‘There is enormous appetite’: art market revels as more records fall
Gabriella Coslovich, Australian Financial Review, 28 April 2021
By anyone’s measure, last week was exceptional for Australia’s secondary art market, with $25.8 million in sales, 16 artist records set and a new high for an internet bid.
Not only was a new record set for Arthur Streeton for his romantic vision of Venice, The Grand Canal, which hammered $2.5 million at Deutscher and Hackett in Melbourne, but the painting sold to an internet bidder, establishing yet another record. Deutscher and Hackett charges a 25 per cent buyer’s premium, including GST, on the hammer, which gave the Streeton a total price of $3.068 million.
The previous internet high was realised at Deutscher and Hackett last year, when a collector bid $2 million online for Russell Drysdale’s 1941 painting Going to the Pictures – although the painting ultimately sold for $2.4 million to a phone bidder. The Streeton result – a winning internet bid – shows just how comfortable people have become with spending online as a consequence of the pandemic.
“We had more than 600 people watching online,” said Deutscher and Hackett’s executive director, Chris Deutscher. “If you go back four years ago, when there was no-one bidding online, you would have 120 people in the room and hundreds on the phone, so this whole thing has grown dramatically over the past 12 months. Fourteen of the lots sold to internet bids and 45 per cent of the lots attracted internet bidding.”
Deutscher and Hackett, Smith & Singer and Bonhams all held auctions last week, and all had reason to celebrate. This time last year, as COVID-19 lockdowns started to hit, total sales were at $7.84 million. This year, total sales are tracking at $37.03 million, which is more than the pre-COVID year of 2019, when $27.24 million in sales were recorded for the same time period. Deutscher predicts that the auction market this year might be heading for a high close to 2017’s, which saw total takings of $141.58 million.
New buyers are entering the market, and, as is often noted these days, wealthy collectors unable to travel overseas are showing a renewed appreciation for culture at home. A case in point are the exquisitely atmospheric paintings of Clarice Beckett, long overlooked and now being celebrated at the Art Gallery of South Australia’s retrospective The present moment.
“I have never heard of so many people going to Adelaide, it’s like the Venice Biennale,” Deutscher said. “A lot of wealthy people who have not had Beckett on their radar before have opened their eyes.”
There’s a ripple effect on the secondary market. Beckett’s View Across the Yarra, c.1931, set a new record for the artist at Deutscher and Hackett, selling for $150,000 hammer ($184,091 with buyer’s costs), more than four times its low estimate of $35,000.
Minutes before, Beckett’s Bathing Boxes, Beaumaris, c. 1932, sold for $115,000 (hammer) in a new high for the artist, which was immediately superseded by Views Across the Yarra.
“These paintings were the first two Becketts to hammer over $100,000,” Deutscher said. “I told the vendor of Bathing Boxes that their painting achieved a new record for one minute.” The previous high for a Beckett was set at Christie’s in Melbourne in 2001, for Autumn Morning (Early Morning, Beaumaris), 1925, which hammered $87,000.
Traditional works, whether by top tier artists such as Arthur Streeton or out-of-fashion artists such as Julian Rossi Ashton, have swung back into vogue. Three of Ashton’s works were put under the hammer at Deutscher and Hackett, and all sold above their high estimates.
“It’s satisfying to see that there is an intelligent market for Australian art history from beginning to end,” Deutscher said. “Provided the quality is there, there is a really strong market for traditional works.”
Contemporary artist Imants Tillers also leaped above the $100,000 mark for the first time, with the work Waterfall Variation II, 2012, which sold for $105,000 hammer ($128,864 with buyer’s costs). Records were also set for sculptor Bertram Mackennal, minimalist artist Robert Hunter and Australian Indigenous artist Vernon Ah Kee.
Cressida Campbell’s work continues to fly at auction. Her unique colour woodblock print, Japanese Print and Clivias, 2013, sold for $230,000 hammer – $110,000 above its high estimate.
Two portraits by American artist Alex Katz, from the Estate of Sydney gallerist Ray Hughes, both exceeded their estimates. In the bright and kooky Self-portrait, c. 1977, Katz has modelled himself after the suave Latino actor Ricardo Montalban, probably best known for his role as the white-suited concierge Mr Roarke in the television series Fantasy Island. Self-portrait sold for $125,000 hammer, $55,000 more than its low estimate. Katz’s gentler portrait of his bohemian wife, Ada with Head and Band and Lips, c.1968, hammered at $135,000 – $90,000 above the low estimate.
John Brack’s deliberately awkward and austere nudes, on the other hand, are proving a little hard to shift right now. Just as Menzies failed to sell Brack’s Green Nude, 1971, last month, so too Brack’s Standing Nude, 1970, also from the Estate of Ray Hughes, was passed in at Deutscher and Hackett. However, Deutscher is negotiating with a buyer around the $300,000 mark. Brack’s tough but formally satisfying nudes have been appreciated in the past. As Deutscher points out, he sold Brack’s The Boucher Nude, 1957, in 2008 for $1.25 million (hammer).
“I always have that in the back of my mind,” Deutscher said. “It was probably the toughest picture we have ever handled.”
In total, Deutscher and Hackett hammered $7.8 million worth of art last week, against a low estimate of $5.9 million, with 89 per cent of lots selling.
Bonhams’ sale of Australian art set four records last Thursday in Sydney, notably for Margaret Preston’s Australian Native Flowers, 1941, which hammered $410,000, almost three times its low estimate, and for Ginger Riley’s My Mother’s Country, 1996, which saw the artist’s work rise above $100,000 for the first time, hammering at $160,000 – $60,000 above its low estimate. (Bonhams charges 23 per cent buyer’s costs on the hammer price plus 10 per cent GST).
In total, Bonhams’ Australian art auction made a hammer of $2,605,160, with 85 per cent of lots selling, and 160 per cent by value.
On the same day, Bonhams’ Asian art auction exceeded expectations, bringing in a hammer total of $927,180, with 84 per cent of lots selling, and 210 per cent by value.
Two paintings by Rao Zongyi soared above their estimates – Lychees, 1989, hammered $70,000, more than eight times the high estimate of $8000, and Peaches, 1987, hammered $60,000, against a high estimate of $8000.
“The market has been exceptionally strong around the world in all categories for eight months now,” Bonhams Australia director Merryn Schriever said. “There is enormous appetite.”