04.07.22 Goods and Services Modern and Contemporary Art from a Private Collection 0644 Auction Catalogue July 2022 New Zealand and Australian Art
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DESIGN HIGHLIGHT
Serie Up 2000 armchair designed by Gaetano Pesce. www.bebitalia.com Since it was created in 1969, Gaetano Pesce’s ‘Up’ series has endured as a lasting expression of form and meaning within a design. Stemming from B&B Italia’s extensive technological innovations, it has evolved from a 60’s ‘Blow Up’ to a spectacular elasticized masterwork of polyurethane shaped injection molding. Particularly noteworthy within the series is the UP5_6 with its distinctive anthropomorphic references.
A metaphor encompassing the rounded shapes of ancient fertility goddesses embued with contemporary statements regarding the place of women in society. The ‘Up’ series is available to order exclusively at Matisse from the locations below. Auckland 99 The Strand, Parnell +64 9 302 2284 Christchurch 134 Victoria Street +64 3 366 0623 Queenstown 179a Glenda Drive +64 21 246 9980
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Developed in partnership by Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki and Te Papa.
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Freely distributed to subscribers or available at select public art spaces and hospitality venues.
Edition of 6,000 Offset printed, 184 pages 120gsm Laser Uncoated 150gsm Matt Art 8 fold-out sections
Publishing Contacts Head Office Paul Evans Managing Director paul@webbs.co.nz +64 21 866 000
Christine Kearney General Manager christine@webbs.co.nz +64 27 929 5604
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Holly Hart Jenkins Partnerships Manager holly@webbs.co.nz +64 27 557 5925
Olivia Woodgate Head of Creative design@webbs.co.nz +64 22 323 4919
Art Department Auckland
Wellington
Charles Ninow Director of Art charles@webbs.co.nz +64 21 053 6504
Adrienne (AD) Schierning Head of Art ad@webbs.co.nz +64 27 929 5609
Tasha Jenkins Specialist, Art tasha@webbs.co.nz +64 22 595 5610
Carey Young Specialist, Art carey@webbs.co.nz +64 21 368 348
Julian McKinnon Content & Research julian@webbs.co.nz +64 21 113 5001
Olivia Taylor Editor & Copywriter editor@webbs.co.nz +64 9 529 5600
Charles Tongue Valuations Specialist valuations@webbs.co.nz +64 22 406 5514
David Maskill Specialist, Art david@webbs.co.nz +64 27 256 0900
Lucinda Brown Cataloguer, Art lucinda@webbs.co.nz +64 9 529 5609
Alice Barrow Registrar, Art registrar@webbs.co.nz +64 9 529 5609
Jo Bragg Administrator, Art art@webbs.co.nz +64 9 529 5609
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Table of Contents
Journal 28 Foreword 44 Programme 47 List of Essays
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Plates 49 Terms & Conditions
162
Absentee Bid Form
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Timeline 166 Index of Artists
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Zeitgeist: The Mercedes-Benz 190SL
The 190SL (W 121) was launched by Mercedes-Benz at 25th International Motor Show in Geneva in March 1955. It was pitched as a more affordable alternative to its ‘elder sibling’ the Mercedes-Benz 300SL “Gullwing” (W 198) 1954, coming in at half the price. Together, these cars paved the way for the successful Mercedes-Benz SL tradition — culminating in the current AMG-SL (R232). Webb's
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Concept drawing for the 190SL (W121) by Walter Häcker, August 1954
Head body designer Walter Häcker (left) in a meeting with team at Sindelfingen plant, with a model of the 190SL, March 1955.
Caolán McAleer Head of Collectors’ Cars caolan@webbs.co.nz +64 27 929 5603
Ian Nott Specialist, Collectors’ Cars ian@webbs.co.nz +64 21 610 911
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The development of the 190SL roadster was defined by Austrian-born, New York-based Max Hoffman, who imported luxury European cars to the United States in the 1950s. Hoffman would make suggestions to Mercedes about what he believed the American market wanted. This led to the sales success of the 300SL, with more than 80% of the 300SL’s total production run of 1,400 sold in America. Hoffman was instrumental in changing the company’s image in America, from a manufacturer of solid but staid luxury automobiles to one capable of rendering high-performance sports cars. The Gullwing Coupé was based on a complex space frame chassis. Whereas the 190SL Cabriolet had the shortened floor assembly of the 180 Saloon model (W 120), paired with the additional self-supporting chassis-body structure. The car was designed as both comfortable and alluring – an open-top, two-seater for stylish travel. Mercedes Engineers Karl Wilfert and Walter Häcker designed the body with sporty lines, reminiscent of the 300SL. The 190SL was powered by the newly developed M 121, a 77 kW (105 hp) 1.9-litre four-cylinder engine with an overhead camshaft. Its top speed was a respectable 170 km/h – more than adequate for the roads of the fifties and sixties. Production of the 190SL commenced in 1955. Upon release, the car set an international standard for a culture of comfortable travel with sporty elegance. 25,881 units had been built by the time production ceased in 1963, most of which were dispatched to America. The 190SL is a crucial part of re-framing the American consciousness of Germany after WWII. This car embodies all the optimism and elegance of the 1950s, epitomising what we think of as ‘classic’. A 1963 Mercedes-Benz 190SL will be offered as part of our forthcoming Collectors’ Cars, Motorcycles & Automobilia auction in August. This is a headline event in the collectors’ car market, and further entries are welcome. Get in touch with our team of specialists for a complimentary appraisal. 29
A collection of 56 bottles of Penfold’s Grange price realised. $79,882
The Triumphant Collection of a Motorsports Mogul
In May, our Fine Wines & Whiskies Department had the pleasure of bringing its first-ever single-owner collection to auction. The Triumphant Collection of a Motorsports Mogul online auction ran from Thursday 12 May to Wednesday 18 May, hosting an array of exceptional wines and a small library of books. The sale grossed $162,735 for our vendor with a 93% sell-through rate and a 171% return on reserve. The collection consisted of multiple vintages of Te Mata Coleraine and a quality mix of other great value New Zealand, French and Italian wines. Sale highlights included an epic 60 bottle selection of Penfolds Grange, which featured 36 vintages from 1955 to 2002. All bottlings had impeccable fill levels, and many had been through the Penfolds Grange Clinics for evaluation, top-up and re-corking. One bottle of 1984 boasted the autograph of Penfolds first Chief Winemaker and Grange creator, Max Schubert. 56 bottles of Grange sold and together achieved $79,882, blitzing the low estimate of $56,650.
Chief Winemaker and Grange creator, Max Schubert
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The legacy of our consignor is as triumphant as the auction. As a major importer of Vespa bikes since the 1970s, his family enterprise now has 72 dealerships nationwide and represents 14 brands. Our vendor’s fascination with motorcycles has long been paired with his fascination for wine. He began earnestly collecting the Grange, the ‘King of Australian Wines’, from 1969 onwards. After moving to New Zealand, he also started collecting the ‘King of New Zealand Wines’ – Te Mata Coleraine. Webb’s considers a variety of factors when consigning wines for our auctions, including where they have been sourced and cellared. The provenance of this large collection was revealed in detailed records held by the collector, who had sincerely cared for the wines. They were held in optimal conditions, preserving the flavours and value of the bottlings. The vendor’s commitment to his wine collection, along with our market-leading approach to auctioning specialist items, culminated in brilliant sale results. Webb’s was proud to host such a unique collection and looks forward to further single-owner successes in the future. If you are thinking of bringing your wine or whiskey collection to market, please contact our specialist team.
“56 bottles of Grange sold and achieved $79,882, blitzing the low estimate of $56,650” — Marcus Atkinson DipWSET, Head of Fine Wines & Whiskies
Marcus Atkinson DipWSET Head of Fine Wines & Whiskies marcus@webbs.co.nz +64 27 929 5601 Webb's
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Marshell Wan Specialist, Fine Wines & Whiskies marshell@webbs.co.nz +64 22 061 5612 31
Whakapakoko Rakau: Tools of Divination
Aotearoa is blessed with an extraordinarily rich material culture. From pounamu patu to wooden whakairo, Māori artefacts are among the world’s most well-crafted and aesthetically beautiful traditional handicrafts. Some of these items are referred to as taonga (treasure). While these objects are easy to appreciate from an artistic perspective, they are also entwined with deep cultural meaning and significance. The whakapakoko rākau (god stick) is a carved, ceremonial item, which was used for healing or protection. According to Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, the whakapakoko rākau “[…]was used as a temporary shrine for an atua (deity) by tohunga ahurewa (priestly experts). Tohunga were often responsible for healing people, and sometimes used god sticks to concentrate the power of a particular deity.” The pointed end would be placed into the ground, standing the whakapakoko rākau upright, concentrating spiritual power as the tohunga ahurewa performed their act of healing or divination. Whakapakoko rākau are held in museum collections locally and around the world. Te Papa Tongarewa, The Auckland War Memorial Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira and The British Museum all hold examples. They are intricately carved, often inlaid with pāua shell, and some feature tiki motifs with bulging stomachs to represent a full harvest. Webb’s Decorative Arts department has consigned a rare and culturally significant whakapakoko rākau, which will be brought to auction in October. This early contact period object is an especially fine example with a cylindrical body, fine carving and original lashings. The top is decorated with a carving style known to be from the Te Arawa iwi. Moreover, we have the takarangi (spiral) displayed with the pakati (notches) broken up into groups. This style has been observed on early Te Arawa whare, waka and other carvings. To the front of the rakau, a finely carved depiction of an atua (probably Rongo or the atua of cultivation) can be seen with three fingers clutching the belly to depict a bountiful harvest. To the reverse there is an extremely scarce and important depiction of a ruru (owl). The ruru depicts the atua hine-ruru (owl woman) who was seen as a kaitiaki (guardian). This rare depiction of hine-ruru boasts marine ivory inserts to mimic the eyes of the owl, a beaked mouth and decorations reminiscent of a pūkauae (female moko). This stunningly designed whakapakoko rākau originates circa 1850. It is thought to have been collected by a merchant vessel that stopped off in New Zealand around that time, and was repatriated to New Zealand in early 2021 by a private collector. If you are interested in viewing this item or in bringing material culture items to auction, please contact our specialist team.
Ben Erren Director of Decorative Arts ben@webbs.co.nz +64 21 191 9660 Webb's
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Leah Morris Specialist, Decorative Arts leah@webbs.co.nz +64 22 574 5699 32
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Air Jordan: The Legendary Shoes of Basketball’s Greatest Star
A selection of the sneakers presented at Webb’s
Michael Jordan showcasing a release of Air Jordans
In 1985, the first collaboration between legendary basketballer Michael Jordan and Nike was released – the Air Jordan 1. It would become an iconic design with a global following. Air Jordans, or simply ‘Jordans’, were groundbreaking shoes that transformed basketball sportswear into highly coveted contemporary streetwear. Each year, Nike introduced a new design for the Air Jordan, incorporating lightweight materials and the iconic ‘Jumpman’ logo. NBA fans around the world flocked to buy them. During the late 1980s, Nike ran advertisements referring to the shoes as ‘anti-gravity devices’ and began using its catchy slogans ‘Wing It’ and ‘Just Do It’. In the early 2000s, Nike made another marketing masterstroke when it signed a deal with rising NBA superstar, LeBron James. Following a similar formula, the footwear giant released editions of its custom LeBron range each year. In May, Webb’s created waves when it brought a singlevendor collection of Air Jordan and LeBron sneakers to market. The shoes were included in a Fine Jewels, Watches and Luxury Accessories online auction. Much like their namesakes, they proved a massive hit. Younger buyers were inspired to participate, and the auction attracted widespread attention. It was highlighted in an article on the popular news site Stuff. Webb’s Head of Fine Jewels, Watches & Luxury Accessories, Christine Power, stated, “At the time the Air
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A pair of Air Jordans
“At the time the Air Jordan was released, NBA basketballers were only allowed to wear plain white shoes and would be fined if they didn’t. Nike decided they would cover the fine for Jordan if he wore the distinctive black and red Air Jordans. They believed they would make at least $3 million back. The brand is now worth more than $1 billion.” – Christine Power, Head of Fine Jewels, Watches & Luxury Accessories
Jordan was released, NBA basketballers were only allowed to wear plain white shoes and would be fined if they didn’t. Nike decided they would cover the fine for Jordan if he wore the distinctive black and red Air Jordans. They believed they would make at least $3 million back. The brand is now worth more than $1 billion.” The sneakers continue to have a sustained presence in contemporary culture as footwear and as collectable items. Their enduring appeal was amply proven in May’s auction. A highlight was the Nike Jordan 1 High FlyEase, which sold for $406.30 – well above its high estimate of $280. This success was followed by a pair of Nike Jordan 1’s Mid Denim Red, which sold for $334.60, against a high estimate of $250. In total, over twenty styles were offered. They came in various sizes, in both brand-new and unworn conditions, all with original boxes. This stunning range of NBA shoes was consigned by an avid collector of sneakers. Their consignment presented buyers with a unique opportunity that was embraced with great enthusiasm. This highlights that there is a market for collectibles of all varieties. If you have a standout collection of desirable items, get in touch with our team of specialists for an obligation-free appraisal.
Christine Power Head of Fine Jewels, Watches & Luxury Accessories AJP (GIA) christinep@webbs.co.nz +64 27 929 5607
Michael Jordan preparing to take a shot
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Jess Mackenzie Specialist, Fine Jewels, Watches & Luxury Accessories AJP (GIA) jess@webbs.co.nz +64 22 096 5610 35
Webb’s: Capital Expansion
An installation view from John Lethbridge: Divination: Performance Photographs 1978–82
“What interested me was not just that Lethbridge had been part of a neglected moment in New Zealand art, but that this subsequent photography represented a bridge between it and the postmodernism that followed, and between New Zealand art of the 1970s and Australian art of the 1980s.” – Robert Leonard, Curator. Webb's
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John Lethbridge works installed at Webb’s Wellington gallery
In April, Webb’s hosted a remarkable exhibition of photographs by John Lethbridge at our Wellington premises. Titled, John Lethbridge: Divination: Performance Photographs 1978–82, the show featured ten large-scale photographic works. The exhibition was curated by Robert Leonard and comprised of the iconic staged photographs Lethbridge made in the late 1970s and early 1980s. These images have one foot in the literalism of performance documentation and another in the glitz of fashion photography. Equal parts Joseph Beuys and Helmut Newton, they scrambled heartfelt psychological and spiritual enquiry with camp theatrics, and epitomised the postmodern turn of the time. Many of the photos feature performer–assistant Jane Campion, who was Lethbridge’s partner at the time. Lethbridge had been in the heart of the post-object scene in Auckland, as one of the precocious students in Jim Allen’s sculpture department at Elam. He presented a solo show, Formal Enema Enigma, as part of Auckland City Art Gallery’s famous 1975 Project Programme. However, in 1976, he headed to Australia. The following year, he bought a Hasselblad medium-format camera and devoted himself to photography. In a publication on the exhibition, Leonard stated “What interested me was not just that Lethbridge had been part of a neglected moment in New Zealand art, but that this subsequent photography represented a bridge between it and the postmodernism that followed, and between New Zealand art of the 1970s and Australian art of the 1980s.” Webb's
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The exhibition was a stunning success and the first to take place at Webb’s Wellington. With the opening of this state-of-the-art gallery, we have become the nation’s first auction house to operate permanent showrooms in two centres at once. Wellington is the beating heart of art in Aotearoa and we are thrilled to have established a presence. This development marks a remarkable period of growth for Webb’s and a maturing of the secondary market in New Zealand. Later this year, we will be expanding to Christchurch, making Webb’s a truly nation-wide enterprise. We look forward to bringing you many more exhibitions, auctions, and events that highlight the best of Aotearoa’s brilliant art.
