Important Paintings & Contemporary Art Consign Now by Webb's Auction House

I M P O R TA N T PA I N T I N G S & C O N T E M P O R A RY A R T

CONSIGN NOW AUCTION 9 APRIL 2015

Webb’s new premises at Falcon Street, Parnell

WEBB’S IMPORTANT PAINTINGS & CONTEMPORARY ART

CONSIGN NOW I M P O R TA N T PA I N T I N G S & C O N T E M P O R A RY A R T AUCTION 9 APRIL 2015 Entries Close Tuesday 3 March

A New Chapter In The History Of New Zealand’s Premier Auction House

Charles Ninow Fine & Contemporary Art Specialist Auctioneer M: +64 29 770 4767 P: +64 9 529 5601 cninow@webbs.co.nz

Simon Bowerbank Photography, Fine & Contemporary Art Specialist M: +64 210 451 464 P: +64 9 524 6804 sbowerbank@webbs.co.nz

Gillie Deans Fine & Contemporary Art Specialist South Island M: +64 27 226 9785 gdeans@webbs.co.nz

Peter Robinson Boy Am I Scarred Eh! oil stick and acrylic on paper, 935mm x 670mm. Estimate $35,000 - $45,000 Webb’s 23-25 Falcon Street, Parnell, Auckland 1052, New Zealand Ph: +64 9 524 6804 E: auctions@webbs.co.nz www.webbs.co.nz WEBB’S IMPORTANT PAINTINGS & CONTEMPORARY ART

THE ART MARKET IN 2015 W H AT T H E R E S U LTS O F T H E L A ST 12 M O N T H S T E LL U S A B O U T T H E C O M I N G Y E A R

Grahame Sydney Sunset Near Omarama Achieved $170,010 Highest price for Sydney in 2014 A new record for the artist at live auction

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AT FIRST GLANCE, IT MAY APPEAR THAT, EVERY YEAR, THE NEW ZEALAND AUCTION MARKET’S MOST IMPRESSIVE PRICES WERE ACHIEVED BY A SMALL GROUP OF STALWART ARTISTS WHOSE POSITIONS AS CULTURAL ICONS HAVE BEEN ESTABLISHED FOR A LONG TIME. HOWEVER, A CLOSER READING WILL REVEAL THAT EACH YEAR HAS ITS OWN NARRATIVE OF ABSENCES, APPEARANCES AND PRICE-SHIFTS – BOTH SUBTLE AND DRAMATIC – THAT, INHERENTLY, WILL INFLUENCE THE FUTURE TRAJECTORY OF THE MARKET PLACE. IN 2014, WEBB’S SOLD IN EXCESS OF $6 MILLION WORTH OF ART AND ACHIEVED THE YEAR’S HIGHEST PRICE BOTH FOR A MODERN – $412,700 FOR KAURI TREES, TITIRANGI BY COLIN MCCAHON – AND FOR A CONTEMPORARY – $275,500 FOR SEARCHING FOR ASHBURTON BY BILL HAMMOND – NEW ZEALAND ARTWORK. AS WE ARE ONE OF OUR NATION’S MAJOR AUCTION HOUSES, OUR RESULTS SERVE AS A POIGNANT BAROMETER OF THE MARKET’S WANTS AND DESIRES. IS 2015 THE YEAR TO RELEASE YOUR MODERN, CONTEMPORARY OR HISTORICAL MASTERPIECE TO THE MARKET? IN THE FOLLOWING PAGES, WE HAVE OUTLINED THE DYNAMICS THAT SHOULD INFORM YOUR DECISION.

