Webb's Works of Art Catalogue, November 2019

28.11.19 Works of Art

Webb's

2019

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28.11.19 Works of Art Including artworks from the collection of Una Platts

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

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Australasian Art & Culture

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LIME CORDIALE, LUCY MCCRAE, ADAM CULLEN, EMILY FLOYD, HAHAN, NICOLETTE JOHNSON, KAWS, EUGENIA LIM, FIONA PARDINGTON, REKO RENNIE, MIRANDA SKOCZEK, JAPAN SUPERNATURAL, IMANTS TILLERS, MARK TWEEDIE & MORE ISSU E 28 · NOV E M BER to J A N UA RY 2020

Lime Cordiale, Lucy McCrae, Adam Cullen, Emily Floyd, Hahan, Nicolette Johnson, KAWS, Eugenia Lim, Fiona Pardington, Reko Rennie, Miranda Skoczek, Japan Supernatural, Imants Tillers, Mark Tweedie & more

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EUGENIA LIM THE AUSTRALIAN UGLINESS (production stills),2018 Photo: Tom Ross Courtesy the artist

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Featuring major works by Colin McCahon from the 1950s to the 1970s and drawing upon Auckland Art Gallery’s extensive collection, this exhibition considers McCahon’s sustained relationship with Auckland and the significance of the physical, spiritual and cultural landscape on his painting.

Principal partner

10 Aug 2019– 27 Jan 2020

Colin McCahon May His light shine (Tau Cross) 1978–79, Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki 1994. Courtesy of the Colin McCahon Research and Publication Trust.

Art

3 December 2019 Charles Ninow Head of Art charles@webbs.co.nz +64 21 053 6504 Adrienne (AD) Schierning Manager, Art ad@webbs.co.nz +64 9 529 5609 +64 27 929 5609 Auctions Private Sales Valuations webbs.co.nz

Upcoming Auction

Andrew Barber Study 2007 oil on linen signed, dated and inscribed in ink verso 785 x 550mm (widest points) est $3,000 - $4,000

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ROMEO &JULIET much ado about nothing

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Upcoming Auction

Entries Invited

Decorative Arts Now inviting entries for early 2020

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Upcoming Auction

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Fine Jewels & Watches Now inviting entries for early 2020 Fine Jewels & Watches live auctions

A pair of amethyst and diamond earrings, Bulgari.

Price Achieved: $3,290 A hinged gold B.zero1 bangle, Bulgari.

Price Achieved: $8,225

Auctions Private Sales Valuations webbs.co.nz

Lauren Boustridge BSc, AJP, GG (GIA) Head of Fine Jewels & Watches lauren@webbs.co.nz +64 27 929 5607

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Upcoming Auction

Entries Invited

Fine & Rare Wines Now inviting entries for Fine & Rare Wines Lot 587 1990 Morgan LBV Port for Marks and Spencers Price Achieved: $70.50 Lot 585 1977 Grahams Vintage Port Price Achieved: $211.50 Lot 589 1997 Quinta De La Rosa Vintage Port Price Achieved: $82.25

Auctions Private Sales Valuations webbs.co.nz

Marcus Atkinson Head of Fine & Rare Wines marcus@webbs.co.nz +64 27 929 5601

Upcoming Auction

Asian Art Entries Invited

A Chinese Red Lacquer Plate DaQing QianLong Nian Zhi Mark 中国剔红花卉圆盘（大清乾隆年制款） H40 D350mm Price Realised: $8,695

Tom Pan 湯姆 潘

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Webb's

2019

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Upcoming Auctions

November &

December 2019 Auctions

Works of Art Jewellery & Watches Art Fine & Rare Wines

Art Charles Ninow Head of Art +64 21 053 6504 charles@webbs.co.nz Asian Art Tom Pan Head of Asian Art +64 21 045 0118 tom@webbs.co.nz Decorative Arts Head of Decorative Arts Caolán McAleer +64 27 929 5603 caolan@webbs.co.nz Fine Jewels & Watches Head of Fine Jewels & Watches Lauren Boustridge +64 27 929 5607 lauren@webbs.co.nz Fine & Rare Wines Head of Fine & Rare Wines Marcus Atkinson +64 27 929 5601 marcus@webbs.co.nz

28 November — 6:30pm 29 November — 4 December Online 3 December — 6:30pm 9 — 16 December Online

Asian Art

10 December — 6:00pm

Made in New Zealand

11 December — 6:00pm

Artspace Aotearoa Cash & Carry Community Fundraiser

Thursday 12 December 6pm - 8pm All proceeds go to Samoa House Library and Vunilagi Vou future projects.

artspace-aotearoa.nz

Works of Art

Auction Thursday 28 November 6:30pm

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

Table of Contents

Public Programme

Viewing List of Essays

Plates Terms & Conditions Index of Artists

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27 28

29 162 166

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Public Programme

Liz Maw in conversation with Erin Griffey Saturday 23 November

11:30am

Liz Maw is known for her eerily beautiful paintings that sensuously combine contemporary culture with religious iconography and references to historical painting. Maw’s works are held by institutions such as Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, the Chartwell Collection and Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand and we are privileged to have a selection of her works featured in our Works of Art auction. Maw will discuss her practice with Erin Griffey, Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Auckland and Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, London. Griffey specialises in early modern visual and material culture.

Ron Brownson on Una Platts Sunday 24 November

11:30am

Ron Brownson, Senior Curator of New Zealand and Pacific Art at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, will share his expertise on artist, writer and art historian Una Platts. One of the first published art historians in New Zealand, Platts’ unique art collection is featured in the Works of Art auction. Platts’ compelling history includes close relationships with wellknown New Zealand artists and she is remembered as an important part of establishing a foundation for ‘New Zealand’ art.

Webb's

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Viewing

Preview Evening Thursday 21 November

6pm – 8pm

Gallery Hours Friday 22 November

10am – 5pm

Saturday 23 November

10am – 3pm

Sunday 24 November

10am – 3pm

Monday 25 November

10am – 5pm

Tuesday 26 November

10am – 5pm

Wednesday 27 November

10am – 5pm

Thursday 28 November

10am – 1pm

Auction Thursday 28 November

6:30pm

Auctions Private Sales Valuations auction@webbs.co.nz +64 9 529 5600 33A Normanby Road, Mount Eden, Auckland 1024, New Zealand Webb's

2019

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List of Essays

Gordon Walters Amoka

By Michael Wilson Mitch Cairns Geranium Pots

By Micheal Do Kushana Bush Calm Tight Bevy

By Hana Aoake Don Driver An Ounce of Ambiguity

By Michael Moore-Jones

Fiona Pardington Inseparable Huia

By AD Schierning Bill Hammond Stride

By Lucinda Bennett

42, 43

SĂŠraphine Pick Trip Fantastic

By Andrew Paul Wood

122 - 125

46, 47

Grahame Sydney Water Trough

By Aleksandra Petrovic

128, 129

52-55

Laith McMregor Growth Value

By Tasha Jenkins

132, 133

58, 59

Milan Mrkusich Arcs & Lines on Grey (diamond)

By Joshua Harris-Harding

136, 137

62, 63

Michael Smither Gone Fishing

By Serena Bentley

140, 141

Future Perfect

By Amy Weng

146, 147

Paul Hartigan Primary School

By Lucinda Bennett

66, 67

Peter Robinson Boy Am I Scared Eh!

By Lana Lopesi

70, 71

Shane Cotton Nahash

By Lana Lopesi

74 - 77

Liz Maw Narcotics of Desire

By Jaimee Stockman-Young

80 - 83

Andrew McLeod Light From Behind

By Andrew Paul Wood

86 - 89

Brendon Wilkinson No Title (1)

By Andrew Paul Wood

Works from the collection of Una Platts

By Linda Tyler

118, 119

94, 95

100, 101

Edward Bullmore Space Odyssey

By Penelope Jackson

110, 111

November

92, 93

Colin McCahon From the collection of Una Platts

By Joshua Harris-Harding

Don Binney Te Henga

By Leafa Wilson

Webb's

36, 37

Damien Hirst Mickey

By Andrew Clark

114, 115

28

Plates

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

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01 André Hemer

Sky Painting #9 2018 acrylic and pigment on canvas signed André Hemer, dated 2018 and inscribed Sky Painting #9 in graphite verso 450 x 320mm est $3,000 — $6,000 Provenance Private collection. Acquired from COMA, Sydney, 2018.

Webb's

November

Exhibitions The Imagist & The Materialist, COMA, Sydney, 13 April - 18 May 2018.

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02 Rohan Wealleans

The Golem c2010-2012 comic book cover, paper, acrylic, perspex case 360 x 275 x 100mm est $1,200 — $1,600 Provenance Private collection. Acquired from Hamish McKay Gallery, Wellington, 2015.

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03 Laurence Aberhart

David Bowie, Heroes Tour,

Christchurch, 1978 1978. printed 2016 gelatin silver print signed Laurence Aberhart, dated 78/2016. and inscribed David Bowie, Heros [sic] Tour, Christchurch, 1978. in ink beneath matt 375 x 245mm est $2,500 — $4,500 Provenance Private collection, Auckland.

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04 Peter Peryer

Zoo Music 1983 gelatin silver print, 4/20 signed Peter Peryer, dated 1983 and inscribed Spider Monkeys, Auckland Zoo from Zoo Music in graphite verso (right panel); signed Peter Peryer, dated 1983 and inscribed Birds, Auckland Zoo from Zoo Music in graphite verso (left panel) 295 x 195mm (each panel) est $2,500 — $4,500 Provenance Private collection, Wellington. Acquired directly from the artist.

Webb's

2019

Collections Another from the edition held in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, acquired 1984; another from the edition held in the collection of Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui, acquired 1984.

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05 Peter Robinson

Spirit Stick wool felt on wooden dowel 810 x 50 x 50mm (widest points) est $1,500 — $2,500 Provenance Private collection, Auckland.

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06 Gordon Walters

Amoka 1972 screenprint, 21/25 signed Gordon Walters and inscribed 21/25/Amoka in graphite lower edge 880 x 410mm est $12,000 — $18,000

Collections Another from the edition held in the collection of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o TÄ maki, Auckland, acquired 1982.

Provenance Private collection, Auckland.

Webb's

Literature Another from the edition featured in William McAloon Gordon Walters: Prints + Design (Wellington: Adam Art Gallery, 2004), 18.

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Gordon Walters - Amoka Essay by MICHAEL WILSON

Webb's

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Artist and designer Gordon Walters (1919–1995) is a key figure in the visual culture of New Zealand, though aspects of his work have attracted controversy. Born in Wellington, Walters studied commercial illustration at the Wellington Technical College School of Art from 1935 to 1939 and began his career as an artist with straightforward still-life paintings. After befriending Dutch-born Indonesian artist Theo Schoon in 1941, he began to shape a more distinctive vision; wide-ranging conversations between the two led to Walters’ discovery of surrealism and abstraction, and to a series of striking drawings in which New Zealand is cast as an enigmatic wasteland. Walters was influenced too by the surrealists’ preoccupation with erotic imagery, integrating this into his work to an extent that was then highly unusual.

Schoon proved influential again when Walters visited him in South Canterbury following a trip to Australia in 1946, and witnessed him photographing Māori rock art near the Opihi River.

Following three years living in Europe, during which time he was particularly influenced by painters Auguste Herbin and Victor Vasarely, as well as by modern masters Paul Klee and Giorgio Morandi, Walters returned to Australia in 1951, and to New Zealand two years later. He was inspired then, by the memory of Schoon’s project, to incorporate Māori iconography into a sequence of small gouache paintings. Later combining these designs with others derived from the drawings of psychiatric patient Rolfe Hattaway (another discovery that came courtesy of Schoon), Walters began to develop a hard-edged aesthetic largely free from gestural marks.

Around 1956, after experimenting with a restricted vocabulary of rectangles, chevrons, and circles – sometimes highly coloured, at others more subdued – Walters decided to focus on adapting the koru motif familiar from Māori kowhaiwhai (the painted or carved patterned wooden rafters inside meeting houses) and moko (facial tattooing). He experimented with paring down the distinctive fern-like shape, filtering it through a precise geometry to stage an unprecedented meeting of cultures.

Following the lead of Italian painter Giuseppe Caprogrossi, Walters used versions of the koru to divide his canvases into bands of black and white (or sometimes grey and cream) that function as positive and negative space. To European and American eyes, the connection between these designs and the optical abstraction that emerged in the 1960s is clear; think of Bridget Riley or Frank Stella’s work of the time. Unlike his international counterparts, however, Walters had chosen to exploit a specific reference, pushing his work away from the purely retinal and toward something with social and historical resonance – whether intended or not.

As Michael Dunn points out in a 1978 piece for Art New Zealand,1 the koru was just one of a number of Polynesian and Micronesian designs that Walters employed, yet it is the one that became the most useful to him, and the most recognisable to viewers. “Perfecting that motif,” Dunn observes, “took some eight years of dedicated labour,” yet the distilled version of the scroll-like icon is so simple that “it seems obvious and inevitable.” Walters reduces the more organic style in which the shape is customarily rendered to a straight bar ending in a perfectly rounded bulb. All other detail has been expunged to leave an endlessly adaptable device, one that narrates a move away from the handmade toward a quasi-industrial aesthetic.

Yet these works are not entirely mechanistic; Walters introduced enough subtle variation into their composition that our eyes are never allowed to rest, instead pulled this way and that through turns and circuits both pictured and suggested.

Of course, this practice of fusion and mutation has its problems. The idea of co-opting and converting an extant visual signifier by aligning it with a Western formalist ideal continues to raise red flags to some critics, who see it as a particularly thorny instance of cultural appropriation. In “Gordon Walters: Form Becomes Sign,”2 a 2006 article for Art and Australia, Robert

36

Leonard writes of his subject having had “the luck – good or bad – to find his work caught up in a series of paradigm shifts in New Zealand’s art and cultural history.” Leonard reminds readers that while Walters stressed the koru’s utility as a visual unit that allowed him to investigate figure-ground relationships but had no “descriptive value” of its own, the contexts in which it was and is presented have always ensured that shifting ideas around national identity, figuration and abstraction come inevitably into play; Walters was immediately caught, he argues, between “a modernism (which understands abstraction as form) and a post-modernism (that wants to read it as sign).” In the 1980s, Walters was accused by Māori academic Ngahuia Te Awekotuku of misrepresenting Māori interests through “plundering”; in the following decade, writer Rangi Panoho went further and attacked him for stripping the koru of its original meaning. But in the years since, others have pushed back on Walters’ behalf, characterising him as an early standard-bearer for biculturalism and praising his oeuvre as one to which no contemporary New Zealand artist can afford to turn a blind eye.

Amoka, the silkscreen print included in this auction, is a striking and characteristic example of Walters’ work in the medium, which he originally adopted in the late 1960s as interest in it grew. The artist’s first print, Tawa, was published in 1968 as part of the Barry Lett Galleries Multiples, and he went on to work most often with master printmaker and painter Mervyn Williams. Ideally suited to the flat, hard-edged style of the Koru series, Amoka is, similarly, the result of an intensive process of development about which Walters wrote in 1977, “I find there is more work in all this than there is in doing a painting.”3 According to then Auckland Art Gallery curator William McAloon,4 printmaking was instrumental in winning Walters a wider audience; it also now offers a useful reminder of the artist’s design experience – he worked for the Government Printing Office in Wellington from 1954 until the mid-60s, and in 1979 designed a logo for the New Zealand Film Commission featuring, of course, the koru.

06 Gordon Walters

Amoka 1972 screenprint, 21/25 signed Gordon Walters and inscribed 21/25/Amoka in graphite lower edge 880 x 410mm est

$12,000 — $18,000

1 Michael Dunn, “The Enigma of Gordon Walters’ Art,” Art New Zealand 9 (February/March/April 1978) 2 Michael Dunn, “The Enigma of Gordon Walters’ Art,” Art New Zealand 9 (February/March/April 1978) 3 :https://www aucklandartgallery. com/whats-on/exhibition/gordon-waltersin-print 4 Webb's

Ibid.

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07 Jake Walker

Untitled (0043) 2017 oil on linen, glazed stoneware signed JW and dated 9.5.17 with incision lower right; signed JW and dated 21.5.17 with incision right edge; signed JW, dated 2017 and inscribed 0043 in graphite verso 600 x 410mm (including frame) est $5,000 — $7,000 Provenance Private collection. Acquired from Hamish McKay Gallery, Wellington, 2017.

Webb's

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Exhibitions The Turps, Hamish McKay Gallery, Wellington, 19 August 9 September 2017.

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08 Rita Angus

untitled graphite on paper signed RITA ANGUS in graphite lower edge, inscribed hair brown/eyes blue/pale blue/yellow/ dark green/dark & light green stripes/blue grey trousers in graphite verso 395 x 245mm est $8,000 — $14,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland.

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09 Ava Seymour

GI Girls

1998 c-type print, 4/5 signed Ava Seymour, dated '98 and inscribed GI Girls/4/5 in ink verso 730 x 895mm est $4,500 — $6,500 Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Acquired directly from the artist.

Webb's

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Exhibitions Another from the edition held in the collection of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o TÄ maki, acquired 2013.

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10 Mitch Cairns

Geranium Pots 2016 oil on linen printed Mitch Cairns/Geranium Pots (art fair painting), 2016/oil on linen, framed/79 x 64 x 5 cm/TCG21020/exhibited: Painting. More Painting, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), Melbourne/01/09/16 - 25/09/16 on The Commercial label affixed verso 790 x 640mm est $7,500 — $9,500 Provenance Private collection. Acquired from The Commercial, Sydney, c2017.

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Exhibitions Painting. More Painting, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, 1 September 25 September 2016.

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Mitch Cairns - Geranium Pots (art fair painting) Essay by MICHEAL DO

10 Mitch Cairns

Geranium Pots (art fair painting) 2016 oil on linen printed Mitch Cairns/Geranium Pots (art fair painting), 2016/oil on linen, framed/79 x 64 x 5 cm/TCG21020/ exhibited: Painting. More Painting, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), Melbourne/01/09/16 - 25/09/16 on The Commercial label affixed verso 790 x 640mm est Webb's

$7,500 — $9,500

November

In discussing painting, acclaimed British op artist Bridget Riley referred to Samuel Beckett’s essay “Beckett/Proust”, examining French author Marcel Proust’s views on creativity.1 In his novel In Search of Lost Time (1922–1931), Proust wrote, “the task and duty of a writer are those of a translator” and, according to Beckett, this skill to ‘translate’ whether in text, music composition, photography or art-making, cannot be created or invented.2 Rather, the translation of ideas into an artform can only occur when the artist discovers the means within themselves.3 While variations of this theory exist throughout popular culture, Riley corrects his notion by clarifying, “the person who succeeds as an artist is not someone with an important subject, a significant or visionary message, but someone who is trained themselves to translate, who has acquired a habit of working, who knows their metier…. Without being willing, nothing can begin to happen”.4 It is against this understanding of art that Sydney-based artist Mitch Cairns operates. Working for close to two decades, the artist has developed a distinct visual language and technique to express the subtle ideas of his imagination. For Cairns, the painting process begins and ends in his studio. The importance of his studio-based practice was forged while studying at the National Art School Sydney, an institution steeped in the history of Australian modernism, championing the atelier model of teaching. He describes the studio environment as akin to painting itself. “The studio in one sense is like a perfectly contained painting: the room as the frame of where the art and narrative occur.”5 This analogy encompasses Cairns’ fascination with framing devices. He articulates: “The frame is such a strange constraint. We use notepads, windows, doors and desktops. The frame is all around us.” 6 And against a tide of rapid technological developments in art-making – including digital, VR, immersive artworks – Cairns is wholly committed to the analogue frame and the artistic potential that can occur within it. After Beckett’s idea, the frame forms Cairns’ basis from which he ‘translates’ his worldview.

The painting Geranium Pots (art fair painting) (2016) follows this line of investigation. Originally exhibited in Painting, More Painting at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, in 2016, each work in the series features a painted retaining wall from which different narratives and scenes emerge.

The use of the brick grid across the suite of paintings refers to art historian Rosalind Krauss’ seminal essay Grids, which positioned the grid as an emblem on modernist art-making.7 As theorised

by Krauss, the grid was a “will to silence” for artists like Kazimir Malevich and Piet Mondrian, who used the non-objective grid to cage emotion and narrative.8 However, unlike these modernists, Cairns co-opts the grid as a means to discuss, rather than escape, the topics of today. This features strongly within his oeuvre, including the painting Agatha Gothe-Snape (2017), of his partner, also an artist, which won the prestigious Art Gallery of New South Wales Archibald Prize that year.

The core of Geranium Pots (art fair painting) (2016) features a leather brogue, rendered in luscious pluck-offthe-shelf creamy brown, caught on a piece of slate-coloured chewing gum. Full of reserve and mystery, the painting is meticulously executed in a detached language that strains with unacknowledged feeling. Throughout Cairns’ practice, he strives to create this aura of mystery. Drawing inspiration from everyday stories, conversations and observations, he remixes and recodes this content to create compositions that resist the storytelling aspect of figurative painting. The result is often a series of visual conceits, metaphors and narratives that are explored to their logical conclusion. This anti-narrative approach can be explained by Cairns’ desire for the viewer to complete the work through their own interpretive capacity: “People can see what they want to see, they can associate with it, based on the experiences they have.”9 This methodology operates in the title of the series, Geranium Pots. Perhaps unsurprisingly, no geranium pots, painted or otherwise, feature in the series. When asked, Cairns 42

reveals that the title of the show was lifted from the folk song “Seven Drunken Nights”, made famous by Irish folk band The Dubliners in 1967. Sung over five verses, the song details a drunkard who after returning home each night finds evidence of his wife’s infidelity, only to be taken in by the increasingly implausible explanations. On the fourth night, the protagonist asks, “Will you kindly tell to me/Who owns them boots beneath the bed/Where my old boots should be?” only to be told, “Ay, you're drunk, you're drunk you silly old fool/Still you cannot see/They're two lovely geranium pots me mother sent to me”.

However, the inspiration from music ends here. The rest of the series was built from observations – the artist noticed life moments “that would make a good painting”, including on his trip to the Auckland Art Fair in 2015, where Geranium Pots (art fair painting) was conceived.

Despite the seemingly arbitrary nature of the subject matter, Cairns’ practice is defined by technical rigour and a commitment to clarity. He tells me, “Painting is like a contract.

You have to do it again, again and again until you drop dead.

I’m comfortable with that contract.”10 It is this loyalty and faithfulness to his painting that echoes the repetitive nature of brick-laying. “I wish painting didn’t need to be so tight and methodical. But that is how the wall is built. There’s a reliability to their construction and in many ways, the brick walls in this image echo that.”11 And it is this understanding of both laying brick walls and painting them that reveals someone who, after Riley’s words, has acquired the habit of working and ultimately, through intense personal translation, understands their métier.

1 Bridget Riley, “Painting Now,” The Burlington Magazine 139, no. 1134 (1997): 616–622.

2

Ibid.

3

Ibid.

4

Ibid.

5 Mitch Cairns, interviewed by author, October 2019.

6

Ibid.

7 Margarita Tupitsyn, “The Grid as a Checkpoint of Modernity,” Tate Papers, no.12 (Autumn 2009), https:// www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/ tate-papers/12/the-grid-as-a-checkpointof-modernity.

8

Ibid.

9 Mitch Cairns, interviewed by author, October 2019.

10 Mitch Cairns, interviewed by author, October 2019.

11 Webb's

Ibid.

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11 Liz Maw

Aura, Deepa, Lady Kathryn and I

2002, 2006, 2011 signed E Maw, dated 2002 and inscribed ‘Aura’/7/10 in graphite lower edge; signed E Maw, dated 2004 and inscribed ‘Deepa’/7/10 in graphite lower edge; signed E Maw, dated 2011 and inscribed ‘Lady Kathryn and I’/7/10 in graphite lower edge 730 x 600mm; 710 x 595mm; 810 x 600mm est $4,500 — $7,500 Provenance Private collection.