Wellington 23 Marion St Te Aro Wellington, 6011 Carey Young Specialist, Art carey@webbs.co.nz +64 21 368 348
David Maskill Specialist, Art david@webbs.co.nz +64 27 256 0900 37
The Bank of New Zealand Art Collection
Webb’s is partnering with BNZ to tour selected works from the renowned BNZ Art Collection nationally before selling the collection at auction later this year. BNZ has announced that proceeds from the sale will be used to fund a philanthropic foundation. The foundation is being designed to help accelerate the work organisations across New Zealand are doing to create a better future for our communities. The BNZ Art Collection has a long history as one of New Zealand’s most significant corporate art collections. Established in 1982, it was developed under the stewardship of legendary art dealer, Peter McLeavey. It contains works by many of the nation’s most revered artists including Colin McCahon, Rita Angus, and Gordon Walters. One of the standout works from this extraordinary collection is Milan Mrkusich’s Golden Centre with Two Elements. This stunning piece was painted in 1965, and it features many of the key elements of the artist’s practice of this period: rigorous composition, geometric elements, and contrasting restrained and expressive paintwork. Mrkusich is widely regarded as one of the leading pioneers of modernist abstract painting in New Zealand. Works from the collection will tour nationally, showing in Christchurch, Wellington, and Auckland during August and September. The scale of the collection is such that two separate auctions will take place after the touring programme is complete. The dates for the auctions are Sunday 18 September and Tuesday 27 September. It is an honour for Webb’s to work with BNZ in showcasing this remarkable collection to New Zealanders across the country. Auckland Charles Ninow Director of Art charles@webbs.co.nz +64 21 053 6504
Adrienne (AD) Schierning Head of Art ad@webbs.co.nz +64 27 929 5609
Wellington Carey Young Specialist, Art carey@webbs.co.nz +64 21 368 348
David Maskill Specialist, Art david@webbs.co.nz +64 27 256 0900
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Milan Mrkusich, Golden Centre with Two Elements, 1965/1972, oil on canvas, 11 x 1770mm
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Webb’s Contributes to Conservation at Te Papa
Rita Angus, Central Otago, 1953-56/1969, oil on canvas, 523 × 635mm. Collection of Te Papa Tongarewa
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“It is only by examination of Rita Angus’ painting Central Otago through the stereo-microscope that we came to understand the direct relationship of this painting to her watercolour practice – this discovery would be greatly enhanced by the capacity to provide images of what was seen by this new stereo-microscope and camera” – Linda Waters, Conservator of Paintings at Te Papa Earlier this year, Webb’s collaborated with the Te Papa Foundation to enable a key equipment purchase. Thanks to a donation of $50,000 by Webb’s, the foundation was able to acquire a new stereo-microscope and specialist camera attachment for Te Papa Tongarewa. The foundation had a long set fundraising goal to make this acquisition, and this contribution by Webb’s made it possible. The acquisition has been exciting for the team at Webb’s, allowing us to directly engage with the preservation of art and our wider community. According to Webb’s Managing Director, Paul Evans, this is core to Webb’s corporate practice. “This acquisition aligns well with Webb’s company values and philanthropic goals,” he said. The stereo-microscope is the main tool for analysing the paintings in Te Papa’s national collection of art. With this microscope, Te Papa’s art conservators are able to discern individual layers that are not visible to the eye. This allows insight into the paints that were used during the painting process, where the artist changed subject matter, and how the painting has been previously affected by its environment. The microscope will allow Te Papa’s art conservators to selectively tailor conservation treatments to each layer in every painting. The enduring impact of the microscope is that it will extend the reach of Te Papa’s wider conservation team’s work, enabling them to record and share observations of works of art with the wider community. The imaging capability of the new microscope will allow Te Papa’s significant collection to be shared in new ways with colleagues, historians, academics, artists and those curious members of the public who look at a work of art and wish they knew more. This is a possibility that Webb’s contribution will open up in the future. The microscope will enable an excellent step forward in art conservation at Te Papa, which we are proud to support. We look forward to continuing to work with our national museum in the future.
Webb's
Paul Evans Managing Director paul@webbs.co.nz +64 21 866 000
Charles Ninow Director of Art charles@webbs.co.nz +64 21 053 6504
Adrienne (AD) Schierning Head of Art ad@webbs.co.nz +64 27 929 5609
Julian McKinnon Content & Research julian@webbs.co.nz +64 21 113 5001
Carey Young Specialist, Art carey@webbs.co.nz +64 21 368 348
David Maskill Specialist, Art david@webbs.co.nz +64 27 256 0900
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Works of Art: Entries Invited Charles Frederick Goldie “The Whitening Snows of Venerable Eld” Kamaka, A Chief of the Ngatimahuta Tribe Te Kawaka, Ngāti Maniapoto 1916 oil on canvas 260 × 190mm est $700,000 – $1,200,000
Auckland Charles Ninow Director of Art charles@webbs.co.nz +64 21 053 6504
We are excited to announce the consignment of a magnificent work by Charles Frederick Goldie, the foremost painter of Māori subjects in New Zealand painting at the turn of the Twentieth Century. The work is titled “The Whitening Snows of Venerable Eld” Kamaka, A Chief of the Ngatimahuta Tribe, depicting Te Kamaka of Ngāti Maniapoto, King Country. The work is painted in Goldie’s mature style where he pays careful attention to the detailed description of the skin, hair, moko and dress of the venerable chief. The subject is lost in contemplation – a common feature of Goldie’s paintings of Māori elders. “The Whitening Snows of Venerable Eld” Kamaka. A Chief of the Ngatimahuta Tribe will be included in our August Works of Art auction. This is our flagship sale, and it features artworks by the nation’s leading artists. Additional early consignments include notable works by Colin McCahon, Milan Mrkusich, Gordon Walters, Adele Younghusband and Pat Hanly – all of which are expected to meet strong market appetite. The market for New Zealand art has never been stronger than it is right now. If you are considering bringing your cultural assets to market, now is a fantastic time to do so. Webb’s is leading the market and will achieve the best result for your collection or artwork. Get in touch with our team of specialists for an obligation-free appraisal.
Adrienne (AD) Schierning Head of Art ad@webbs.co.nz +64 27 929 5609 Wellington Carey Young Specialist, Art carey@webbs.co.nz +64 21 368 348 David Maskill Specialist, Art david@webbs.co.nz +64 27 256 0900 Webb's
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Recent Highlights
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Bill Hammond And the Seven Seas 1999, acrylic on canvas 850 × 2000mm $400,000 – $600,000 est price $485,100 (incl. BP)
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Michael Smither Rockpools 1973, oil on board 1260 × 820mm $120,000 – $180,000 est price $145,530 (incl. BP)
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Philip Clairmont Country Carnival Carnivore 1981, oil on jute 1445 × 915mm $200,000 – $300,000 est price $224,359 (incl. BP)
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Séraphine Pick Burning The Furniture 2007, oil on linen 1855 × 2600mm $150,000 – 200,000 est price $266,805 (incl. BP) New Artist Record
2022
Andrew McLeod Interior with Pink 2011, oil on canvas 1200 × 1600mm $35,000 – 55,000 est price $130,371(incl. BP) New Artist Record Colin McCahon Kauri 1965, acrylic on board 750 × 510mm $80,000 – $160,000 est price $91,141 (incl. BP)
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Goods and Services: Foreword
Last year, I had the great privilege of presenting Melting Moments: A Private Collection of Contemporary Art. This was an auction of works from the extraordinary collection of a single vendor. Melting Moments was a smash hit. It broke a slew of all-time price records for some of New Zealand’s greatest artists, including the incomparable Bill Hammond. It generated television coverage and column inches at a staggering rate. It was a crowning achievement in a sensational year for art at Webb’s, and a personal career highlight. Aside from the success of the auction, engaging with the vendor to bring their incredible array of art to market was deeply rewarding. I witnessed first-hand the passion, attention to detail, and razor-sharp eye for quality that had driven this collection into being. This was an attentive art connoisseur, who had engaged sincerely with artists and art dealers in the pursuit of a singular vision. Given all of this, it is a delight to have the opportunity to present a second catalogue of work from the same collection. One could describe Goods and Services as a sequel, drawn from the same source, featuring many of the same artists. Though that would overlook some of the finer nuance. This is a refined selection that speaks as much to the history of New Zealand modernism as it does to the contemporary moment. In Colin McCahon’s Van Gogh: Poems by John
Caselberg, there is a direct inclusion of a key developmental work by New Zealand’s modernist giant. A Gordon Walters ink on paper work captures the iconic koru motifs that have proven so captivating and informative to so many New Zealanders across generations. A suite of works by Robin White demonstrate the enduring influence she has had on Aotearoa’s art scene. White was a key player in the development of regionalist painting, and she is still creating, innovating, and defining art in the present day. Michael at Julie’s Place is a stunning work from 1979 that showcases her strength in watercolour. Modernism meets the contemporary moment in Andrew McLeod’s sensational 2014 painting, Untitled with Rainbow. The work is one of McLeod’s brilliant art history mashups. It explicitly references the complex work of Theo Schoon in its background, while the foreground is comprised of digital composited imagery that draws on Victorian painting. Digital technology is also explored extensively in the work of André Hemer. The Christchurch-born, Vienna-based artist has developed new ways of looking at and working with paint, which engages digital processes on a foundational level. Two of Hemer’s works feature in this catalogue, and they amply demonstrate his consummate ability to transform incidental paint marks into sumptuous, visually striking art works.
A foreword to this catalogue would be incomplete without speaking, once again, to the brilliance of Bill Hammond. As with Melting Moments, Goods and Services has taken its title from a sensational work by the late master painter. Goods and Services, the titular painting, is from 2013. At this time, Hammond’s mature style had fully evolved. He was working with familiar elements, though still exploring fresh ways of composing images and creating paintings. Robert Leonard’s essay on the work is a catalogue highlight, exploring the painting with characteristic insight and thoughtfulness. Webb's
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Bill Hammond, Goods and Services, 2013, oil on canvas, 800 × 1800mm, est $400,000 – $600,000
A unique mastery of painting is fully evident in Liz Maw’s Lady Katherine and I. This is a spellbinding work, which fully showcases the prowess of a brilliant artist at the height of her powers. Maw’s imaginative vision and level of technical precision are simply extraordinary, and the work is a show-stopper. It has been a pleasure to include artists’ voices in this publication. Interviews with Kushana Bush and McLeod augment the analytical essays, offering unique insights into artmaking that only artists themselves can. They make for charming and compelling reading. A foreword to this catalogue would be incomplete without speaking, once again, to the brilliance of Bill Hammond. As with Melting Moments, Goods and Services has taken its title from a sensational work by the late master painter. Goods and Services, the titular painting, is from 2013. At this time, Hammond’s mature style had fully evolved. He was working with familiar elements, though still exploring fresh ways of composing images and creating paintings. Robert Leonard’s essay on the work is a catalogue highlight, exploring the painting with characteristic insight and thoughtfulness. It is my pleasure to bring this publication to you, I’m sure it will delight. It is the fruit of the labours of a professional production team with diverse talents and relentless dedication. With the sensational artworks it contains, and the overarching vision of the collector behind it, Goods and Services is set to be another blockbuster.
Charles Ninow Director of Art charles@webbs.co.nz +64 21 053 6504 Webb's
The art department team at Webb's, left to right: Adrienne (AD) Schierning, David Maskill, Tasha Jenkins, Charles Ninow, Carey Young, Julian McKinnon and Connie Dwyer.
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Industry Leading Valuations Specialists
With the dramatic shifts and spikes in value we have seen in the art market recently, it is important to keep insurance cover of your collection up to date. There is no time like right now to revisit the value of your cultural assets. At Webb’s we have the team to assist with all aspects of your collection management. Webb’s dedicated Valuations Specialist, Charles Tongue, has a broad knowledge of New Zealand and international Art. He comes to us from Vernon Systems where he has been assisting collectors and museums globally with collection management systems. This follows 15 years managing commercial art galleries in Auckland. We would love to hear from you and assist you with a valuation, or any aspect of collection management that you require. Webb's
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Charles Tongue Valuations Specialist valuations@webbs.co.nz +64 22 406 5514 46
Programme Wellington Viewing Wednesday 15 June — Friday 17 June
10am - 5pm
Saturday 18 June
11am - 3pm
Monday 20 June — Thursday 23 June
10am - 5pm
Saturday 25 June
11am - 3pm
Auckland Preview Tuesday 28 June
6pm - 8pm
Auckland Viewing Wednesday 29 June — Friday 1 July
10am - 5pm
Saturday 2 July — Sunday 3 July
10am - 4pm
Auckland Viewing on Request Monday 4 July
10am - 5pm
Auction Monday 4 July
6.30pm
Wellington Viewing 23 Marion St Te Aro Wellington 6011 Auckland Viewing & Auction 33a Normanby Rd Mount Eden Auckland 1024 Webb's
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List of Essays
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Kushana Bush Two Angels Wrestling in Kilts By Megan Dunn
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Richard Killeen Two Works By David Maskill
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Andrew McLeod A Discussion with Andrew McLeod By Julian McKinnon
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Robin White Michael at Julie’s Place By Linda Tyler
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Liz Maw Priestess of Paint By Julian McKinnon
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Bill Hammond Death and Taxes By Robert Leonard
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Plates
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Richard Killeen Black Collection 1979 screenprint on paper, 30/50 signed Killeen, dated 1979 and inscribed Black Collection in graphite lower edge 760 × 570mm est
$5,000 — $10,000
Provenance Acquired from Ivan Anthony, Auckland.