All prices include Buyer’s Premium and GST. All market data sourced from Australian Art Sales Digest (www.aasd.com.au)

WEBB’S IMPORTANT PAINTINGS & CONTEMPORARY ART

Tony Fomison Mental Defective Achieved $128,975 Highest price for Fomison in 2014

Bill Hammond Searching for Ashburton Achieved $275,535 Highest price for a contemporary painting in 2014 Highest price for Hammond in 2014

ONE of the most-compelling narrative arcs of the market’s performance in 2014 was, undoubtedly, its spirited reception of exceptional modern painting. Artworks from our nation’s modern period have long been responsible for more high-value secondary market sales than have those of any other period and, indeed, it was the sale of modern paintings that was the backbone of Webb’s success when the company was first established more than 25 years ago. However, while it has produced some of our nation’s most-iconic images, the modern period is also responsible for some of our nation’s mostchallenging artworks. While the market’s reception of prototypical modern paintings is an important indicator of its health, its enthusiasm for challenging, rigorously intellectual modernism is indicative of the market’s confidence. Colin McCahon, whose market had slowed in recent years following the financial crisis, was 2014’s star performer. Beginning with our very first sale in March – when we sold the masterwork Kauri Trees, Titirangi – demand for the artist’s practice has surged over the last 12 months. All told, Webb’s sold six major paintings (each worth in excess of $100,000) by Colin McCahon at auction in 2014; cumulatively, these sales are worth more than $1.3 million. Results from our most-recent sale, held in November, demonstrate that public enthusiasm for McCahon shows no sign of slowing. Northland, a 1965 McCahon landscape included in this catalogue, bettered its reserve by 40%; eventually, it achieved $164,150 after a spirited battle between bidders. If these results are anything to go by, the market will be on the lookout for significant works by the artist in 2015. The market’s focus on Fomison in 2014 was perhaps more passionate than it has been ever before. Of the works by the artist sold during the year, three results stand out as particularly impressive. Mental Defective, which achieved $129,000, fetched the year’s highest price for any work by Fomison, surpassing its reserve by 37.5%. A small-format work from the collection of Pat

Hanly, #226, which was included in our July sale, achieved an even-greater improvement on its reserve, surpassing the figure by more than 84% to achieve $53,000. Lastly, a rare self-portrait that was included in our most-recent sale in November (in which the artist depicted himself as a clown) achieved $69,000; this was no small feat considering that its longest edge only slightly exceeds the width of a 30cm ruler. Aside from Fomison, the previous calendar year also saw the market celebrate smaller-format works by other major modernists (with prices far in excess of previous benchmarks of value). Webb’s November 2014 auction produced two such results. Mad Tui Over Homestead, Te Henga by Don Binney, the sale’s first lot, exceeded its reserve by 75% to achieve an eventual sale price of $41,000, despite being only 35cm x 20cm in size. This outcome was not the result of an isolated contest between two particularly interested parties. Rather, the collector who acquired the work passionately fought off competition from six competitive bidders. Included in the same sale was Gordon Walter’s consummately executed gouache on paper, Study for Genealogy 13/12, which produced a sale price of $61,500 – another impressive result considering the work’s relatively modest scale of 33cm x 23cm. The painting generated interest both from within Auckland and from overseas, ensuring that it easily achieved a result that sat about 50% above the prices that had been achieved previously for comparable works. Webb’s results of the last 12 months include 2014’s highest prices for many of New Zealand’s pre-eminent modernists such as Pat Hanly, Colin McCahon, Tony Fomison, Gordon Walters, Rita Angus and Don Driver. As one of New Zealand’s leading auction houses, we have our ‘finger on the pulse’ of the market’s shifts and developments. Based on 2014’s stellar reception for exceptional modernist works, in 2015, we foresee that two dominant trends will continue to govern the market’s activity. Firstly, the rarity of iconic, prototypical paintings – whether small or large – by major New Zealand modernists will become even more apparent and this will

THE RISE OF THE MODERN TRULY ICONIC IMAGERY FROM OUR NATION’S MODERN PERIOD IS NOW PRIZED MORE THAN EVER BEFORE. OVER THE LAST 12 MONTHS, WORKS OF THIS NATURE HAVE SHATTERED RESERVES ACROSS THE PRICE SPECTRUM. FROM WALTERS TO BINNEY, IN 2015, THE MARKET WILL CONTINUE TO SEEK MASTERWORKS, EACH OF WHICH DISTILS THE RESPECTIVE ARTIST’S OEUVRE INTO A SINGLE IMAGE.

