Bill Hammond
Farmer’s Market
Important Paintings and Contemporary Art
Webb’s Auction House
New Zealand’s Premier Auction House
Bill Hammond Farmer’s Market acrylic on stretched canvas title inscribed, signed and dated 2009 1850mm x 2600mm Estimate $300,000 - $320,000
In Context: Farmer’s Market Farmer’s Market belongs to an acclaimed series of works by Bill Hammond, commenced in 2008 and known collectively as the Cave Paintings. As suggested by the title, in this definitive body of work, cavernous rock formations are central motifs and, in Farmer’s Market, the mouth of a cave is delineated along the upper edge of the picture plane and across three of its four corners, suggesting that the viewer is positioned in its shadowy depths. The work is populated with an array of the artist’s signature avian-headed, humanoid forms, each of which is delicately rendered in gold pigment. For the most part, the figures are situated close to the cave’s opening; only a few solitary beings can be seen venturing out into the landscape. Many of the figures are grasping objects, such as delicate, porcelain-white Moa eggs, large, weapon-like Moa bones and lifeless Huia suspended by their legs, which function almost as theatrical props. By assigning each figure with an identifier that has a clear utility, Hammond infers that, as a whole, these figures function as a cohesive group and that each being plays a role that is beneficial to the community at large. Farmer’s Market engages with the history of human development and, specifically, uses the Palaeolithic era, when Neanderthals (or early humans) were not yet able to build any permanent architecture, as its central reference point. The artist’s choice of title is intended to draw attention to the fact that, during this time, human life sustained itself solely by hunting and gathering. Thus, the work’s crystal-clean, rolling waves of water and wild, unforgiving
that Hammond’s reference to human civilisation extends beyond just the rampant over-hunting practised by Neanderthals. The work is intended to address the entire breadth of human life’s expansionist tendencies, including examples where humans have forced certain sectors of their own species into subservient roles. Along with the harp, the demeanour and arrangement of the avian figures is intended to parallel the structure of ‘sophisticated’ Western society. In Hammond’s tableau, the proud, upright posture In order to illustrate this Darwinian of the figures, the delicately carved form of predisposition towards self-interest, Hammond the furniture and the lush, hypnotic melody turns to a poignant example from New Zealand’s of the aforementioned harp are exposed as own natural history. Inspired by the text The window dressing intended to mask the brutal, Lost World of the Moa: Prehistoric Life of New masochistic underbelly of a dominant species’ Zealand by Trevor Worthy and Richard Holdaway reign. Farmer’s Market posits that all of modern (Canterbury University Press, 2002), in Farmer’s life’s seemingly innocuous exchanges are Market, the artist recounts the hunting of one built upon an uncompromising, primal desire native species by another or, more specifically, to survive and prosper which overrides the the predatory dominance over the moa by the interests of environmental equilibrium and giant eagle. The giant eagle would generally societal protection. hunt in pairs; one would land on the moa’s back Sharing many of the same signifiers as those and claw and strangle the creature, while the other would attack from beneath, pulling out the of the artist’s highly celebrated Ancient Pitch moa’s heart and gizzards. In the distance, on the of 2007 (illustrated in Jingle Jangle Morning, Christchurch Art Gallery, 2007), Farmer’s Market right-hand side of the picture plane, the dead body of a moa can be seen slumped over a rock is a mature work in which Hammond evaluates the core philosophies that have informed his formation, with the silhouette of a victorious life’s work. Acting as a conceptual bookend to giant eagle perched on top of it. Elsewhere, the artist’s first bird paintings of the 1990s, the moa’s by-products are used for ceremonial which explored the effects of colonisation, purposes; its gizzards hover above Farmer’s Market casts its eye back to prea sacrificial pedestal in centre field and its human history in order to extend the artist’s bones are brandished as hunting trophies by critique and celebration of nature’s perpetual the figures standing in the lower right corner. cycle of violence. The presence of an elegantly formed harp on the left-hand side of the picture plane infers
and yet ultimately untouched landscape speak to the detrimental effect of farming, industrial production and organised human labour. In Farmer’s Market, the artist is astutely aware of the symbolic potential of his avianheaded figures. The figures advocate the light environmental footprint left by bird-life but also warn that any dominant species is likely to perpetuate itself in a manner that is ultimately unsustainable.
Webb’s Auction House
New Zealand’s Premier Auction House
Breaking New Ground: The 1999 – 2009 Period THE CHRONOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE MARKET FOR BIRD PAINTINGS Fortified Gang Headquarters
All Along the Heaphy Highway & Lullaby for Birdland
Last Nightjar in Congested Sky
W E B B’ S S E LL T H R O U G H R AT E F O R M A J O R W O R K S IN 2013
100%
INCREASE IN TOTAL SALES BY VALUE - WORKS MADE BETWEEN 1999-2009 Works made after 2004
Works made between 1999 - 2003
Share of the market
In recent years, the secondary market for Bill Hammond’s practice as a whole has experienced a notable shift upwards and this has resulted in a 139% increase in the average price achieved annually since 2008. While the rise in the secondary market for Hammond’s practice was originally driven by a demand for works that the artist made between 1995 and 1998, auction results from 2012 and 2013 demonstrate a significant acceleration in demand for later works that fall outside of this period. Specifically, total secondary market turnover for works made between 1999 and 2009 has increased by a staggering 344% since 2008 and this increase reflects a broadening in the market’s understanding and appreciation of the artist’s oeuvre and legacy. Recent results demonstrate that Hammond is not simply regarded as an important New Zealand practitioner from the 1990s, but as a historically significant New Zealand artist whose career-long conceptual concerns and
narrative content are innately tied to New Zealand’s social and cultural identity. In 2013 alone, two significant sales of works from this period broke new ground in this area of the market. In March, Webb’s sold the artist’s 2005 masterpiece Last Nightjar in Congested Sky for the significant figure of $293,125. Last Nightjar in Congested Sky sidestepped the highly saturated colour that had long held the artist’s attention and opted instead for a paredback palette of black pigment applied directly to a raw linen ground. Zoomorphic Lounge, which achieved $201,250 in August of this year, was a highly accomplished work that used the artist’s iconic palette of metallic pigments and emerald green but sat slightly outside of the 1995–1998 period that had traditionally been the market’s area of focus. Accordingly, it too extended the bounds of the market place. Famously, Hammond makes only a very select number of major paintings in each of
his distinct periods whose scale, resolve and execution resonate with the public’s core ideals; with reference to the market’s history, it is the availability of these rare examples that has tempered the development of the artist’s secondary market. Farmer’s Market is the first major painting from the artist’s critically acclaimed late period ever to be made available to the auction market and, much like the original offering of works, such as All Along the Heaphy Highway and Placemakers III, ten years ago, it presents the rare opportunity to acquire a cultural asset that will be regarded, from an art-historical perspective, as integral to the overall scope of the artist’s narrative and oeuvre. Judging from the surge in demand for the artist’s practice across the board, Farmer’s Market promises to set a new benchmark in one of the most promising sectors of the New Zealand art market.
To be included in Important Paintings & Contemporary Art 28 November 2013
Contact Sophie Coupland E: scoupland@webbs.co.nz P: 09 529 5603
Charles Ninow E: cninow@webbs.co.nz P: 09 529 5601
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