also applicable on the buyer’s premium. Overseas buyers and buyers nonresident in New Zealand will not be charged GST on both hammer price and premiums under the following conditions: 13.1. The items are exported through a Webb’s approved freight company including New Zealand Post 13.2. The items are exported within 60 days of the date of the sale. The invoice supplied by Webb’s for purchases will be regarded as a Tax invoice for GST purposes.

The copyright in all images, illustrations and written material produced by Webb’s relating to a lot including the contents of this catalogue, is and shall remain the property at all times of Webb’s and shall not be used by the Buyer, nor by anyone else without our prior written consent. Webb’s and the Seller make no representation or warranty that the Buyer of a property will acquire any copyright or other reproduction rights in it. 10.

Law and Jurisdiction

These terms and conditions and any matters concerned with the foregoing fall within the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of New Zealand, unless otherwise stated. 11.

Pre-Sale Estimates

121

Index of Artists

Apple, Billy 36, 111-113 Bambury, Stephen 46 Binney, Don 69-71, 90 Buchanan, Gary 27 Budd, L 72

Oldridge, Malachi

C Clairmont, Philip Cotton, Shane

79-81 98

P Palmer, Stanley 91 Pardington, Fiona 61-63 Parekōwhai, Michael 49-51, 53-55 Peebles, Don 82 Pick, Séraphine 107 R

Darragh, Judy

E Ellis, Robert

117

F Fomison, Tony Friedlander, Marti Frizzell, Dick Frizzell, Weston

75-77 44, 45 35, 60 35

G Gimblett, Max

30, 52, 65-67

H Hammond, Bill 31, 87-89, 114 Hanly, Pat 42, 99-101, 108 Hartigan, Paul 37 Hemer, André 48 Hotere, Ralph 74, 92-93, 102-105, 115, 117 Hoyte, J C 116 Hurley, Gavin 33

Rae, Jude Reynolds, John Robinson, Peter

60 32 56, 86

S Siddell, Peter 64 Smither, Michael 47, 83-85, 110 Stevenson, Michael 72 T Taylor, E Marvyn Thornley, Geoff Tibbo, Teuane Twiss, Greer

44 115 68 38

W Walters, Gordon White, Robin Wolfe, Pamela

43 42 34

I Illingworth, Michael

K Killeen, Richard Kregar, Gregor Kusama, Yayoi

57-59 39 94-97

L Lusk, Doris

106

M Maddox, Allen McCahon, Colin McIntyre, Peter Millar, Judy Morison, Julia

73 109 116 29, 78 110

N Nathan, Michael

Webb's

November

122

Absentee Bid Form

Auctions Private Sales Valuations +64 9 529 5600 auction@webbs.co.nz

In order to register to bid with Webb’s please complete this form and scan or email to auction@webbs.co.nz

33a Normanby Rd Mount Eden Auckland, 1024 New Zealand webbs.co.nz Name

Bidder #

(Please Print Clearly)

(Office Use Only)

Email (Please provide for invoice purposes)

Address (PO Box not sufficient)

City

Auction # & Title (Please Print Auction & Title Here)

Postcode Telephone Number(s)

(In Order of Preference)

Lot Number (in order)

Catalogue Description

Maximum Bid Not including buyer’s premium or GST

I authorise Webb’s to register bids on a per lot basis up to the maximum price I have indicated for each lot. I will not hold Webb’s responsible for any errors that occur. I understand that if my bid is successful, the purchase price will be the sum of my final bid plus the buyer’s premium of 17.5% of the final bid price plus any GST payable on the buyers premium, as indicated in the catalogue. GST will be charged on the buyer’s premium.

I have read and accepted Webb’s terms and conditions as printed in the catalogue and online at www.webbs.co.nz. Bids will not be processed unless this form is signed.

Signature

Date

VIP PREVIEW &

OPENING NIGHT WED 24 FEB

THE CLOUD /

2021

A K L W AT E R F R O N T

24 - 28 FEBRUARY

A considered selection of elevated home essentials fourth-st.com