WEBB’S IMPORTANT PAINTINGS & CONTEMPORARY ART

Colin McCahon Kauri Trees, Titirangi Achieved $412,720 Highest price for a modern painting in 2014 Highest price for McCahon in 2014

HAMMOND CONTINUES TO BREAK GROUND THE FIGURE OF $275,500 THAT WAS ACHIEVED FOR SEARCHING FOR ASHBURTON DEMONSTRATES THAT HAMMOND’S SECONDARY MARKET CONTINUES TO DEVELOP AND THAT THE PUBLIC’S REGARD FOR THE ARTIST CONTINUES TO GROW. fuel demand for such works. Secondly, the market will continue to gain confidence and engage with challenging modernist paintings that are emblematic of this period’s significance in New Zealand’s cultural history. If you are considering the release of any works from New Zealand’s modern period, then we encourage you to make contact with Webb’s team of specialists in order to discuss market dynamics and current values. Over the last 12 months, the market has shown strong enthusiasm, also, for a number of artists who produced some of their most-iconic artworks during the 1990s. For much of 2014, the auction market was conspicuously lacking in any major works by Bill Hammond. However, this trend was reversed in November of last year, when a number of auction houses presented important paintings by the artist, simultaneously. Of these works, the top price was achieved by Webb’s, with the sale of Searching for Ashburton for $275,500. Webb’s ability to achieve exceptional prices for works by Bill Hammond is widely renowned – the result achieved by Searching for Ashburton is emblematic of Webb’s command of this market sector. Despite being notably smaller than are the other major works by the artist that Webb’s has presented within the last 24 months, Searching for Ashburton exceeded its ambitious pre-sale estimate to achieve a price that sits amongst the very best results ever achieved for a painting by a living New Zealand artist. Another artist who performed well in 2014 and whose paintings from the 1990s have developed a dedicated following is Grahame Sydney. While Sydney’s approach sits squarely within the modernist tradition, throughout his long career, the artist has continued to produce exceptional works, which have fostered a loyal and engaged audience. Each particular stage in the artist’s career

Colin McCahon Northland Achieved $164,150 Surpassed reserve by 40%

brings with it a very specific set of aesthetic characteristics and, in the 1990s, the artist produced smooth oil paintings (as opposed to his earlier works, which were made with egg tempera), which described the Otago landscape in a manner that was both minimal and romantic. While major paintings by Grahame Sydney are seldom presented, our March 2014 catalogue included the artist’s serene 1991 landscape, Sunset Near Omarama, which shot past its reserve by 45% to achieve $170,000 – the artist’s highest-ever price at live auction. Additionally, our November 2014 catalogue included the small-format painting Water Trough which bettered its reserve by 16% to achieve $52,500 – a price which sits notably above the figures usually achieved for works of its scale. The market’s embrace of both modern and more-recent paintings during 2014 has demonstrated that it has a willingness and, indeed, a propensity to recognise and reward extraordinary New Zealand artworks with prices that far exceed previously established benchmarks. In recent history, the most-notable change to have occurred on the New Zealand art market is that it has become increasingly common for good artworks to achieve values that are well above their reserve prices. It is undoubtable that the results of the next 12 months will be informed by this trend. The nature of the art market in 2015 will be defined by an audience that is confident in its ability to recognise, and compete to acquire, exceptional works of art.

NEW DEMANDS AND NEW HEIGHTS THE METEORIC VALUE DEVELOPMENT THAT GRAHAME SYDNEY’S PRACTICE HAS EXPERIENCED OVER THE LAST 12 MONTHS IS EMBLEMATIC OF A CONFIDENT MARKET WITH A WILLINGNESS TO REWARD EXCEPTIONAL PAINTINGS WITH PRICES THAT EXCEED PREVIOUSLY ESTABLISHED BENCHMARKS.