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Robin White Allan's Beach 1977 screenprint on paper, artist's proof signed R. White and dated '77 in graphite lower edge 890 × 720mm est
$8,500 — $14,500
Provenance Acquired from Dunbar Sloane, Wellington.
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note This lot is accompanied by a handwritten letter of authenticity from the prints publisher, Peter Webb.
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Don Binney Swoop of the Kotare, Wainamu 1986 screenprint on paper, artist's proof signed Don Binney, dated 1986 and inscribed A/P Swoop of the Kotare, Wainamu in graphite lower edge 630 × 455mm est
$20,000 — $30,000
Provenance Acquired from Peter McLeavey Gallery, Wellington; Estate of Don Binney.
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Gordon Walters Tawa 1969 screenprint on paper 420 × 530mm est
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note Tawa was the first screenprint produced by Gordon Walters. It was one of the twelve prints released as part of the Barry Lett Multiples portfolio.
$5,000 — $10,000
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Ans Westra Ohinemutu 1963. printed later archival pigment inks on Ilford Galerie gold fiber silk, 2/5 950 × 950mm est
$9,000 — $18,000
Provenance Acquired from {Suite} Gallery, Wellington.
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Ans Westra is a naturalised New Zealander originally from the Netherlands. She is one of the nation’s best known photographers, particularly for her social documentation work. She has created numerous photographic series and books that engage with life in Aotearoa. From urban streets to rural communities, Westra has captured New Zealanders through the lens, showing our way of life in all of its challenges and its charms. One of her most well-known series Washday at the Pā was a fictional photographic storybook published for universal schooling by the New Zealand Department of Education in 1964. It was specifically developed to be used as a social studies teaching device. 38,000 copies were distributed to schools with some copies sold publicly before mandatory destruction months later after Māori protested against the content. The habitual moments of the life of a rural Māori family living in poor conditions are chronicled alongside an affectionate narrative of a loving and playful kinship. The deep familial connections are expertly harnessed by Westra’s artistic hand and documentary lens. Ruatoria, 1963 (lot 8) is for example of toddler Erua receiving a nurturing kiss from his mother after, as described in the printed storyline, he tumbles from the back of family member Ruia when playing horse in the lounge. Though the images were goodnatured, commentators raised concerns about the portrayal of the blanketed identity of Māori as impoverished which was untypical. These constructions of the exception rather than the collective could be misconceived as fact, especially when interpreted by children and could therefore be detrimental as a destructive self-fulfilling prophecy for Māori communities. The publication and New Zealand societal reception of these artworks makes them highly significant pieces of our cultural history. They are not simply images of one Māori family, but a series that sculpted our country’s value placed on accurate dissemination of social imagery and ultimately censorship. 54
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Ans Westra Ruatoria 1963. printed 2011 gelatin silver print, 1/5 284 × 254mm est
$6,000 — $9,000
Provenance Acquired from {Suite} Gallery, Wellington.
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literature Ans Westra, Washday at the Pā (Christchurch: The Caxton Press, 1964), cover.
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Ans Westra Ruatoria 1963. printed c2011 gelatin silver print, 1/6 260 × 258mm est
$6,000 — $9,000
Provenance Acquired from {Suite} Gallery, Wellington.
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literature Ans Westra, Washday at the Pā (Christchurch: The Caxton Press, 1964), 17.
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Ans Westra Ruatoria 1963. printed c2011 gelatin silver print, 1/12 275 × 225mm est
$6,000 — $9,000
Provenance Acquired from {Suite} Gallery, Wellington.
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literature Ans Westra, Washday at the Pā (Christchurch: The Caxton Press, 1964).
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Ans Westra Ruatoria 1963. printed 2011 gelatin silver print,1/8 280 × 280mm est
$6,000 — $9,000
Provenance Acquired from {Suite} Gallery, Wellington.
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literature Ans Westra, Washday at the Pā (Christchurch: The Caxton Press, 1964).
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Richard Killeen Three Flyers 2008 powder coated aluminium, 9/10 signed Killeen and dated 2008 in ink verso 1300 × 490mm (overall) est
$20,000 — $30,000
Provenance Acquired from Ivan Anthony, Auckland.
Spanning over five decades, Richard Killeen’s oeuvre constitutes a formidable challenge to traditional methods of artmaking. His work is a central contribution to New Zealand post-modernism. First produced in 1978, Killeen’s cutouts are undoubtedly his most recognisable forms. Across his career output, these painted aluminium shapes vary in their level of detail, scale, number and form. Yet, Killeen’s cutout works are consistently open-ended in nature. The viewer can construct their own narrative from the array of shapes on display, which encompass encyclopaedic animal and botanical forms, symbols, everyday objects and the artist’s own invented shapes. Killeen does not dictate any specific configuration of shapes for installation, opening up infinite possibilities for hanging the work. Consequently, and interpretation of the forms’ arrangement or relationship to one another relies upon the viewer’s imagination. Three Flyers presents the viewer with the simple silhouettes of a moth, bird and plane; as the title suggests, these are forms united by their ability to take flight. In removing a traditional pictorial frame, Killeen liberates these forms from compositional boundaries. Rather than distinguishing between painted world and reality, this firmly situates the cutouts in the viewer’s own world. Indeed, the forms presented in Three Flyers perfectly capture the endless possibilities of Killeen’s cutouts. Freed from the frame and compositional strictures, they contain infinite potential in terms of both form and meaning, and can thus take flight in the viewer’s mind.
Exhibitions Cutouts 1981-2008, Ivan Anthony, Auckland, 2009.
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Kushana Bush Life 2014 gouache, gold leaf and graphite on paper signed Kushana Bush, dated 2014 and inscribed life in graphite verso 630 × 460mm est
$9,000 — $14,000
Provenance Acquired from Brett McDowell Gallery, Dunedin.
The vast, engrossing tableaus of Kushana Bush's compositions are host to a myriad of narratives, at once humorous and bewildering. Scenes of crowded bodies explore moments of ritualised conflict and coexistence, exaggerated in theatrical, absurdist dynamics that belie any singular identifying time, place or culture. Choreographed in an array of poses and activities, Bush’s characters are each rendered in meticulous detail in the artist’s signature medium of gouache. Bush grew up in Ōtepoti Dunedin, surrounded by her parents’ collections of Mughal miniatures and Japanese Ukiyo-e which would strongly influence her visual language. Life (2014) comes from a pivotal period in the artist’s practice, which saw a shift from the centring of focal subjects against relatively untouched backgrounds, to extravagant scenes exploiting every inch of the pictorial plane. 2014 proved to be a fruitful year for Bush, who exhibited at the Edinburgh Art Festival and spent time researching in the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, where she viewed miniature paintings and medieval illuminated manuscripts. Successive works would come together in the major national touring exhibition The Burning Hours (2016–2018), in which Life was included. Viewing Life is like entering a labyrinth, made ambiguous with a lack of homogenising geographic, temporal or cultural markers. At the masthead is a pair of mating kererū atop a gazebo structure, sheltering an unruly crowd congregated around a sparring match. Figures are seen to wield an anachronistic, comical array of weapons—spears, bow and arrows, spanners, toilet plungers, dish brushes, brooms and a hobby horse. In Life, Bush provides a compellingly dramatic spectacle, unfolding dissonant narratives that hybridise the contemporary and historic, secular and spiritual, with characteristic decorative opulence.
Exhibitions Kushana Bush: The Burning Hours, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin, 3 December 2016 - 17 April 2017; Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, Christchurch, 10 June - 15 October 2017; Te Uru Waitākere Contemporary Gallery, Auckland, 25 November 2017 - 18 February 2018; Whangārei Art Museum, Whangārei, Wednesday 14 March - Sunday 27 May 2018. Literature Kushana Bush (ed.), The Burning Hours (Dunedin: Dunedin Public Art Gallery, 2021), 76.
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Brendon Wilkinson Shhh 2008 watercolour on paper signed Brendon Wilkinson and dated '08 in brushpoint lower edge 570 × 380mm est
$12,000 — $15,000
Provenance Acquired from Robert Heald Gallery, Wellington.
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Exhibitions Brendon Wilkinson, Unlimited Ltd, Ivan Anthony, Auckland, 2008.
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Two Angels Wrestling in Kilts Interview by MEGAN DUNN
Kushana Bush creates coveted and covetous paintings that blend syncretic imagery from other cultures, deities and dynasties and she does it from Dunedin in the here and now. Her paper people are often engaged in oblique disconcerting rituals, but impeccably turned out in richly patterned robes, they quibble over ceramic pots and fall to their knees to openly worship false idols. Megan Dunn interviews Kushana Bush about early motherhood and new directions in her art. Webb's
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I have to start by asking about your recurring menagerie. From the copulating pigeons in Life (2014) to the magnificent bean-bag toad in Giant Toad Must Die (2020), what do birds and animals add to your universe? Domesticated, sacrificial or hunted animals reflect us back in some way, don’t they? They remind us of our origins as beasts that eat beasts. The title Giant Toad Must Die came from a dream I had during the early days of the pandemic. In the painting Life, the amorous kererū remind us that life carries on as the world collapses. It’s a rather curious phenomenon that humans find animals mating to be mildly amusing, even slightly embarrassing. What makes a successful Kushana Bush composition? How does an idea ignite? Every painting I do has a sort of x-ray layer of invisible arrows which, if I drew out for you, would look like a map of ocean currents. I’d say a quick rule is that you want the viewers eye washing up within the painting, not shipwrecked outside the picture plane. There is a real musicality to visual composing, my compositions seem to be composed of legato propellers (the sections that move the eye) and staccato breaks (the sections that halt the eye). Sometimes I have a sort of musical rhythm in mind for a painting, I can think of a work where I wanted one section to shuffle like a chacha and another section to wail sorrowfully. These are the frameworks that form the skeleton of the drawing, it lays there dormant, undiscovered, only felt. The simplest of experiences can ignite a painting. As I write this I’m breastfeeding while observing my infant daughter’s tiny big toe and I’m reminded of the ‘Babinski sign’ in Renaissance painting. This is where the Christ Child’s toe flicks heavenward. Grünewald was a real proponent of the Babinski sign but Dieric Bouts, Hans Memling and Gerard David paintings run through my mind too. It’s hard not to see through the lens of art history in her graceful gestures; her ivory hands like compact netsuke. I loved the striking simplicity of the blue and black gouaches in your 2019 exhibition Antique Electric. As Laurence Simmons wrote in his Art News New Zealand review, "The ‘blue effect’ of these gouaches is astonishing; no one analogy will lay hold of it." What provoked this pared back palette? The Antique Electric works were created after a visit to the Staatliche Antikensammlungen in Munich which is filled with wonderful black figure pots. I was soothed by the balance and symmetry of black figure pots
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which make a feature of the gaps between, like the terracotta shape made between a triangulating arm. These in-between spaces suddenly hummed for me in a way they never had before. Until then, I was a positive space painter so it was liberating to celebrate the poetry of negative space. Most recently in Wool Gathering you've experimented with embossing. How do craft and technique deepen your themes? In Origins of (2022) what parts of the composition are embossed? Also, tell me about those curious balloons?! Inverting processes keeps things fresh. The garments, flowers and haircuts in Origins of are embossed. The embossing technique was inspired by the very fine karazuri technique used in the most deluxe Japanese prints, a technique so perversely subtle it’s only perceived by discerning viewers. Ah! The balloons! I forgot until you asked me that this painting was conceived after reading Donald Barthelme’s short story The Balloon. The things in life I hold in most esteem, a deluxe surimono, a Memling painting, a Mughal miniature all have an exceedingly high level of artistry. Mastery brings forth the spiritual dimension because it is beyondhuman, it is the closest an atheist gets to holiness. In a funny way, it brings us back to seeing the way a child sees, in awe. One of the secrets art audiences might not know about you is that you are a child whisperer. You are really wonderful with kids, and I'd love to know what your view is on childhood and the relationship of the child self to art. For a child, art functions like a magic carpet, it transports you away. I remember at the age of seven I saw a reproduction of the painting Children’s Games by Bruegel. In it, hundreds of children scurry about playing hula hoop, tug of war, piggy back and donkey. I had my first epiphany; artists, like Bruegel, don’t have to get serious and grow up, they play children’s games forever. Children have insights that artists could only wish for. In the zoom call we had earlier, your daughter drew two angels wrestling in kilts, well that’s what I saw! And in that back and forth between two brains and an image, comes the power of an off-register interpretation, broken assumptions, the world seen afresh. Curator Justin Paton has talked about how your gouaches "telescope time" by looking forwards and backwards simultaneously, Laurence Simmons also notes, quite rightly, that your artworks show viewers where myths are still happening in a timeless present. What is your favourite myth? I heard a rumour once that I paint with my eye lashes!
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My favourite myth got me through being humiliatingly dumped at high school. Actaeon was out hunting with his dogs, he stumbles on Artemis bathing with her nymphs and has a bit of a gander. Artemis catches him leering and retaliates by transforming Actaeon into a stag and in a wonderful twist his own dogs maul him to death. It was a healthy teenage outlet to depict this myth in biro on the covers of my schoolbooks, drawing myself as the powerful Artemis and him with a worried stags head. I learned how to draw mauling dogs from newspaper clippings of greyhounds at the racetrack. Early motherhood also telescopes time. Tell me something that has surprised you this week. The pink glow of sunrise surprised me this morning, I never used to be conscious for such events.