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12 Kushana Bush

Calm Tight Bevy 2010 gouache and graphite on paper signed Kushana Bush, dated 2010 June and inscribed Kushana Bush/‘Calm Tight Bevy’/ Gouache and Pencil on Paper in graphite verso 760 x 560mm est $6,000 — $9,000 Provenance Private collection. Acquired from Brett McDowell Gallery, Dunedin, 2010.

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Kushana Bush - Calm Tight Bevy Essay by HANA AOAKE

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Kushana Bush is a New Zealand artist based in Dunedin.

Her work has won a number of awards and has been exhibited extensively by institutions both here and in Australia. A 2016 retrospective of Bush’s work, The Burning Hours, was organised by the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, and subsequently toured to Christchurch Art Gallery (2017), Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery (2017) and Whangarei Art Museum (2018).

Kushana Bush’s delicate gouache and pencil work Calm Tight Bevy (2010) is part of the 2010 series Untitled (Power men).

In the work, bodies appear in motion, encircling and collapsing around a messiah or Christ-like figure, towards which people display a range of emotions: shock, arousal, desire, adoration, or a near state of ecstasy, although ready to tear him limb from limb.

There is something amusing about the range of expressions depicted, but there is also something ominous lurking. A feeling difficult to describe, which compels the viewer to dissect what it is they might be looking at. Some expressions appear anguished, with fearful eyes glaring upwards. Others appear in hysteria, with their hands clasped around their faces, like they are seeing a ghost, or a pop star. Everybody is wearing a watch.

Two figures have eye patches. Some have upturned moustaches, some handlebar moustaches and some no facial hair. Some are adorned with necklaces, maybe made of pearls. Half the bodies look up to the central figure’s head, while the others stare, eyes engorged, towards the messiah-like figure’s groin. The suggested eroticism is complicated by the humour in the details of each figure’s face, some of them display self-consciousness, blushing, or clasping their hands to their face in a state of shock.

Meanwhile the messiah figure resides amid his subjects, seemingly comfortable in his superiority and domination. His arms spread out as if conveying a blessing, with a strange, almost snide, paternal air as his hands rest on his subjects’ heads. The eye is drawn to his gleaming grey-white skin, which is distinct against the more homogenised quality of the surrounding tones.

He confidently stands in a state of undress, with the two kneeling figures wearing only loincloths, while everyone else is possibly nude. Behind him, two arms sprawl out from his head against a sliver of two faces in the background, almost like a gymnast landing a somersault and sticking their hands up into the air in proud defiance of gravity. The messiah’s face seems both calm and distant, almost ambivalent to the lives around him, yet the details of his body are clear. We see his kneecaps, pecs and a brown oval shape on his stomach, suggesting body hair, which is peeking out of his underwear, and the cheeky glimpse of his genitals, or maybe just an arm reaching through his legs.

The painted detail is meticulous, rendered with soft fleshy tones; pinks, whites, creams, and browns that swirl together in a broad spectrum of different ethnicities. Other comparisons emerge: religious Dutch painting, or Mexican retablo (devotional) paintings of Christ, Fatima (The Virgin Mother) and various other saints. The flesh tones also recall illustrated medieval manuscripts, which up until 1400 were created on vellum, or animal skin – sometimes the skin of a sheep, a cow or a goat.

Bush is possibly encouraging reflection on the so-called “Age of Discovery”, with a white body in the centre representing the coming of Christianity, disease, displacement, death and the confiscation of land and resources that many indigenous people experienced under colonisation. In the transfixed expressions and eyes of the ‘subjects’ who gaze at the central figures I can imagine the fascination, awe, and fear my own tūpuna may have felt when they first encountered Pākehā.

Bush’s work derives from a global diaspora of influences from the history of figurative art, ranging from Giotto’s frescoes, Italian renaissance painter Piero della Francesca’s flat manipulations of perspective, Korean still life, Japanese shunga art, South Asian Mughal painting, Persian miniatures, Dutch religious paintings, and folk art. Bush is known for working primarily with gouache, which is unforgiving and requires patience, as it is notoriously difficult to edit. Each brush stroke

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must be intentional. Bush works slowly and carefully to create a crowded composition in which every scene she paints is imbued with a sense of humour but also profanity. Calm Tight Bevy offers a subtle call to something sexy and dizzying yet refined and controlled.

The work requires you to slow down and give it your attention. Despite its flat pictorial plane, the eye darts around, reading and untangling physical space and histories behind what is being shown. Every scene she paints is both considered and hectic, it's a collision and an offering of different modes of coexistence. It speaks to the way we could communicate, gain understanding and construct meanings, and how we exchange ideas with one another and come together across generations, cultures and all other markers of difference. This mashup of influences could speak to so many different things, they all seem so disparate, but it is perhaps because of these disparities that her work is always challenging, humorous and engaging.

The strength of Calm Tight Bevy is its ambiguity and openness, because its meanings are not structured. Bush’s paintings are open-ended narratives you can draw your own understanding from. The ambiguity of every scene she paints forms a fluid visual language with which, despite the different contexts in which you could try to place her work, her paintings will continue to surprise you.

12 Kushana Bush

Calm Tight Bevy 2010 gouache and graphite on paper signed Kushana Bush, dated 2010 June and inscribed Kushana Bush/‘Calm Tight Bevy’/Gouache and Pencil on Paper in graphite verso 760 x 560mm est

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13 Julian Dashper

66/99 1990 acrylic on canvas signed JULIAN DASHPER, dated 1990 and inscribed 66/99 in graphite verso 660 x 660mm (right panel); 880 x 660mm (centre panel); 1070 x 580mm (left panel) est $5,000 — $8,000 Provenance Private collection, Wellington. Acquired from Peter McLeavey Gallery, Wellington, 1990.

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14 Don Driver

Dimension No 1 1970 acrylic on canvas signed DON DRIVER, dated 1970 and inscribed “DIMENSION NO 1/11” in ink verso; DON DRIVER 1965-1978/TOURING EXHIBITION 1979-80/Exhibit no 11/Title: DIMENSION NO 1 1970 printed on Govett-Brewster label affixed verso 1405 x 1400mm est $16,000 — $22,000 Provenance Private collection, New Plymouth.

Gifted by the artist, c1970.

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Exhibitions Don Driver, 1965-1978, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, 28 June - 15 July 1979; Sarjeant Gallery, Wanganui, 25 July - 12 August 1979; Manawatu Art Gallery, Palmerston North, 22 August - 9 September 1979; National Art Gallery, Wellington, 19 September - 7 October 1979; Bishop Suter Art Gallery, Nelson, 24 October - 11 November 1979; Robert McDougall Art Gallery, Christchurch, 21 November - 6 January 1980; Wairarapa Arts Foundation, Masterton, 23 January - 10 February 1980; Hastings Cultural Centre,

Hastings, 20 February - 9 March 1980; Gisborne Museum and Art Centre, Gisborne, 2 - 20 April 1980; Rotorua City Art Gallery, Rotorua, 30 April - 19 May 1980; Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland, 28 May - 22 June 1980; Waikato Art Museum, Hamilton, 1 - 20 July, 1980.

Literature Don Driver, Don Driver: a survey of his life and works, incorporating a catalogue of the Don Driver 1965-1978 exhibition (New Plymouth: Govett-Brewster Art Gallery,1979), 24.

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15 Don Driver

Chromatic II 2000 powdercoated steel aeroplane parts 660 x 690mm (widest points) est $9,000 — $14,000 Provenance Private collection, Queenstown. Acquired from Gallery 33, Queenstown, May 2008.

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16 Don Driver

Rollaway 2000 plastic, synthetic rope, skull and asphalt signed Don Driver, dated 2000 and inscribed “Rollaway” in ink inner edge 640 x 540 x 230mm (widest points) est $8,000 — $12,000 Provenance Private collection, Queenstown. Acquired from Gallery 33, Queenstown, October 2008.

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Don Driver - An Ounce of Ambiguity Essay by MICHAEL MOORE-JONES

Much early writing on Don Driver tried to place him in the New Zealand box in which most people thought any artist working in New Zealand inevitably belonged. The logic, which now seems so naive, was that because he lived in New Zealand, his work somehow dealt with New Zealand.

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When I think of New Plymouth I think of Peter Peryer, Len Lye and Don Driver. Of the three, Driver was the only one to make New Plymouth his lifelong home, after moving there from Hawke’s Bay as a boy. Peryer lived there for many years later in life, but had a far more peripatetic early life. And though Len Lye never lived in New Plymouth, he chose this city, of all he could have chosen, to house his work after his death. What is it that drew these artists to New Plymouth? And what did New Plymouth give them?

When I think about Peter Peryer, Len Lye and Don Driver a slight smile forms at the corner of my mouth. I see Peryer’s Dead Steer, an image at once sombre and inexplicably funny; the beast is as dead as anything, but with its legs splayed in the air it becomes farcical. I hear the music from Len Lye’s Kaleidoscope, see the whirling, swirling patterns and imagine the comic gyrations and secretions of his Water Whirler on Wellington’s waterfront. And most of all, because he always managed to see the heart of the matter and put things together in just the right way, I see works like Driver’s Rollaway.

A small skull sits upon an upturned plastic flowerpot, which sits upon a giant plastic sneaker with wheels at the back – all of which is seemingly held together by a length of blue rope.

Absurd, morbid and hilarious at once: Rollaway is a memento mori for our postmodern souls. Put it on your mantelpiece, reflect on it daily. It’ll make reading the news a little easier, a little funnier. It’ll put things in perspective.

Movement and stasis, life and death, sincerity and irony – Rollaway, like so many of Driver’s works, is brought to life through the artist’s genius assemblage of these ideas. As he said in a 1997 interview, just three years before he made Rollaway, “I want to place in an exaggerated context things normally in an everyday range of vision.” 1 The skull, first of all: millennia-old artistic symbol of death, used by most great painters, from Rembrandt to Picasso, to continually remind viewers of the ephemerality of existence. But with postmodern eyes it is difficult for us to look back at an oldmaster memento mori without a hint of irony, without Warhol’s car crashes and his Marilyns repeated over and over at the back of the mind. Driver saw Warhol too; he knew a skull could never again be used sincerely. And so enter the absurd: a giant shoe that could only have been worn by the likes of a clown, or Ronald McDonald (but what is the orifice-like hole on its top for?). Most skulls aren’t going anywhere, but this one appears to be skating off to the horizon, horns bent back for aerodynamics like a Tour de France time triallist. It gives the impression of motion, but without moving; a little like our modern lives, with all our tweeting and flying that gets us nowhere.

Or consider Chromatic II, a work from the same year as Rollaway, in which Driver takes a different approach to movement and stasis. Made from aluminium airplane wing struts, the work’s materials reference travel and great distances.

But hung flat and still against a wall, these small parts of one of the great industrial inventions are rendered ineffective; they are reconstituted for an aesthetic function, never to move again. The work raises questions about the life of industrial inventions; the opposite, in many ways, of Jeff Koons’ Hoovers, prevented from fulfilling their functions. Add to this ideas of sonority and silence (the horizontal aluminium struts appear as keys on a keyboard – might the work’s title refer to the musical scale? – and yet hang mutely, silently, forever), and a small work becomes a site of complex ideas and dualities.

If death is Rollaway’s central idea, its message is to not take it too seriously. Don’t let life roll away from you, but don’t get too caught up in it either. Remember death, but rather than letting it weigh you down, have some fun with the prospect: laugh at it; read Milan Kundera rather than Nietzsche. It is this irreverent spirit that defines the New Plymouth artists. Peryer, Lye and Driver share an ability to deal with weighty ideas without ever losing the smile in the corner of the mouth.

16 Don Driver

Rollaway 2000 plastic, synthetic rope, skull and asphalt signed Don Driver, dated 2000 and inscribed “Rollaway” in ink inner edge 640 x 540 x 230mm (widest points) est

$8,000 — $12,000

1 Don Driver, quoted in Gordon H. Brown, “Don Driver: Getting Things Together,” in With Spirit: Don Driver a Retrospective, 1965–1998 (New Plymouth: Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, 1999), 23.

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Rollaway is quintessential Driver at the height of his powers. The work is a totem, like the many that Driver owned and displayed in his own home. Yet Rollaway is a totem for our own times: humorous, cynical and wry, caught between sincerity and irony, speeding off somewhere but making questionable progress.

Driver seems sometimes to occupy a corner of New Zealand’s art history that we haven’t yet come to terms with.

Looking at his works, whether Dimension No 1 or major installations like Ritual (held by Te Papa, and presaging assemblages like Rollaway), it can be easy to forget that he was contemporaneous with Colin McCahon, Rita Angus and Toss Woollaston. So separate were Driver’s artistic concerns that he may as well have been living in a different country to that great trio. And ironically, far from making him provincial, it may be that New Plymouth shielded him from the dominant frame of art in New Zealand at the time, with its continuing references to regionalism and landscape, and its ongoing struggles with even tepid abstraction. When looking at Don Driver’s art, New Plymouth seems in many ways far closer to New York than to Auckland or Wellington.

Dimension No 1 is a major early work that emphasises the international world of ideas Driver was engaged with. If Rollaway is Driver towards the end of his career, most free in his associative powers of assemblage, Dimension No 1 is Driver in earlier years, finally finding a way to reconcile the young man’s disdain for tradition with the then-prevalent mode of international hard-edged abstraction. Driver’s is abstraction with a twinkle in the eye – Donald Judd if he could have taken himself a little less seriously.

And the comparison to Donald Judd is more apt than it might at first seem, at least for the first half of Driver’s career. A 1979 exhibition catalogue describes Dimension No 1 as a “Wall relief on a constructed wooden base with two diagonal corners and five horizontal ribs over which canvas is stretched taut so they show through….”2 In other words, it comes very close to one of Judd’s “specific objects”. These were artworks that blurred simple categories between painting and sculpture – tied up with what we now think of as minimalism, specific objects didn’t fit artistic categories of the time. Nor did Driver’s works. In breaking through the picture plane with the horizontal struts that force parts of the canvas forward and off the wall, Judd both declared his own future directions (never to be held back by the limits of a canvas) and opened up new possibilities for art in New Zealand.

Dimension No 1 is one of Driver’s more subdued abstractions – part of a series from the years around 1970 – and yet in its arrangement of colours seems to maintain an ironic mode that separates it from both the abstraction of the likes of Milan Mrkusich, and the sincere minimalism of New York at the time. Driver’s colours are almost-neon hues – comic tonal gradations (blue on purple on orange-red, in this case) – and never once conceding to living-room decorum that said a painting should at least try not to clash with the curtains. Subtly introducing humour to hard-edged abstraction is no easy task, but Driver managed it – and always with an ounce of ambiguity, so that gallery-goers are still not quite sure whether to smile or scratch the chin sincerely.

Much early writing on Don Driver tried to place him in the New Zealand box in which most people thought any artist working in New Zealand inevitably belonged. The logic, which now seems so naive, was that because he lived in New Zealand, his work somehow dealt with New Zealand. We find, for instance, attempts to link his art to his immediate environment, such as: Driver’s “acid yellows, hot pinks and sharp greens… derive from what he sees and finds around him in New Plymouth”;3 or that in his assemblages Driver sought to represent rural New Zealand through his use of materials like sackcloth and industrial waste.

Try as I might, last time I visited New Plymouth I could not manage to make out any acid yellows or hot pinks.

On the contrary, far from seeking to represent his own city Webb's

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or country, Driver’s art is cosmopolitan. Not the Gordon Walters kind of cosmopolitan, slick and sleek and sexy and at home in any European capital. Instead the traveller cosmopolitan: the kind of person who travels and finds themselves wide-eyed, interested in everything. At his home Driver collected an eclectic range of objects, from fetish dolls to Buddhist statues and an enormous range of materials that many would categorise as junk. Out of all this, Driver created his own vision, a view of the world far more expansive and daring than that of many of his New Zealand contemporaries. His was an “internationalist and universalist ethos mixed in with values from regionalist and nonWestern art sources”, as writer John Hurrell has put it so well: “The resulting sensibility allows his work to oscillate between aesthetic delectation and black humour, serene contemplation and overt manipulation of primal fears.”4 Driver’s gift to us is a kind of vision that is unique not just here, in McCahon land and Man Alone land, but which is in many cases unique anywhere. His relationship to New York was one of fruitful looking, but he does not seem to have been concerned with borrowing from or contributing to the New York art world.

His 1965 trip to America (undertaken only because his funds did not stretch to Europe) no doubt influenced his work – yet it is not a part of the Hero’s Journey in the same way that McCahon’s 1958 America trip is now seen. Driver might just be difficult for us to place because of the uniqueness of his vision. He appears now to a new generation of New Zealanders as a genial man with an astoundingly generous sense of humour.

I’m reminded of the way Peter Peryer described his own artistic development. “I think there’s been an emotional maturing in my image-making,” he said in a 1994 documentary on his life and work. “In many ways I was moving from West to East in my attitudes. I think I mean that they have moved from the crucified Christ to the laughing Buddha. That is what I mean by a maturing.”5 And the same seems true of Don Driver. The hint of the inner laughing Buddha was always there in his work, even in his most sincere abstractions, but it took time for it to develop. In Rollaway the thoughtful good humour is clear, where the wheels at the back now appear to represent some kind of Buddhist cycle of life; and it’s clear too in Chromatic II, which seems to say we should live by music and colour.

15 Don Driver

Chromatic II 2000 powdercoated aeroplane parts 660 x 690mm (widest points) est

$9,000 — $14,000

2 R. N. O’Reilly, ed., Don Driver: A survey of his life and works… (New Plymouth: Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, 1979), 24.

3 Michael Dunn, “Don Driver and New Zealand Art,” in Don Driver: A survey of his life and works…, ed. R. N. O’Reilly (New Plymouth: GovettBrewster Art Gallery, 1979), 58.

4 John Hurrell, “Equivalents: Substitutions and subterfuge in the art of Don Driver,” in With Spirit: Don Driver a Retrospective, 1965–1998 (New Plymouth: Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, 1999), 23.

5 Peter Peryer, in a quotation from Peter Peryer: Portrait of a Photographer, documentary directed

by Greg Stitt, 1994. Quotation at c.15:00min. Available online, https:// www.nzonscreen.com/title/peterperyer-portrait-of-a-photographer-1994/ overview Webb's

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17 Joyce Campbell

Medusa

2002. printed 2011. gelatin silver print, 2/7 printed Medusa/2/7/Joyce Campbell/2002/2011 on label affixed verso 610 x 1530mm est $3,000 — $6,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Acquired from Two Rooms, Auckland.

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18 Fiona Pardington

Inseparable Huia 2016 archival inkjet print, 8/10 signed Fiona Pardington, dated 2016 and inscribed 8/10 in ink verso; printed Fiona Pardington/ Inseparable Huia 2016/1500 x 1100 mm/Ed: 8/10/ With thanks Canterbury Museum/Copyright Fiona Pardington/Courtesy Starkwhite, New Zealand on label affixed verso 1100 x 1460mm est $25,000 — $35,000 Provenance Private collection. Acquired from Starkwhite Gallery, Auckland, 2016.

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Collections Another from the edition held in the collection of University of Auckland.

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Fiona Pardington - Inseparable Huia Essay by A.D.SCHIERNING

The Huia is noted as having the most defined sexual dimorphism in bill shape of any bird in the world, the female birds beak is an extensive elegant curve (the celebrated silhouette of the huia), while the males beak is short and stout.

Pardington captures both male and female huia positioned together in a still and lifeless kiss, their defining beaks touching, displaying a circle of connectedness and of life.

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Ka tangi te tītī, ka tangi te huia, ka tangi hoki ahau.

Dr Fiona Pardington (Ngāi Tahu, Kati Mamoe, Ngāti Kahungunu and clan Cameron of Erracht) is one of Aotearoa’s most celebrated photographers, who has solidified an identifiable style of work that is also distinctly connected to the artists’ homeland. Pardington grew up on Auckland’s Hibiscus Coast, and knew from a young age that she wanted to be a photographer. Her ambition was solidified through tertiary study in photography at Elam School of Fine Arts, where she graduated with her Bachelor’s degree in 1984, Masters in 2003, and Doctorate in 2013.

There is a sombre tonality that remains a strong connecting factor throughout the artists’ oeuvre. Her subject matter has spanned many topics throughout her career and addressed issues from gender politics and the gaze, to the politics surrounding taonga (treasure). Each discourse has generated a body of photographic works that have the same romantic connection to process.

Inseparable Huia (2016) is a work that speaks to te ao Māori (a Māori world view) and an understanding of the connection between the living and those that have passed. The huia is an iconic extinct bird whose last confirmed sighting was in 1906, reportedly huia became extinct due to overhunting and deforestation. Hunted for its beauty, the huias’ plumes were used to decorate cloaks and the distinctive beak of the female for ornamental decoration. The Huia is noted as having the most defined sexual dimorphism in bill shape of any bird in the world, the female birds beak is an extensive elegant curve (the celebrated silhouette of the huia), while the males beak is short and stout. Pardington captures both male and female huia positioned together in a still and lifeless kiss, their defining beaks touching, displaying a circle of connectedness and of life.

The taxidermy specimens are placed upon a jet black background, the definition of their delicate forms mysteriously sinking into the darkness. The work asks the viewer to look deeper into the darkness to see the detail, a feather, a claw, the small and shining eyes subtly come to the fore. The work is an immersive 1100 x 1460mm and at this scale allows the viewer to feel the pull into the dark depth of the picture frame. At such grand proportions Inseparable Huia feels like a tribute, a homage, framed in a museum-like thick black lacquered frame. The huias’ white tipped feathers were a symbol of great mana, worn by rangatira (chiefs) but also held significance as a decoration showing the importance of the deceased at tangi (funerals).

The huia’s significance is such an important part of Aotearoa – a country unique for its birdlife. Here Pardington has captured the romantic connection we have to this extinct species and the depth of meaning and history that surrounds this taonga.

Shrouded in darkness, we are invited to seek meaning within the mysteries of the work.

18 Fiona Pardington

Inseparable Huia 2016 archival inkjet print, 8/10 signed Fiona Pardington, dated 2016 and inscribed 8/10 in ink verso; printed Fiona Pardington/Inseparable Huia 2016/1500 x 1100 mm/Ed: 8/10/With thanks Canterbury Museum/Copyright Fiona Pardington/Courtesy Starkwhite, New Zealand on label affixed verso 1100 x 1460mm est

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19 Stephen Bambury

And The Fundamental Reality 2002 rust and acrylic on aluminium inscribed ©02/STEPHEN BAMBURY/‘AND THE FUNDAMENTAL REALITY’/RUST & ACRYLIC ON 2X ALUMNIUM PANELS/PANEL 1 (OF 2) in ink verso (left panel); signed S. Bambury, dated 02 and inscribed ©02/STEPHEN BAMBURY/"AND THE FUNDAMENTAL REALITY’/PANEL 2 (OF 2) in ink verso (right panel) 390 x 390mm (each panel) est $10,000 — $15,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Acquired from Jensen Gallery, Auckland, 2000.

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20 Bill Hammond

Stride 2017 acrylic on linen signed W. D. Hammond and inscribed STRIDE in brushpoint upper edge 245 x 195mm est $22,000 — $26,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Acquired from Peter McLeavey Gallery, Wellington, 2017.

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Exhibitions Recent Paintings, McLeavey Gallery, Wellington, 3 August - 2 September 2017.

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Bill Hammond - Stride Essay by LUCINDA BENNETT

I think we learn to be worldly from grappling with, rather than generalising from the ordinary.