All prices include Buyer’s Premium and GST. All market data sourced from Australian Art Sales Digest (www.aasd.com.au)

WEBB’S IMPORTANT PAINTINGS & CONTEMPORARY ART

Don Binney Te Henga oil on canvas, signed Binney and dated 1971 in brushpoint upper right, 610mm x 1012mm. Estimate $50,000 - $70,000

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INTRODUCING I M P O R TA N T PA I N T I N G S & C O N T E M P O R A RY A R T AUCTION 9 APRIL 2015

As the inaugural sale to be held in Webb’s brand new, state-ofthe-art Falcon Street gallery, Webb’s April auction of Important Paintings & Contemporary Art will be a focused offering of the very best in historical, modern and contemporary New Zealand art. Our impressive suite of early entries touches upon celebrated moments in New Zealand’s cultural history. Starting with a masterfully executed 1920 portrait by luminary Charles Goldie, the nucleus of artworks already consigned at this early stage includes superlative examples from throughout the 20th century and the present day. The selection of artworks presented herein has a strong focus on contemporary excellence. These pages are graced with the output of many artists whose paintings and objects are enthusiastically contested for on the primary market, are seldom seen at auction and are undoubtedly difficult to acquire. Those artists include Liz Maw, Andrew McLeod, Francis Upritchard and

Peter Stichbury. In addition, these works will be accompanied by paintings by senior artists, such as John Pule and Shane Cotton, who have enjoyed enthusiastic reception from the auction market for a long time. From the modern period, highlights of the works already consigned include paintings by Gordon Walters, Don Binney, Ralph Hotere and Grahame Sydney. The sale will be the start of a new chapter in Webb’s long history, which reaches back to the 1970s. With a new premises and an offering of artworks that is already shaping up to be momentous, this sale will engage collectors from both within New Zealand and around the world. If you have been considering the release of an important painting from your collection, then we encourage you to make contact with one of our specialists today so that it may be included in this catalogue, which will surely be remembered as a landmark offering of exceptional New Zealand art.

WEBB’S IMPORTANT PAINTINGS & CONTEMPORARY ART

ANDREW

MCLEOD

Landscape with Rainbow acrylic on canvas signed A. mcLeod and dated 13 in brushpoint lower right 1185mm x 1790mm

OUR UPCOMING SALE CONTAINS A NUMBER OF EXCEPTIONAL PAINTINGS BY ANDREW MCLEOD, MADE DURING DIFFERENT STAGES OF HIS CAREER.

Estimate $22,000 - $32,000

WEBB’S IMPORTANT PAINTINGS & CONTEMPORARY ART

This painting, which is the most recent of the paintings by Andrew McLeod included in the upcoming sale, features a rainbow arched across the length of its canvas, a reoccurring motif in McLeod’s previous paintings. A group of figures, dressed in pre-Raphaelite costume, take some rest atop a red bricked ruin as they travel through a marshy surreal landscape populated by giant flowers and floating abstract shapes. McLeod is an expert at soaking up otherwise immiscible visual materials like a sponge and mixing them together into paintings that, in each instance, sit somewhere between Northern Renaissance paintings, Colour Field paintings, and black metal band posters.