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Kushana Bush Life 2014 gouache, gold leaf and graphite on paper signed Kushana Bush, dated 2014 and inscribed life in graphite verso 630 × 460mm
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Richard Killeen – Two Works Essay by DAVID MASKILL
These two works represent highpoints of Killeen’s practice from two distinct periods, the late 1960s and the 2000s. Seeing them together, it is hard to believe that they were made by the same artist. Yet, their apparent disparity belies the artistic threads that bind them together. Killeen’s Five Men, Three Women was exhibited in Dead Man, Dead Woman, 1994 — a show focusing on his work from this late 1960s series curated by Killeen’s Wellington dealer, Peter McLeavey. The series explores the theme of suburban angst and alienation at the height of the Cold War, which had reached our far-flung shores. The catalyst was the controversial deployment of New Zealand troops to the war in Vietnam by the pro-American, conservative Prime Minister, Keith Holyoake and the local anti-war protests which reached a peak in the late 1960s. The epic and elemental landscape — the quintessential subject in New Zealand painting to this point — has been replaced by an almost suffocating urban view where nameless figures fill the space of the picture plane. The spatial setting suggests an enclosed darkened room. An embracing couple in the bottom right could be at an Auckland dine-and-dance nightclub, maybe St Septs or The Orange. Her gesture and expression convey less interest in the coupling than his, or is she simply bored by his conversation? Three other men, all in suits and ties, are completely disengaged from the rest of the crowd. The last man standing in the back left breaks ranks Webb's
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Richard Killeen Five Men, Three Women 1969 oil on board signed Killeen and dated '69 in brushpoint lower right 900 × 900mm
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Richard Killeen Three Flyers 2008 powder coated aluminium, 9/10 signed Killeen and dated 2008 in ink verso 1300 × 490mm (overall)
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with the others by wearing a Beat Generation polo-neck sweater under his otherwise conventional two-piece suit. The two non-dancing women appear altogether more Mod in trousers and sweaters. The female figure in the bright yellow top sports a voluminous hairdo, or is it a hat? The figures have boneless, doll-like bodies and are brightly illuminated from a light source outside the frame, which casts disturbing shadows on their largely expressionless faces. The figures are rendered in blocks of solid colour with razor-sharp outlines framed against the dark background. Despite the obvious overlapping of the figures, there appears to be no credible space between them. They look as if they could easily be cut out and re-arranged at will. Herein lie the formal similarities between Killeen’s early figurative paintings and his later signature cut-outs. From 1974, Killeen largely abandoned figuration in favour of geometric abstraction. But in 1978, figuration returned with his first cut-outs. These were exhibited at Peter McLeavey Gallery in Wellington and caused a sensation. Instead of being contained within a conventional picture frame, Killeen made forms and shapes out of pressed and painted aluminium which he hung in arbitrary arrangements depending on the whim of the artist and of the client. Killeen mixed motifs from both Pākehā and Māori visual traditions. Silhouettes of World War Two fighter aircraft were hung alongside indigenous flora and and fauna — the effect was like a giant specimen drawer from a museum display mounted on a wall. The juxtapositions of apparently unrelated shapes and signs created a personal and unique visual language which spoke to a world of increasing uncertainty and fragmentation. This period of nascent post-modernism questioned long-held beliefs about Western and imported (as far as New Zealand was concerned) systems of knowledge and power and those who policed them. Three Flyers is a more recent iteration of Killeen’s cut-outs dating from the late 2000s when he returned to his earlier practice from the 1970s. The three cutouts, arranged in this case, in a tight vertical stack, 71
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share the theme of flight. At the top is the profile of a fighter aircraft as if seen from above. Its distinctive rounded wing tips and snubbed nose section identifies it as a Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter aircraft. This was the aircraft that took part in the bombing of Pearl Harbour in December 1941, precipitating the US entry into World War Two. The aircraft continued to feature in the Pacific theatre until the end of war when it was used by the suicide missions of the infamous kamikaze. Below the aircraft cut-out, in sublime contrast, is the profile of a moth rendered in bright red instead of the deathly black other panels. Below the moth is the profile of a bird, possibly the native New Zealand tūi. Unlike the precision flight of the fighter, both the moth and the tūi evoke their irregular flitting around a light source or from kōwhai tree to harekeke bush. The juxtaposition between these symbols of flight encourages the viewer to imagine different scenarios and associations. The cut-outs are at the same time both emblematic and enigmatic.
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Richard Killeen Five Men, Three Women 1969 oil on board signed Killeen and dated '69 in brushpoint lower right 900 × 900mm
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Brendon Wilkinson untitled 2013 oil on canvas 2140 × 1680mm
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Kushana Bush Half Egyptian Coddle 2010 gouache and graphite on paper signed Kushana Bush, dated 2010 and inscribed Half Egyptian Coddle in graphite verso 760 × 560mm est
$6,000 — $10,000
provenance Acquired from Brett McDowell Gallery, Dunedin.
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Richard Killeen Five Men, Three Women 1969 oil on board signed Killeen and dated '69 in brushpoint lower right 900 × 900mm est
$80,000 — $120,000
Provenance Acquired from Peter McLeavey Gallery, Wellington.
Richard Killeen’s artistic output is strikingly diverse. His iconic cut-outs, layered collages and graphic symbols are instantly recognisable. Although they are stylistically very different, so too are his precise figurative paintings. For the most part, Killeen created these works in the late 1960s. These wry scenes of everyday activities feature flattened perspective, bold colour and a reductive, stylised approach to representing the human form. In Five Men, Three Women, painted in 1969, Killeen subtly demonstrates the acute artistic eye that has made him such a celebrated figure in New Zealand art. The image is rigorously composed. Each of the figures has definite characteristics, yet each advances and balances the composition of the work. This effect is further enhanced by the artist’s use of colour. For instance, the standalone figure in the lower left of the image is spatially outweighed by the group standing behind them. But this is counterbalanced by their bold yellow top, which seizes the viewer’s attention. The striking blue trousers of the figure behind them ensure that this effect isn’t overpowering, and so the viewer’s eye continues to move around the image, taking in further detail. The work amply demonstrates Killeen’s mastery of image making, composition and colour. It is a work that is both bold and restrained, and is sure to enhance any collection that it graces.
Exhibitions Dead Man Dead Woman, Peter McLeavey Gallery, Wellington, 1994.
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Brendon Wilkinson untitled 2013 oil on canvas 2140 × 1680mm est
$18,000 — $28,000
Provenance Acquired from Robert Heald Gallery, Wellington.
Brendon Wilkinson’s striking and somewhat unsettling paintings fuse complex imagined worlds with modern society. He uses quasi-baroque imagery and ethereal forms to create scenes that are at once both familiar and unknown. Wilkinson holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Elam and has been practicing since the late 1990s. He is known for creating surrealist effects within his work. This untitled painting from 2013 features a tower of figures that glow pearly white and grey against their charcoal background. The figures are adorned in what appears to be decorative jewellery, with some holding small objects, perhaps talismans. The two lowest figures capture small coloured scenes within their joining hands – what appear to be garden scenes. These detailed jeweltoned scenes contrast with the stark grey, black and white of the rest of the painting. The top-most figure grasps the wings of a bird, holding it above their head. Looking upward, this figure seems to be offering the bird to the sky. While the tower of figures are intricately connected and almost appear as one being, each face is very unique. Many of the faces have a blue and a green tone, and some feature skeletal elements. The expressions vary from serene to upset, some have piercing forward gazes. The overall effect of this work is one of menacing stillness, a moment of calm before a storm. The scene seems to capture a group on the brink of something either amazing or terrible – or perhaps both.
Exhibitions Brendon Wilkinson: Blue Flame, Robert Heald Gallery, Wellington, 2013.
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Andrew McLeod Homage to Michelangelo, I 2010 archival print on paper, 3/3 signed AMcLEOD and dated 2010 in ink lower edge 1212 × 785mm est
$10,000 — $20,000
Provenance Acquired from Brooke/Gifford Gallery, Christchurch.
Andrew McLeod’s practice mashes up art historical references and contemporary media. Mostly known for his phenomenal painting practice, that has morphed and developed over his decades, he has also continued to work with print, pushing the medium in innovative ways. McLeod is diverse in his outputs and, it seems, driven to challenge himself through each of his processes. From screenprints to vinyl records, his editioned outputs are varied and highly collectable. Homage to Michelangelo, l, is an archival digital print, one of a few small run editioned prints that the artist has created over his career. Although McLeod has ventured into editions, he has restricted edition sizes. In this case, the run is limited to three prints. Homage to Michelangelo, l as the title suggests, pays homage to the Renaissance artist by reinterpreting his masterpiece, The Pietá. This important and influential sculpture is housed in St Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. Michelangelo’s work depicts Mary holding the lifeless body of Jesus. In McLeod’s digital rendition, the sculpture is set against a backdrop of dark and enigmatic constellations. In the foreground before Jesus hovers a bright shot of colour and the viewer’s eye is lured into a digital collage of imagery that both intrigues and mystifies. An octopus, sea anemone, possibly a pair of pomegranates and multiple undefinable objects dance within a veil of coral coloured, semi-transparent swirls. Perhaps this is a reference to cosmic creation or life itself. Through every aspect of his practice, McLeod creates challenges–both for himself technically and for his viewer. While enjoying his works visually we are also asked to interpret the many layers of symbolism that lavishly come together in his carefully crafted compositions. Webb's
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Bill Hammond Ancestral Paper 7 2005 acrylic on paper signed W. D. Hammond, dated 2005 and inscribed Ancestral Paper 7 in brushpoint lower right 750 × 550mm est
Bill Hammond undoubtedly deserves his reputation as a pre-eminent force in New Zealand contemporary art. His fiercely unique artistic vision and distinctive pictorial language are much celebrated in Aotearoa. Hammond's combination of beguiling biomorphic forms and otherworldly settings, and his intermingling of both recognisable and unfamiliar imagery, result in thought-provoking and mysterious worlds. Engaging with colonial and environmental concerns, Hammond's oeuvre responds to complex issues intrinsic to our nation's history. Indeed, Hammond's recent passing in 2021 spurred outpourings of appreciation for his immeasurable contribution to New Zealand Gothic art and, more broadly, New Zealand art history. Ancestral Paper 7 sits within Hammond's Ancestral series of 2005, which explores ideas about family, ancestry and heraldry. The work features several of Hammond's trademark characteristics. The distinct blue-green tone that dominates the series creates a subaqueous backdrop for the peculiar figures populating this scene. One of Hammond's renowned humanoid birds protrudes from the left-hand side of the picture plane. The two larger human heads in profile evoke Roman imperial portraits, but here they are adorned with delicately rendered botanical forms, and their scalps are covered in sea serpents and bird heads, perhaps in the place of hair. This combination of human and ornithological forms speaks to Hammond's interest in the effects of colonisation upon Aotearoa's ecology, sparked by his epiphanic 1989 expedition to the Auckland Islands. A work in acrylic on paper, the soft borders of Ancestral Paper 7 suggest the scene continues beyond the picture plane. The inky splotches and passages of bleeding paint, particularly at the bottom of the composition, activate the work, suggest the scene's impermanence, and enhance the eeriness that underlies many of Hammond's works.
$40,000 — $60,000
Provenance Acquired from Brooke/Gifford Gallery, Christchurch.
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Andrew McLeod Untitled with Rainbow 2014 oil on canvas signed A McLeod and dated 14 in brushpoint lower right 2000 × 1500mm est
$80,000 — $120,000
Provenance Acquired from Ivan Anthony, Auckland.
Andrew McLeod is a highly regarded artist whose work is held in major collections throughout the country. He is well-known for his skilful intertwining of abstract and figurative approaches to painting, creating hybrid imagery from eclectic sources. He collects, indexes, and reassembles images in his paintings, often responding to the work of earlier generations of New Zealand artists. In his large-scale 2015 work, Untitled with Rainbow, McLeod employs a background pattern which clearly references Māori motifs. This is a knowing riff off the art created by Theo Schoon – an influential artist of the 1940s and 1950s who has been critiqued for his appropriation of Māori cultural imagery. McLeod’s work has been described as directly engaging the problematic nature of cultural appropriation with more self-awareness and irony. He recontextualises Schoon and Gordon Walters' adoption of the koru, instilling different nuance and meaning. Untitled with Rainbow combines the koru motif background with a consummately detailed foreground of figurative imagery. Groups of figures, tree stumps, flowers and animals populate this complex mise-en-scene, showcasing McLeod’s remarkable flair for image composition. The result is visually stunning and conceptually intricate. It combines the traditions of European Figurative painting and pattern-based abstraction with a nuanced examination of Aotearoa’s visual culture and the complex history it inhabits.
Exhibitions Andrew McLeod, New Oils, Ivan Anthony, Auckland, 2014.
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note The collection of Te Papa Tongarewa includes a significant body of work by this artist.
William Dunning creates visually stimulating and meticulously rendered ar t works which provide of ten uncomfortable commentary on the colonial history of Aotearoa. With a skill for imitation, Dunning frequently exploits the visual language of historical imagery. Timetable, 1995, is no exception. Through the medium of graphite and ink, Dunning has constructed a detailed monochromatic study of images from European history adorning an ornate, panelled side-table. From left to right, each of the four panels presents a distinct era, evoking the passing of time. To visually ‘read’ the drawing alongside its title Timetable is to bring to life the playful pun in an otherwise statuesque ‘carved’ drawing. In the first panel of Dunning’s table is a replica of an equestrian frieze depicting the triumphant Roman conquest of the Germanic peoples. The next panel likewise imitates an equestrian portrait; Anthony van Dyck’s 1635 Charles I at the Hunt. The themes of triumph and conquest that permeate these two
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William Dunning Timetable 1995 graphite and ink on paper signed Willam Dunning, dated 1995 and inscribed Timetable in graphite lower edge 900 × 1300mm est
$7,000 — $12,000
provenance Acquired from Peter McLeavey Gallery, Wellington.
historical facsimiles influence readings of the subsequent panels. In the third panel is a replica of a waka prow, while the fourth panel houses a reproduction of a 19th century watercolour painting offering an idyllic colonial view of a New Zealand landscape. Dunning’s alignment of waka prow and the New Zealand landscape with European depictions of conquest is an artistic commentary on our historic colonial and indigenous encounter narratives. Dunning works in layers of illusion, designing an elaborate pun by replicating evocative images. Timetable is clever in content and skilled in execution.