Donna Haraway, When Species Meet, 2007 Only in a place with as few natural predators as Aotearoa could so many large, flightless birds have evolved, flourishing to fill roles normally performed by mammals. There is a grasseating takehē – a feathered dinosaur with its tree-stump legs – and the jewel-green kākāpō, who holds a triple claim to fame as not only the heaviest parrot in the world, but the only nocturnal, ground-dwelling one. And of course, there is the beloved brown kiwi, with its whiskers and sensitive bill, its muscular legs, bones heavy with marrow. Weka, wren and teal, sweet yellow-eyed penguins waddling up pebbled beaches like kids trying to walk upright in their sleeping bags, stately moa bending to find huhu on the forest floor. Before the Māori arrived, before the British came and colonised, this land belonged to flocks of ancient, eccentric birds.

It is difficult to say whether Bill Hammond’s hybrid birdhuman creatures are from this primordial past, or exist in some imagined future mythic island. His bird-people are most like sea birds, with fish-catching bills, streamlined heads and taut, muscular bodies. They stand erect, impeccable posture emphasised by the forward thrust of their sharp-beaked heads and the strange swoop of wings protruding from their human shoulder blades. They are light-footed sentinels, dancers, angels.

They have wings, but we rarely see them in flight. Perhaps, like the pūkeko – slender, red-legged cousin of the takehē – Hammond’s bird-people can fly, but hate to, preferring to run and hide. Pūkeko cower beneath harakeke (flax), bird-people find themselves a dingy bar where they can lay low, stiff drink in hand.

Despite having graduated from Canterbury’s Ilam School of Fine Arts in 1968, Hammond didn’t begin exhibiting his paintings until 1980. This first decade of work was greatly influenced by rock music (Hammond is also a drummer) and is characterised by seedy domestic interiors, rooms replete with stained wallpaper, graphic symbols etched into surfaces, often with a demented rock musician lathering for attention in the foreground. It wasn’t until the 1990s that he became obsessed by birds, following a trip to the Auckland Islands. Visiting the islands, located around 450 kilometres south of Aotearoa, was like stepping back in time into a lost paradise, a primeval forest over which birds reigned supreme.

In a country where so many artists choose to paint the birds, Hammond’s are undoubtedly – and unusually – both best known and most peculiar. As Max Podstolski writes, Hammond tapped “into the national psyche’s obsessions with native birds (there are no large native animals), colonial history, and Kiwiana.”1 However, Hammond did not fall prey to the sentimental view often cast over these subjects. Rather than beautiful in a bucolic way, his ‘birdland’ paintings are suffused with melancholy, each bird a ghost and a promise. They bring to mind the writings of Donna Haraway, who rejects the boundaries separating human from animal from machine. As the epigraph to this essay suggests, in grappling with the birds around us, Hammond’s paintings explore such diffuse topics as colonisation, hubris and complacency, ecological history, destruction and responsibility. As Chris Kraus writes, “his work is truly 'international' because he claims the space left in contemporary art for the visionary outsider. That he managed to pursue his disturbing and meticulously painterly vision in the midst of critical dialogues that have hardly anything to do with it, is extraordinary."2 In Waiting for Buller. Bar (1993), wingless birds are dressed in fern-patterned clothing, their faces blank and impassive as they pass the time chalking cues and sinking eights. The title references 19th-century colonial ornithologist – or bird stuffer, as Hammond calls him – Walter Buller who, as Ross Galbreath writes, "saw no irony in encouraging the large scale destruction

20 Bill Hammond

Stride 2017 acrylic on linen signed W. D. Hammond and inscribed STRIDE in brushpoint upper edge 245 x 195mm est Webb's

$22,000 — $26,000

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of the birds on which his own success was based. It was in fact their imminent disappearance – the romance of a dying race – that gave them their particular attraction." 3 In yellow-lit pool-hall purgatory, Hammond’s bird-people wait for death, extinction.

In each of Hammond’s paintings, each bird is caught at a different point in its transformation to human. For example, in The Fall of Icarus (1995), most of the bird-people have wings, but they are sad and drooping, like icicles melting down their muscular backs, clearly incapable of holding their weight. Others hang by their arms from tree branches, their slight bodies ready to fall into the abyss. In Zoomorphic Lounge III (1999), a strange cast of creatures congregates, some winged bird-people, some with smooth empty backs, looking more like upright anteaters than something from the sky. Ghost-like children without wings or beaks cling to alert, winged bird-people, a note of menace in the green air as their wingless kin stare ominously across the lounge.

The bird-person in Stride seems to be at another point in her transformation altogether, her human limbs fully developed but frail in comparison to her strong, glorious wings. This study bears the hallmark of Hammond’s critically acclaimed late-1990s period, during which he painted with his now iconic emeraldgreen palette. Against this verdant ground, the bird-person’s flesh is peachy pink. Her filmy yellow dress clings to the curves of her cinched waist and pert derrière. Were it not for her hooked beak and glorious wings, she could be a character in one of Hammond’s 1980s interiors, striding across the bar towards a screaming frontman. That she is striding, rather than hopping, shuffling or soaring, is given to us in both title and image.

Her wide-legged gait is important: it tells us that despite the enormous wings sprouting from her shoulder blades, her legs can move independently. But for how long?

Echoing Deleuze and Guattari’s writings on becominganimal, Allan Smith muses: "I believe Hammond’s bird-people are people on the way to becoming birds, not vice versa." 4 While I cannot consistently agree with Smith across Hammond’s oeuvre (what of the beakless child, clasped maternally in the arms of a winged bird-person?), I believe this comment applies to Stride.

Here is a bird-person moving one leg after the other, but her strides are those of a high-jumper approaching the bar. She may walk upright and dress in human clothes, but her bones are hollow, she is becoming extant.

1 Max Podstolski, “Painting the Island of the Day Before: W. D. Hammond,” *spark-online issue 4.0 (January 2000), http://www.sparkonline.com/january00/esociety/articles/ podstolski.html 2 Chris Kraus, "Big picture," in Bill Hammond: 23 big pictures [exhibition catalogue] (Dunedin Public Art Gallery, 1999), 7. The exhibition ran at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery from 11 September 14 November 1999.

3 Ross Galbreath, Walter Buller: The reluctant conservationist (Wellington: Government Printing Office, 1989), 108. As quoted in Allan Smith, "Bill Hammond paints New Zealand,” Art Asia Pacific 23 1999: 46-53.

4 Allan Smith, “Bill Hammond Paints New Zealand,” Art Asia Pacific 23 1999: 46-53.

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21 Richard Killeen

Destruction of the Circle 1990 acrylic and collage on canvas signed Killeen, dated April 2 1990 and inscribed Destruction of the circle in ink lower right; printed Artist: Richard Killeen/Title: Destruction of the Circle/Date: Apr 2, 1990/Medium: Acrylic and collage on canvas/Size 1112 x 1516 mm/Inst. on label affixed verso 1010 x 1052mm est $25,000 — $35,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Acquired from Sue Crockford Gallery, Auckland, 1994.

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Exhibitions Sampler, 1967-1990, Sue Crockford Gallery, Auckland, July 1990.

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22 Paul Hartigan

Primary School 1979 enamel on board signed Hartigan, dated 1979 and inscribed PRIMARY SCHOOL in graphite verso 465 x 455mm est $10,000 — $18,000

Literature Don Abbott, Vivid: A Paul Hartigan Retrospective (Auckland: RF Books, 2015), 106.

Provenance Private collection, Auckland.

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Exhibitions Figurative Artists, Peter Webb Galleries, Auckland, 1979; Picturesque, A Survey Show, Barry Lett Galleries, Auckland, 1979; Aspects of Recent New Zealand Art: New Image, Auckland City Art Gallery, Auckland, 1983; Vivid: A Paul Hartigan Retrospective, Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland, 30 October - 19 December, 2015.

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Paul Hartigan - Primary School Essay by LUCINDA BENNETT

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It was in high-school art history that I first came across the phrase licked finish. It is a term used to describe paintings made with such delicate brushstrokes they were essentially invisible to the eye, the surface of the painting so apparently frictionless one could run one’s tongue across it and feel no texture, like licking a pane of glass. Although not its true meaning, it is a phrase I have always loved for the way it places painting in proximity to the mouth, emphasising the creamy unctuousness, the inherent sensuality of the medium.

The surface of Paul Hartigan’s Primary School (1979) is more lickable than licked. Francis Pound describes his paintings as having “delectable surfaces, as sweet sometimes to the eye as icing to the tongue.”1 Here, enamel paint has been applied in thick, glossy layers, achieving a depth not unlike that of an expertly iced cake. I think of crumb coating, the practice of plastering a thin layer of frosting all over a cake to hold the crumbs in place so the final layer will sit smoothly. It sounds like a fussy step, but it is one that makes all the difference, both to the look of the thing and the flavour. The crumb coating works to lock in moisture, and to guarantee a flawless result. It is a process not unlike the priming of a canvas.

Reviewing Hartigan’s 1979 exhibition Picturesque, Stephen Ellis felt similarly to Pound and me. He begins by stating that if he had to sum up the show in one word, “that word would have to be ‘oral’.” 2 He goes on to explain that he means oral in two senses – “the linguistic sense (words, hieroglyphs, and calligraphy being important); and the Dalí-esque ‘gastroaesthetic’ sense (the world perceived through the mouth).”3 Both of these senses are manifest in Primary School, the very title of which points to the former: it is a play on words, primary (colours), school (of fish). But then, the two words together make primary school, itself the setting of much early education, a site of paste eating and other oral explorations. And fish, too, are something we put in our mouths, grilled and battered, and also something we hook through the mouth to bring to our plates.

Round and around we go, like fish in a bowl, children at play, the rings of a colour wheel.

Hartigan is perhaps best known for his large-scale public light commissions, in particular his neon monochrome Colony (2004), commissioned by The University of Auckland and installed in the glass-walled foyer of the Faculty of Engineering, bathing its surrounds in a distinctly urban red glow. This quality of an aura, of colour and light emanating from a line, prefigures Hartigan’s use of neon. In paintings such as Equation's White Tomb (1983), Lemonstone (1984) and indeed, Primary School, we see lines without distinct edges: pale versions of each primary colour – pink, butter yellow, pale blue and a soft foamy green – seem to flicker there, crossing the puffy black lines to suggest light, depth, three-dimensionality, dynamism, a kind of glow.

First exhibited as a part of Figurative Artists at Peter Webb’s Lorne Street gallery in 1979, Primary School also prefigures other neon works such as Post-Modern-ism (1997), a far more obvious ode to the artist best known for his use of primary colours: Dutch modernist Piet Mondrian. In Primary School, we see a more personal, localised take on Mondrian’s ascetic explorations of line and colour. Here, the colour is crisp and clean, but the lines are loose, far from geometric. This can be read as the influence of local artists such as Tom Kreisler, whose work is characterised by the use of free lines, and Don Driver, who so loved to explore the weight and density of colours and materials. “I grew up being nurtured by both people as a young artist,” Hartigan tells me, “I am essentially and directly a descendant of both.” 4 Even the most art-averse New Zealand viewers (and, I imagine, the very youngest) will recognise the iconic form employed in Primary School. Pound describes Hartigan’s “softish shapes” as reminding him of “the shapes favoured in the 50s – both in high and low art – shapes then called ‘organic’ – from Barbara Hepworth and Calder to kidney-shaped tables….”5 Softish rather than abstract, nostalgic as opposed to regionalist, the uncomplicated form of the chocolate fish is a quintessentially 66

Hartigan-ian subject. Pound continues: Jellybean, Phantom, aeroplane, Casp[e]r the ghost, pillow, doughnut, tv etc: these are the shapes [Hartigan] feels at home with. Why? Simply, they are shapes of a childhood in the 50s.6 How quickly shapes change! An ardent lover of chocolate fish, I recently noticed the supermarkets had ceased stocking the packets where the fish were arranged side by side on a tray, as they are in Primary School. Not one, not two, but three marshmallow-filled treats! Painted during Hartigan’s productive 1970s period, Primary School is one of numerous paintings from this time that explore the possibilities of repetition – among them Tell Tales, a selection of fish tails against a flat, pale mint background, and Trunk Duet, two alarmingly disembodied elephant trunks (both works 1978). These paintings exemplify Hartigan’s propensity to paint the world around him: at the time, he was working at the Auckland Museum and had become fascinated by the institutional languages of display, with numerous examples of the same type of object being carefully mounted and placed in the great rolling drawers of the collection storage. However, these are not merely studies. Hartigan’s repetition paintings are conceptual works in which the artist conducts playful experiments with repetition, seeming to repeat forms as a way of exaggerating them, drawing attention to their idiosyncrasies, their strangeness or their sweet simplicity.7

22 Paul Hartigan

Primary School 1979 enamel on board signed Hartigan, dated 1979 and inscribed PRIMARY SCHOOL in graphite verso 465 x 455mm est

$10,000 — $15,000

1 Francis Pound, “Paul Hartigan,” in New Image: Aspects of Recent New Zealand Art (Auckland Art Gallery, 1983), 16.

2 Stephen Ellis, “Paul Hartigan’s ‘Picturesque’: A Survey Show,” Art New Zealand 14 (Summer 1979-80): 21.

3 Ellis, “Paul Hartigan,” 21.

4 Email correspondence between the author and Paul Hartigan, October 29, 2019.

5

Pound, “Hartigan,” 17.

6

Ibid.

7 Don Abbott, Vivid: The Paul Hartigan Story (Auckland: RF Books, 2015), 108.

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23 Pat Hanly

Girl Asleep 1964 monoprint and watercolour on paper signed Hanly and inscribed Girl Asleep in ink lower right 460 x 630mm est $12,000 — $18,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland.

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24 Peter Robinson

Boy Am I Scared Eh! 1997 acrylic and oil stick on paper 1560 x 1670mm est $30,000 — $40,000 Provenance Private collection, Wellington.

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Peter Robinson - Boy Am I Scared Eh! Essay by LANA LOPESI

Robinson questions the effectiveness and legitimacy of using MÄ ori motifs in personal, organisational and national identification projects.

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When Colin McCahon saw a photo of two young Māori men entering a gallery space in the 1970s, he saw discomfort on their faces and responded by painting the words “Am I Scared Boy (Eh)” in thick white acrylic onto a black background, with “CRY FOR ME” painted small in the bottom corner. The work now sits in the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery collection and is one of five from the Scared series, in which McCahon questioned both the environments around him and the human condition.

In the 1990s, the appropriation of Māori motifs and language by government departments, corporations and non-Māori artists to imply bicultural legitimacy was being heavily criticised by Māori and cultural commentators alike. One significant item up for debate was the infamous fingerprint logo, released by design agency Saatchi & Saatchi in April 1997, for the revamped national Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongawera which opened in 1998. The logo, a symbol of the redefined bicultural identity of New Zealand, collapsed nature (through the idea of genetic patterning) with culture (through the use of the koru) into one form, as a way to unify a national identity, specifically a bicultural one. With visual real estate being the main object of contention, artists were among the activists. So when Peter Robinson (b.

1966, Ngāi Tahu) entered the fray, McCahon’s work and Te Papa’s fingerprint offered the perfect reference point.

For Robinson, political questions have always been essential to his work. Boy Am I Scared Eh! (1997), acknowledges this particular bicultural moment in a number of ways. Limited to the colours black and white, the words “Boy Am I Scared Eh” read down one side, with a distinctively Robinson oil-stick spiral drawn thickly in black on the other. Reminiscent of the Māori koru, the spiral is also a clear reference to Te Papa’s fingerprint.

Through the use of the spiral in Boy Am I Scared Eh! Robinson questions the effectiveness and legitimacy of using Māori motifs in personal, organisational and national identification projects.

Robinson inverts McCahon’s question “Am I Scared Boy” to the statement “Boy Am I Scared”. Scared of what, it makes you wonder. Thinking back to the photograph of the two Māori men in the gallery space, you wonder if their expression of fear and discomfort came from seeing Māori visual culture appropriated in contemporary art and national branding exercises. Is that what makes Robinson scared? In a number of other works made

by Robinson at the same time, the word scared is changed to “scarred”. Which perhaps gives another clue to what the artist might be scared of: the way in which these bicultural assertions through the use of Māori imagery can scar Māori? Has Robinson been scarred by the ongoing legacy of McCahon?

With such strong references to both McCahon and to Te Papa, Boy Am I Scared Eh! is a salient comment on the national art canon in light of this bicultural moment. With the original a comment on Te Papa’s 1998 rebrand, it is ironic then that one of Robinson’s works from this series was acquired by the museum.

It was then displayed in the museum’s newly refurbished contemporary art galleries in 2018, facing off against a work from McCahon’s Scared series. Robinson’s inclusion in this key exhibition charting New Zealand’s art history cemented his work in the centre of the very place he was critiquing. A reminder to audiences of the artist’s significance.

With a refined humour, simple lines and salient message, Boy Am I Scared Eh! is historically poignant. Yet it also offers a timeless reminder of a national art canon still grappling to understand its own bicultural position.

24 Peter Robinson

Boy Am I Scared Eh! 1997 acrylic and oil stick on paper 1560mm x 1670mm est

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25 Shane Cotton Nahash 2003-2004 acrylic on canvas signed SWC., dated 2003./2004 and inscribed NAHASH in brushpoint lower right 1900 x 3000mm est $100,000 — $150,000 Provenance Private collection. Acquired from Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, 2009; private collection, Auckland. Acquired from Webb’s, Auckland, 2009; private collection, Nelson.

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Shane Cotton - Nahash Essay by LANA LOPESI

This is Cotton’s skill. Cotton masterfully paints something which is both localised yet global, something which is both fixed in time yet transcends it. The way in which it poignantly leaps between worlds offers audience members a number of ways in.

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Shane Cotton (b.1964, Ngāti Rangi, Ngāti Hine and Te Uri Taniwha) is recognised as one of New Zealand’s leading painters. Cotton’s cemented himself a preeminent artist through his early works which explored history and place in a 1990s New Zealand grappling with its biculturalism. Through a prominent career spanning over 30 years, Cotton has become known for his sophisticated development of signs and symbols. This painterly language enables Cotton to meld multiple world views together from the local to the global, Māori and Pākehā, religious and secular, offering complicated and multi-layered comments on the world around us.

Just 15 years into Cotton’s career, in 2003, a retrospective exhibition of his work was held at the Wellington City Gallery which then travelled to the Auckland Art Gallery. A survey exhibition of such scope, usually reserved for well-established and accomplished artists mid- to late-career, shows the level of impact Cotton had on the Australasian art world and also marked a new area of exploration for the artist.

Cotton painted Nahash (2003-2004) for this survey exhibition. The exhibition was significant not only because of its scale and prestige at the time, but in retrospect perhaps more so because of the transition point it marked for the artist. Cotton was moving away from the ‘sepia’ toned works he had become well known for and toward a new dictionary of visual imagery which included birds, black backgrounds and target-like circles.

The new visual vocabulary also leaned heavily on biblical stories both as presented in the bible as written in English as well as Te Paipera Tapu or the Māori bible first published in the early 1800s and found in his tribal lands of Ngāpuhi.

Through his own research on Ngāpuhi, he was struck by the lack of decoration in Ngāpuhi houses. The customary decorations were supressed by missionaries to the area who considered them hedonistic and pagan. With this discovery he started imagining a new body of work interested in the idea of redecorating these houses. The said works looked at the meeting of Māoritanga and Christianity and the visual vocabularies of each world view. All painted onto pitch black backgrounds, these works mixed Ngāpuhi and Christian imagery. In some works these juxtapositions highlighted the culture clash and in others such as in Nahash (2003-2004), similarities and affinities come to the fore.

Nahash means serpent in Hebrew and is the name of a king of Ammon in the Books of Samuel. Nahash attacked the town Jabesh-Gilead, which sat outside of his own territory. The people of Jabesh-Gilead tried to surrender but were told by Nahash that they had a choice of death by the sword or having their right eyes gouged out. In the end Nahash gave them a seven day grace period during which they were able to seek help from the Israelites. Sending messengers throughout the whole territory, they sought help and Saul, a herdsman at this time (later to become a king), responded to the call for help by raising an army which decisively defeated Nahash.

But perhaps it is not this story of Nahash that Cotton is so interested in as there is another Nahash which also has a strong footing in Ngāpuhi theology through the prophet of Papahurihia.

Papahurihia was a new god worshiped in the Bay of Islands area as well as the Ngāpuhi tohunga who taught the teachings.

Papahurihia, the prophet, first appears in the written historical record in the early 1830s, when two missionaries encountered his new religion. Richard Davis in 1833 met people at Taiamai, in the Bay of Islands, who had begun to worship this new god Papahurihia. Not long after, in 1834 Henry Williams described the people used the name Nakahi (a Māori transliteration of Nahash) which he identified with the serpent in Genesis 3:1, and also Papahurihia, one ‘who relates wonders.’

Papahurihia's early teachings identified the Māori as Hurai, or Jews. That along with his emphasis on the biblical serpent or Nakahi as his familiar spirit, became important beliefs of his followers. As Jews his followers were not Christians, but they were the chosen by God. Nakahi was not only the serpent

25 Shane Cotton Nahash 2003-2004 acrylic on canvas signed SWC., dated 2003./2004 and inscribed NAHASH in brushpoint lower right 1900 x 3000mm est

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1 Shelley Bishop-Janke. (2003).

Tuakiri: Shane Cotton in the Pursuit of Identity, 90.

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in Genesis; it was also the fiery serpent on the rod carried by Moses, who promised life to the Israelites while they were in the wilderness. In the New Testament the serpent was used as a symbol of Christ. The significance of Nakahi for Papahurihia, also taps into pre-existing Māori beliefs. Nakahi in te ao Māori resembled the aria traditionally called on by tohunga. Lizards were much feared, for they were seen as messengers between the spiritual and human worlds.

Papahurihia and Nakahi demonstrate the ability for Māori, as is seen in many Indigenous communities who embrace Christianity, to blend both their own belief systems with Christian ones in ways that don’t contradict each other but just are. It offers concrete evidence of the partial adoption of Christian theology by the chiefs and tohunga, who proceeded to integrate it with their traditional customs to form a religion in and of itself.

On the one hand Nahash, can be read as a Ngāpuhi work, telling a specific Ngāpuhi story. But on the other Nahash is an exploration of universal themes. This is Cotton’s skill. Cotton masterfully paints something which is both localised yet global, something which is both fixed in time yet transcends it. The way in which it poignantly leaps between worlds offers audience members a number of ways in.

These ways in, come through a wide ranging visual vocabulary, a system of codes and symbols which tell audiences the stories of Nakari and Nahash as interpreted by Cotton. Once we know the stories we can see the that perhaps the right eye is missing from the floating head, or does it reference a toi moko instead? The serpent figures become central to the painting, hard to not acknowledge. In the book of Genesis, the serpent is a deceptive creature who entices Eve to eat off the tree in the Garden of Eden. In other parts of the bible it is a symbol of Satan. In te ao Māori, Nakahi is perhaps less of a serpent and closer related to a lizard. Lizards are symbols of bad fortune or death associated with the god Whiro, who personifies both evil and death.

In the centre of the painting however, lies a Manaia in camouflage. A well-known figure in Cotton’s work, a Manaia is a creature commonly depicted as having the head of a bird the tail of a fish and the body of a man. Although in some instances it is depicted as a bird, a serpent, or a human figure in profile while some interpretations include a lizard. The Manaia, just as the lizard, is a messenger between humans and spirits and is a guardian against evil.

