FEMALE SCULPTORS DELIVER AT MID-YEAR ART SALES
Artworks you can walk around or hold in your hand were among the brightest stars of the major auctions in Sydney and Melbourne last week.
Two Bronwyn Oliver sculptures fetched a total of $1 million at Deutscher + Hackett’s Important Australian and International Fine Art auction in Melbourne on August 28.
The works were Flow, 2002, and Clasp, 2006, and their prices – $525,000 and $475,000 respectively – were the two highest of the night. Oliver’s auction record remained unbroken at $875,000 for Sun, 2004, which was sold in April by Smith & Singer from a private collection in Sydney.
For Sydney executive director Damian Hackett, the Oliver results were no surprise considering “the breathtaking quality of the objects”.
“She’s one of the most desirable and collectible Australian artists,” Hackett told Saleroom.
“Her work is tightly held and really brings enthusiastic collectors out of the woodwork every time.”
At Bonhams in Sydney on August 27, three incised stoneware bowls by Gloria Thancoupie exceeded their high estimates by almost five times.
The top price of $43,855 for Pot, c1981, was a new Australian auction record for a work by Thancoupie, an elder of the Thainakuith people of Weipa, Far North Queensland.
Sadly, neither artist was there to witness their success. Oliver died in 2006, aged 47, and Thancoupie died in 2011 in her 70s.
In total, the hammer fell on $7,407,500 worth of art at the D+H sale (including the buyer’s premium, as do all prices in this report. Premiums vary according to auction house, but D+H charges 25 per cent).
It was the second most lucrative sale of the year for D+H. Its April sale totalled $16,998,750, making it the biggest auction of any of the houses so far this year.
But rival auctioneer Smith & Singer is close behind, and with more auctions to come before Christmas it is too early to predict who will come out on top this year. D+H and S&S are by far the largest art auction houses in Australia.
As reported in Saleroom three weeks ago, the D+H auction included seven artworks being deaccessioned, or sold off, from the permanent holdings of the McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery in Langwarrin in regional Victoria.
Deaccessioning is always a controversial move. Some commentators argue that museums have a sacred role as cultural custodians, while others have sympathy with any museum desiring to enhance itself as a public drawcard.
On the night, the McClelland boosted its coffers by $749,000 (representing the total hammer, minus the 25 per cent buyer’s premium) and will no doubt spend that money on “modernist and contemporary sculpture and spatial practice”, as its pre-sale media briefing note outlined.
“Their aim is to be a world-class venue for modern and contemporary sculpture. It’s an expensive pursuit to participate in that world,” Hackett said.
The only McClelland work that failed to sell on the night was Rupert Bunny’s The Telegram, c1908, which was passed in at $120,000. Its pre-sale estimate was $200,000 to $300,000.
Emanuel Phillips Fox’s Vanity, c1912, fetched $400,000. The painting of a languid young beauty was displayed behind the auctioneer’s rostrum during the event. It was given to the McClelland by Dame Elisabeth Murdoch in 1979.
Bertram Mackennal’s hypnotic bronze figurine Circe, c1902-04, sold for $225,000. McClelland had paid $100,000 for Circe at auction in 2010.
Interestingly, Elders auctioneers of Adelaide has listed what looks like another copy of Circe at an estimate of just $9000 to $12,000 – not much, considering the handsome amount D+H just received for theirs.
The price discrepancy is solved when you know that the D+H Circe is a bronze that was cast during Mackennal’s lifetime. The work offered by Elders belongs to a posthumous edition of 100 works that were made from bonded bronze powder and polymer, Hackett said.
Elsewhere in the 60-lot D+H sale, Brett Whiteley’s The Dead Rabbit, 1979, fetched $400,000. An Australian auction record for a work on paper by Fred Williams was set when a bidder paid $437,500 for Werribee Gorge No. 8.