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A Discussion with Andrew McLeod Interview by JULIAN MCKINNON
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Andrew McLeod Untitled with Rainbow 2014 oil on canvas signed A McLeod and dated 14 in brushpoint lower right 2000 × 1500mm
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Julian McKinnon: Looking at this work, there are quite a number of different elements involved. Can you talk a little about the process of creating an image like this? Andrew McLeod: I t’s a crazy dance putting something like this together. It involved a digital composite and drawing process – kind of like digital collage, where elements from many sources are combined. Bringing together all the elements is a challenge, and the digital process helps. My source material included 19th Century art and visual culture. The figures are from Victorian paintings and sculptures. Julian McKinnon: Victorian art strikes me as interesting reference point for contemporary painting. Andrew McLeod: I’m rebelling against my modernist training, and going for the most dissonant stuff to the previous generation– which happens to be Victorian art. I’m not aiming to be post-modern ironic, more just looking at things that I find interesting, but there is a note of that too. It’s both. Good artists look in the shadows, and that’s something I like to do. That that can mean engaging with things that seemed terrible to a previous generation, and Victorian art fits that bill. I’ve heard anecdotes of McCahon smashing plaster copies of Victorian works that were held by Auckland Art Gallery. I think the ideas of ‘beauty’ that were valorised by Victorian artists came to be seen as regressive and out of touch by modernist artists. That may be the case, but when you step into the V&A Museum and see the plaster copies there, it’s just amazing. My generation wasn’t intimidated by McCahon, whereas some older artists might have been. I look at his work and think some of it is good and some of its bad and he’s just another artist. I think that drawing on art from different periods you get a breadth and depth of good art that doesn’t belong to a particular style or ideology. It’s all about composition and paintwork. It’s the same thing with paintings whenever they are from. Julian McKinnon: It is interesting to think about art in terms of ideology. In a lot of ways, practitioners of modernism wanted to do away with the past in the drive to create something new. Though, with the benefit of hindsight, the idea of an artistic tabula rasa seems puritanical. Andrew McLeod: I think we are all trained to work and look at things in particular ways, and that can introduce blind spots. I did work with modernist high abstraction, and it is foundational to my painting practice. It is hardwired into the way I think about paint work and composition. That said, grand narratives can be problematic, they sweep away all nuance. Victorian art is also problematically ideological. It is rife with nationalistic tropes and entwined with colonisation. I look at it and have a degree of fear of the intense nationalism and the kind of authoritarian culture it represents.
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Andrew McLeod Untitled with Rainbow 2014 oil on canvas signed A McLeod and dated 14 in brushpoint lower right 2000 × 1500mm
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Culture can be used as a weapon, especially in terms of class. Questions open from looking at the history of painting, like, who is art made for? Who gets to decide if it’s good? Modernism also contains some fear-inducing nationalism and authoritarian tendencies. Julian McKinnon: That taps into some of the tricky aspects of the role of the artist in society. Artists can be both makers of culture and critics of it. Andrew McLeod: I think art can straddle contradictory ideas. Take Warhol for example. He was really engaged with consumer culture. His work was totally attuned to advertising and how it speaks to consumerist desire. He got what mainstream culture was all about. But Warhol couldn’t be a part of mainstream culture. He was so outside of it, so camp, so enmeshed in his idiosyncrasies. But he understood it so well. Julian McKinnon: Warhol embraced an aspect of culture – advertising and consumerism. Others have made their way by rejecting something from culture. Andrew McLeod: An example of this is the Pre-Raphaelites. They were rejecting the precursors to modernism – such as Turner. They weren’t afraid of the weight of what came before them – they liked what they liked. And what they liked was pre high-renaissance stuff. Again, it’s that looking in the shadows. As an artist, you want to find the good stuff. I think it can be fascinating to turn over what the culture has rejected. Though I also think culture is cyclical, rather than linear, and things that have been rejected often come around again. Julian McKinnon: Coming back to this painting, you mentioned that the background relates to the work of Theo Schoon. Andrew McLeod: It’s based on a Schoon kowhaiwhai that was housed in a marae. I never saw the work itself, just photographs. It is interesting the way that Schoon has been put under a microscope recently in terms of cultural appropriation. Readings change over time, and culture changes. Looking at this work, you could say it is an appropriation of an appropriation. That would be an ironic way of looking at it. Selwyn Muru was one of my tutors at art school, and he appreciated that I was paying homage to Māori culture. As an artist growing up here, it is impossible not to be informed by Māori art. It’s such a big part of our visual culture. There are kowhaiwhai on parking tickets, and anything involving a government agency. Māori visual culture is tied into our national identity and our nationalistic impulses. its contradictory and explosive. Julian McKinnon: That hits a number of interesting notes about the role of art in our culture generally. Though I wonder what is it about painting specifically that appeals to you?
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Andrew McLeod: Ultimately, I look at a lot of painting and it makes me want to paint. It is what excites me. Painting is a non-linguistic way of communicating. No good work is completely captured by what is written about it, it’s never as simple as historians say. It’s also more than the artist can say. There’s more in a painting than an artist can tell you. Artists often engage in post-hoc reasoning, finding explanations for an artwork after it is made. Though when you are making stuff you reach for whatever it is that will make the work look good. That’s what it is all about.
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Shane Cotton In the Shadow 2007 oil on canvas signed S. Cotton, dated 2007 and inscribed In The Shadow in brushpoint lower right 1800 × 1600mm
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Tony de Lautour Island 2000 oil on canvas 1400 × 2800mm
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Jason Greig The Space Ritual 2011 monoprint on paper signed J Greig, dated 2011 and inscribed 1/1 mono The Space Ritual in brushpoint lower edge 700 × 450mm est
$6,000 — $10,000
provenance Acquired from Hamish McKay Gallery, Wellington.
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Tony de Lautour Island 2000 oil on canvas 1400 × 2800mm est
$35,000 — $55,000
Provenance Acquired from Brooke/Gifford Gallery, Christchurch.
Tony de Lautour has stated that his art reflects the fact that “You can never escape the time that you’re in." This drive to depict what is current explains the diverse forms and styles which comprise de Lautour’s oeuvre. Throughout his decades long career, the Melbourne born and Christchurch raised artist has experimented with themes of cultural identity, dark humour, antagonism, modernity, and transformation. His style has ranged from purely figurative to entirely abstracted. Island, painted in 2000, marks a period when the artist was still intent on producing figurative works, yet it reveals an interest in the effectiveness of bold, simplified forms to express broad thematic concerns. In this work, the Nike ‘swoosh’ is suspended in black space, spectral against a depthless backdrop. The immense scale of the painting intensifies the visual impact of the corporate ‘Island’ inhabiting the ambiguous darkness. De Lautour has used historical volumes about early Aotearoa as inspiration for the topographical illustrations that occupy the Nike logo. This source, in combination with the title Island, implies the artist’s cynical observation of the pervasiveness of aggressive advertising in a society fixated on consumption. Prone to full absorption into the style and content of his work, de Lautour has produced a series of other icons evocative of advertising and consumerism in this period that house equally detailed topographical land masses. Tony de Latour has exhibited extensively in Australia and New Zealand, earning critical acclaim as a New Zealand Arts Laureate. He remains a preeminent New Zealand creative. Webb's
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Shane Cotton In the Shadow 2007 oil on canvas signed S. Cotton, dated 2007 and inscribed In The Shadow in brushpoint lower right 1800 × 1600mm est
$120,000 — $180,000
Provenance Acquired from Hamish McKay Gallery, Wellington.
By adroitly exploring themes of cultural identity and nationhood, Shane Cotton has risen to a point of prominence in Aotearoa and abroad. His artworks have remained integral to the landscape of New Zealand contemporary art for the last three decades. In the Shadow comprises a characteristic amalgamation of symbols and themes from Māori and Pākehā cultural histories. Cotton’s own Ngāpuhi and Pākehā heritage make his artistic exploration of biculturalism personal, as well as significant to the collective cultural identity of the country. The reduced colour palette used in In the Shadow emphasises Cotton’s use of words and symbols to express the complexities of a bicultural society. There is no single point of focus, causing the eye to wander from edge to edge, corner to corner, trying to read a work too detailed and full of coded meaning to be taken in with an initial glance. Passages of blue and green, which can be read as land and sky, are decisively bisected horizontally and vertically to form a crucifix. Adorning this unequivocally Christian symbol are intwined figures, evoking those which reside on Māori pou whenua. This layering of motifs places the scene in a liminal space, exacerbated by the inverted orientation of one of the central figures. Cotton presents an image of ordered chaos. There is an overall rhythm of symmetry and control conveyed by sections of colour and line. Each contained space, however, is packed with a visual cacophony of words and images. Cotton has animated a nuanced discourse on history, faith, identity, and conflict.
Exhibitions The End of the Year – Group Show, Hamish McKay Gallery, Wellington, 2007.
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Gordon Walters Koru 1959/73 ink on paper signed Gordon Walters and dated 6.3.73 in graphite lower right; dated 1973/1959/73 and inscribed koru in graphite verso 700 × 525mm est
$100,000 — $160,000
Provenance Private collection, Wellington. Acquired from Art+Object, Auckland; Collection of Frank and Lyn Corner, Wellington. Acquired from Peter McLeavey Gallery, Wellington, c1974.
Gordon Walters’ stylised and abstracted versions of Māori koru date from the late 1950s. Growing up in Wellington in the 1930s, he was attracted to Māori art and design on his frequent visits to the Dominion Museum and later when he visited the South Canterbury sites of Māori rock drawings with Theo Schoon in the mid-1940s. By the mid-1950s, Walters had zeroed in on the koru motif that appears in Māori visual culture. These are his most recognisable artworks and they have become an important part of the national visual lexicon – so much so that examples of these works are held in every major art collection in the country. Walters began Koru, an ink on paper drawing, in the late 50s, though didn’t finish it until the early 70s – lending it great significance in his career trajectory. He subjected the organic form of the koru to the strict geometric aesthetic of European High Modernism. The result is that the negative and positive elements mirror one another, pulsating backwards and forwards and across the surface. In contrast, the lower third of the work is completely black, emphasizing the dynamic movement of the upper section. This is an excellent example of Walters’ most distinctive work, with the added intrigue of the fourteen years between beginning and completion. Webb's
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Brent Harris Swamp No.8 2001 screenprint on paper, 20/30 signed BH, dated 01 and inscribed 'Swamp' (No. 8) in graphite lower edge 1519 × 609mm est
$8,000 — $12,000
Provenance Acquired from Robert Heald Gallery, Wellington.
Literature Lara Strongman with Robert Leonard and Justin Paton, Towards The Swamp, Brent Harris (Christchurch: Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, 2019).
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Gordon Walters Koru 1959/73 ink on paper signed Gordon Walters and dated 6.3.73 in graphite lower right; dated 1973/1959/73 and inscribed koru in graphite verso 700 × 525mm
Robin White – Michael at Julie's Place Essay by LINDA TYLER
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Robin White is an image maker concerned with locality and community. In her artworks, people are usually linked with place — aunties at Maketu, parents at Raglan, Sam at Bottle Creek, Claudia in Mt Eden and even Robin herself at Kaitangata. Her works from the 1970s map an archipelago, with each one symbolising a relationship with both regional New Zealand and people who are important to her. After her wedding in Auckland in 1972, Robin White returned with her husband Michael Fudakowski to her small cottage overlooking the harbour in Portobello on the Otago Peninsula. Her August 1972 exhibition at Dawson’s Gallery in Dunedin had been an enormous success, where all but two of the twentyseven works on exhibition has been sold by gallerist Maureen Hitchings. She resigned her part-time job teaching art at the Catholic girls’ college in Dunedin, St Dominic’s, which was run by Dominican nuns. White began tackling depictions of the Otago Peninsula landscape in the difficult medium of watercolour, building her skills in laying down washes with her soft brushes and achieving translucency in her portrayal of water and sky with thinned colour.
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Robin White Over the Road from Anna's Place 1972 graphite on paper 559 × 380mm
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Robin White Michael at Julie's Place 1979 watercolour on paper signed ROBIN WHITE, dated '79 and inscribed MICHAEL AT JULIE'S PLACE in brushpoint upper left 650 × 500mm
Her first son was born in Dunedin in October of 1973, and changed her life completely. He first appears in her work as a two-year-old seated next to a dead seagull (a metaphor for how the artist herself felt, surrounded by endless piles of nappies) in the watercolour Michael at Allan’s Beach in 1975. Now nearly 50 years old, and a legendary bass guitarist, Michael Fudakowski Junior lives and teaches music in Christchurch. In the catalogue for the 2022 Te Papa Tongarewa/Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki exhibition he recounts how excruciating it was for him as a small child, sitting still while his mother painted his portrait: “All I wanted to do was go and
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play outside! There can be no better way (deliberate or not) of achieving a bored, glazed-over expression…” Wearing a cowboy jerkin, seated on his special wooden chair, accompanied by his yellow gumboots and Buzzy Bee toy, the now-school-aged Michael appears again three years later in Michael at Home (1978). This screenprint was produced as an edition of 50, made to mark this watershed off-to-school moment in the life of both mother and child. His hands are empty, brought together in front of him to form a heart shape. Painted a year later, the watercolour Michael at Julie’s Place shows the now six-year-old Michael with the same pudding-bowl haircut, holding an egg in his left hand, much as Laurence Aberhart’s daughter Kamala does in the 1981 screenprint Easter at Victory Beach, Kamala and the Pyramid. Eggs are a fertility symbol, and are often associated with Ostara, the pagan goddess of spring, fertility, conception, and pollination. When the vernal equinox occurs in the Northern Hemisphere, usually in March, it marks the beginning of the spring season, celebrated in the Middle East and Asia as Nowruz or Naw-Ruz for Bahá’ís, a New Year holiday. Bahá’ís fast from dawn until dusk for the month preceding Naw-Ruz, which breaks their fast. March in Dunedin is usually the most settled month of the year, weather-wise. That month’s strong autumn sunlight falls from the left across the grille of wooden slats in the foreground of this watercolour, creating a zigzag pattern of light and shade. In Michael at Julie's Place a planter box roughly made of cement slabs holds a spindly plant with elongate leaves which casts a blocky shadow across the step and the floor through the open door suggesting late afternoon. Michael is still so small that his feet don’t quite reach the ground, and his bare legs, extending from rumpled pink shorts, dangle down, catching the light. Precisely outlined, the rest of his clothing, (yellow skivvy and red-and-blue-striped buttoned up cardigan), suggests a cooling of seasonal temperature. Blocks of pastel colour surround the boy – pink on the left, blue on the right, with chartreuse and peach colours behind – presenting him as if the central form in an altarpiece. Perhaps Michael has gone after school to Julie’s place to be babysat,
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and is awaiting collection by his parents expectantly at her open door, looking a little forlorn. Robin White became a mother at the age of 27 after an independent life working as an artist and a teacher. Motherhood required some adjustment, though she now values the learning that came with it, remarking in an interview with Terri Te Tau, “It enriches your field of understanding of human nature, all the hard bits and the good bits, the whole thing.” By now, public art galleries were adding oil paintings by Robin White to their collections: the Robert McDougall Art Gallery in Christchurch bought Florence and Harbour Cone (1974) in 1975, the same year that the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki purchased Fish and Chips, Maketu (1975). Although abruptly cut off to form framing devices in this way, features of the architecture of the setting suggest a Victorian villa. Tongue-and-groove floorboards are glimpsed beneath the linoleum behind the seated child, and the white-painted panels in the door have had a contemporary facelift using a bold 1970s palette. By carefully rendering these details of her friend’s house, the artist draws attention to the geometrical structuring of the composition with its prominent vertical and horizontal lines. At top left she has block-lettered the name of the painting and its date horizontally, with her own name written vertically up the architrave of the door to form a right angle of text. Commissioned to paint a mural for Dunedin Hospital, White started work on the rounded forms of Seven Hills (197080) in July. At the end of 1979, when her mother Florence died, she focused on depicting the hard, basalt forms of the socalled pyramids at Victory Beach on Otago Peninsula. After a three-week trip touring galleries in Sydney and Melbourne, the family moved into Cumberland Street in Dunedin in late 1980 to be close to George Street Normal, a large primary school close to Otago University. Shortly afterwards, a letter arrived from the National Bahá’í Assembly suggesting that the family undertake voluntary work to help build the Bahá’í community in Kiribati. Moving to a group of tiny islands in the central Pacific, Robin White’s work changed immediately and irrevocably as she came to understand the new archipelago where she was living.