Sitting at the top of the painting and above the Manaia is a blue stencilled pīwakawaka or fantail. While birds have now become synonymous with Cotton, the 2003 survey where Nahash was premiered was the first time in which birds made an appearance. Cotton himself has revealed that birds, “… symbolise absolute continuity…the tui of 500 years ago has the same colours, makes the same sounds as the tui of today. We change.”1 For Shelley Bishop-Jahnke this represents “notions of permanence and stability contrasted with notions of transformation and change.”2 In the 2003 survey, tui, fantails, hawks and a heron all made appearances with at least one bird per painting. While birds do not symbolise stasis, they evolve and change only at a rate which matches the natural world. For John Huria, these birds in Cotton’s paintings offer natural continuity as “a counterpoint to the flux of human affairs.” 3 Just as the serpent and the lizard, the fantail is also a bad omen associated with death for Māori. Huria continues, writing that Cotton’s fantails symbolise continuity through time as well as the inevitability of human mortality finding a close link between concepts of death and time.

While Cotton’s Manaias were familiar to audiences before this significant survey, the floating eye of the Manaia was not up until this point. All across the canvas of Nahash sit floating concentric circles representing the Manaia’s many eyes looking back at audiences but they also represent Māori concepts of time as being cyclical. This is in contrast to the Western notion of time which is linear with a past, present and a future. Huria

Shane Cotton painting Nahash in his Palmerston North studio, 2003.

Photograph by Jim and Mary Barr.

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describes how these symbols depict “layers of time that are contiguous, not linear, where past, present and future are placed side by side.”4 This again relates to the characteristic treatment of time in Cotton’s work, where all tenses and aspects of time are combined and unified, in accordance with the Māori view of time.

When author and art critic Anthony Byrt asked Cotton about the religion found in his work, he replied that unlike McCahon, he’s not asking questions of his own faith but rather for Cotton “painting’s the religion.” 5 I think that’s an interesting comment for Cotton to make because it is easy to read his work as being about religion, but really what we have is an artist whose dedication to his medium, where “…it’s that the picture plane is the void, and disconnection is his defining subject.” 6 Nahash is a significant work in the trajectory of Cotton’s practice.

A rare piece that marks the start of some of Cotton’s most career defining moves. Just as the prophet Parahurihia was one who related wonders, I can’t help but recognise that same skill in Nahash – what at first seem like disparate elements, are actually masterfully placed symbols or wonders for audiences to find the relations between.

Nahash in Shane Cotton’s studio, 2003.

Photographs by Jim and Mary Barr.

2

Ibid.

3 John Huria, "Metamorphic Vocabulary: Text and Image in Shane Cotton’s Paintings" in Shane Cotton, edited by Lara Strongman (Wellington: Victoria University Press), 2004, 133.

4

Ibid.

5 Anthony Byrt, This Model World: Travels to the Edge of Contemporary Art, (Auckland: Auckland University Press), 2016, 61.

6

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26 Liz Maw

Pilgrims 2012 oil on board signed E Maw/LIZ MAW, dated 2013 and inscribed 'Pilgrims' in ink verso 580 x 540mm (widest points) est $18,000 — $26,000 Provenance Private collection. Acquired from Ivan Anthony, Auckland, 2013.

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Exhibitions Pandora Rides the Noon Day Demon, Ivan Anthony, Auckland, 1 May - 25 May 2013.

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27 Liz Maw

The Rose 2004 oil on paper on board signed LIZ MAW and dated 2004 in ink verso 870 x 580mm est $30,000 — $40,000 Provenance Private collection. Acquired from Ivan Anthony, Auckland, 2016; private collection, Auckland.

Acquired from Important Paintings & Contemporary Art, Art+Object, Auckland, 3 April 2014; private collection, Auckland. Acquired from Ivan Anthony, Auckland, 2004.

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Exhibitions Provenance, Ivan Anthony, Auckland, 26 May - 25 June 2016; Oblong Blur, Parabiosis, Ivan Anthony, Auckland, 2004 79

Liz Maw – Narcotics of Desire Essay by JAIMEE STOCKMAN-YOUNG

Liz Maw makes paintings that are truly individual. They do not spring forth in bursts of prolific expression. Instead, they are meticulously made and executed with great skill. Often taking place over the expanse of a year, with the artist focusing entirely on the production of that painting alone, sometimes with a companion piece, resulting in only one, or a few paintings during that time. A process that speaks more to the Renaissance than to contemporary consumer society that celebrates an accelerated output and mass production. Maw’s process fosters an environment where special things take place, resulting in the creation of very rare, very beautiful objects. Ornately framed, Maw’s works often channel a reverence to the European Old Masters. Taking references from her Catholic upbringing, her love of literature, her teenhood obsession with A Midsummer Night's Dream, and melding these with a touch of the present, Maw’s works maintain their connection to the contemporary.

Subtle nods to feminist and sexual politics, social media and fan culture give these paintings a dynamic dualism; speaking at once to a rich canon of history whilst toying playfully with symbols of the present day.

The Rose (2004) is a perfect example of Maw’s mediation of historical archetypal imagery with present-day feelings.

Originally existing as a companion piece for the work Pan (2004), The Rose takes a classic motif as its central concept and imbues it with a contemporary sexual energy, more literal and explicit than the romanticism of old. To Maw this work is entrenched in mythology – “Pan spreading his seed around”1 – fertility, and fertilisation – sex, love and the old being born anew. This iconic symbol of romance, the red rose, is seen here dripping with white. Maw credits Judy Darragh and Yvonne Todd – in Maw’s words, “A wink to the ladies”2 – referring to Todd’s Walters Prizewinning roses in her Asthma & Eczema series, and Darragh’s “cum over everything”3 style. The dripping white seed, pouring over the edges of the rose’s red lips, red-tinged droplets and razor thin slices – a defiling of something perfect and pure. An expression of the feminine, framed in the protective borders of the masculine – like a pornographic fairytale – a princess in her castle walls, after the prince saves her.

“The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose” “Hoary-headed Frosts fall fresh Fall fresh lap of the crimson rose4 F…F…F In the lap – I like the musical composition – it’s interesting – it's always been a favourite quote of mine.

Jack being the brutal frost character – leaving his mark on the rose.

Maybe I interpreted that quite literally…”5 The motif of the rose is used often in the plays and sonnets of Shakespeare, used as above in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and most famously in Romeo and Juliet. In the passage above, the rose is overcome by the violent nature of winter, its beauty changing with the seasons. The virginal nature of the rose is explored as Theseus speaks to Hermia, positioning the rose as a virginal woman who can either be cherished through marriage, or left to waste, if never plucked.

“But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd, Than that which withering on the virgin thorn Grows, lives and dies in single blessedness.”6

27 Liz Maw

The Rose 2004 oil on paper on board signed LIZ MAW and dated 2004 in ink verso 870 x 580mm est

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While commonly used as a metaphor for a beautiful woman, Shakespeare also saw the rose as an apt expression of life. Something beautiful, to be worshiped and cherished, but that also holds thorns.

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"Is love a tender thing? It is too rough, Too rude, too boisterous, and it pricks like Thorn.”7 A flower lasts but a part of a season. As a visual metaphor, it tells the tale of the brevity of life. Of opportunity that must be seized within its short span of time. A beautiful plump thing, that can make you bleed with its sharp edges, whose petals will fall with the coming of winter.

Within Maw’s practice, what often takes place is the repurposing of recognisable imagery and turning it into something unique.

“I always think you shouldn't be afraid to use well-known images and try to do something else with them. Painting in itself is that role – that even though it’s been going on since neolithic man, we are still trying to express ourselves or our culture.”8 It is within this process that the potency of Maw’s practice originates. The sharing or expressing of symbols, imagery and archetypes that have existed for centuries, that simmer below the conscious surface in all of our minds, waiting to manifest.

The symbols that present in Maw’s work – the Flower, the Mother, the Father, the Jester, the Harlot – exist in different expressions across a vast array of cultures in folklore. Carl Jung described these as primordial images – they have existed since the beginning of time, and are fundamental to humanity.

In ancient Greece, the rose was the symbol of Aphrodite, Goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, procreation – the patron of the Sacred Prostitute. It was said to have been turned red upon Aphrodite’s cut feet, as she ran to save her dying lover, Adonis. “Your blood shall change into a flower…and ere an hour had passed a blood-red flower arose, like the rich bloom of pomegranates…yet is its beauty brief, so lightly cling it petals, fall so soon.”9 In the ancient Hindu and Buddhist tradition of Tantra, the flower symbol emerges as the lotus. Here it represents expanding consciousness, brought forth through the unified balancing of the yin/yang, or the feminine/masculine. Within the Catholicism of the Middle Ages, the flower emerges in Dante’s exploration of the Immaculate Conception:

“Virgin mother, daughter of your Son, Humbler and higher than all other creatures, Fixed aim and goal of the eternal plan, You are the one who lifted human nature To such nobility that its own Maker Did not disdain to be made of its making.

1 Liz Maw, in conversation with the author, October 24, 2019.

2 Ibid.

3

Within your womb was lit once more the flame Of that love through whose warmth this flower opened To its full bloom in everlasting peace.” 10

Ibid.

4 Shakespeare, William. “Act II, Scene I.” In A Midsummer Night's Dream. University Press, 1936

Maw’s Catholic upbringing introduced her to many of these symbols. This exposure was evident in her earlier works, which explored the images and ideology of her childhood.

“It was my way of working Catholicism out of my system.

My mother had Giottos and all sorts of prints on the wall. It was a religious instruction, it wasn’t about the art. I learned to look at them – I didn’t see them as art. I saw them as so-and-so being crucified for something, or St Francis living like a pauper. Quite horrific images. Images of Hell on the wall.”11 In light of this early foray into art as a tool of instruction, Maw took the position of an iconoclast. Appropriating the symbols of the figures seen in her mother’s paintings, Maw reworked these, creating her own visual fairytales.

In works like Daughter of Cain, Lover of Judas (2006) and The Immaculate Conception (2005), the same naked female figure appears, kneeling, uncovered, in a scene evoking The Neverending Story. Reminiscent of Giotto's representations of Christ and Mary Magadalene, Daughter of Cain, Lover of Judas portrays the figure of Christ with the naked woman kneeling at his feet, a whisper to the suggestion of her being Christ’s

5 Liz Maw, in conversation with the author, October 24, 2019.

6 Shakespeare, William. “Act I, Scene I.” In A Midsummer Night's Dream. University Press, 1936.

7 Shakespeare, William. “Act I, Scene IV.” In Romeo and Juliet. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.

8 Liz Maw, in conversation with the author, October 24, 2019.

9 Ovid. 2009. “Book x - 708-739” Metamorphoses. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2009.

10 Dante Alighieri, “Canto XXXIII,” in Paradiso.

11 Liz Maw, in conversation with the author, October 24, 2019.

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concubine or lover. The title of the work suggests the dishonour of the woman – daughter of a murderer, lover of a betrayer – being blessed by Jesus. The fallen woman, the harlot. Across the scene races the figure of Pan. A blue crystal castle gleams in the background. In The Immaculate Conception the same woman appears again. Arms behind her back, atop an old horsedrawn cart without a horse, being led to a pink castle by the magic of a sacred tree. Again, the feminine defiled, or being led to her fate. A fable of the artist’s own creation – a retelling of the story of the Madonna's impregnation. A pure rose, on the road to being fertilised. These fanciful retellings of biblical narratives act as a way to disempower the shame that is often utilised within Catholicism. Here they are expressions of fantasy and desire – explorations of the unconscious in the form of a painted dreamscape.

In Maria Tranquillitatis (1998), the symbol of the rose appears again in the halo of Mary, who is playing a piano accordion, and is rendered entirely in the same colour of lapis lazuli that has symbolised her since the Byzantine period. The old and the new, melded in harmony. Within this work exists a key to understanding the energy by which Maw approaches her practice. Tranquillitatis – tranquillise. Mare Tranquillitatis, latin for Sea of Tranquility, is a bay on the moon, named by 16thcentury astronomers. The loving Mother Mary, usually shown holding her child, or mourning his horrific death, is here, instead, playing a song for her audience.

“You are taught to read art – you are not really allowed to just experience how it feels. You are taught to look at it in an educated way. Which is the same with biblical images, you are taught, you had this education, even a humble one, of the bible, the story of Christ. I just wanted to make it (the paintings) very delicate, very beautiful. I flatter my subjects, I'm not about the grotesque, it’s been done, I just – I want to put something in painting that's a sort of narcotic, like an opiate – I'm all for that – the opiate of the masses – I have always loved the opiate of the masses.”12 Maw herself says that she is a fan – a fan of beauty, celebrity and youth, in a way that is sometimes at odds with her own higher wisdom and feminist politics.

“It's horrific not seeing a person as a person – every time I have painted a woman because she was beautiful – she often has been – but I've semi hated myself for it – because this is a human being. She's not just a pretty girl – this is an actual human being and I'm looking at their skin – I've felt bad about that but I guess it's just desire – you know there's desire and there's this thing that everyone sort of wrestles with – the fleeting youth.” 13 The Rose is not burdened with this conflict. Maw has expressed her pains around the process of objectifying a woman to translate her image to paint, but with The Rose she is free to explore the feminine in the symbolic realm. An object of desire immortalised to canvas. Whereas in The Immaculate Conception the Madonna appears to be being led to her deflowering, here she exists post-coitally, represented as the flower, dripping in the essence of the masculine, the fertilised seed, frozen in its perfect beauty, its youth preserved in paint.

This issue, the objectification of the beautiful, seems to again come into play within Pilgrims (2012). Prom King and Queen of the Puritans. Archetypes of the masculine and the feminine. A nod to modern society’s obsession with beauty and perfection, this work juxtaposes these figures of beauty with the modest presentation of the Protestant pilgrimage. Evoking Barbie and Ken, the perfect blond pair, an embodiment of Western beauty standards with their wildly fanciful bodily proportions, Maw seems to gesture toward current celebrity culture and its relationship to perfection, exposure, desire. Here the figures are shrouded in the clothing of a community from the 17th century, known for its isolation and abstinence from sensual pleasures.

With indulgent smiles and dark eyes, a black spiral of hypnosis in the crevice of the female figure’s arm, this work seems to draw

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you into the darker reaches of beauty. Pious sheep, covering a truth that is closer to the danger of wolves. An erotic danger hidden within the feeling of temptation that this work evokes.

Shrouded in its white frame, with white background, Pilgrims embodies elements of the Puritan ethos – clean, pure, holy. This work can be explored as a tongue-in-cheek nod to colonialism. The figures, Frontier Barbie and Ken, as the Pilgrims, voyaging on the Mayflower to the New World. A hopeful future followed by a dark reality. Again, here, Maw is playing with the important stories of history, inserting her own characters into the narratives that formed our society. As she does so she also plays with the audience's sense of comfort and desire. How does it feel for the viewer to see these strange, attractive characters, with their saccharine expressions and Hollywood beauty, staring back from the flat surface? Dressed like extras in a fantasy period-drama, a blockbuster movie, the costume department full to the brim with buckled hats, bonnets and aprons.

“Cinema is a really big influence for me. The greatest democratic art form of the 20th and 21st centuries. Everybody watches movies, not everybody goes to the art gallery.”14 This play on reality within Pilgrims, and the wider practice of twisting and turning of historic stories, taking and retelling them in a wilder fantasy form, seems to be informed by Maw’s views on the way we receive information now in the postinternet era.

“We are living in peace time…This is the thing, It's only in the past 20 years that we have had access to so much information.

It's really hard to see – I mean we are in it – just in relation to the past and the present – not what's normal – before the internet we didn't know anything that was going on in the world. We got a few tidbits that were controlled by the newspaper. It will take some extreme analysis to take into account the time in which we are living now and trying to catalogue that and compare it to preinternet. A lot of older people are quite hysterical because they remember a time when you couldn't get that information…they are getting everything and they aren't used to it.” 15 Instead of immersing herself in the culture of the internet, Maw takes refuge in fantastical nostalgia, acknowledging the present as she slips into the warmth of the past. This isn’t to say that these histories and stories are glorified, but that they allow space to create the opiate effect that Maw desires. A freedom from the pains of reality.

Though Maw’s humble and self-effacing nature states otherwise, there is a fundamental intelligence in her work. A knowledge of humanity – of desire, history and the unconscious.

A knowledge of the human urge to escape reality through indulgence. She translates this knowledge into painting. A celebration of the beautiful and the fanciful. A break from the contrived intellectual rigour often associated with contemporary art practice. Maw’s work is free to roam the unconscious – expressing this through the symbolic and emotive. The Rose condenses many of the earlier explorations seen in Maw’s work, laying the intellectual groundwork for Pilgrims. A distillation of her ideas around desire, mythology and reality, whilst maintaining something indulgent. A warm touch. A feeling of yearning. Works that are at once very beautiful, and also rich with meaning and intrigue. Releasing the audience from the terrors and fears of the world today, momentarily distracted by the narcotic of desire.

26 Liz Maw

Pilgrims 2012 oil on board signed E Maw/LIZ MAW, dated 2013 and inscribed 'Pilgrims' in ink verso 580 x 540mm (widest points) est

$18,000 — $26,000

12 Liz Maw, in conversation with the author, October 24, 2019.

13 Ibid.

14 Ibid.

15 Ibid.

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28 Tony Fomison

E Tu, Brutus 1988-89 oil on canvasboard signed Fomison, dated August 1988-1989 and inscribed “E Tu, Brutus-”/Williamson Ave/Grey Lynn in ink verso; Ferner Galleries label affixed verso 445 x 595mm est $32,000 — $42,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Acquired privately, early 1990s; Pere collection, Auckland. Acquired from Denis Cohn Gallery, Auckland, 1990; collection of Denis Cohn, Auckland.

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29 Andrew McLeod

Light from Behind 2007 acrylic on canvas signed Andrew McLeod, dated 2007 and inscribed light from behind/2007 in brushpoint lower right 1850 x 1920mm est $45,000 — $65,000 Provenance Private collection. Acquired from Peter McLeavey Gallery, Wellington, 2007.

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Exhibitions Andrew McLeod: Recent Work, Peter McLeavey Gallery, Wellington, 2007.

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Andrew McLeod - Light from Behind Essay by ANDREW PAUL WOOD

A McLeod painting is always setting up playful contradictions and binaries between foreground and background, the flatness of the painterly plane and the illusion of perspective, naivetĂŠ and sophistication, abstraction and figuration, private and public. The push and pull between opposites are the engine that keeps the whole mechanism ticking.

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Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.

W. B. Yeats, The Second Coming, 1920 Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, 1922

Prolific and widely admired artist Andrew McLeod has a practice that ranges across painting, drawing, and digital prints – of particular interest being his collaborations with senior New Zealand artist Richard Killeen in the mid-2000s – music, zines, textiles with Dilana Rugs, black-metal T-shirts with Jimmy D, and even a jewellery line with Meadowlark in 2014. His creative fecundity and versatility appear limitless despite an ongoing battle with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and his many other commitments. He manages all this with an enviable devil-maycare insouciance because the making of art is far too serious thing to ever take too seriously. We could probably all learn from that.

Born in Rotorua, he grew up in Mount Eden in Auckland, and studied at Elam School of Fine Art whence he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1998, and won the National Drawing Award in 2004. He went on to be the McCahon House artist in residence in 2007, and in 2010 received the New Zealand Arts Foundation Award for Patronage Donation from Gus and Irene Fisher. His work is held in several significant collections, including Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, the Chartwell Collection, the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, the James Wallace Arts Trust, Te Papa Tongarewa, The University of Auckland and the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne. His work has featured in the 2nd Auckland Triennial in 2004, the 27th São Paulo Biennial in 2006, Telecom Prospect 2007, in solo exhibitions around New Zealand and in group shows in Melbourne, Hong Kong and Berlin.

He lives in Auckland with his partner, fellow artist and musician Liz Maw. How do you keep painting relevant in our globalised, postinternet, postmodern age saturated with disposable images and disintegrating social hierarchies of power? Even as the demise of painting is prematurely announced every decade or so, are not its conventions and pretentions still something of a liability in the disseminated, decentralised, democratic digital age? McLeod fossicks through the cultural white noise like a flaneur-cum-beachcomber. He samples capitalist civilisation’s signs, symbols and motifs, and reassembles them, as stream of consciousness and aesthetic judgement take him, into tranquil and sinister sanctuaries of form. There is a largesse and operatic grandeur to it. Everything is up for riffing on, from black metal and the Bauhaus to Matisse, Josef Albers and the rococo. The modernist mythology of originality and the genius of the heropainter is less important than the atmosphere and mood of the resulting synthesis and the act of making itself, and of giving aesthetic pleasure.

Much of McLeod’s work is characterised by its endearing geeky-gothy stylistic pitch in the cosy sweet spot between beauty and melancholy, nostalgia and interiority. Killeen’s eclectic and disruptive cut-outs were a vital early touchstone for the artist’s work, and this was recognised by his inclusion in the exhibition After Killeen: Social Observation in Recent Art at Artspace in 2001. It is that chess with signs problem-solving that keeps his painting relevant. Incongruous objects and archetypes are arranged and rearranged to tease out invisible and novel relationships, connecting them with his own memories, impressions and feelings. The past is present, and the present is past. Time, geography and category are unimportant and frequently irrelevant. There is only McLeod’s game of cadavre exquis with his own imagination and subconscious mind. In some ways it is as if he is constantly trying to trick or out-manoeuvre and surprise himself with what he comes up with next.

McLeod’s Light from Behind is an impressively large diptych. “I’m proud of the scale,” he says, and describes the

29 Andrew McLeod

Light from Behind 2007 acrylic on canvas signed Andrew McLeod, dated 2007 and inscribed light from behind/2007 in brushpoint lower right 1850 x 1920mm est

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$45,000 — $65,000

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work as improvised onto the canvas without any preparatory drawings in a free flow between hand, eye and brain. “The diptych format was something I was really into. I did lots of them.” The surface of the painting is built up in multiple layers of dark, transparent paint, giving it depth and atmosphere. The palette is meticulously off-key by a fraction, just enough to give the viewer pause without quite being able to put their finger on why. The execution is deliberately unsophisticated and flat, helping to unify the disparate elements of the composition into a single whole greater than the sum. The imagery is “nostalgic,” the artist says, “slightly negative” and “based on children’s book imagery and fairy tales I grew up with.”1 As any reader of the Brothers Grimm stories will know, the childish imagination is full of fears and terrors as the emerging personality grows and affirms the individual relationship between the world and self. The artistic process parallels this but is far more self-aware and sophisticated.

The children’s book/fairy tale feeling is very strong, a gnome’s front door is set in the base of one of the trees. Into the woods we go. The circular rainbow in the upper right of the painting might be a throwback to the televisual iconography of the artist’s late-1970s, early-1980s childhood. There is an element of cynicism there, but no trace of irony. This fascination with naiveté works so well because of the combination of strength and vulnerability. As the historian and mythographer Marina Warner has written of the artist Paula Rego, “the universe of children is subject to adults’ authority and brimful of the potency ascribed to instinct, to irrationality, to pre-social (anti-social) behaviour”.2 From this position outside anything is possible, and moving paint around is the ultimate playground, the first fully interactive virtual reality. It is complete freedom. McLeod is aware of the received art rules, he is merely unconvinced that such inconveniences apply to him.

A McLeod painting is always setting up playful contradictions and binaries between foreground and background, the flatness of the painterly plane and the illusion of perspective, naiveté and sophistication, abstraction and figuration, private and public. The push and pull between opposites are the engine that keeps the whole mechanism ticking. The eye can never keep still as it moves from one marvel to the next, following no obvious path around the composition. There is an automatic quality to the way McLeod has painted it, as the images stream forth from the unconscious and project themselves on the canvas, each painting becoming an unheimlich Arcadia punctuated by contemporary ruins in which the artist can enact and critique his fears and desires. We are in the zone, the flow, with the artist, along for the ride but with no way of knowing where we are going. The painting is the map, but we haven’t been provided with a compass or a key with which to interpret it.

