Australian Art Market Blog

Menzies Art Brands June 09 Auction pt 2 – australianartmarket.com

DEL KATHRYN BARTON born 1972 I was a Little Surprised to Observe the Mid-Wife Drive up in a Hot-Rod 2002 pencil and pastel on paper 153.0 x 112.0 cm

After the sale of the two most valuable works of the auction was a work by Jeffrey Smart titled “Campbell Street, Sydney” which had an estimate of $300,000-$360,000 but was sold for a measley $230,000 ($276,000 including premium). The owner must have been desperate to sell this work because it was purchased at a Lawson Menzies auction in September 2007 for $290,000 ($348,000 including premium) which is considerably more than they sold it for. Things continued to go down hill when two lots later, a major work by John Olsen with an estimate of $220,00-$260,000 failed to sell – the most expensive casualty of the auction. Showing how flexible some vendors were with their reserves was a lovely painting by Rupert Bunny which sold for $150,000 against an estimate of $220,000-$260,000. The rest of the Deutscher Menzies section of the auction saw quite a few works passed in and many works sell for below their low estimate. One sale that is worth mentioning was the sale of Del Kathryn Barton’s “I was a Little Surprised to Observe the Mid-Wife drive up in a Hot-Rod” which sold for a very positive $34,000 against an estimate of $28,000-$38,000 after last being sold in November 2007 for $22,000. As one of Australia’s most talented and highly valued young artists, it is good to see that there is still a strong market for works by Del Kathryn Barton even though confidence in the contemporary art market has dropped significantly.

The next section of the auction was the Lawson Menzies section which included a significant number of works by Aboriginal artists. Unfortunately, less than half the Aboriginal works offered for sale were sold, and most of those that did sell were knocked down for below the low estimate. The highlight of the indigenous works on offer was a superb work by Clifford Possum titled “Two Jungala at Warukalong” which depicts two complete human skeletons against a dotted background. An estimate of $80,000-$100,00 seemed pretty reasonable for such a great work but unfortunately it failed to find a buyer as did a work by Turkey Tolson which had the next highest estimate of $60,000-$80,000. In fact, the most anyone paid for an Aboriginal work of art was $21,000 ($25,200 including premium) for a painting by Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri which had an estimate of $30,000-$40,000. A nice but not spectacular work by Emily Kngwarreye came in a close second, but still well under the low estimate, selling for $20,000 ($24,000 including premium) against an estimate of $26,000-$38,000. Several other paintings sold for around the $20,000 mark but buyers seemed unwilling to pay any more with the five most expensive works failing to find buyers.

It is no secret that the market for Aboriginal art has been severely affected by the economic crisis and the general decline in the demand for contemporary art, but even in the current climate, the performance of the Indigenous works of art in this particular auction are worrying.

To be continued……..

**All prices are the hammer prices unless otherwise stated

**Nicholas Forrest is an art market analyst, art critic and journalist based in Sydney, Australia. He is the founder of http://www.artmarketblog.com, writes the art column for the magazine Antiques and Collectibles for Pleasure and Profit and contributes to many other publications.