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Robin White Michael at Julie's Place 1979 watercolour on paper signed ROBIN WHITE, dated '79 and inscribed MICHAEL AT JULIE'S PLACE in brushpoint upper left 650 × 500mm
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Warren Viscoe The Great Coat of Richard Henry 2013 acrylic on macrocarpa signed WV and dated 2013 with incision verso 1050 × 200 × 500mm (widest points) est
$7,000 — $13,000
Provenance Acquired directly from the artist.
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note The title of this work refers to conservationist Richard Henry (1845–1929). He worked as caretaker of Resolution Island, a nature sanctuary in Fiordland. Henry was an advocate for native bird species, particularly Kakapo.
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Robin White Michael at Julie's Place 1979 watercolour on paper signed ROBIN WHITE, dated '79 and inscribed MICHAEL AT JULIE'S PLACE in brushpoint upper left 650 × 500mm est
$100,000 — $150,000
Provenance Acquired from Page Blackie Gallery, Wellington; Private collection, Wellington. Acquired from Peter McLeavey Gallery, 1979.
Dame Robin White is one of New Zealand’s most decorated and celebrated artists. Her work is held in major national and international collections, and she is the recipient of an impressive list of prestigious awards and honours. Her paintings and imagery have become enmeshed in the fabric of New Zealand visual culture. Two examples of this are Buzzy Bee for Siulolovao, 1977, a painting of a toy buzzy bee flying over a classic New Zealand bungalow, and the classic local fish and chip shop in Fish and Chips, Maketu, 1975. These are iconic paintings in their own right. Raised in Auckland, White’s early works were in line with her regionalist contemporaries, Rita Angus, Don Binney, and Doris Lusk. The works followed modernist trends of flattened subjects, stylised outlines, and block colours to describe the landscape. Michael at Julie’s Place showcases White’s iconic, highly stylised painting imagery. This work was painted in 1979, and it depicts her son, Michael, at a friends home. This personal subject matter brings the artist directly into the work. It presents the young boy in soft tones as he sits calmly at the front door. Painted in watercolour, the work demonstrates White’s strengths as a painter and a maker of images.
Literature Alister Taylor, Robin White, New Zealand Painter, (Waiura: Alister Taylor, 1981), 71.
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Robin White Over the Road from Anna's Place 1972 graphite on paper 559 × 380mm est
$35,000 — $55,000
provenance Acquired from Two Rooms, Auckland.
In the 1970s, Robin White spent a decade working on the Otago Peninsula, creating hard-edged realist works that consider themes of place and identity. The crisp, clear aesthetic White honed during this period prevents any air of nostalgia or romanticism, and illustrates the influence of Rita Angus' realism. Her depictions of local figures, rural landscapes and vernacular small-town buildings are celebratory, and reflect upon seemingly nondescript elements of New Zealand life. In Over the Road from Anna's Place, a 1972 graphite drawing with a corresponding screenprint, White elevates a modest Dunedin home to a subject worthy of depiction and record for posterity. As a result of the frontal perspective and grey-scale of the graphite medium, the architectural lines are particularly pronounced, and White has paid close attention to the dwelling's position in the landscape.
Literature Alister Taylor, Robin White, New Zealand Painter, (Waiura: Alister Taylor, 1981), 97.
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Roger Mortimer Dilemma Hill 2016 watercolour, gold dust and charcoal on canvas inscribed Dilemma Hill in brushpoint upper edge 1400 × 1800mm est
$16,000 — $25,000
Provenance Acquired from Bartley Art & Company, Wellington.
Roger Mortimer painted Dilemma Hill in 2016. It was shown in two public exhibitions of his work in 2017, which took place in Porirua and Auckland. It is beautifully restrained, showcasing the artist’s mastery of the medium and his unique artistic vision. The title has been taken from a geographic feature on the eastern headland of the entry to Wellington Harbour, across the channel from the Miramar Peninsula. The backdrop is a precise map of this area devoid of detail, bar a handful of placenames. It includes the southern reach of the harbour from the city to the south coast, and from Eastbourne to the titular Dilemma Hill. Rather than topographical information, the map is detailed with signature Mortimer notations and figures. The beautiful, fluid blue of the harbour is inscribed with nautical illustrations and annotations. At the top of the image a host of angels congregate. One of their number has flown to the attendance of a woman, whose ghostly figure is painted over the map beneath the inscription ‘Wahine Memorial’ (this map point is the location of the memorial site for the Wahine ferry disaster). Elsewhere, demons attack and torment human figures, while birds with human heads line a row of trees in the vicinity of the immaculate script reading ‘Dilemma Hill’. Parts of the work have been painted in meticulous detail, which contrasts beautifully with the paint runs in the watery blue of the harbour. The work encapsulates Mortimer’s decades long practice, which has explored medieval calligraphy and illuminated manuscripts.
Exhibitions Roger Mortimer: Dilemma Hill, Pātaka Art + Museum, Porirua, 26 February - 21 May 2017; Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland, 14 July - 2 September 2017. Literature Roger Mortimer, Apocrypha: The Maps of Roger Mortimer/Apocryphe: Les cartes de Roger Mortimer (Auckland: Index Publishing, 2021), 92.
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Fiona Pardington Kaka 2004 gelatin silver print, 4/5 signed Fiona Pardington, dated 2005 and inscribed Kaka in ink verso 500 × 600mm est
$40,000 — $60,000
Provenance Acquired from {Suite} Gallery, Wellington.
One of Aotearoa’s most reputable photographers, Dr Fiona Pardington MNZM (Ngāi Tahu, Kati Mamoe, Ngāti Kahungunu; Clan Cameron of Erracht) has worked with taonga housed in museum and archival collections since the 1990s. Capturing subjects including heitiki, taxidermy birds and still lifes, Pardington deploys the camera as a mediator through which to renew the spiritual energy of objects relegated to the concealed, passive existence of museum artefact or ethnographic record. Her resulting images can be construed as portraits that attempt to ground their subjects in the present moment, while posing questions around museological practices in a postcolonial context. Kaka (2004) forms a part of the artist’s photographic series of taxidermy native birds, others which have included the kiwi, kererū, and the extinct huia and whēkau. The kākā is an endangered social parrot endemic to Aotearoa, with a spirited, screechy call that can often be heard in chorus. They are found in limited numbers in forested areas across the country, where conservation efforts have enabled the species to recover from heavy predation in the wake of colonisation and the introduction of mammalian predators. In contrast to the clinical, documentary aesthetic inherent to catalogue or archival photography, Pardington explores the painterly potential of the camera and imbues her subject with a tangible energy. Kaka reflects an experimentation with light, with high contrast dramatising the representation of the bird and softening its profile with dark shadows and blurred edges. The kākā’s feathers are rendered ghostly, their texture appearing almost as if painted with delicate brushstrokes. A soft, diffuse light is angled towards the bird’s crown, its glossy glass eye reflecting back so as to seem almost alive. Webb's
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Liz Maw Lady Kathryn and I 2011 oil on board signed Liz Maw and dated 2011 in brushpoint lower edge 1515 × 1115mm est
$75,000 — $125,000
Provenance Acquired from Ivan Anthony, Auckland.
Liz Maw’s paintings unite the religious iconography of historical paintings with references to contemporary life, resulting in a distinct visual language that questions the line between high and low art. Influenced by her Catholic upbringing, Maw explores the power of religious icons and symbols, her works often as ornately framed as those by the Old Masters adorning the National Gallery walls. But the centuries-old historical imagery Maw adopts is subverted, figuratively reframed in a twenty-firstcentury context, drawing connections between historical icon painting and icons of popular culture today. With her detailed rendering, Maw’s hyper-realist figures and suggestion of textures also highlight the possibilities of oil paint in a digital age. In Lady Kathryn and I, the woman’s hooded face is in one sense an impressive copy of the female figure in Flemish master Robert Campin’s pendant portraits of a married couple, painted circa 1435. Although both artists demonstrate their mastery of oil paint, in Maw’s rendering, the male sitter is reduced to a trophy-like bodiless head, the woman’s ivory skin has been traded for a holographic blue, and her crisp white howve (hood) is now eggshell in colour, and appears superimposed on top of the figure. Where Campin had sought to create an illusionistic, although idealised, depiction, the glowing blue of the figure’s skin in Lady Kathryn and I removes any sense of human life from her. Her hooded face with thick folds of drapery sits in contrast to the naked ‘pinup’ body, which feels plastic and fake, impossibly flawless like magazine bodies.
Exhibitions Liz Maw New Work, Ivan Anthony, Auckland, 29 June - 23 July, 2011.
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Robin White Bare Hill, Paremata 5 1969 watercolour on paper signed R.WHITE and dated '77 in graphite lower edge 419 × 298mm est
$12,000 — $18,000
provenance Acquired from McLeavey Gallery, Wellington.
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Liz Maw: Preistess of Paint Essay by JULIAN MCKINNON
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Liz Maw’s paintings contain strange and compelling magic. They are works of extraordinary skill and diligence, with immaculately rendered paintwork that is a marvel to behold. This in itself makes the works exceptional. Though it is her imaginative approach to figurative representation and distinctive use of colour that really make her paintings hum. Maw graduated from Elam in 2002, and has been weaving her painterly magic since. Her works are scarce, which is unsurprising given the apparent labour that goes into creating them. Encountering one is like reaching a mountain summit or entering a venerated temple; it comes with a sense of awe. It’s hard to imagine that this isn’t intentional. Maw has generated a painting language that draws on religious art and iconography. Her figures are painted in hyperreal colours and presented in large, ornate frames. They include aspects of pop culture that activate the embedded stimulus of media and advertising; when combined with the elevating language of religious painting, this makes for a potent cocktail. Take the example of her 2005 painting Robert Plant. The painting depicts the iconic rockstar as a slim and audaciously desirable youth, perhaps at the height of Led Zeppelin’s fame. Painted in pink against blue, equipped with cape, tiara and codpiece, Plant is presented as a demi-god – luminous, encircled by a white aura, adorned with a chest tattoo of a dove. In keeping with Maw’s captivating image-making voodoo, the painting activates the embedded fame and sex-symbol status of Plant, along with some aspects of iconography or religious veneration. The painting Robert Plant features in Maw’s 2008 book My Beloved Hackneyed. Remarkably, this is a book that manages to be both pared back and sumptuous. It does not include any explanatory text, publishing details or catalogue information about the works other than their titles. Instead, it presents glossy, high resolution reproductions of paintings, with small inset pages of Maw’s poetry. The effect is something otherworldly, seemingly originating from a parallel reality that exists without, the pressing commercial impetus of this one. 126
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Liz Maw Lady Kathryn and I 2011 oil on board signed Liz Maw and dated 2011 in brushpoint lower edge 1515 × 1115mm
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Liz Maw Kristen Nefertari and Alex Isis 2011 oil on board signed L. Maw, dated 2011 and inscribed Kristen Nefertari and Alex Isis in graphite verso 342 × 227mm
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Perhaps this too is part of the mystic wonder of Maw’s work. French philosopher Jean Baudrillard used the term ‘hyperreality’ to describe a phenomenon where it becomes impossible to distinguish reality from a simulation of reality, where fact and fiction merge and blur. Maw’s paintings meet the threshold of hyperreality. They refer to familiar people, objects, and tropes of visual communication. Yet, they are representations of the fantastical – exquisite reproductions of imagined originals. In a sense, this is the essential nature of her art form. Painting, after all, is a form of alchemy. The painter takes colourful compounds and transforms them into images, which invite narrative invention, or imaginative contemplation. It is a simulacral medium as old as the Stone Age. Maw takes this ancient transformative art form and brings it into a contemporary context, though she does not attempt to discard the accretions of history that come with it. Maw’s 2011 painting, Lady Kathryn and I, adeptly performs all of the dazzling features of her intoxicating craft. The painting depicts a single figure against a dark background. She is seated, naked aside from a hood. Tucked into her arm is a mask, or bottle, which seemingly contains the head of a man. She has been painted in tones of pink, with occasional hues of blue in areas of shadow. Her face is copied from the woman in Flemish master Robert Campin’s pendant portraits of a married couple, painted circa 1435. When observing the source image next to Maw’s, the exactness of her replication is striking. The paintwork in Lady Kathryn and I is characteristically highly rendered. The pose, image definition, and stark background lend the image a stylisation akin to a fashion photography shoot. Maw has transformed a portrait that predates European discovery of the Americas into a contemporary masterpiece. Reframing painted history is the one of the great skills that Maw possesses. Nods to master painters of bygone eras occur throughout her work, but this goes beyond homage, influence, or commentary. She will take a historical reference and transmute it. The character or historic style is not merely replicated, 127
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it is reinvented with entirely new meaning. One could detect a parallel here with the work of American artist Elaine Sturtevant. While the practices of the two women are markedly different, replication as a means of reinvention is a common theme between them. Sturtevant was known for creating works that performed replication of other art pieces to an uncanny extent. Rather than copies, however, these were works of structural analysis that examined deep questions of context and authorship. Maw’s paintings do not speak to authorship in the same way – after all, who but her could possibly make such works? – though they do engage in a similarly persistent analysis. One can detect that Maw has looked at, reflected on, and analysed the historic paintings she references with a determination and depth of perception few possess. Her intention to unravel and repurpose image making through the ages, with all of its coded meaning and nuance, is readily evident in the work she makes. Her paintings are rendered with a level of precision and clarity that can only be the result of countless hours spent in the solitude of the studio. One can’t help but appreciate the sheer force of will it takes to create such extraordinary works.