McLeod’s paintings feel like acute records of intensive mental self-analysis or elaborate stages for coded autobiography and cathartic psychodrama. His compositions imply labyrinths, whether Borgesian ones of the imagination, elaborately complex architectural plans, or Piranesi-inspired grottoes and interiors.

Perhaps we could call him a metaphysical painter like Giorgio de Chirico and Carlo Carrà, or an anxious folk-bricoleur of the late-capitalist existential apocalypse like Sandro Chia and Anslem Kiefer. Closer to home we might compare him to Tony de Lautour or Bill Hammond. The paintings are dark mirrors of the soul in which we see our own anxieties and dreams reflected. “—Hypocrite lecteur, —mon semblable, —mon frère!” as Baudelaire writes in his poem to the reader, “Hypocrite reader, my likeness, my brother!”3 We are seen, we become aware of ourselves as something distinct from the phenomenology of the world, experience our “is-ness” (Dasein) and therefore, as per Heidegger, become more real.

Light from Behind brings together a number of McLeod’s favourite images that create their own ambiguous pictorial space despite their naive execution emphasising their flatness against the featureless white plane of the background. Two Webb's

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1

vertical brown forms suggest the trunks of trees, but before we can orientate ourselves to that, the effect is thrown off by a similar form that turns out to be an old-fashioned horsehairstuffed leather couch tipped on its side that might have escaped Sigmund Freud’s office or Édouard Manet’s studio. Are we inside or outside? The carpet is pulled out from under us by the feedback loop. The primitive orthogonal geometric boxes in the upper right turn up as rooms in McLeod’s architecturally based drawings and allude to volume, perspective and modernist grids, but tumble diagonally through the image, morphing into treehouses, suburban letter boxes, and a canvas on an easel.

There is a mysterious private taxonomy there, a syntax, but it remains tantalisingly out of reach in a vortex of fragments and impressions of the old art-historical order since broken down.

Plants in pots abound, suggesting an artificial simulation of nature or nature enslaved, controlled and commodified. A wolf’s disembodied head attacks a kneeling nude black woman (possibly she is a quotation from Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights (1503–15) in the Prado. She seems oblivious to the teeth, lost in contemplation. An awkwardly posed maenad rides a deer, recalling Piero di Cosimo or Mantegna. These seem relatively traditional poetic allegories of lust. The writhing serpent and bat are archetypal symbols of evil. The art-historical references and the easel double dip as romantic gestures to the sentimental culture of academic painting, a bygone era that persists in stereotypical clichés but carries with it an anachronistic charm. McLeod is announcing his creative lineage, proud to be a painter even as the frame of what that means shifts around him and he shifts with it. In that regard he is as protean as his imagery, impossible to predict or analyse with certainty.

The fragments are picked up, transformed as Joan Miró did with Catalan folk art and Wassily Kandinsky did with Russian folk art, and put together like a jigsaw puzzle. Art history and popular culture are 21st-century folk art to McLeod. He is a DJ remixing with his eyes. At the same time, though, there is a danger in reading too much into his idiosyncratic and personalised grab bag of imagery. The possibility of narrative is an illusion, and the abstract visual logic of the painting’s composition is paramount, to which all other concerns are subordinated. Here McLeod flirts with surrealism. This is the Comte de Lautréamont’s chance meeting on a dissecting table of a sewing machine and an umbrella, which André Breton so often used as an example of surrealist dislocation.4 It is that dislocation which allows McLeod’s creativity to slip the inner policemen of his superego and come up with such extraordinary inventions that consistently defy expectations.

We are granted slippery and precarious access to a feeling rather than a fact, but we are being told it from a place the artist knows intimately. The viewer finds themselves in the position of Egyptologists prior to the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, attempting to decode hieroglyphics by what they look like alone. That is not a problem though, rather it is an asset, a freeing openness. It allows the audience the opportunity to project their own readings, fears, desires and fantasies onto the work. It is a conversation between artist and viewer, a semiotic tennis match lobbing the ball of meaning back and forth. There is no end goal and there does not need to be. It only matters that the artist has created and that we look and engage. Ultimately only the artist really knows what he intends and even that may not be completely conscious. As his audience we are only permitted the tiniest and most fleeting lightning flashes of potential insight.

The unpurged images of day recede.5 We get to enjoy the retinal candy of the results and are richer for it.

Conversation with the artist.

2 Marina Warner, Forms of Enchantment: Writings on Art and Artists (London: Thames & Hudson, 2018), 22.

3 Charles Baudelaire, “Au Lecteur,” (1857), Angel Flores (ed. and trans.), An Anthology of French Poetry form Nerval to Valery in English Translation, (Garden City, NY: Doubleday Anchor, 1962), 16-17.

4 Comte de Lautréamont, Les Chants de Maldoror (Paris: Gustave Balitout, Questroy et Cie, 1869), Canto VI, Verse 3.

5 W. B. Yeats, “Byzantium,” (1930), Daniel Albright (ed.), W. B Yeats: The Poems (London: Everyman, 1994), third edition, 298.

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30 Brendon Wilkinson

No title (1) 2014 acrylic on linen signed Brendon Wilkinson, dated 2014 and inscribed 1/3 in brushpoint verso (left panel); signed Brendon Wilkinson, dated 2014 and inscribed 2/3 in brushpoint verso (centre panel); signed Brendon Wilkinson and inscribed 3/3 in brushpoint verso (right panel) 2140 x 5050mm est $50,000 — $70,000 Exhibition Open Mouth, Robert Heald Gallery, Wellington, 2014

Provenance Private collection, Auckland.

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Brendon Wilkinson – No Title (1) Essay by ANDREW PAUL WOOD

In this painting we are presented with a landscape that seems both eerily familiar and yet quite alien, William Hodges’ Dusky Bay meets the album-cover art of a late-1970s prog rock album. In the centre rises a curious and colossal monument, a utopian female personification of an obsolete and fallen nationalist dream.

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Better known for his meticulous miniature dioramas, Brendon Wilkinson, like his contemporary Andrew McLeod, is an artist with a baroque archaeological interest in the way capitalism and culture are intimately entangled in the modern world. A graduate of the University of Auckland’s Elam School of Fine Arts in 1998, and with work in the Chartwell Trust and Wallace Trust collections, Wilkinson sprinkles the signifying rubble of the New Zealand economy through landscapes suggestive of the Victorian high romanticism of Augustus Earle and Charles Heaphy.

The effect of this counterpoint is to completely undermine any sentimental images of Aotearoa as a bucolic idyll; the pastoral landscape is stripped bare to reveal the clay feet of the rapacious meat, milk and wool factory beneath. The interplay of commodity and representation is deliberately over-determined in a kind of unironic, inverted pop art in a xennial expression of nihilistic cynicism about the consumed world we have inherited.

In this painting we are presented with a landscape that seems both eerily familiar and yet quite alien, William Hodges’ Dusky Bay meets the album-cover art of a late-1970s prog rock album. In the centre rises a curious and colossal monument, a utopian female personification of an obsolete and fallen nationalist dream. The painting recalls the Course of Empire series made by the American artist Thomas Cole between 1833 and 1836.

The figure stands on an industrial architectural crosssection that quotes the fantasy design for a foundry by 18thcentury French architect Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, with a touch of H. R. Geiger and Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. The smoke it belches rises up in imitation of the scorch marks left on the Shroud of Turin by a fire in 1532. The tableau is flanked on either side by a lamb, that quintessential symbol of the New Zealand economy.

The lambs’ contingent art-historical symbolism of innocence and purity seems jarring in the context of the painting’s generally uncanny atmosphere.

Is the figure Zealandia perhaps, or something more sinister? She’s seen better days, and the children clinging to her have a lean and hungry look. We are uninvited intruders here.

Suddenly we realise that the children aren’t part of the statue at all, but actual living people, and in fact the statue is merely life-sized. Our sense of proportion is thrown off, as it is in the late works of Francis Picabia.

Because the heroically scaled canvas is largely executed en grisaille, there is little to distinguish the pockmarked stone woman from the bathers on the left of the painting. There are other children, ghostly, melancholic and ominous monochrome at the far-left edge. They blend into the guano-crusted rocks like earth spirits. Children at play in this setting seem as uncanny and as unsettling as the lambs.

On the right side of the painting, the cool palette of greys is explosively interrupted by a vertical rainbow, one of the few unequivocal elements of hope in the scene, and the viewer is left guessing at what it all might mean. It is a dreamscape of surreal archetypes.

30 Brendon Wilkinson

No title (1) 2014 acrylic on linen signed Brendon Wilkinson, dated 2014 and inscribed 1/3 in brushpoint verso (left panel); signed Brendon Wilkinson, dated 2014 and inscribed 2/3 in brushpoint verso (centre panel); signed Brendon Wilkinson and inscribed 3/3 in brushpoint verso (right panel) 2140 x 5050mm est

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Works from the collection of Una Platts Essay by LINDA TYLER

Una Oakley Platts (1908 - 2005) An avid traveller and astute researcher, the delightful personality and adventurous spirit of Auckland portrait painter and art historian Una Platts made her a knowledgeable and valued friend to many of the leading artists and art historians of her time.

Descended from Anglican Reverend F. C. Platts, the vicar of Holy Trinity in Port Chalmers, Una was born and raised in Wellington, but maintained a close connection to Dunedin and Otago, where several of her portraits, including a fine study of Ralph Hotere, are in the collection of the Hocken Library. Her estate-agent father brought the family to Auckland in 1920 and enrolled Una at Diocesan School for Girls, where she excelled academically before going on to study English, French, mathematics and music for her Bachelor of Arts from Auckland University College. From 1927 until 1956 she enthralled generations of students with her gifted schoolteaching. She loved to draw, and broke into her country service in 1937 to visit England to study portrait painting with Frank Slater (1903–1965), the famous artist who went on to publish his instructional text Practical Portrait Painting in 1949. Back in Auckland, Una began teaching at Whenuapai, continuing to study art part-time at the Elam School of Fine Arts. She was very much part of the nascent artistic scene in the early 1950s in Auckland, and was particularly close to Anne and Colin McCahon, gifting the McCahon painting House and Trees, Titirangi (1953) to the Auckland City Art Gallery two years before her death. His simple brush-and-ink portrait of her in that collection is inscribed “Una from Colin 1959”.

While she was still teaching, McCahon (then Keeper at the Auckland City Art Gallery) asked her to research English-born Frank Wright and his younger brother Walter for the summer exhibition in 1954. She located many landscapes in private collections, and the display of 38 paintings was accompanied by a catalogue in which she published a chronology of their work and an essay on their significance, with an admiring introduction

by McCahon.

Knowing that she herself was a portrait painter, the following year McCahon proposed that she select images of some of Auckland’s colonists for another summer exhibition.

This time she wrote the text for a more extensive catalogue, published in 1955 – Early identities: an exhibition of portraits held at the Auckland City Art Gallery. In 1956, aged 48, she retired from teaching to devote herself to art-historical research, curating an exhibition of 65 works (including one she owned herself) by John Barr Clark Hoyte during the winter of 1957. Two years later, she had amassed enough research on 19th-century Auckland artists to curate an exhibition of 226 works and publish a 59-page catalogue (Colonial Auckland) with biographical notes on each artist. She later developed a lecture series on this topic with architectural historian and friend John Stacpoole, publishing her research as a book, The Lively Capital: Auckland 1840–1865, in 1971.

The death of her 92-year-old mother in 1960 brought great changes in Una’s life. She subdivided the orchard off from the family property on Lake Road, Takapuna, and designed a modernist house for herself that she would soon fill with flowers, music, friends, art and books. A particularly close friend was Molly Macalister (1920–1979) who had an exhibition at the Auckland City Art Gallery in 1959 with fellow sculptors Anne Severs and Alison Duff. Inspired by the 1956 visit of Dr Grace

35 Olivia Spencer Bower

Una at Elam Art Class c1940 graphite and ink and wash on paper inscribed For Jill McLaren/The Study of Form/by Olivia Spencer Bower in the hand of Una Platts graphite verso; inscribed Una at Elam art class (front left) in ink on label affixed verso 445 x 520mm est

$1,000 — $2,000

Una Platts’ first book, The Lively Capital: Auckland 1840-1865 (Christchurch: Avon Fine Prints), 1971.

Una Platts’ second book, Nineteenth Century New Zealand Artists: A Guide & Handbook (Christchurch: Avon Fine Prints), 1980. Peter Webb Galleries Ltd reference copy.

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The following lots come from the collection of Gillian McLaren who was the goddaughter of Una Platts. Gillian inherited the works included in this catalogue from Platts in 2005. Platts had a long-standing relationship with Colin McCahon and his family and a number of other prominent artists of her generation such as Molly Macalister, Olivia Spencer Bower and Doris Lusk.

McCahon gifted a number of works to Platts during her lifetime, the majority of which are included in this catalogue.

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Morley from San Francisco, and Colin and Anne McCahon’s fourmonth trip to America in 1958, as well as the touring exhibition Painting from the Pacific, which featured American painting, Una decided to travel to the United States in 1961. She based herself in New York for a few months before moving on to England. Her article in Art New Zealand 51, published in Winter 1989, recounts her exploits at private views at the Staempfli, Kootz, and Cordier and Warren galleries, seeing work by Macalister’s hero, Italian sculptor Marino Marini, and paintings by abstract expressionists such as Elmer Bischoff. Introduced by MoMA’s Director of Exhibitions Monroe Wheeler (1899–1988) to the Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art at a party, she was more impressed when one of Met’s staff remarked on the silver brooch by Colin McCahon that she was wearing.

On her return to New Zealand in 1962, she began to concentrate on her portrait painting, but “chivvied along by Colin McCahon” also continued research for what would become her indispensable guide and handbook, Nineteenth Century New Zealand Artists, published in 1980. At the suggestion of Charles Brasch, in 1969 she was invited to curate an exhibition of the works of Dunedin’s most famous artistic daughter at the Hocken Library at the University of Otago. The Origins of Frances Hodgkins: An Exhibition of Paintings in the Centennial Year of her Birth built on the research of her close friend, Frances Hodgkins’ biographer Eric McCormick (1906–1995). She was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease in 1992, but continued to live in her own home, cared for by friends, until her death on 6 July 2005.

Una Platts Self Portrait, Colin McCahon Muriwai (1969), Olivia Spencer Bower Una at Elam Art Class and Una Platts Vernon Brown from Ayr Street at Una Platts’ Lake Road home.

Colin McCahon Kauri (1954) at Una Platts’ Lake Road home.

Colin McCahon Entombment (1947) at Una Platts’ Lake Road home.

Una Platts’ Lake Road home.

Florist’s card delivered with a bouquet to Una Platts, from Colin McCahon.

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31 Colin McCahon

Muriwai 1969 oil and sand on board signed McCahon, dated March 19. ‘69 and inscribed Muriwai in graphite lower right; signed Colin McCahon, dated March 19. 1969 and inscribed Muriwai/2/FOR UNA FROM ANNE & COLIN 1.6.69 in brushpoint verso; inscribed For Jill McLaren./Una Platts in the hand of Una Platts in graphite verso 300 x 300mm est $80,000 — $140,000 Provenance Collection of Gillian McLaren, Auckland. Passed by bequest, 2005; collection of Una Platts, Auckland. Gifted by the artist, 1969.

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Note Colin McCahon Online Catalogue (www.mccahon.co.nz) number: cm00048.

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32 Colin McCahon

Waterfall 1964 oil on board signed McCahon and dated ‘64 in brushpoint lower left; inscribed C57.42. in ink verso; McCahon, Colin/Waterfall 1964/Permanent location printed on Auckland Art Gallery label affixed verso 295 x 200mm est $60,000 — $80,000

Exhibitions Colin McCahon: Small Landscapes and Waterfalls, Ikon Fine Arts, Auckland, 14 September - 25 September 1964.

Provenance Collection of Gillian McLaren, Auckland. Passed by bequest, 2005; collection of Una Platts, Auckland.

Gifted by the artist.

Note Colin McCahon Online Catalogue (www.mccahon.co.nz) number: cm00483.

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33 Colin McCahon

Entombment 1947 watercolour on paper signed McCahon and dated ‘47 in brushpoint lower edge, inscribed for Una/1958. in graphite lower right; inscribed 9 Barton St Auckland, Entombment/ watercolour/6 April in graphite verso 240 x 300mm est $40,000 — $60,000 Provenance Collection of Gillian McLaren, Auckland. Passed by bequest, 2005; collection of Una Platts, Auckland.

Gifted by the artist, 1958.

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Exhibitions McCahon ‘Religious’ Works 1946-1952, Manawatu Art Gallery, Palmerston North, March 1975; Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, April - May 1975; Waikato Museum of Art and History, Hamilton, May - June 1975; Barry Lett Galleries, Auckland, June July 1975; Sarjeant Gallery, Wanganui, July - August 1975; National Art Gallery, Wellington, August - September 1975; Canterbury Society of Arts, Christchurch, September - October 1975; Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin, October - November 1975;

Jesus the Man: Colin McCahon’s Vision of a Saviour, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Auckland, 20 October 2001 - 3 February 2002.

Collections This work is a study for Entombment (after Titian) (1947), held in the collection of Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa acquired 1980.

Note Colin McCahon Online Catalogue (www.mccahon.co.nz) number: cm00484.

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34 Colin McCahon

Kauri 1954 lithograph on paper signed McCahon, dated 54 and inscribed 8/55 in graphite lower edge; McCahon, Colin John/Kauri 1954 printed on Auckland Art Gallery label affixed verso; McCahon, Colin, 1919-1987/Kauri, Dec 1954/Lithograph on paper/745x545mm/gMCC02653 printed on Auckland Art Gallery label affixed verso 325 x 240mm est $6,000 — $9,000 Provenance Collection of Gillian McLaren, Auckland. Passed by bequest, 2005; collection of Una Platts, Auckland.

Gifted by the artist.

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Note Colin McCahon Online Catalogue (www.mccahon.co.nz) number: cm001373.

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Colin McCahon – From the collection of Una Platts Essay by Joshua Harris-Harding

31 Colin McCahon

Muriwai 1969 oil and sand on board signed McCahon, dated March 19.

‘69 and inscribed Muriwai in graphite lower right; signed Colin McCahon, dated March 19. 1969 and inscribed Muriwai/2/FOR UNA FROM ANNE & COLIN 1.6.69 in brushpoint verso; inscribed For Jill McLaren./Una Platts in the hand of Una Platts in graphite verso 300 x 300mm est

$80,000 — $140,000

32 Colin McCahon

Waterfall 1964 oil on board signed McCahon and dated ‘64 in brushpoint lower left; inscribed C57.42. in ink verso; McCahon, Colin/Waterfall 1964/Permanent location printed on Auckland Art Gallery label affixed verso; Auckland Art Gallery valuation affixed verso 295 x 200mm est

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Colin McCahon’s work is often characterised in terms of movement through space and time. On a biographical level, his artistic periods can be demarcated by his location within Aotearoa, which shifted throughout his lifetime. As an artist acutely sensitive to his surroundings, his paintings had a direct line to his lived geographical experience. On a formal level, McCahon was also sensitive to passage, the movement of the viewer’s eye through the composition, or, later in life, the kind of large-scale paintings that formed an all-encompassing environment. In terms of his career, McCahon is one who worked in series – either loosely grouped works on the same theme, or strictly numbered series – and through these he moved in a trajectory shaped by art history and theory, with a ceaseless focus on the construction of a whole through the articulation of parts, the flow of light, and the lay of the land.

Entombment (1947) is an early example of McCahon’s intense exploration of religious themes. In many ways, this modestly sized, jewel-like work sits at a crossroads of overlapping influences and impulses. This watercolour is part of a small cluster of works that drew compositionally from Titian’s paintings of Christ, culminating in Entombment (after Titian), of the same year. These works reflect McCahon’s postimpressionist and early modernist education. Here, we see loose strokes undergirded by compositional tightness in a work that is heavily reminiscent of Cézanne's watercolour studies. Elsewhere during this period, particularly in Entombment (after Titian), we see the shadow of Paul Gauguin in the almost unnaturally saturated graphic forms and bold black outlines.

As early as 1939, McCahon was drawing on modernist conceptions of the picture plane, deploying the compositional techniques of Cézanne and, later, the cubists, to approach painting as a structural endeavour; one that was constructed, stroke by layered stroke. While there are intimations of this notion in Entombment, it is paired with the brushy expressiveness of McCahon’s close friend and contemporary, Toss Woollaston.

The predominantly Nelson-based artist’s influence was apparent in McCahon’s work throughout the 1940s; Entombment comes from a period in which McCahon, too, was working out of Nelson.

Over the next 20 years, McCahon’s practice underwent seismic shifts. He and his family moved from the South Island to the verdant Auckland suburb of Titirangi, after which McCahon began working at the Auckland Art Gallery, along with teaching at the Elam School of Fine Arts.

The instant familiarity of Kauri Tree (1956), which was created during these years in Titirangi, likely stems not only from its ubiquitousness as an art-historical image in Aotearoa, but its artistic certainty in its distillation of the cubist experiment McCahon undertook in his early years in Auckland. This experiment was energised in large part by the kauri-dense surrounds of his family’s home in Titirangi, where McCahon returned to the forms of the kauri again and again to articulate a particularly local cubist image-making, rooted in time and space.

As McCahon said, he “came to grips with the kauri and turned him in all his splendour into a symbol” .

McCahon’s work as a gallery curator during his time in Titirangi led to travel overseas, along with his wife Anne. This was an intense period of exposure to international arts, including Old Masters such as Titian. In McCahon’s own practice, this exposure precipitated a dramatic move towards the bold, monochromatic abstraction and material experimentation that defined his later works. Waterfall (1964) and Muriwai (1969) are direct descendants of the early questions we see explored in Entombment, filtered through McCahon's tightened focus over these years and refined to some of their barest essentials.

Muriwai’s inscription, As there is a constant / flow of light we are / born into a pure land, holds close two concerns that consistently define McCahon’s artistic practice: the flow of light, and a kinship with the land. Both of these latter works are stark compositions, their central frisson situated between a primordial darkness and a ceaseless flow of brilliant light. They are the 100

result of a long struggle in McCahon’s work between abstraction and figuration. After returning from his trip to the United States in 1958, McCahon seems to have found this problem more complex, but worked towards clarifying his position in works such as The Northland Panels (1958), which contain fragments – slabs of black and white, esoteric cursive text, a deep affinity with a uniquely New Zealand landscape – that would shape his artistic landscape in later life. Students who worked under McCahon’s tutelage during this time were often frustrated by his lack of practical painting advice, though the more astute among them described his primary concern in painting as one of structure, or tonal balance. McCahon himself, in a review of his contemporary Louise Henderson, admired her process as one of “building up from parts to make a whole” .

Later, writing of the Waterfall series, McCahon described his joy at “curving through the darkness with a line of white” .

In this open series, in which there are over 90 works, McCahon experimented with a limited range of elements – a curving white line, a dark ground, a slab of white or grey, and muted forms (often figuratively designated as a “rock” in the title) to discover a rich variety of permutations. Not only in this single work, but in the series as a whole, constant flow takes on a metaphoric resonance.

When considered alongside the landscapes of the late 1950s to 1960s, those constructed from bold bands of light and dark, McCahon’s articulation of a personal cosmology during this period becomes vividly apparent. It is a cosmology that flows from permutations of light and dark. Waterfall belongs not only in a ceaseless flow of kindred Waterfalls, but in the incremental development of McCahon’s painterly language at large.