PETER

STICHBURY

Untitled acrylic on linen signed Stichbury in brushpoint 600mm x 600mm Estimate: $20,000 - $30,000

INTENDED TO CRITIQUE THE VACUOUS IDEALS CHAMPIONED BY COMMERCIAL ADVERTISING AND PRINT MEDIA, THIS PAINTING PICTURES AN UNIDENTIFIED SITTER WHOSE SCULPTED, HIGHLY POLISHED APPEARANCE REFERENCES THAT OF A FASHION MODEL FROM A GLOSSY MAGAZINE. With an exhibiting history that spans the distance from New York to Pakuranga (the artist’s survey The Alumni was held in the Te Tuhi gallery in Pakuranga

in 2008), Stichbury has undoubtedly established himself as one of New Zealand’s most-sought-after living artists. This work describes an unidentified sitter whose highly polished appearance, with its sharp, perfectly proportioned bone structure and smooth, unblemished skin, calls to mind that of a fashion model pictured in a glossy magazine. Like much of Stichbury’s work of the 2000s particularly, this untitled painting is intended to critique the vacuous ideals championed by commercial advertising and print media.

WEBB’S IMPORTANT PAINTINGS & CONTEMPORARY ART

CHARLES FREDERICK

GOLDIE

‘A Happy Thought’, Te Aitu te Irikau, A Noted Arawa Chieftainess oil on canvas signed C.F. Goldie and dated 1922 in brushpoint upper right 265mm x 210mm Estimate $190,000 - $240,000

DEPICTING ONE OF GOLDIE’S FAVOURITE SITTERS, A HAPPY THOUGHT IS A CONSUMMATE EXAMPLE OF THE ARTIST’S PHOTOREALISTIC APPROACH TO FIGURATIVE PAINTING.

WEBB’S IMPORTANT PAINTINGS & CONTEMPORARY ART

Dated 1922 and painted in Goldie’s signature early-career style, which is defined by pinpoint accuracy, A Happy Thought’s rosetinted imagery is a consummate and arresting example of the artist’s photorealistic approach to figurative painting. Goldie’s aptitude for painting from life was honed over a lifetime – early in his career, he practised under historical New Zealand masterpainter Louis John Steele and then, later, he studied at Académie Julian in Paris. Goldie’s approach to painting is an additive process in which detail is slowly honed from many thinly applied layers of paint. Indeed, in A Happy Thought, the artist’s aptitude with his technique is readily apparent. The painting’s imagery is characterised by its perfect tonal modelling and shifts in depth of field. The sitter, Te Aitu Te Irikau (a chieftainess of the Arawa iwi), was one of Goldie’s favourite sitters, whom he painted numerous times throughout his life.

GORDON

WALTERS Study for Tamaki No 2 ink on paper signed Gordon Walters, dated 83 and inscribed Study for Tamaki No. 2 in graphite lower edge Estimate $50,000 - $60,000

WITH A COMPOSITION THAT DEVIATES FROM THE UNINTERRUPTED BANDS OF HORIZONTAL COLOUR THAT CHARACTERISED WALTERS’ INITIAL ‘KORU’ STUDIES, STUDY TAMAKI NO 2 AIMED TO EXPLORE THE SYMBOLIC POTENTIAL OF THE KORU FORM IN EVEN GREATER DEPTH THAN THE ARTIST HAD ACCOMPLISHED BEFORE Produced in 1983, Study Tamaki No 2 is gouache on paper and relates to the artist’s well-known screen print, conclusively titled Tamaki. Walters was an artist who was famously methodical. He would work through his ideas thoroughly, using sketches and fully resolved studies (such as this) before moving on to larger works or extensive print runs. In addition, he would take great care to ensure that (aside from minor sleights of hand) his paintwork was perfectly executed. Unlike his PVA

(an early form of acrylic paint) paintings on stretched canvas, the artist’s celebrated gouaches offer a rare insight into the artist’s method and technique – a close look will reveal miniature variances in paint coverage that follow the path of the brush. Study Tamaki No 2 represents a break from the artist’s fields of evenly scaled, horizontal bands of colour, the pictorial composition of which was intended to explore the symbolic potential of the koru form in even greater depth. WEBB’S IMPORTANT PAINTINGS & CONTEMPORARY ART

DARRYN

GEORGE

I Beam #1 – Tahu oil on canvas signed Darryn George, dated 2005 and inscribed ‘I Beam #1-Tahu’, oil on canvas in ink verso 1500mm x 2000mm Estimate $10,000 - $15,000