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Liz Maw Lady Kathryn and I 2011 oil on board signed Liz Maw and dated 2011 in brushpoint lower edge 1515 × 1115mm
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Liz Maw Kristen Nefertari and Alex Isis 2011 oil on board signed L. Maw, dated 2011 and inscribed Kristen Nefertari and Alex Isis in graphite verso 342 × 227mm
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Liz Maw Kristen Nefertari and Alex Isis 2011 oil on board signed L. Maw, dated 2011 and inscribed Kristen Nefertari and Alex Isis in graphite verso 342 × 227mm est
$12,000 — $18,000
Provenance Acquired from Ivan Anthony, Auckland.
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Exhibitions Liz Maw New Work, Ivan Anthony, Auckland, 29 June - 23 July 2011.
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Bill Hammond Wishbone Cave 2010 acrylic on canvas signed W. D. Hammond and dated 2010 in brushpoint lower left; inscribed CAVE PAINTING 16 WISHBONE CAVE in brushpoint upper edge 1200 × 800mm est
$380,000 — $560,000
Provenance Acquired from Peter McLeavey Gallery, Wellington.
Ancient, mythical watchers guard, protect and serve an undefined, remote, dystopian place. Painted with Hammond’s signature sea black-green drips and pale golds, his hybrid birds are active in Wishbone Cave, 2010, pouring liquid from full vessels into the underworld. There is a gothic whimsy and stillness in Hammond’s painted scenes. A quietness that overcomes the subject’s soft concern as they contemplate and reconcile their past and present. Hammond is one of New Zealand’s most significant artists. He is a contemporary of the ‘pencil case’ artists, a group who explored their sense of identity and place during the 1990s and early 2000s. In keeping with this, land and nature have always been at the core of Hammond’s artistic expression. Hammond was a reserved Lytteltonian who inhabited the dormant rolling hills of Christchurch’s eastern volcanic crater. References of his home can be read throughout his work. He warps the environment with nods to the cliffs and seascape, often repeating his motif of the volcano. In Wishbone Cave, we see his distinctive creatures atop enormous boulders. In flight they are set against the sea edge engaged in some kind of ceremonial disposal. Painted in acrylic, this is an exceptional example of Hammond’s Cave Painting series.
Literature Sarah Pepperle (ed.), Bill Hammond: Across the Evening Sky (Christchurch: Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, 2021), 114-115.
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Bill Hammond: Death and Taxes Essay by ROBERT LEONARD
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It’s a well-known story. In 1989, Ōtautahi Christchurch painter Bill Hammond was among a group of artists who visited the remote Auckland Islands. The trip changed his art, resetting its course for the rest of his life. The Auckland Islands are in the Subantarctic, some 450 kilometres south of Aotearoa New Zealand. There’s no human inhabitants and birds still rule the roost. There, Hammond felt distant, not only in space but also in time. He saw the Islands as primeval, as if they were old-old New Zealand, before people arrived. Inspired, he started to populate his paintings with inscrutable hybrid bird-people. The earliest of these works namechecked Sir Walter Buller, the nineteenthcentury New Zealand ornithologist and colonist. Buller slaughtered vast numbers of native birds in order to ‘preserve’ them, while arguing, of Māori, ‘our plain duty as good compassionate colonists is to smooth down their dying pillow.’ In the 1990s, Hammond’s bird-people paintings quickly became part of an emerging postcolonial imaginary—a much loved one.
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Bill Hammond Goods and Services 2013 oil on canvas signed W. D. Hammond, dated 2013 and inscribed GOODS AND SERVICES in brushpoint upper edge 800 × 1800mm
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Bill Hammond Ancestral Paper 7 2005 acrylic on paper signed W. D. Hammond, dated 2005 and inscribed Ancestral Paper 7 in brushpoint lower right 750 × 550mm
Hammond’s bird-people are ambiguous. They gaze out across the ocean as though anticipating colonial invasion (Watching for Buller), but they also while away hours in the pub, drinking, smoking, and playing pool in print shirts (perhaps unconcerned). Even in the forest, they play cello and violins and are inscribed with musical notation and copperplate script (the hand of bureaucracy), as if looking forward to what will overwhelm them. Sometimes they seem to be pathetic victims, other times a criminal gang. People and horses occasionally join the party, without explanation. It’s all rhyme, no reason. The bird-people are floating signifiers that could refer to the birds there before the Māori, to the Māori who decimated the bird population, and to the Pākehā who decimated the bird population and the Māori one. They could be us or them, victims and villains rolled into one—or radically other. Hammond’s bird-people are haunted by problems. On the one hand, there’s anthropomorphism: our desire
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to project our own human desires and emotions onto them, assuming we can know them, that they are like us. On the other, there's the opposite: assuming they are totally unrelatable and unfathomable in their alienness, and we need not care. Of course, this dilemma also attends our intercourse with other people. The bird-people paintings are interpretative conundrums. Meanings are impossible to pin down. Not that people won’t try. Perversely, the authors of the artist's Wikipedia entry argue that his paintings are motivated by environmental and social-justice concerns, which seems rather wishful. Hammond was no woke snowflake. Rather, his works remain refreshingly amoral, prompting us to think, but offering no real guidance as to what to think. He didn’t create a coherent world, but a baffling one, and he never explained it. It may have been a mystery to him too. I don’t know who was first to call Hammond’s bird-people paintings ‘history paintings’, but it was one of those intuitive insights that seems obvious, yet demands endless unpacking. History painting—those grand representations of edifying biblical, historical, mythological, and allegorical narratives—was once a staple of Western art. It served the propaganda needs of the elites—church, state, aristocracy—bolstering the status quo. It stood as painting’s highest genre for centuries, because of the skill it required and because it had a (supposedly) edifying purpose. However, history painting collapsed in the nineteenth century, with the decline of the academy and the emergence of the avant-garde. Now, it seems antiquated, an artefact itself. Today, when we see history paintings in museums and great houses, they seem like lumbering pictorial machines, requiring armies of guides to decode them for us. So, if Hammond’s bird-people paintings recall history paintings for us, I suggest it’s not about how history paintings operated for their original audiences, but about how they don’t
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operate for us now. Hammond's paintings are history painting as bewildering and opaque— illustrating no familiar tale and with no obvious moral. Painted in 2013, Goods and Services is late Hammond, when his imagery had become courtly and magical. It’s set in a liminal space, part cave, part architecture; part nature, part culture; neither inside nor out. It’s framed by tree-columns aligned with the sides of the canvas panels. At their bases, they spread their roots; at their capitals, they sprout branches. Is it a single scene or a comic strip to be read from left to right? Most of the bird-people are in profile, suggesting heraldry. They come across as courtiers or angels, involved in cultish rituals. What are the three large figures in the centre panel up to? Are two of them getting married or forging an oath, with the third witnessing or presiding? They all wear dresses, but are they male or female? There’s the suggestion of a colour-coded and scalar pecking order, but the upshot isn’t clear. When a large bird bears a small bird in its hand, does that mean the small one has less status or more? Perspective is ambiguous—no help—nothing lines up. And what’s in those urns? Are they canopic jars or treasure pots? Are they full or empty? Why is there a horse in one corner and a pterodactyl flying overhead? And why is it the painting drenched in dribbles, like it began raining before the paint dried? The work suggests a mythological mishmashy elsewhere and elsewhen, an escapist fantasy—but there’s a twist. It’s the title. Goods and Services can only refer to New Zealand’s Goods and Services Tax, created in 1986 as part of the raft of neoliberal economic reforms known as Rogernomics. To kiwis at the time, then attuned only to income taxes, it seemed a curious and cryptic imposition, but it’s become second nature. Hammond is no stranger to GST. Back in 1994, he made a work called GST (a.k.a. GST on Tea Towels). It consisted of three ragged
pieces of raw unstretched canvas, each featuring one of the letters from the title rendered in black paint. There was a blocky comic 3D letter G, and two figured initials that could have come from either an old illuminated manuscript or a tattooist’s catalogue. The S was a snake form with bird heads at either end, bisected by a leaf (suggesting a dollar sign perhaps); the T took the form of a bird-person hanging from a tree (recalling the crucified Christ). What was Hammond getting at? Was he putting a bogan-medieval spin on this touchy subject? Was he implying that GST was not part of a modern or civilised future, perhaps even ushering in a new dark age? As usual, his point wasn’t so clear. And the upshot of Goods and Services isn’t clear either. The title is radically at odds with the picture. It reframes it, turning it on its head. Hammond shows us a magical other world, yet his title redirects us rudely back to our own, as if wanting to awaken us from a dream. How are the obscure actions of the bird-people in fanciful Hammondland linked to real life in GSTland? Is Hammond offering this apparently idyllic scene as exemplary misdirection, delightfully masking the grim reality of perpetual taxation? Is he reminding us that, even in other realms, interrelations always come down to trade and tax—that we must always render unto Caesar? Who knows the answers? But these are the questions.
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Bill Hammond Wishbone Cave 2010 acrylic on canvas signed W. D. Hammond and dated 2010 in brushpoint lower left; inscribed CAVE PAINTING 16 WISHBONE CAVE in brushpoint upper edge 1200 × 800mm
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Bill Hammond Goods and Services 2013 oil on canvas signed W. D. Hammond, dated 2013 and inscribed GOODS AND SERVICES in brushpoint upper edge 800 × 1800mm
Tony de Lautour:
Do you think your walks around the hills come into your work? Like, the actual hills? Yeah, I think so. The caves – are there many caves up around here? Yep, caves everywhere in a volcano land. I remember as a kid the moa bone cave in Redcliffs. Deadly. Did you go into that one when you were younger? Shit yeah. I had friends later on who slept in there. [Chuckles.] It got fenced up at one point, I remember... Yeah, several times, I think. ...then they opened it up again. Did your cave paintings come out of that sort of thing? Yeah, yeah, I reckon.
Bill Hammond:
This is an excerpt from a conversation between Bill Hammond, Tony de Lautour and Peter Vangioni. A transcript was published in Bill Hammond: Across the Evening Sky (Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna O Waiwhetū, 2021).
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Bill Hammond Goods and Services 2013 oil on canvas signed W. D. Hammond, dated 2013 and inscribed GOODS AND SERVICES in brushpoint upper edge 800 × 1800mm est
$400,000 — $600,000
Provenance Acquired from Ivan Anthony, Auckland.
Bill Hammond painted Goods and Services in 2013. By this time, his visual lexicon was inscribed into the public psyche. The painting combines many key elements of his practice: effortless background washes and paint runs set the stage for an elaborate presentation of figures. They are complemented by urns, pillar-like trees, and translucent clouds. The host of bird people engage in obscure rituals, perhaps of courtship, reproduction and death. While it explores its own specificities of image and content, Goods and Services can be read in relation to Hammond’s cave paintings – Wishbone Cave from 2010 being an apposite example. These paintings engage the primordial motif of the cave as a place of refuge from the perils of the world. While Hammond began these paintings prior to the event, the Christchurch earthquake in 2011 pulled them into fresh focus. Caves are sites of shelter where renewal can begin. In this, one can detect Hammond’s engagement with the grand themes of earthly existence.
Literature Sarah Pepperle (ed.), Bill Hammond: Across the Evening Sky (Christchurch: Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, 2021), 170-171.
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Mitch Cairns Geranium Pots (interior) 2016 oil on linen 2160 × 1700mm est
$20,000 — $30,000
Provenance Acquired from The Commercial, Sydney.
Australian contemporary artist Mitch Cairns has gained widespread recognition for his distinct visual sensibility that recalls elements of Synthetic Cubism, Surrealism and Pop, while drawing from the stylistic vernacular of cartooning and graphic design. Cairns has cited concrete poetry as an influence in his practice, as well as autobiographical details—his Archibald Prize-winning painting Agatha GotheSnape (2017) was a portrait of the artist’s partner. More subtly, the brick wall seen in Geranium Pots (interior) (2016) nods to Cairns’ father, who works as a brick layer. The attire of the moustached figure who toils above seemingly points to blue-collar workers in what may be a caricature of working class Australia, or perhaps a nonchalant homage. Originally presented for his 2016 solo exhibition Stray Geranium at The Commercial in Sydney, Geranium Pots (interior) reflects Cairns’ playful handling of form, colour and composition. Objects, surfaces and patterns are elegantly contoured and neatly demarcated within the pictorial space, which is itself comically referenced through a painted wooden ‘frame’ enclosing the upper edges of the canvas. This self-reflexivity is further played out in the image of a warped wooden canvas frame, which rests against a tree trunk as though surreptitiously emerging from the raw material. The Geranium Pots series draws its title from the song Seven Drunken Nights by The Dubliners, which tells the story of a husband who notices an unfamiliar pair of boots under the bed and demands an explanation from his wife, who blames his drunken state and claims them to be geranium pots. Fittingly, Geranium Pots (interior) gives the impression of being constructed through a modular approach, as though a piece of a wider kaleidoscopic puzzle, or perhaps a visual anagram where things are not quite what they seem.
Exhibitions Mitch Cairns, Stray Geranium, The Commercial, Sydney, 2016.
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André Hemer Sky Painting #7 2018 acrylic on canvas signed André Hemer, dated 2018 and inscribed Sky Painting #7 in graphite verso 1000 × 550mm est
$10,000 — $15,000
Provenance Acquired from COMA Gallery, Sydney.
André Hemer is a rising star of New Zealand art. During his PhD in Painting at the University of Sydney, he developed work around the idea of 'new representation'. This term described painting situated within contemporary consumption and the creation of digital media, and new modes of expression when translating objects between the digital and the material. His luminous, abstract works stretch the limits of materiality and embody the practice of painting in the digital age. Exemplifying Hemer's unique process, this pair of paintings originate from a 2018 series titled Sky Painting. He begins by scanning acrylic paint and found objects en plein air, creating digital renders that host an interplay of natural and LED light. Hemer manipulates and compiles these scans into dense compositions that he overpaints in spray paint or brushed oil. He adds sculptural elements – occasionally the original object of the scan. Sensuously tactile, Hemer’s hybrid forms invoke a teeming, life-like mass of aerated acrylic pools, pearlescent swathes of gauze, and iridescent latex that oozes into reality, extending from the picture plane through glitches in the image. Hemer speaks to the experience of contemporary viewing and the way we perceive the world via online platforms. His rich, luminous works offer an interrogation of the tensions between material and dematerialised forms long before the proliferation of NFTs in the digital space. With works in public collections, including Seoul Art Space Geumcheon and Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, along with international representation, Hemer is central to the global generation of contemporary New Zealand artists.
Exhibitions André Hemer, The Imagist & The Materialist, COMA Gallery, Sydney, 2018.