33 Colin McCahon

Entombment 1947 watercolour on paper signed McCahon and dated ‘47 in brushpoint lower edge, inscribed for Una/1958. in graphite lower right; inscribed 9 Barton St Auckland, Entombment/watercolour/6 April in graphite verso 240 x 300mm est

$40,000 — $60,000

34 Colin McCahon

Kauri 1954 lithograph on paper signed McCahon, dated 54 and inscribed 8/55 in graphite lower edge; McCahon, Colin John/Kauri 1954 on Auckland Art Gallery label affixed verso; McCahon, Colin, 1919-1987/Kauri, Dec 1954/ Lithograph on paper/745x545mm/ gMCC026-53 on Auckland Art Gallery label affixed verso 325 x 240mm est

$6,000 — $9,000

1 Peter Simpson, Colin McCahon :The Titirangi Years 1953-1959 (Auckland University Press, 2007), p.24 2

Simpson, p.25.

3 https://wwwaucklandartgallery. com/explore-art-and-ideas artwork/24441/journey-into-a-darklandscape-i, retrieved 7/11/2019 Webb's

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35 Olivia Spencer Bower

Una at Elam Art Class c1943 graphite and ink on paper inscribed For Jill McLaren/The Study of Form/

by Olivia Spencer Bower in the hand of Una Platts graphite verso; inscribed Una at Elam art class (front left) in ink on label affixed verso 445 x 520mm est $1,000 — $2,000 Provenance Collection of Gillian McLaren, Auckland. Passed by bequest, 2005; collection of Una Platts, Auckland.

Gifted by the artist.

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36 Una Platts

Vernon Brown from Ayr Street watercolour and charcoal on paper signed Una Platts and inscribed Vernon Brown from Ayr Street/(for Lesley Brown or her son Simon) in graphite verso 335 x 480mm est $500 — $800 Provenance Collection of Gillian McLaren, Auckland.

Passed by bequest by the artist, 2005.

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37 Doris Lusk

untitled

1960 watercolour on paper L1998/4/4/Doris Lusk/Beryl (Horrobin) Turner/20th century/watercolour printed on Auckland Art Gallery label affixed verso 360 x 260mm est $2,000 — $4,000 Provenance Collection of Gillian McLaren, Auckland. Passed by bequest, 2005; collection of Una Platts, Auckland.

Gifted by the artist.

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38 Una Platts

Self Portrait oil on board 490 x 390mm est $500 — $800 Provenance Collection of Gillian McLaren, Auckland.

Passed by bequest by the artist, 2005.

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Exhibitions A later version of this work was included in Contemporary New Zealand Art, Auckland City Art Gallery, 1962; Molly Macalister: a memorial exhibition, Auckland City Art Gallery, 1982.

39 Molly Macalister

Bird Watcher 1961 cement 960 x 480 x 480mm (widest points) est $5,000 — $10,000 Provenance Collection of Gillian McLaren, Auckland.

Acquired directly from the artist.

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Note This work is a study for the sculpture Birdwatcher which Molly Macalister exhibited in Contemporary New Zealand Art and later exchanged with Colin McCahon for his painting Kauri Trees, Titirangi (1955-57).

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40 Edward Bullmore

The Table Leg that went for a Ride 1967 enamel, castor wheel, table legs signed Bullmore and dated 1967 in brushpoint on base 395 x 245 x 190mm est $10,000 — $15,000 Provenance Collection of Jacqueline Bullmore Estate, Canterbury.

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Exhibitions The Enchanted Domain: Surrealist Art, Exeter, England, 1967; Edward Bullmore A Decade in London, Barry Lett, Auckland, 1971; One Decade On, The Bath House Rotorua, 1988 - 1989; Edward Bullmore: A Surrealist Odyssey, Tauranga Art Gallery, 2008 - 2009; Acting Out, Adam Art Gallery, Wellington, 2017.

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41 Edward Bullmore

Astroform No. 3 c1965 acrylic on canvas and fibreglass on wooden construction signed E. Bullmore in brushpoint verso 850 x 1070 x 270 mm est $20,000 — $30,000 Provenance Collection of Jacqueline Bullmore Estate, Canterbury.

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Exhibitions Shaped Paintings, Tama Gallery, London, 1967; Edward Bullmore A Decade in London, Barry Lett, Auckland, 1996; Edward Bullmore: A Surrealist Odyssey, Tauranga Art Gallery, Tauranga, 2008 - 2009.

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42 Edward Bullmore

The Thorn Tree 1959 oil on canvas signed EB and dated 1959 in brushpoint lower left 978 x 610mm est $60,000 — $90,000 Provenance Collection of Jacqueline Bullmore Estate, Canterbury.

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Exhibitions The Young Commonwealth Artists Exhibition, London, 1961; Edward Bullmore 1933-1978, Rotorua Art Gallery, Rotorua, 1979; One Decade On, The Bath House, Rotorua, 1988 - 1989; Edward Bullmore: A Surrealist Odyssey, Tauranga Art Gallery, Tauranga, 2008 - 2009.

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Edward Bullmore – Space Odyssey Essay by PENELOPE JACKSON

41 Edward Bullmore

Astroform No. 3 c.1965 acrylic on canvas and fibreglass on wooden construction signed E. Bullmore in brushpoint verso 850 x 1070 x 270 mm est Webb's

Edward Aaron Alexander Bullmore (1933–1978) studied at the Canterbury University College School of Art during the early 1950s. He was a contemporary of Bill Culbert, John Coley, Ted Bracey and Pat Hanly, who were all emerging modernists.

Like many of his fellow art-school friends he went on to train as a secondary-school teacher and took up a position in Tauranga teaching art and physical education (he was a representative rugby player). He spent two and a half years in Tauranga, where he began to develop his style beyond the traditions of the Canterbury landscape as taught by Bill Sutton, Colin LovellSmith and Russell Clarke. Bullmore’s work began to take on an edgy, almost foreboding style and it became clear that he was in search of new subject matter and ways of working outside representational imagery. In July 1959 he and his wife Jacqueline left New Zealand and headed to Florence. His ambition was to study under Pietro Annigoni (1910 –1988), which he did, albeit briefly. Six months in Florence saw the young artist draw and paint many works away from the confines of art school and teaching. Bullmore revelled in his freedom to explore new subjects, work with a wider range of materials, and experience art first hand, especially from the Renaissance.

The Thorn Tree was painted during Bullmore’s time in Florence at the couple’s small apartment on Viale Milton.

Jacqueline noted in her diary that he completed the painting on 19 November 1959. A stylised tree, centrally placed in the composition, acts as a crucifix for the head of Christ. Wearing a particularly heavy crown of thorns, the bleeding forehead of the Christ figure emphasises Bullmore’s skill and understanding in capturing pain and suffering. Flanking the thorn tree are two crucifixes (for Gestas and Dismas) completing the Calvary Hill scene where Christ was crucified. But what gives this work an edge of familiarity is Bullmore’s use of his own self-portrait as Christ. This use of his own image was a real test of his ability as a painter. On a practical level, Bullmore knew few people in Florence to ask to pose for him, nor did he have the funds to pay for models; therefore using his own image appears to be logical, considering the time and place. The painting also represents a fusion of Bullmore’s time in Florence and his time spent with works viewed in collections there. Stylistically, the particularly thorny tree is surreal in both its exaggerated form and the way it takes the shape of both a tree trunk and human legs. In addition, the proportion of Christ’s large head in relation to the smaller tree and the skull lying at the base of its trunk display Bullmore’s interest in abandoning the traditional scale of objects.

By the beginning of 1960 the Bullmores had settled in London. Away from Italy, with its Renaissance trappings, Bullmore’s work instantly took another turn. When the late Jonathan Mane-Wheoki opened the major retrospective Edward Bullmore: A Surrealist Odyssey at Tauranga Art Gallery in 2008, he described London at the time of Bullmore’s arrival as “about to become, with the rise of British pop art and music and fashion, a hip, international, more specifically transatlantic cultural capital with a strong dialogue opening up between the art worlds of London and New York.”1 Bullmore became immersed in this exciting and vibrant city; and the backdrop of the Cuban Missile Crisis in the early 1960s also affected his mindset and work. Furthermore, it was the age of space exploration, and the Astroform Series has elements akin to aerodynamics and spacecraft. Astroform No. 3 was made in Bullmore’s studio at 117 New Kings Road, Fulham. The brightly coloured painted canvas is stretched over a wooden armature. The Astroforms were well received and included in several exhibitions. Bullmore numbered the works in the Astroform series as opposed to giving them individual titles, as he wanted viewers to engage with them and come up with their own interpretations. Filmmaker Stanley Kubrick acquired two – No. 1 and No. 4 – from the series, with the latter featuring in his cult movie, A Clockwork Orange (1971).

Bullmore’s big breakthrough was in 1967 when the Tama Gallery in Pimlico, London, hosted a solo exhibition of his ‘Shaped

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Paintings’ – including several Astroforms – which straddled painting and sculpture.

In that same year, 1967, Bullmore was included in an exhibition in Exeter, The Enchanted Domain: Surrealist Art. Other exhibitors included Miro, Giacometti, Picasso and Dali. His inclusion was a watershed in positioning him as a surrealist. The exhibition contextualised him within a showcase of four decades of surrealism and it shifted Bullmore’s profile from an expatriate New Zealand artist to a British artist. Of the three works exhibited, one of them was The Table Leg that Went for a Ride. Fashioned from furniture, this is a wonderful example of Bullmore’s use of the readymade object, combining materials at hand and skills acquired from being brought up on his family’s Southland farm.

The work and its title are playful, showing yet another side to Bullmore’s oeuvre. Exquisitely put together, this small sculpture with its delightful title is a work for and of the imagination. Very individual, The Table Leg that Went for a Ride is one of just three freestanding wooden sculptures Bullmore made in the late 60s.

One other, Chair About to Fly, is in the collection of Tauranga Art Gallery. Offered for sale for the first time, these three works have remained in the family collection since Bullmore made them during his heyday in Europe during the 1960s.

42 Edward Bullmore

The Thorn Tree 1959 oil on canvas signed EB and dated 1959 in brushpoint lower left 978 x 610mm est

$60,000 — $90,000

40 Edward Bullmore

The Table Leg that went for

a Ride 1967 enamel, castor wheel, table legs signed Bullmore and dated 1967 in brushpoint on base 395 x 245 x 190mm est

$10,000 — $15,000

1 Jonathan Mane-Wheoki, Unpublished opening address for Edward Bullmore: A Surrealist Odyssey, Tauranga Art Gallery, 15 July - 21 September 2008.

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43 Stephen Bambury

On a Clear Day (IV) 2014 patina on brass panel on wood signed S. Bambury, dated 2014 and inscribed © 2014/ON A CLEAR DAY (IV)./STEPHEN BAMBURY./2014/PATINA ON 2X BRASS PANELS ON WOOD./380 X 426. in ink verso 380 x 430mm est $10,000 — $20,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland.

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44 Don Binney

Te Henga 1972 oil on canvas signed Binney, dated ‘72 and inscribed Te Henga in brushpoint upper right 470 x 630mm est $40,000 — $60,000 Provenance Private collection, Kerikeri. Passed by descent; collection of Jane Wordsworth, Kerikeri.

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Note The former owner of this work Jane Wordsworth was a New Zealand author who wrote a number of books, including Four Women (Christchurch: Whitcombe & Tombs, c1972), Leading Ladies (Wellington: A.H. & A.W. Reed, 1979) and Women of the North (Auckland: Collins, 1981).

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Don Binney - Te Henga Essay by LEAFA WILSON

Binney applied a strong linear and graphic approach to his subjects. Land formations, birds and even clouds are simplified into distinct shapes. His works reference the quality of hard light experienced in Aotearoa (and throughout the southern hemisphere of the globe).

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Knowing and loving a piece of whenua (land) is something that we all do when we feel settled or when we are separated from it. It would seem that, for artists, being able to continuously observe and render a place repeatedly is a way of paying homage to the land that has sustained them both physically and spiritually.

Don Binney’s work Te Henga, made in 1972, is one of a multitude of works depicting the land, sea, skies and, often, birdlife of Te Henga in the west of Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland).

For the most part, Binney always used the original Māori name – Te Henga – rather than Bethell’s Beach, acknowledging Māori as the indigenous settlers of the land that he so loved. Throughout his oeuvre, his signature depictions of birdlife flying above known geographic locations in Aotearoa reveal a deep gratitude and reverence Binney developed as a tauiwi (non-indigenous) inhabitant of the land. This is a very small but important fact to remember about Binney because it did not come about through the pressure and requirement of social-justice movements of the 21st century, which rightly require histories to be corrected.

Binney had been researching and pondering Māori cosmological aspects of the land since he began painting in the 1960s. His ornithological research led him to understand New Zealand birdlife from the perspective that these creatures, like the land over which they fly, were not titled by Pākehā and that they have names which are Māori.

Binney applied a strong linear and graphic approach to his subjects. Land formations, birds and even clouds are simplified into distinct shapes. His works reference the quality of hard light experienced in Aotearoa (and throughout the southern hemisphere of the globe). Regionalism is one word to describe Binney’s constant depictions of the lands and skies of Aotearoa, but it is not entirely accurate. Because his works sought to grasp metaphysical and physical aspects of tonality that gave him a clarity of vision, he simply never wearied of it. This clarity is evident in the works of many artists, such as Robin White, Peter Siddell and, even more so, Richard Lewer in his series As I stepped out into the bright sunlight. Binney studied phenomena such as light, weather and the life in this rugged individual ‘colony’ of Aotearoa. Not nationalism.

Te Henga was made in 1972 and is undoubtedly a classic Binney work. The land juts from the left-hand side of the work, made up of dark delineations of undulating rock formations with the hills immediately behind. The landforms intrude upon the sky and the sea. The blue surface of the sea reveals directional brushstrokes between the rocks, diagonally to the bottom right-hand corner of the picture plane. Te Henga is on the wild west side of Te Ika a Māui (the North Island). West coast beaches are known for their unruly thrashing waves: the blue brushstrokes acknowledge that this is not a passive body of water. Reproductions of Binney’s painted surfaces can make the works appear as flat colour, but on close inspection it is possible to see directional brushstrokes, suggesting that land, sea, earth and sky are heaving with mauri, or life-force.

44 Don Binney

Te Henga 1972 oil on canvas signed Binney, dated ‘72 and inscribed Te Henga in brushpoint upper right 470 x 630mm est

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45 Noel Ivanoff

Picture Plane - Yellow 1 2002 acrylic on glass, acrylic on board signed N. Ivanoff, dated 2002 and inscribed Picture Plane - Yellow 1 in ink verso 900 x 900mm (each panel) est $4,000 — $7,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Acquired from Two Rooms, Auckland.

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46 Damien Hirst

Mickey 2014 screenprint on paper, printer’s proof, edition of 50 signed Damien Hirst in graphite lower left 1524 x 1212mm est $100,000 — $150,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Acquired from Important Paintings & Contemporary Art, Art+Object, Auckland, 7 April 2016, lot 33; Private collection, Auckland. Gifted by the artist.

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Note The original owner worked as a screenprinter for 16 years in London for the leading art printing company K2, printers for the Hirst -founded editioning company, Other Criteria.

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Damien Hirst – Mickey Essay by ANDREW CLARK

This 2014 screenprint work renders Mickey Mouse, perhaps the most identifiable symbol of pop-culture commercialism, as a series of abstracted circular forms, seemingly dematerialising or devolving, a figure becoming dissociated from itself, reduced to its fundamental components.

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Damien Hirst came to prominence in the 1990s as a member of the Young British Artists group, alongside contemporaries such as Tracy Emin, Jake and Dinos Chapman and Chris Ofili. The work of these artists was characterised by its shocking or controversial subject matter and unconventional use of materials and presentation, such as Ofili’s use of elephant dung in his paintings or Hirst’s The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (1991), which consists of the carcass of a tiger shark floating in a vitrine of formaldehyde.

This work entered popular culture as a kind of shorthand for what were considered at the time the excesses of contemporary art, and of postmodernism in general.

Hirst’s work, over the years, has entered into a complex relationship with respectability. His practice has increasingly needed to account for the immense prices paid for some of his works during the art boom of the 1990s, engaging with the commodification of creativity and the idea of the art object as a product. This 2014 screenprint work renders Mickey Mouse, perhaps the most identifiable symbol of pop-culture commercialism, as a series of abstracted circular forms, seemingly dematerialising or devolving, a figure becoming dissociated from itself, reduced to its fundamental components.

Hirst seems to ask what the essential ingredients of ‘Mickeyness’ are, attempting to locate the essence of a being whose existence is all image, ephemeral and two dimensional.

Mickey Mouse is an interesting character in the context of Hirst’s art. Created in 1928, this character has been repeatedly prevented from falling into the public domain by the Walt Disney Company, becoming a kind of talisman for the sterile, antiseptic Americana synonymous with that brand. Hirst perhaps sees himself in a similar position to Walt Disney, the owner of an idea that has become a brand or product, an identity divorced both from itself and from whatever creative spark originally birthed it. Perhaps this is the source of Hirst’s Mickey’s anxiety and dissolution – a kind of existential corporate ennui.

Hirst is also poking fun at the notoriously litigious Disney company by representing their most cherished copyrightable property in this manner. He seems to have designed his print in such a way that it skirts around some arbitrary boundary in copyright law that determines what constitutes a representation of Mickey Mouse. Hirst’s intention is, perhaps, to direct the viewer’s attention towards the idea of copyright itself and the uses and misuses to which it is put.

It is also worth mentioning the pseudo-modernist style that Hirst chooses to employ, remaking Mickey Mouse, a standard-bearer for 20th-century bourgeois American values, into an oddly effective Miró-esque composition. Simultaneously, he gestures towards his own abstract Pharmaceuticals series, consisting of grids of coloured dots painted on expansive white canvases. Hirst negotiates the space of commercialism, making subversive gestures while also playing a deadly serious game of marketing and product design. He teeters on the edge of selfparody, implying that his own more ‘serious’ works are liable to fall victim to Mickey’s fate, dissolving into a meaningless jumble of corporate-owned copyrightable noise.

46 Damien Hirst

Mickey 2014 screenprint on paper, printer’s proof, edition of 50 signed Damien Hirst in graphite lower left 1524 x 1212mm est

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47 Séraphine Pick

Easy Living II 2015 watercolour on paper signed S. Pick and dated 2015 in brushpoint lower right 755 x 565mm est $8,000 — $12,000

Exhibitions Easy Living, Hamish McKay Gallery, Wellington, 7 August - 28 August, 2015.

Provenance Private collection. Acquired from Hamish McKay Gallery, Wellington, 2015.

Literature Séraphine Pick, White Noise (Wellington: Dowse Art Gallery, 2015), 100.

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48 Séraphine Pick

Sea of Love 2009 acrylic on canvas signed Seraphine Pick and dated 2009 in brushpoint lower right; signed SP and inscribed Sea of Love in graphite verso 1120 x 1520mm est $30,000 — $60,000 Provenance Private collection. Acquired from Hamish McKay Gallery, Wellington.

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Séraphine Pick – Trip Fantastic Essay by ANDREW PAUL WOOD

The theatrical gestures in Pick’s paintings are an important mechanism, giving voice to the silent image and providing an empathetic connection with the subject without giving too much away. If it was all spelled out, the magic and mystery would be lost.

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Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer.

E. M. Forster, Howards End, 1910 Séraphine Pick is one of New Zealand’s most popular artists, and her fantastical paintings are full of magic and mystery. Her contributions have been recognised by her winning the Olivia Spencer Bower Award in 1994 and being made the Rita Angus Artist in Residence in 1995. She was Frances Hodgkins Fellow in 1999. The following year, her work was included in Te Ao Tawhito/Te Ao Hou, Old Worlds/New Worlds: Contemporary Art From New Zealand at the Art Museum of Missoula in the US. In 2007 Pick won first prize in the Norsewear Art Awards and in 2009 was the subject of a major touring survey show, Séraphine Pick: Tell Me More, organised by Christchurch Art Gallery and toured to City Gallery Wellington and Dunedin Public Art Gallery.

In 2012 Pick’s paintings provided the imagery for the opening credits of Jane Campion’s BBC television drama Top of the Lake, and in 2013 she became the inaugural resident artist at Scots College in Wellington. The Dowse Art Museum in Lower Hutt organised another major survey show of her work, White Noise, in 2015. She lives and works in Wellington and her work is found in nearly every important New Zealand public and private collection.

Pick graduated from the University of Canterbury’s School of Fine Arts in 1988 with a generation of painters destined to drastically change the medium. That group, which also included Shane Cotton, Tony de Lautour and Peter Robinson, sometimes known collectively as “the pencil-case painters”, was something new on the scene. Influenced by popular culture, graffiti, postmodernism, the complexity of identity, and the demotic punk aesthetic sensibility emerging in the US (the Hairy Who, the Chicago Imagists, late works by Philip Guston, and Paul Schimmel’s 1992 exhibition Helter Skelter: L.A. Art in the 1990s), they introduced a new kind of ‘history’ painting to New Zealand.

It tapped into a growing sense of anxiety in the 1990s about what being a ‘New Zealander’ actually meant in the context of biculturalism, postcolonialism, economic crisis, class and feminist politics. At the time, this was all relatively new territory in New Zealand art, but it illustrated the zeitgeist perfectly. It offered prophetic hints and flashes of a pluralistic, intersectional society that continues to emerge and evolve.

At the time of their first rising to prominence, this wave of artists shared a relatively recognisable collection of family traits: pastiche, bricolage, dribbled paint and naive, cartoonish imagery on flat pictorial planes, sometimes with suggestions of fractured landscapes, with Christchurch artist Bill Hammond as a sort of unofficial stylistic doyen. They shared studios and ideas. Pick began with gothic imagery sourced from medieval art, before turning to look at her own childhood in Kawakawa, in the Bay of Islands, introducing paper-bag ghost heads, beds, dresses and domestic flotsam to float weightlessly in richly textured voids.

This was a fresh take on the femme-enfant of the surrealists, a woman’s growth as a person considered through the lens of her childhood self. As the artists went their separate ways their personal styles evolved in their own directions, although echoes of that artistic closeness and community can still be seen.

After a visit to Europe, somewhat overwhelmed by her exposure to all that artistic heritage in the flesh, her paintings became increasingly painterly and less dependent on sgraffito drawing into the paint. Her palette warmed and her figuration became deeper and more rounded, but the essential dreamlike qualities of the paintings, their themes of human connection and autobiography, and their focus on childhood innocence, a muted eroticism, and the eternal feminine remain core to her vision.

Indeed, Pick manages to breathe a new life and purpose into the trope of female figures in symbolic or psychological landscapes where it has been otherwise heavily exploited by male artists over the centuries to the point of cliché. Her tableaux, at once

48 Séraphine Pick

Sea of Love 2009 acrylic on canvas signed Seraphine Pick and dated 2009 in brushpoint lower right; signed SP and inscribed Sea of Love in graphite verso 1120 x 1520mm est

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personal and universal, exist outside our usual frames of reference in a non-dimensional space, non-linear time, despite the curious sense of undefinable familiarity and déjà vu that often accompanies them. The imagery and technique are aesthetically pleasing without pandering to received notions of beauty, so that even the most idyllic scene has an disquieting quality to it. Pick’s collector and patron Paul McArthur describes the effect in terms of jolie-laide, a beautiful synthesis of unexpected parts: I was struck by her incredible mastery of paint. She really is a painter’s painter who makes extraordinary pictures of ordinary people, in moments they’re unaware the camera is looking.

Her paintings have jolie laide — French for pretty-ugly — they can be grotesque, unsettling and yet lyrical and magical at the same time. 1 An interest in the horror vacui and chaos of Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel can be discerned, as well as the atmospherics of symbolists like Odilon Redon and Alfred Kubin, and the erotic dreamscapes of the metaphysical painter Giorgio de Chirico and the surrealist Paul Delvaux. There does appear a genuine affinity in Pick’s work with the women surrealists, Leonora Carrington, Leonor Fini, Dorothea Tanning, Frida Kahlo and Remedios Varo. More recently Pick has taken to sourcing imagery from the internet, and the sinister elements that lurked implicit beneath the surface have become fully realised in some paintings – scenes of violence and threat in which Francisco Goya’s black paintings are an obvious touchstone.