WEBB’S IMPORTANT PAINTINGS & CONTEMPORARY ART

SHANE

COTTON

Welcome to the Garden acrylic on canvas signed S Cotton, dated 2005 and inscribed Welcome to the Garden in brushpoint upper edge 1680mm x 1070mm Estimate $50,000 - $70,000

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WEBB’S IMPORTANT PAINTINGS & CONTEMPORARY ART

ANDREW MCLEOD IS A TRULY DEXTEROUS PAINTER, AS COMFORTABLE IN THE DIGITAL DOMAIN AS HE IS WITH A PAINTBRUSH. IT IS TYPICAL FOR HIS EXHIBITIONS TO PRESENT BOTH PRINTED DIGITAL COLLAGES AND FINELY CRAFTED PAINTINGS ON CANVAS. Inherently resistant to easy analysis, Andrew McLeod’s paintings appear to be assembled from a seemingly infinite supply of images, hybrid materials sourced from a veritable Library of Babel. This early two-panel painting presents a particularly surreal combination. Atop a canopy, a boy and girl preoccupy themselves in different tree houses: the boy draws on a yellow canvas below an animate stuffed bear while the girl cleans her brushes after completing a blue trapezoid. A giant safety pin floats in front of her. To her right, an irate bird glares through a hole in the wall at a nest of eggs balanced precariously on the boy’s side.

ANDREW

MCLEOD

Tree Time oil on canvas signed Andrew McLeod and dated 2005 in brushpoint lower right 1700mm x 2500mm Estimate $35,000 - $45,000

WEBB’S IMPORTANT PAINTINGS & CONTEMPORARY ART

FRANCIS UPRITCHARD’S WHIMSICAL ARCHAEOLOGY CHANNELS A DIVERSE ASSORTMENT OF CULTURES AND ARTISTIC TRADITIONS, BOTH HISTORIC AND IMAGINARY.

Following Francis Upritchard’s recent string of critically acclaimed exhibitions in Cincinnati, Dublin, Kagawa, London, Los Angeles and New York, we have been given the rare opportunity to include in our next sale a group of three of her artefact-based sculptures. These works are combinations of ready-made objects, such as tennis rackets, pool cues, hockey sticks, jewellery, glassware and ceramics, with hand-crafted figurative forms made from a polymer clay modelling material. The objects in this collection—three wobbly long-necked glass vessels—have each been sealed by Upritchard with totemic sculpted plugs in the shape of sheep-like animal heads.

FRANCIS

UPRITCHARD

Flock Bottles polymer clay, found glass bottles 590mm x 285mm x 285mm; 430mm x 160mm x 160mm; 445mm x 180mm x 180mm Estimate $30,000 - $40,000

WEBB’S IMPORTANT PAINTINGS & CONTEMPORARY ART

THIS WORK IS A DEFTLY PAINTED EXAMPLE OF ANDREW MCLEOD’S UNIQUE PROCESS OF COMBINING DISPARATE IMAGERY INTO UNLIKELY COMPOSITIONS.

ANDREW

MCLEOD

Q (Quail / dinosaur) acrylic on board signed A Mcleod and dated ’08 in brushpoint lower right 900mm x 1000mm Estimate $10,000 - $15,000

Atop a nondescript pile of organic matter, McLeod has rendered an unusual grouping of various avian creatures, including both a pterodactyl launching itself into the air and a pair of black swans paddling through space. Below, a boat ferries two women with orange halos across the bottom edge of the canvas, and a three-dimensional geometric form floats in space. As is usual for paintings by McLeod, this work is an ambitious and enigmatic piece of visual poetry that, in the hands of a lesser artist, would lack the harmony that makes it so engaging.