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André Hemer Sky Painting #8 (evening) 2018 acrylic on canvas signed André Hemer, dated 2018 and inscribed Sky Painting #8 (evening) in graphite verso 1000 × 550mm est
$10,000 — $15,000
Provenance Acquired from COMA Gallery, Sydney.
Exhibitions André Hemer, The Imagist & The Materialist, COMA Gallery, Sydney, 2018.
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Matt Hunt Logical Adoration of Multi-Cosmic Baby Christ 2009 oil on canvas inscribed LOGICAL ADORATION OF MULTI-COSMIC BABY CHRIST in brushpoint upper edge 1600 × 1400mm est
$20,000 — $40,000
Provenance Acquired from Ivan Anthony, Auckland.
Matt Hunt’s paintings are among the most thought-provoking in contemporary New Zealand art. They feature rich iconography and imagery, populating idiosyncratic, unique worlds for the viewer to immerse themselves in. Hunt’s scenes offer viewers a visual smorgasbord of forms, uniting science fiction and biblical imagery, 1980s pop culture and surrealist biomorphic forms. On one hand, Hunt’s works are deeply personal spiritual visions. A born-again Christian, Hunt's works explore apocalyptic, existential and spiritual themes. However, his works also comment on universal concerns, namely the human condition. The presence of both recognisable and unrecognisable forms serve to include the viewer in his painted universe. Hunt’s distinct pictorial language is on display in Logical Adoration of MultiCosmic Baby Christ. In the foreground, we encounter a mélange of polar mammals, present at the adoration of the eponymous ‘multi-cosmic baby Christ.’ Yet rather than a traditional biblical Magi kneeling before the Christ-child, we find a figure endowed with elf-like ears, who seems to have been plucked directly from a fantasy film. The pockets of detailed imagery in the background enrich the scene and draw the eye across the canvas; one encounters an airborne tank, a rockstar mermaid, icecaps and snowy mountains. This polar scenery in which Hunt sets his adoration, combined with a seemingly incongruous tropical island, resonates in the context of the climate crisis. Certainly, the realm Hunt presents in Logical Adoration of Multi-Cosmic Baby Christ exists outside our parameters of reality, but the work simultaneously speaks to very real, ever-growing concerns facing humanity.
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Colin McCahon Van Gogh: Poems by John Caselberg 1957 lithograph on paper signed Colin McCahon, dated 1957 and inscribed VAN GOGH - POEMS BY JOHN CASELBERG on plate 340 × 250mm (each panel) est
$10,000 — $20,000
Provenance Acquired from Peter McLeavey Gallery, Wellington.
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One of Aotearoa’s foremost 20thcentury painters, Colin McCahon made a lasting impression on New Zealand art. His prints and drawings across a career that spanned over four decades saw the development of a New Zealand modernist identity, represented in landscapes, abstract and text based works. In the lithograph series Van Gogh: Poems by John Caselberg 1957, McCahon gives form to the words of John Caselberg (1927– 2004), the New Zealand writer and poet with whom he frequently collaborated. The pair formed a part of a burgeoning art and literary milieu which also included painter Toss Woollaston. Caselberg’s ‘Van Gogh’ poems were originally published in his first book of poetry, The Sound of the Morning in 1954. McCahon’s lithographs reimagine the poems through vigorous, energetic marks and the distinct cursive script for which he became known. Headed by a frontispiece, the series blends lyrical text with atmospheric, abstracted landscape. The sun is seen in different positions across the sky, or enmeshed between paragraphs. Thickets of bush creep up around words, and rays of light shine through sentences onto the landscape below. Van Gogh: Poems by John Caselberg was produced during McCahon’s pivotal ‘Titirangi years’ (1953–1960), during which he developed some of his most well known works. This series may be seen as a prelude to the artist’s significant multi-panel works such as the Northland panels (1958) or the Elias triptych (1959), offering a narrativised interpretation of the landscape while complementing the evocative, tempestuous words of Caselberg. Webb's
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Bill Hammond Pretty 1 2006 etching on paper, 24/24 signed W. D. Hammond, dated 2006 and inscribed 24/24 Pretty 1 in graphite lower edge 385 × 285mm
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$3,500 — $6,500
provenance Acquired from PG Gallery192, Christchurch.
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Bill Hammond Pretty 2 2006 etching on paper, 24/24 signed W. D. Hammond, dated 2006 and inscribed 24/24 Pretty 2 in graphite lower edge 385 × 285mm $3,500 — $6,500
provenance Acquired from PG Gallery192, Christchurch.
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Bill Hammond Pretty 3 2006 etching on paper, 24/24 signed W. D. Hammond, dated 2006 and inscribed 24/24 Pretty 3 in graphite lower edge 385 × 285mm est
$3,500 — $6,500
provenance Acquired from PG Gallery192, Christchurch.
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Printmaking played an important part in Bill Hammond’s practice from the early 1980s, when he made his first etchings under the tutelage of Denise Copland at the Christchurch Polytechnic. For this series, Hammond has employed the etching technique to make multiples of his white ink on black paper drawings. He worked with master printmaker Marian Maguire at the PaperGraphica Print Studio in Christchurch to edition these etchings. On a visit to Japan in 1991, Hammond saw first-hand the rich tradition of Japanese printmaking, in particular the popular prints of manga comics which use finely drawn lines on either white or black backgrounds. This influence can clearly be seen in the Pretty series of lithographs. The images are characteristically enigmatic, with Hammond’s In Pretty 1, Hammond’s signature bird-humans morph into stylized waves reminiscent of Katsushika Hokusai’s woodcuts. When it comes to Pretty 2, a similar scene plays out, though with a composition that creates more spatial depth – with islands and water receding into the picture plane. In Pretty 3, the waves barely feature. Instead, the composition is largely comprised of a human head overlaid with a bird figure. 159
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Liz Maw Young David Attenborough 2007 giclée print on paper, 5/10 signed L. Maw, dated 2007 and inscribed Young David Attenborough in graphite lower edge 615 × 418mm est
$1,800 — $2,500
provenance Acquired from Ivan Anthony, Auckland.
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Terms and Conditions The terms and conditions of sale listed here contain the policies of Webb’s (Webb Fine Art). They are the terms on which Webb’s (Webb Fine Art) and the Seller contract with the Buyer. They may be amended by printed Saleroom Notices or oral announcements made before and during the sale. By bidding at auction you agree to be bound by these terms.
1. Background to the Terms used in these Conditions The conditions that are listed below contain terms that are used regularly and may need explanation. They are as follows: “the Buyer” means the person with the highest bid accepted by the Auctioneer. “the Lot” means any item depicted within the sale for auction and in particular the item or items described against any lot number in the catalogue. “the Hammer price” means the amount of the highest bid accepted by the auctioneer in relation to a lot. “the Buyer’s Premium” means the charge payable by the Buyer to the auction house as a percentage of the hammer price. “the Reserve” means the lowest amount at which Webb’s has agreed with the Seller that the lot can be sold. “Forgery” means an item constituting an imitation originally conceived and executed as a whole, with a fraudulent intention to deceive as to authorship, origin, age, period, culture or source, where the correct description as to such matters is not reflected by the description in the catalogue. Accordingly, no lot shall be capable of being a forgery by reason of any damage or restoration work of any kind (Including re-painting). “the insured value” means the amount that Webb’s in its absolute discretion from time to time shall consider the value for which a lot should be covered for insurance (whether or not insurance is arranged by Webb’s). All values expressed in Webb’s catalogues (in any format) are in New Zealand Dollars (NZD$). 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.
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Except as otherwise stated, Webb’s 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. The property is otherwise sold “AS IS”
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 its 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. 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. 3.3. 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 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.
3.2. 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
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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 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.
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 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.
4.6. 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
4.11. Indicative Bidding Steps, etc. Webb’s reserves the right to refuse any bid, withdraw any lot from sale,
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2022
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 19.5% 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 2 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$5,000, if wishing to pay more than NZD$5,000 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. 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 cleared funds. Subject to this, the Buyer shall collect purchased lots within 2 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. 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
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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. 5.7. Failure to Collect Purchases Where purchases are not collected within 2 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
Webb's
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 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.
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
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 pre-sale 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.
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
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.
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Absentee Bid Form
Auctions Private Sales Valuations webbs.co.nz auction@webbs.co.nz auckland 33a Normanby Road Mount Eden, Auckland, 1024 09 529 5600
Name wellington 23 Marion Street Te Aro, Wellington, 6011 04 555 6001
(Please Print Clearly)
Email (Please provide for invoice purposes)
Address
Bidder #
(PO Box not sufficient)
(Office Use Only)
City Postcode
Auction # & Title (Please Print Auction & Title Here)
Telephone Number(s)
1
2
(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 19.5% 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. Interactive Digital Version
Signature
Date
In order to register to bid with Webb’s please complete this form and scan or email to auction@webbs.co.nz Webb's
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Timeline
1952 1957 1962 1963
1969
1970 1972 1973 1977 1978 1979
1982 1986 1988 1990 1993 1995 1996 1998 1999
2000 2001 2002 2004 2005 2006
2007
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March
Colin McCahon, Fifteen Drawings for Charles Brasch Colin McCahon, Van Gogh: Poems by John Caselberg Toss Woollaston, Blackball Ans Westra, Ohinemutu Ans Westra, Ruatoria Ans Westra, Ruatoria Ans Westra, Ruatoria Ans Westra, Ruatoria Ans Westra, Whakarewarewa, Rotorua Robin White, Paremata 2 Robin White, Paremata 5 Richard Killeen, Five Men, Three Women Gordon Walters, Tawa Robin White, Untitled (Porirua Hills) Robin White, Over the Road from Anna’s Place Gordon Walters, Koru Robin White, Allan’s Beach Richard Killeen, Be What You Are Richard Killeen, Black Collection Gordon Walters, Karaka Richard Killeen, Living & Dying Robin White, Michael at Julie’s Place Gordon Walters, Kura Don Binney, Swoop of the Kotare, Wainamu Tanya Ashken, Whale Form Bill Hammond, Companions of Misery Bill Hammond, Waiting for Buller Bar William Dunning, Timetable Peter Robinson, Untitled Robin White, New Angels Bill Hammond, Melting Moments II Tony de Lautour, Panorama Brent Harris, To The Forest Andrew McLeod, untitled Tony de Lautour, Island Roger Mortimer, MCXXIXMMCMV Brent Harris, Swamp No.1 - 7 Brent Harris, Swamp No.8 Shane Cotton, Convertibles Brent Harris, Grotesquerie; Grotesquerie (no.11); Grotesquerie (le regarder) Fiona Pardington, Kaka Tim Maguire, Untitled Bill Hammond, Ancestral Paper 7 Chris Charteris, Force of Nature Linde Ivimey, St Hippolytus Terry Stringer, Our Home is Our Childhood Bill Hammond, Pretty 1 Bill Hammond, Pretty 2 Bill Hammond, Pretty 3 Richard Killeen, Regeneration Liz Maw, The Naiad Bill Hammond, untitled Séraphine Pick, Burning The Furniture Brendon Wilkinson, Half Asleep She Climbed Up From Beneath The Canopy Shane Cotton, In the Shadow Darryn George, Pukapuka #3 166
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012 2013
2014
2015 2016
2017 2018
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Liz Maw, Young David Attenborough Francis Upritchard, Flock Manos Nathan, Ipu Waiora Brendon Wilkinson, Shhh Richard Killeen, Three Flyers Andrew McLeod, From the Inner Light Matt Hunt, Logical Adoration of Multi Cosmic Baby Christ Kushana Bush, Pinched End Motion Matt Hunt, The Eternal Nightmare of Hades John Ward Knox, (Pieta 1) John Ward Knox, (Pieta 2) Kushana Bush, Half Egyptian Coddle Andrew McLeod, Homage to Michelangelo, I Don Binney, Manunui, Otakamiro Shane Cotton, Seventeen (Half Cast) Liz Maw, Two Afghan Women and Miss Egypt 2006 Bill Hammond, Wishbone Cave Liz Maw, Aura; Lady Kathryn and I; Deepa Andrew McLeod, Interior with Pink Robin White, Keruru Liz Maw, Kristen Nefertari and Alex Isis Liz Maw, Lady Kathryn and I Robin White, Magpie Robin White, Piwakawaka Kushana Bush, Red Cheek Jason Greig, The Space Ritual Robin White, Tui Laith McGregor, Moon Graham Fletcher, Untitled (Sugar Loaf Waka) Bill Hammond, Goods and Services Liz Maw, Pilgrims Warren Viscoe, The Great Coat of Richard Henry Joe Sheehan, The Quick and the Dead Brendon Wilkinson, untitled Joe Sheehan, 1LB Laith McGregor, Heart Laith McGregor, Jakeman Robin White & Ruha Fifita, Ko e Hala Hangatonu Kushana Bush, Life Laurie Steer, Those Thrashing Doves Andrew McLeod, Untitled with Rainbow Emily Hartley-Skudder, Vanitas with King, Skull and Trumpet Joe Sheehan, Bracelet and Key Brendon Wilkinson, untitled Roger Mortimer, Dilemma Hill Mitch Cairns, Geranium Pots (interior) Warren Viscoe, Nature Fiona Pardington, Ruru Perfect Prince Jake Walker, Untitled Liz Maw, Untitled Bill Hammond, Clutch 2 Mitch Cairns, Draught (game) André Hemer, SP_IRL#1 André Hemer, Sky Painting #3 (evening) André Hemer, Sky Painting #7 André Hemer, Sky Painting #8 (evening) 167
Index of Artists B Binney, Don Bush, Kushana
52 62-63, 66-69, 77
C Cairns, Mitch Cotton, Shane
148-149 95, 100-101
D de Lautour, Tony Dunning, William
96, 98-99, 145 88
G Greig, Jason
97
H Hammond, Bill Harris, Brent Hemer, André Hunt, Matt
84-85, 134-135, 138143, 145-147, 158-159 104 150-152 153-155
K Killeen, Richard
50, 60-61, 70-73, 78-79
M Maw, Liz 122-123, 126-130, 133, 160 McCahon, Colin 156-157 McLeod, Andrew 82-83, 86-87, 90-93 Mortimer, Roger 94, 118-119 P Pardington, Fiona
120-121
V Viscoe, Warren
113
W Walters, Gordon 53, 102-103, 106 Westra, Ans 54-59 White, Robin 51, 108-111, 114-117, 124 Wilkinson, Brendon 64, 74-76, 80-81
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THE ART OF REVEALING NATURE
PLEASE DRINK RESPONSIBLY