Sea of Love (2009) takes its title from the 1959 Phil Phillips song of the same name, covered over the decades by artists as diverse as The Honey Drippers, Tom Waits, Cat Power, Del Shannon and Iggy Pop. It may also allude to the 1989 neonoir Hollywood thriller, with its complicated murder-mystery plot about a detective who becomes involved with a woman who may be a serial killer targeting men through the singles columns in a newspaper. The painting is a perfect example of its period in Pick’s oeuvre, as the predominantly female figures, monochromatically blue-toned and picked out in moonlit white with a few flashes of dark colour, push out jostling for our attention from amorphous darkness. That darkness is less an absence of light than the “darkness visible” of Milton’s Hell in Paradise Lost.

Almost all of these figures are locked in introspection, oblivious to the others around them, like shades in the asphodel fields of Hades, not good enough to transcend to eternal idyllic bliss nor sinful enough to be cast into the pit. The space they occupy is ambiguous, unmappable and flattened. The composition is hieratic, which is to say that the relative size of the figures does not represent scale or perspective, but their significance (why they are significant, however, is part of the private syntax of the artist and left to the viewer to guess).

There are plentiful symbols of night, the underworld, the unconscious and solipsism in the painting. The bat hanging upside-down to the right of the composition is a classical symbol of the night. In the lower section is a satyr-like figure perhaps suggesting the libido or the id, as does the rabbit-eared figure, the dog-like creature and the orchid forms. A disembodied face grimaces in terror, reminiscent of the faces of the damned at the bottom of Michelangelo’s Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel, Rome. One figure wears headphones and a blindfold, while another holds the head of a third in her hands and intensely studies a face that seems indifferent or even blind to her. If this is a sea of love, it appears to be predominantly self-love in collective isolation, charged with the immanent potential for contact. The drama, barely supressed beneath the taut meniscus of the composition, is poised and waiting to devastate like the shift to a minor key in a Mozart piano concerto. Even then, it is the dying echo of the music, reflections in a dark glass. The combination of longing, isolation, fleetingness and the sublime is pure high romanticism.

Much lighter in mood is the signed watercolour Easy Living II (2015). The sunny palette of yellows, whites, pale greens

47 Seraphine Pick

Easy Living II 2015 watercolour on paper signed S. Pick and dated 2015 in brushpoint lower right 755 x 565mm est

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and blues, delivered with the impressionistic abandon of a Frances Hodgkins or Olivia Spencer Bower, suffices to transport us to a perfect summer’s day. From the simple tropes otherwise rendered cliché by marketers selling chocolate bars and toilet tissue, the flowery fields, the soft focus, Pick evokes something authentic and delightful. The figure is male and shirtless, a hippy or some other New Age fellow in jeans, beads and coloured scarves, communing with nature and the sun. The whimsy of the image is tempered by the tensions Pick has infused within it by removing the scene from its original context. The fact that Pick keeps us guessing is what keeps us engaged. It’s like looking at a psychic Polaroid faded with time, surface mottled and dappled.

It is as if the painterly surface has dissolved to reveal an interior world that may likewise dissolve at any moment.

Pick adheres to the 19th-century symbolist painters’ belief that absolute truths can only be described through oblique metaphors. The poet and critic Jean Moréas asserted in his symbolist manifesto that, “tableaux from nature, human activity, and all other real world phenomena will not be described for their own sake; here, they are perceptible surfaces created to represent their esoteric affinities with the primordial Ideals.”2 That seems as good a description of Pick’s practice as any. The more painterly Pick’s imagery becomes, the more the figuration seems to be there on sufferance like a walk-on role in a dream, an excuse to get pigment down on a surface. That said, there is always a personal reference for the artist, a private reality put together from the gleanings of found photographs and memories harnessed to a transcendent meaning. When Easy Living II debuted in White Noise Pick said of it, referencing her 1970s hippyish upbringing in Kawakawa: I was thinking of the human form and gestures and how gestures can communicate a lot. A lot of them were cliched hippie images, but it's a powerful gesture. Back in the ‘70s they had this utopian idea of the self-sufficient world. That just hasn't quite happened. 3 The theatrical gestures in Pick’s paintings are an important mechanism, giving voice to the silent image and providing an empathetic connection with the subject without giving too much away. If it was all spelled out, the magic and mystery would be lost.

The German sociologist and philosopher Max Weber described the world as having been “disenchanted” by the bureaucracy and rationalism of modernity, and Pick seems to be trying to reverse that process, tapping into the deep roots and ephemeral shadows of what makes us human. Aesthetic rationale provides a balm for the existential angst of consciousness in an arbitrary and unfeeling universe largely defined by human interaction.

Both paintings relate directly to Pick’s longstanding interest in the relationship between the self, yearning and human connection with others, deep diving into metaphysical reality.

She wants us to connect with our lost sense of empathy and human community. If Easy Living II invokes the utopian dreams of a Summer of Love that arrived in New Zealand a decade later than it did everywhere else, Sea of Love peels back the veneer of a society anxiously obsessed with appearances to reveal the amniotic ocean of unconsciousness and the frustrating pockets of isolation within it. “All transient things,” as Goethe said, “are only an image”. 4

1 Ginny Fisher, “Artist Séraphine Pick on Her Latest Solo Exhibition,” Viva, May 2, 2019, https://www. viva.co.nz/article/culture-travel/ artist-seraphine-pick-on-her-latest-soloexhibition/

Jean Moréas, “Le Manifeste du Symbolisme,” Le Figaro, September 18, 1886.

2

Tom Cardy, “Painter Séraphine Pick takes inspiration from the internet for her new show,” Dominion Post, July 1, 2015, https://www.stuff.co.nz/ entertainment/69805757/painterseraphine-pick-takes-inspiration-from-theinternet-for-her-new-show 3

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust II, 1832, Act V. 4

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49 Patricia France

Lost in a shaft of Sunlight 1993 oil on board signed P. France in ink; dated 1993 and inscribed “Lost in a shaft of sunlight” T. S Eliot/oil on Board in ink verso; Brooker Gallery label affixed verso 390 x 520mm est $4,000 — $7,000 Provenance Private collection, Melbourne.

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50 Grahame Sydney

Water Trough 2003 oil on canvas signed Grahame Sydney and dated 2003 in brushpoint lower right 400 x 500mm est $65,000 — $85,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Acquired from Important Paintings & Contemporary Art, Webb’s, Auckland, 25 November 2014, lot 53; Private collection, Christchurch.

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Grahame Sydney - Water Trough Essay by ALEKSANDRA PETROVIC

Sydney’s placement of the trough in the foreground serves primarily as a formal element within the composition as the viewer’s eye travels around the work, examining the fine brushstrokes that make up its painted surface. The trough’s secondary purpose, meanwhile, is to highlight the duality between the manmade and the natural, underpinning another key concept within Sydney’s overall philosophy.

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Water Trough is emblematic of Grahame Sydney’s intensely realist style, which he employs through his expert handling of brush and medium. What is presented is a very austere and elegant composition, with the eponymous water trough placed centrally before, and dividing, a vast mountain plain that, in turn, formally divides the land and sky. Despite its domestic scale, the work possesses a visceral quality: one can feel the desiccating winds and hear the dry scrub crackling underfoot; the soft ripples in the water hint at a breeze, while the long shadow intimates the sun’s harsh, unflinching gaze despite the gathering gloam.

Sydney’s depiction of the trough builds upon earlier representations of Otago – most notably works by W. A. ‘Bill’ Sutton, with his explorations into representing the region, ranging from his use of a colour palette comprising ochres and blues to his emphasis on the depicted landscape’s linear flatness; specifically, works like Sutton’s Country Church (1953) and Dry September (1949) could be viewed as precursors to Sydney’s compositions in general, and in particular the composition of Water Trough, depicting as it does a centrally placed focal point against a background of distant mountains.

As with Sutton’s methods, Sydney’s placement of the trough in the foreground serves primarily as a formal element within the composition as the viewer’s eye travels around the work, examining the fine brushstrokes that make up its painted surface. The trough’s secondary purpose, meanwhile, is to highlight the duality between the manmade and the natural, underpinning another key concept within Sydney’s overall philosophy. The subject of Water Trough can be viewed either as a superfluous, temporary object overlooked by passersby, or as a vital feature of a pastoral existence, a necessary oasis within a formidable landscape.

The cropped edges of the work hint at a vastness outside the boundaries of the canvas, alluding to an idealised vision of the New Zealand landscape – one populated by an isolated southern man who exists outside society and is unencumbered by the trappings of modernity. And yet, it is entirely possible Sydney intentionally cropped and selected the pictorial elements that comprise Water Trough, highlighting the concept of accuracy within realist painting practices by directing the viewer’s gaze to a very finite number of elements within an elegant composition.

In fact, Water Trough possesses no location identifiers, and it is this dearth of recognisable landmarks that makes the piece internationally important. Through his painting, Sydney engages in a wider conversation on environment and place, and their importance to humanity’s existence; through a very precise composition devoid of the picturesque and superfluous, Sydney draws the viewer’s attention to the trough, offering an objective view of it and its relationship to its surroundings. Water Trough subtly hints at the agricultural history of New Zealand, while at the same time confronting elements of landscape representations within New Zealand’s artistic tradition.

50 Grahame Sydney

Water Trough 2003 oil on canvas signed Grahame Sydney and dated 2003 in brushpoint lower right 400 x 500mm est

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51 Laith McGregor

Moon 2012 felt tip on tarpaulin 2400 x 1750mm est $8,000 — $12,000 Exhibitions Mind’s Eye, Paul Nache, Gisborne, 6 June - 28 June 2014.

Provenance Private collection.

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52 Laith McGregor

Thicket 2013 graphite and ink on paper 1575mm x 1100mm est

$4,000 — $6,000

Provenance Private collection, Wellington. Acquired from Sullivan+Strumpf at Auckland Art Fair, Auckland, 2013.

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Laith McGregor - Growth Value Essay by TASHA JENKINS

51 Laith McGregor

Moon 2012 felt tip on tarpaulin 2400 x 1750mm est Webb's

$8,000 — $12,000 November

Beards and the colour blue: these are the first things I acknowledge when considering Laith McGregor's two works Thicket (2013) and Moon (2012). Thicket portrays a twisting labyrinth of graphite facial hair that almost engulfs the diamondpatterned blue-biro face; the body appears to have already been consumed. Moon is drawn directly onto a ubiquitous blue tarpaulin and features a figure with a smooth felt-tip beard evolving into a backdrop that forms the outline of the figure’s turban. The titles of the works and the similarly neutral expressions of the two men give away little about the subjects’ characters – they are discernible primarily by their facial hair.

Both faces float amidst a sea of hair that continues right to the edge of the work, giving the illusion that the beards might continue off the page and forever.

After studying a mix of fine art, visual art and screen production in his home country Australia, McGregor now splits his time between Australia and Bali. He has exhibited widely throughout Australia and globally, and it was his unique, intricate biro drawings that initially garnered public interest.1 McGregor still uses blue biro and other similarly humble materials, including felt tip and pencil on paper. The grand scale and sleek ‘high art’ presentation of McGregor’s work contrasts with his use of traditionally ‘low art’ materials, and encourages a discourse around such definitions within art. McGregor’s use of felt tip and ballpoint pen evokes thoughts of the intuitive doodles made in textbook margins or upon school desks. McGregor’s drawings seem similarly organic, despite their obvious repetitive and intense labour. Thicket holds direct links to the methodology of a school doodle, with additional sections of the figure’s beard added each time the student was bored in class. The organic nature of the drawing and the figure’s patterned face also hold a reference to the mark making often found in the art of tattoo, with repeated lines and geometric forms. In fact, in the video work Maturing (2007) McGregor takes to his own face with a pen and draws himself a faux tattoo-like inky beard.2 While these references and materials may contrast with traditional ideas of what is considered valuable within fine art, McGregor's commitment to such arduous handmade works recalls a sense of value placed upon traditional art-making. The physical labour and time evident in his drawings are something that was greatly admired in conventional painting, but perhaps an attribute we see less of in contemporary art. With technology and new methods of painting, photography and digital media, the way artists make their work has become more mysterious to the viewer. With an expansion of methodologies and technologies we don't always know the process and may not fully understand the labour that goes into an artwork. In contrast, by using materials that we are all familiar with, McGregor allows the viewer to understand and appreciate the time and concentration his drawings must take. In a digital age, the physical action of creating drawings purely by hand, and the time this process takes, become an important element of McGregor’s work, offering a counter to a fast-paced society of mass-produced consumption.

Another obvious relationship with time is McGregor’s subject matter. Like his large drawings, growing a beard also takes time. Men with beards appear consistently throughout McGregor’s practice, in many different shapes, sizes and styles and on a variety of owners. Moon, in contrast to Thicket’s smoothfaced subject, portrays an older, weathered man, with the circle cut-out on the figure’s forehead a possible reference to Hinduism and McGregor’s time spent in Bali. Despite visible differences in age, style and background, all the men in McGregor’s drawings are connected by their inclination to grow out their facial hair.

Many of his works contain an element of humour, featuring silly and over-exaggerated beards with plaits or landscapes. Moon and Thicket are more subtly amusing, as it is not until the viewer has studied the works for a few seconds that they realise the hundreds of ‘background’ lines are actually hair.

McGregor’s references to growing a beard and going from 132

scribbling on paper to inscribing your own skin seem to comment on the long process of growing up from boy to man. It makes sense, then, that his drawings are also pointedly humorous, as what is more embarrassingly funny than puberty and growing up? The army of bearded figures could almost be thought up by a teenage boy, with no facial hair, dreaming of his future. This passage of time is implied in McGregor’s subject matter but also in the tools he uses to create his drawings. The concentration and effort required is clear in the delicately intertwined dark and light pencil sections in Thicket, and the careful felt-tip lines in Moon leave no space for mistakes. While the references behind McGregor’s works are compelling, it is ultimately the craftsmanship visible in his drawings that animates his work.

The dedication visible in these works makes me curious about whether the artist is in favour of beards or is poking fun at them, as his drawings appear to hover between comical appreciation and sly parody.

52 Laith McGregor

Thicket 2013 graphite and ink on paper 1575mm x 1100mm est

$4,000 — $6,000

1 “Laith McGregor Bio,” Starkwhite, accessed October 28, 2019, http://www.starkwhite.co.nz/laithmcgregor-bio.

2 Amanda Austin, “Laith McGregor,” Iris, October 31, 2018, https:// www.irismagazine.com/issue-one/laithmcgregor.

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53 Darryn George

Push Play 2000 oil on canvas signed Darryn George, dated 2000 and inscribed ‘Push Play’/Oil on canvas/Up in ink verso 1000 x 1605mm est $6,000 — $10,000 Provenance Private collection.

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54 Milan Mrkusich

Arcs & Lines on Grey (diamond) 1983 acrylic on canvas signed M Mrkusich, dated ‘83 and inscribed Mrkusich/Arcs & Lines on Grey (diamond) 1983 in graphite verso 2250 x 2250mm (widest points) est $30,000 — $40,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Acquired from Fine Art, Webb’s, 8 March 2004, lot 58; private collection, Auckland.

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Milan Mrkusich - Arcs & Lines on Grey (diamond) Essay by JOSHUA HARRIS-HARDING

Our rather confused second-hand knowledge of modernism was paired with a historical tendency for New Zealand painters to draw on their immediate environment. Landscape thus had an outsized influence on New Zealand modernist painting.

Mrkusich was among the earliest artists to move away from this tendency, generating a later body of work with an esoteric language of geometry, rhythm, space and colour.

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In 1946, Milan Mrkusich broke away from figuration and embarked on what would become a lifelong exploration of nonobjective painting. Mrkusich is now widely – and deservedly – recognised as one of New Zealand’s pre-eminent abstract artists.

Arcs & Lines on Grey (diamond), painted nearly 30 years after this decisive break, is nonetheless the product of a pivotal moment in Mrkusich’s career. Mrkusich had first travelled overseas just two years prior, and his work through this decade, of which Arcs is an early example, sees the consolidation of a self-contained diagrammatic language that was no doubt informed by his immersion in continental modernism. One can draw a clear line between Mrkusich and Wassily Kandinsky, who argued in his treatise Concerning the Spiritual in Art for a mode of art that activated its own formal relationships, free from the strictures of objective reality.

As viewers in 2019, we are well accustomed to this notion.

The central tropes of Mrkusich’s work – the foundational grid, the spatial push and pull of colour, an implicit recognition of the painting as object – are integral to a contemporary knowledge of painting. However, when placed in its historical context, Mrkusich’s movement towards non-objective territory appears quite radical. Post-war artists in Aotearoa laboured under a lack of access to global art: their only entry points were mostly-monochromatic reproductions in books, or prohibitively expensive international travel. The rapid and multivalent growth of modernist art in Europe and the United States, its network of influences and sympathies, must have seemed very distant indeed. Contemporaneous theoretical texts were themselves still grappling with the uncertainty and complexity of modernist art.

Our rather confused second-hand knowledge of modernism was paired with a historical tendency for New Zealand painters to draw on their immediate environment.

Landscape thus had an outsized influence on New Zealand modernist painting. Mrkusich was among the earliest artists to move away from this tendency, generating a later body of work with an esoteric language of geometry, rhythm, space and colour. Mrkusich – rather brusquely – articulated his attitude towards regionalist landscape painting in the late 1960s: “You want a landscape? Take a drive to the country.”

Despite their rigorous structuralism and interiority, Mrkusich’s works have an immediate visceral pull and relationship with their exterior. The central figure in Arcs & Lines on Grey extends from one corner in diminishing segments, delicately rendered in shifting tones. This arc’s circumference might be extrapolated beyond the bounds of its substrate, forming a circle. One of Mrkusich’s theoretical touchstones was a Jungian cosmology of symbols, of which the mandala – a circular emblem of human wholeness and perfection – played a central part. This diagrammatic certainty acts as a kind of scaffolding for a rich field of colour, a musical structure that underpins a gestalt of tonal sensation. The third structural component of Arcs, one which Mrkusich places in parentheses, is its presentation as a diamond. This kind of gesture, the recognition of the picture plane as an object through spatial intervention, may also be familiar to us as contemporary viewers: here, its effect, in its subtlety and stability, is essential to the iconographic, geometric and sensory effect of the work.

54 Milan Mrkusich

Arcs & Lines on Grey (diamond) 1983 acrylic on canvas signed M Mrkusich, dated ‘83 and inscribed Mrkusich/Arcs & Lines on Grey (diamond) 1983 in graphite verso 2250 x 2250mm (widest points) est

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$30,000 — $40,000

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55 Martin Poppelwell

Study for the Subterranean 2005 oil on canvas signed M. POPPELWELL., dated 2005 and inscribed STUDY FOR THE SUBTERRANEAN in brushpoint lower right 2130 x 1985mm $12,000 — $16,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland. Acquired from Anna Bibby Gallery, Auckland, 2009.

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56 Michael Smither

Gone Fishing 2015 acrylic on canvas 800 x 800mm est $19,000 — $25,000 Provenance Private collection. Acquired from Bread and Butter Gallery, Whitianga.

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Michael Smither - Gone Fishing Essay by SERENA BENTLEY

The painting is part of a body of work that reveals the artist’s enduring fascination with boats, often observed in the Whitianga Harbour near his home in Otama and prior to that in Okahu Bay in Auckland. As well as responding to the archetypical, angular profile of the simple working boat, Smither is particularly interested in how, when moored, wooden boats might grow weed on their hulls or sometimes rot, thus taking on an organic life of their own.

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Michael Smither is one of Aotearoa’s foremost hardedged realist painters. Originally from New Plymouth and trained at Elam, Smither came to prominence in the 1960s for his now iconic renditions of the Taranaki landscape; particularly his boulders and rock pools. Responsible for some of the country’s most poetic regional imagery, Smither’s paintings are luminous, as if radiating internally, born out of the artist’s intent act of looking (legend has it he began drawing rocks on the beach to distract himself from a particularly bad toothache). Regardless of subject, be it landscape, still life, figure, domestic object or abstraction, Smither’s work is immediately identifiable by its vivid colour and strong solidity of forms.

As well as being a prolific painter, Smither is also a printmaker, sculptor, conservationist, composer and pianist.

Following his return to Taranaki after art school, Smither gave up painting for several years to study musical theory. He concentrated particularly on the theory of harmonic relationships, developing a unique understanding of the interrelationship between colour and sound which in turn informed his paintings, typified in compositions involving thick bands of colour. The influence of these studies can also be seen in the strong colour bands in Gone Fishing (2015).

Despite its seemingly abstract composition, Gone Fishing adheres to Smither’s commitment to studying his immediate surroundings, evidenced in the lyrical title. The painting is part of a body of work that reveals the artist’s enduring fascination with boats, often observed in the Whitianga Harbour near his home in Otama and prior to that in Okahu Bay in Auckland. As well as responding to the archetypical, angular profile of the simple working boat, Smither is particularly interested in how, when moored, wooden boats might grow weed on their hulls or sometimes rot, thus taking on an organic life of their own.

Smither describes the evolution of the series as “a marine fantasy imbued with the colours of my imagining, arranged in such a way that the shapes in between became just as important as the real.”1 Gone Fishing illustrates this fantasy. Two faceted forms composed of gem-like hues of emerald green, sapphire blue, burnt orange and dusky pink flank the edges of the canvas, sitting atop a broad, flat plane of golden yellow. The canvas hums with warmth and light and the forms within it are given space to morph, flex and radiate. Smither has set these abstract vessels adrift on a sea of pure, seductive colour.

The works in the Gone Fishing series become analogous for the act of painting itself. Colour and composition reveal themselves to the artist during the process of painting, not unlike the chance involved in fishing – you never quite know what you are going to catch.

56 Michael Smither

Gone Fishing 2015 acrylic on canvas 800 x 800mm est

$19,000 — $25,000

Provenance Private collection. Acquired from Bread and Butter Gallery, Whitianga.

1 Stephen Hutton, “Michael D Smither Exhibition – Gone Fishing,” The Big Idea, accessed October 24, 2019, https://www.thebigidea.nz/ events/206246-michael-d-smitherexhibition-gone-fishing Webb's

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57 Don Driver

Hand Scythe 1 1982 tarpaulin, metal scythe, leather, cotton, synthetic rope signed Don Driver, dated 1982 and inscribed Hand Sycthe 1 [sic] in ink verso 1580 x 810mm est $4,000 — $8,000 Provenance Private collection, New Plymouth.

Gifted by the artist, c1982.

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58 Don Driver

Hand Scythe 2 1982 tarpaulin, metal scythe, leather, cotton, synthetic rope signed Don Driver, dated 1982 and inscribed Hand Sycthe 2 [sic] in ink verso 1480 x 810mm est $4,000 — $8,000 Provenance Private collection, New Plymouth.

Gifted by the artist, c1982.

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59 Maryrose Crook

Lamb of Constant Sorrow 2007 oil on canvas Maryrose Crook/Lamb of Constant Sorrow/VxHmm 1200 x 1000/Oil on canvas/$16,000 printed on SOCA gallery label affixed verso 1220 x 1100mm est

$3,500 — $5,500

Provenance Private collection, Wellington. Acquired directly from the artist.

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Exhibitions Showcase: a group exhibition, Bartley + Company Art, Wellington, 27 June - 14 July 2012.

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60 Allen Maddox

untitled

oil on linen 540 x 540mm est $7,000 — $10,000 Provenance Private collection, Gisborne. Passed by bequest, 1988; Private collection, Napier. Acquired directly from the artist.