WEBB’S IMPORTANT PAINTINGS & CONTEMPORARY ART

JOHN PULE’S INTRICATE INK DRAWINGS SPEAK TO VARIOUS ASPECTS OF NIUEAN CULTURE WHILST THE RED POOLS OF PAINT, WITH THEIR SMUDGED EDGES, CALL TO MIND THE WESTERN INFLUENCE OF THE NEW YORK SCHOOL.

JOHN

PULE Niniko Nui acrylic on canvas inscribed Niniko Nui in ink verso 2000mm x 2000mm Estimate $35,000 - $55,000 19

WEBB’S IMPORTANT PAINTINGS & CONTEMPORARY ART

While John Pule first established his reputation with his tapa-inspired paintings of the late 1990s, it is his artwork from the mid-2000s – defined by coagulated pools of colour and intricate detailing, isolated within fields of white space – that has undoubtedly become his most celebrated. With its tri-chromatic palette of red, black and white, Niniko Nui is Pule at his very finest. The work’s intricate ink drawings speak to various aspects of Niuean culture whilst the red pools

of paint, with their smudged edges, call to mind the Western influence of the New York school (specifically Cy Twombly). In an incredibly adroit fashion, Niniko Nui bridges the artist’s cultural identity as both a child of Niue and the product of an urban environment (he moved from Niue to Auckland when he was three years old).

SHANE

COTTON

Red Chasing Blue oil on canvas signed S Cotton, dated 2007 and inscribed Red Chasing Blue in brushpoint lower right 840mm x 1150mm Estimate $35,000 - $45,000

FEATURING THE ARTIST’S NOW-ICONIC ‘FALLING BIRD’ MOTIF, RED CHASING BLUE SEES COTTON EXPLORE THEMES WHICH HAVE HELD HIS ATTENTION FOR AN ENTIRE CAREER.

Red Chasing Blue is an emblematic example of Shane Cotton’s mid-career practice which, among other characteristics, is defined by the artist’s nowiconic ‘falling bird’ motif, imagery based on rock forms and his dismissal of the paintbrush in favour of an airbrush. (Some fine detail is still executed with paint and bristle; however, it is the exception rather than the rule.) Red Chasing Blue sees Cotton continue to explore themes that have held his attention for an entire career. Particularly, the work addresses Māoridom’s status as ‘tangata whenua’ (people of the land). The falling bird serves as an allegory for modern-day Māori, whilst the swirling composition speaks to the need to draw new meaning from one’s cultural heritage when contemporary society challenges the tenets on which it was established.

WEBB’S IMPORTANT PAINTINGS & CONTEMPORARY ART

LIZ

MAW Daughter of Cain, Lover of Judas oil on board signed Liz Maw and dated 06 in brushpoint lower right 1000mm x 1000mm Estimate $24,000 - $29,000

LIZ MAW’S PAINTINGS BORROW HEAVILY FROM PULP CULTURE TO OFTEN PRESENT CHARACTERS FROM HER LIFE, SUCH AS FRIENDS OR PEOPLE SHE ADMIRES, RENDERED AS IDEALISED FORMS IN HER CHARACTERISTICALLY KITSCH PALETTE OF HOT, VENOMOUS GREENS AND RACE CAR REDS.

For Daughter of Cain, Lover of Judas, Maw has remixed the characters generated for three of her most well-regarded early portraits. The voluptuous nude woman kneeling in front of Jesus is an idealised character that Maw obsessively returns to in other paintings such as Aura in 2002 or Deepa in 2004 and the figure racing towards her is a repeat of her 2004 portrait of Andrew McLeod as a mythological Satyr. With technical mastery, Maw has injected these hybrid characters into an untouched landscape reminiscent of those found on a 1970s fantasy or science fiction book cover.

WEBB’S IMPORTANT PAINTINGS & CONTEMPORARY ART

PERFORMANCE ART Arguably, the most emotionally stirring piece in this catalogue. Definitely the most moving. Visit your local Jaguar dealer to experience the F-TYPE CoupĂŠ in person. JAGUAR.CO.NZ

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