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Future Perfect Essay by AMY WENG

76 Miao Xiochun (缪晓春)

The Last Judgement in

Cyberspace B-5 2006 c-type print signed MIAO XIAOCHUN, dated 2006 and inscribed 12/19/B-5 in graphite lower edge 1000 x 360mm est

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$2,000 — $4,000

November

In the sci-fi trilogy Remembrance of Earth’s Past – or The Three-Body Problem as it is more popularly known – author Liu Cixin (刘慈欣) imagines an impending intergalactic war between the inhabitants of a not-too-distant Earth and Trisolaris, an imaginary civilisation bent on colonising its technologically inferior and resource-rich rivals. But the story diverges from the classic telling of an extraterrestrial invasion in the way Liu propels the reader through a number of dystopian moral and ethical crises played out in both the physical and virtual realms. The humans and Trisolarans attempt to outmanoeuvre one another through a dizzying display of political espionage, counter-intelligence and surveillance. The crux of this conflict hinges on a single factor: whoever holds the technological advantage controls the future.

The popularity of The Three-Body Problem and similar science fiction in mainland China comes at a point when the country is experiencing unprecedented growth and rapid modernisation. Urged on by the state, this phenomenon mirrors the ‘golden age of science fiction’ in the United States during the 1930s and 1960s, at similar moments of economic ascendancy.1 It should not be surprising then that the central themes of scifi – those of technological advancement and imperial conquest – resonate with the current sense of optimism and political dominance prevailing in the East.

The emergence of digital and new-media works in China appears in tandem with this shift in global power. The silvery figures that appear in Miao Xiaochun’s (缪晓春) The Last Judgement in Cyberspace (2006) appear to signal such a colossal struggle for power. Originally conceived as a threedimensional animation of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel fresco, the work consists of 400 figures recreated in the artist’s own image and variously contorted into scenes of ecstasy and terror.

Miao is part of a generation of visual artists contemporaneous with Liu who have been scrutinising the effects of globalisation and technological progress in China in the wake of the Great Leap Forward. Rendered only in black and white, the sublime religious iconography of the Judgement is suffused with the chilling light of a sci-fi nightmare, or the chaotic and unnatural physics of a video game melee. The artist’s identity has been subsumed within the masses, mirroring the dual ambitions of both science and history.

Commenting on this work, Miao notes: “When I was making this work, I subconsciously related it to current international politics, as well as religious and cultural conflicts. These were all things that I necessarily had to confront.” 2 By utilising 3D animation, Miao is able to capture the tableau from a number of angles, allowing the artist a panopticon-like mastery of an icon of Western art history. In this sense, The Last Judgement in Cyberspace seems to prophecy a long-awaited reckoning – a rivalry fit for the gods.

If Miao’s work can be thought of as an allegory of power, Xing Danwen’s (邢丹文) work instead focuses in on the states of powerlessness created by rapid industrialisation.

Xing’s disCONNEXION series, 2002–3, were photographed in Guangdong Province in southern China, where electronic waste from industrialised nations such as Japan, South Korea and the US are imported to be be recycled. In these photographs, brightly hued plastics and tangled wires create swathes of expressionistic colour, while the line-and-dash appearance of discarded circuit boards resembles geometric abstractions.

This resemblance to Western modernism is not coincidental. Like her contemporaries, Xing studied in New York and is well known in European circles as one of the earliest Chinese artists working in photography. It has been noted by the Chinese art critic Gao Minglu that Xing “used aesthetic modernity to represent or reproduce the global industrial modernity.” Like Miao, Xing’s work borrows from the vernacular of Western art in order to transform it through a contemporary Chinese lens. disCONNEXION also critiques the very instruments that have helped accelerate China’s economy. Modernisation and globalisation are two forces that have radically altered 146

the environmental and social landscape in China. Xing acknowledges that the byproduct of transnational corporate wealth creates physically and psychologically hazardous conditions for labourers who make their living processing e-waste material. Using the language of abstract expressionism, Xing paints a dystopian vision of a future already come to pass, where aspirations of connectivity and influence come at a high cost.

At first glance, 影 Shadow, (2011) by Jin Jiangbo (金江波) is devoid of human presence. Drawing upon the literati tradition of shansui painting, which uses ink and brush to create intellectual and spiritual enquiries into the natural landscape, the artist uses computer software to manipulate photographs of the landscape, resulting in a desaturated and orientalised image far from the usual depictions of the Southern Alps. In Jin’s hands, the sky becomes a canopy of static and the water’s surface appears hard as steel. 影 Shadow was developed from Jin’s research as a visiting scholar at The University of Auckland in 2010. In an earlier visit to New Zealand, he photographed remnants of the Patea Freezing Works, whose closure had ongoing social, economic and environmental impacts upon the small town. His acute sense of the connection between the landscape and economic progress shows itself again in 影 Shadow, where the touristic image of the alps has been augmented to present a new reality. Unlike Xing’s work, which uses photography to create a dialogue with Western art, Jin uses photography to centre his own Chinese sensibilities.

Jin’s work subtly allows us to recognise the shifting geopolitics embedded in symbols of national identity.

At a time when territorial boundaries and political allegiances are constantly being tested, 影 Shadow reminds us of our implicit relationships within the Asia Pacific region and how these have the potential to change what appear to be immutable things.

With the recent sanctions against Chinese telecommunications company Huawei sparking debate about the inevitable waning of American technological preeminence, there are similar signs that the art market will follow. While the Western image of China often conjures up Orwellian nightmares or apocalyptic urbanscapes, contemporary Chinese artists are showing how they might refashion the world, in doing so decentring the Euro-American cultural hegemony. The future is already closer than we think.

63 Xing Danwen (邢丹文)

B3 from the disCONNEXION series 2002-03 chromogenic colour print, edition 5/5 signed Danwen in ink lower right; signed Xing Danwen, dated 2003 and inscribed disCONNEXION/image B3./Edition of 5/5/2003 in Beijing in ink on label affixed verso, artists stamp verso, Gow Langsford label affixed verso 1475 x 1190mm est

$6,000 — $9,000

65 Jin Jiangbo (金江波)

影 Shadow 2011 c-type print 800 x 2180mm est

$30,000 — $40,000

1 Jiayang Fan, Liu Cixin’s War of the Worlds, The New Yorker, June 17, 2019, https://www.newyorker.com/ magazine/2019/06/24/liu-cixins-war-ofthe-worlds.

2 Miao Xiaochun, The Last Judgement in Cyberspace, trans. Peggy Wang, accessed October 28, 2019, http://www.miaoxiaochun.com/Texts. asp?language=en&id=22.

3 Madeline Eschenberg, Xin Danwen: Revealing the Masquerade of Modernity, YISHU 8, no. 4 (July/August 2009): 54.

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61 Ai WeiWei

Ai Weiwei: The Artist Activist - Art Edition 2014 marble, silk scarf, artist’s book, artist proof 9 from an edition of 100 + 20 artist’s proofs 182 x 763 x 522mm (widest points) est $8,000 — $12,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland.

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Exhibitions Another from the edition exhibited in Ai Weiwei: According to What?, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian, Washington D.C, 2013; The Brooklyn Museum, New York, 2014; Against the Grain: Wood in Contemporary Art, Craft and Design, Museum of Arts and Design, New York, 2013; Ai Weiwei: Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, 2013.

Collections Another from the edition held in the collection of Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Modern Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Tate Modern, London; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Arts and Design, New York.

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62 Liu Fei (劉)

Girl With Gun 2003 oil on canvas signed liu Fei 劉, dated 2003 and inscribed NO 11 in brushpoint lower left 1500 x 1500mm est $10,000 — $15,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland.

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63 Xing Danwen (邢丹文)

B3 from the disCONNEXION series 2002-2003 chromogenic colour print, 5/5 signed Danwen in ink lower right; signed Xing Danwen, dated 2003 and inscribed disCONNEXION/image B3./Edition of 5/5/2003 in Beijing in ink on label affixed verso, artists stamp verso, Gow Langsford label affixed verso 1475 x 1190mm

64 Xing Danwen (邢丹文)

D1 from the disCONNEXION series 2002-2003 chromogenic colour print, 5/5 signed Danwen and inscribed D_1 5/5 in ink lower right; Gow Langsford label affixed verso 1475 x 1190mm

est $6,000 — $9,000

est $6,000 — $9,000

Provenance Private collection, Auckland.

Provenance Private collection, Auckland.

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65 Jin Jiangbo (金江波)

影 Shadow 2011 c-type print 800 x 2180mm est $35,000 — $55,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland Webb's

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66 Li Luming (路明)

The Wedding 2005 oil on canvas signed 路明, dated 2005 and inscribed 结婚 in ink verso 2000 x 1500mm est $7,000 — $12,000

Exhibitions Contemporary Artists from China: Group Show, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, 8 February - 3 March, 2007.

Provenance Private collection, Auckland.

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67 Shen Xiaotong (沈小彤 )

Portrait #24 2006 oil on canvas signed 沈小彤 XIAOTONG.SHEN, dated 2004 and inscribed NO. 24/OIL ON CANVAS/200 X 340cm/ 映像/2004/中国·成都 in ink verso 1995 x 3390mm est $20,000 — $30,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland.

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68 Sheng Qi (盛奇)

Panda 2003 acrylic on linen signed Sheng Qi 盛奇, dated 07-2003 and inscribed Beijing in ink verso; Gow Langsford gallery label affixed verso 1600 x 1100mm

69 Sheng Qi (盛奇)

untitled 2000 acrylic on linen signed Sheng Qi 盛奇 and dated 2000 in ink verso; Gow Langsford Gallery label affixed verso 600 x 500mm

est $10,000 — $18,000

est $3,000 — $5,000

Provenance Private collection, Auckland.

Provenance Private collection, Auckland.

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70 Sheng Qi (盛奇)

untitled 2000 acrylic on linen signed Sheng Qi 盛奇 and dated 2000 in ink verso 600 x 800mm est $4,000 — $6,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland.

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71 Gade

Modern Thangka - Mickey Buddha 2008 mixed media on canvas 1160 x 700mm (widest points) est $8,000 — $12,000 Literature Gade, Mushroom Cloud, (Hong Kong: Plum Blossoms, 2008), 10.

Provenance Private collection, Auckland.

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72 Gade

Modern Thangka - McDonald Buddha 2008 mixed media on canvas 1600 x 700mm (widest points) est $8,000 — $12,000 Literature Gade, Mushroom Cloud, (Hong Kong: Plum Blossoms, 2008), 10.

Provenance Private collection, Auckland.

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73 Zhang Jiedong (张杰东)

Gauguin Club 2008 acrylic on canvas signed 东 and dated 08.07 in ink; signed 张杰东 Zhang Jiedong, dated 2008, and inscribed “高更俱乐部”/140cm x 200cm/丙烯·绵 绸/2008/“Gauguin Club”/140cm x 200cm/Acrylic on Canvas/2008 in ink verso 1400 x 2000mm est $7,000 — $12,000 Provenance Private collection, Auckland.

Webb's

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158

74 Feng Zhengjie (倢)

Chinese Portrait Series #26 2008 screenprint on paper, 85/200 signed 倢 FENG, dated 2008 and inscribed 85/200 in ink lower edge; Gow Langsford Gallery label affixed verso 810 x 810mmm

75 Feng Zhengjie (倢)

Chinese Portrait Series #38 2008 screenprint on paper, 45/200 signed 倢 FENG, dated 2008 and inscribed 45/200 in ink lower edge; Gow Langsford Gallery label affixed verso 810 x 810mmm

est $800 — $1,200

est $800 — $1,200

Provenance Private collection, Auckland.

Provenance Private collection, Auckland.

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76 Miao Xiochun (缪晓春)

The Last Judgement in Cyberspace B-5 2006 c-type print signed MIAO XIAOCHUN, dated 2006 and inscribed 12/19/B-5 in graphite lower edge 1000 x 360mm

77 Miao Xiochun (缪晓春)

The Last Judgement in Cyberspace B-4 2006 c-type print signed MIAO XIAOCHUN, dated 2006 and inscribed 12/19/B-4 in graphite lower edge 1000 x 270mm

est $2,000 — $3,000

est $2,000 — $3,000

Provenance Private collection, Auckland.

Provenance Private collection, Auckland.

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Exhibitions Contemporary Artists from China: Group Show, Gow Langsford Gallery, Auckland, 8 February - 3 March, 2007; another from the edition exhibited in Miao Xiaochun: The Last Judgment in Cyberspace, Walsh Gallery, Chicago, 2006.

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78 Hye Rim Lee (이혜림)

Candyland Deluxe Edition (Pink) 2008 c-type print in custom made frame and box, 3/10 artists’ proof signed 이혜림, dated 01 and inscribed Candyland/ Deluxe Edition/Artist Proof 3/10/01 in ink verso 335mm diameter

79 Hye Rim Lee (이혜림)

Candyland Deluxe Edition (Yellow) 2008 c-type print in custom made frame and box, 4/10 artists’ proof 336mm diameter

est $1,500 — $2,500

est $1,500 — $2,500

Provenance Private collection, Auckland.

Provenance Private collection, Auckland.

Note This work is accompanied by an artist-made box (360 x 360 x 85mm).

Note This work is accompanied by an artist-made box (360 x 360 x 85mm).

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Terms and Conditions The terms and conditions of sale listed here contain the policies of Webb’s Ltd. They are the terms on which Webb’s Ltd and the Seller contract with the Buyer.

They may be amended by printed Saleroom Notices or oral announcements made before and during the sale. By bidding at auction you agree to be bound by these terms.

1.

Background to the Terms used in these Conditions

property is therefore made between the Seller and the Buyer.

The conditions that are listed below contain terms that are used regularly and may need explanation.

They are as follows:

3.

“the Buyer” means the person with the highest bid accepted by the Auctioneer. “the Lot” means any item depicted within the sale for auction and in particular the item or items described against any lot number in the catalogue. “the Hammer price” means the amount of the highest bid accepted by the auctioneer in relation to a lot. “the Buyer’s Premium” means the charge payable by the Buyer to the auction house as a percentage of the hammer price. “the Reserve” means the lowest amount at which Webb’s has agreed with the Seller that the lot can be sold.

“Forgery” means an item constituting an imitation originally conceived and executed as a whole, with a fraudulent intention to deceive as to authorship, origin, age, period, culture or source, where the correct description as to such matters is not reflected by the description in the catalogue.

Accordingly no lot shall be capable of being a forgery by reason of any damage or restoration work of any kind (Including re-painting). “the insured value” means the amount that Webb’s in its absolute discretion from time to time shall consider the value for which a lot should be covered for insurance (whether or not insurance is arranged by Webb’s).

All values expressed in Webb’s Ltd catalogues (in any format) are in New Zealand Dollars (NZD$). All bids, “hammer price”, “reserves”, “Buyers Premium” and other expressions of value are understood by all parties to be in New Zealand Dollars (NZD$) unless otherwise specified.

2.

Webb’s Auctions as Agent

Except as otherwise stated Webb’s Ltd acts as agent for the Seller.

Before the Sale

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” 2.

Catalogue and Other Descriptions All statements by Webb’s in the catalogue entry for the property or in the condition report, or made orally or in writing elsewhere, are statements of opinion and are not to be relied upon as statements of fact.

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

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

The contract for the sale of the Webb's

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such items will be held “in trust” for up to 90 days or earlier, if the issue of authenticity has been resolved more quickly. Extensions must be requested before the auction.

Foreign buyers should note that all transactions are in New Zealand Dollars so there may be a small exchange rate risk. The costs associated with acquiring a good opinion or certificate will be carried by the purchaser. If the item turns out to be forged or otherwise incorrectly described, all reasonable costs will be borne by the vendor.

3.

Buyers Responsibility All property is sold “as is” without representation or warranty of any kind by Webb’s or the Seller. Buyers are responsible for satisfying themselves concerning the condition of the property and the matters referred to in the catalogue by requesting a condition report.

No lot to be rejected if, subsequent to the sale, it has been immersed in liquid or treated by any other process unless the Auctioneer’s permission to subject the lot to such immersion or treatment has first been obtained in writing.

4.

At the Sale

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.

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.

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.

International Registrations All International clients not known Webb's

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.

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.

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.

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.

This deposit is redeemable against any auction purchase and will be refunded in full if no purchases are made.

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.

6. Telephone Bids Priority will be given to overseas and bidders from other regions.

Please refer to the catalogue for the Telephone Bids form.

Arrangements for this service must be confirmed AT LEAST 24 HOURS PRIOR to the auction commencing.

Webb’s accepts no responsibility whatsoever for any errors or failure to execute bids. In telephone bidding the buyer agrees to be bound by all terms and conditions listed here and accepts that Webb’s cannot be held responsible for any miscommunications in the process.

The success of telephone bidding cannot be guaranteed due to circumstances that are unforeseen.

Buyers should be aware of the risk and accept the consequences

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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.

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.

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.

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.

11.

Indicative Bidding Steps, etc.

Webb’s reserves the right to refuse any bid, withdraw any lot from sale, to place a reserve on any lot and to advance the bidding according to the following indicative steps: Increment Dollar Range Amount $20 $0–$500 $50 $500–$1,000 $100 $1,000–$2,000 $200 $2,000–$5,000 $500 $5,000–$10,000 $1,000 $10,000–$20,000 $2,000 $20,000–$50,000 $5,000 $50,000 – $100,000 $10,000 $100,000–$200,000 $20,000 $200,000–$500,000 $50,000 $500,000–$1,000,000 Absentee bids must follow these increments and any bids that don’t follow the steps will be rounded up to the nearest acceptable bid.

5.

After the Sale

1.

Buyers Premium In addition to the hammer price, the buyer agrees to pay to Webb’s the buyer’s premium. The buyer’s premium is 17.5% of the hammer price plus GST. (Goods and Services Tax) where applicable.

2.

Payment and Passing of Title The buyer must pay the full amount due (comprising the hammer price, buyer’s premium and any applicable taxes and GST) not later than 5 days after the auction date.

The buyer will not acquire title to the lot until Webb’s receives full payment in cleared funds, and no goods under any circumstances will be released without confirmation of cleared funds received. This applies even if the buyer wishes to send items overseas.

Payment can be made by direct transfer, cash (not exceeding NZD$10,000, if wishing to pay more than NZD$10,000 then this must be deposited directly into a Bank of New Zealand branch 163

and bank receipt supplied) and EFTPOS (please check the daily limit). Payments can also be made by credit card in person with a 2.2% merchant fee for Visa and Mastercard and 3.3% for American Express. Invoices that are in excess of $5,000 and where the card holder is not present, cannot be charged to a credit card without prior arrangement. Personal cheques are accepted, but funds must be cleared before goods will be released. Bank cheques are subject to five days clearance.

The buyer is responsible for any bank fees and charges applicable for the transfer of funds into Webb’s account.

rate as we shall reasonably decide.

2.

3.

to cancel the sale.

4.

to resell the property publicly or privately on such terms as we see fit.

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.

3.

Collection of Purchases & Insurance Webb’s is entitled to retain items sold until all amounts due to us have been received in full in good cleared funds. Subject to this, the Buyer shall collect purchased lots within 5 days from the date of the sale unless otherwise agreed in writing between Webb’s and the Buyer.

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.

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.

At the fall of the hammer, insurance is the responsibility of the purchaser.

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.

8.

5.

Permits, Licences and Certificates 6. 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.

9.

7.

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) 1.

Webb's

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.

to charge interest at such a

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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. to exercise all the rights and remedies of a person holding security over any property in our possession owned by the Buyer whether by way of pledge, security interest or in any other way, to the fullest extent permitted by the law of the place where such property is located. The Buyer will be deemed to have been granted such security to us and we may retain

such property as collateral security for said Buyer’s obligations to us.

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.

8.

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

6.

history, literature or historical relevance. Except as required by local law any warranty of any kind is excluded by this paragraph.

7.

Limited Warranty

Subject to the terms and conditions of this paragraph, the Seller warrants for the period of thirty days from the date of the sale that any property described in this catalogue (noting such description may be amended by any saleroom notice or announcement) which is stated without qualification to be the work of a named author or authorship is authentic and not a forgery. The term “Author” or “authorship” refers to the creator of the property or to the period, culture, source, or origin as the case may be, with which the creation of such property is identified in the catalogue.

The warranty is subject to the following: it does not apply where a) the catalogue description or saleroom notice corresponded to the generally accepted opinion of scholars and experts at the date of the sale or fairly indicated that there was a conflict of opinions, or b) correct identification of a lot can be demonstrated only by means of a scientific process not generally accepted for use until after publication of the catalogue or a process which at the date of the publication of the catalogue was unreasonably expensive or impractical or likely to have caused damage to the property.

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

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 nonrefundable. Neither the Seller nor Webb’s will be liable for any special, incidental nor consequential damages including, without

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limitation, loss of profits.

The Buyer must give written notice of claim to us within thirty days of the date of the Auction. The Seller shall have the right, to require the Buyer to obtain two written opinions by recognised experts in the field, mutually acceptable to the Buyer and Webb’s to decide whether or not to cancel the sale under warranty. the Buyer must return the lot to Seller in the same condition that it was purchased.

8. Severability If any part of these Conditions of Sale is found by any court to be invalid, illegal or unenforceable, that part shall be discounted and the rest of the Conditions shall continue to be valid to the fullest extent permitted by law.

possible after the sale. Results will include buyer’s premium. These results will be posted at www. webbs.co.nz.

13.

GST is applicable on the hammer price in the case where the seller is selling property that is owned by an entity registered for GST. GST is also applicable on the hammer price in the case where the seller is not a New Zealand resident. These lots are denoted by a dagger symbol † placed next to the estimate.

GST is also applicable on the buyer’s premium.

Overseas buyers and buyers nonresident in New Zealand will not be charged GST on both hammer price and premiums under the following conditions: 1.

The items are exported through a Webb’s approved freight company including New Zealand Post

2.

The items are exported within 60 days of the date of the sale

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.

10.

Goods and Service Tax

The invoice supplied by Webb’s for purchases will be regarded as a Tax invoice for GST purposes.]

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

Webb's

2019

165

Index of Artists

A

M

Aberhart, Laurence Angus, Rita

32 39

B Bambury, Stephen Binney, Don Bullmore, Edward Bush, Kushana

60, 112 113-115 107-111 45-47

C Cairns, Mitch Campbell, Joyce Cotton, Shane Crook, Maryrose

41-43 56 72-77 144

D Danwen, Xing 146-147, 150 Dashper, Julian 48 Driver, Don 49-55, 142-143 F Fei, Liu Fomison, Tony France, Patricia

149 84 126

G Gade George, Darryn

156-157 134

H Hammond, Bill Hanly, Pat Hartigan, Paul Hemer, AndrĂŠ Hirst, Damien

61-63 68 65-67 30 117-119

I Ivanoff, Noel

116

J Jiangbo, Jin Jiedong, Zhang

146-147, 151 158

Macalister, Molly Maddox, Allen Maw, Liz 44, McCahon, Colin McGregor, Laith Mcleod, Andrew Mrkusich, Milan 1

106 145 78-83 94-101 130-133 85-89 35-137

P Pardington, Fiona 57-59 Peryer, Peter 33 Pick, Seraphine 120-125 Platts, Una 94-95, 103, 105 Poppelwell, Martin 138 Q Qi, Sheng

154-155

R Robinson, Peter

34, 69-71

S Seymour, Ava 40 Smither, Michael 139-141 Spencer Bower, Olivia

94-95, 102 Sydney, Grahame 127-129 W Walker, Jake Walters, Gordon Wealleans, Rohan Weiwei, Ai Wilkinson, Brendon

38 35-37 31 148 90-93

X Xiaotong, Shen Xiochun, Miao

153 146-147, 160

Z Zhengjie, Feng

159

K Killeen, Richard

64

L Lee, Hye Rim Luming, Li Lusk, Doris

Webb's

November

161 152 104

166

Webb's

2019

91

Webb's

October

92