important paintings & contemporary art

Important paIntIngs and Contemporary artCatalogue 357 13 August 2013

Webb catalogue DPS 1.1 cp.indd 1 23/07/13 8:30 AM

Who to Talk to at Webb’s

Upcoming Auctions & Market Commentary

Catalogue 357

6 - 7 Local Art World

8 - 9 The World of Art

10 - 11 Lecture - A Different Perspective, Savita Apte

12 - 17 The Dark Art of Bill Hammond

18 - 19 Fine Jewellery and Watches – Forthcoming Sale

20 - 21 Upcoming – A Pair of Chinese Carved Rhinoceros Horns

26 - 27 Early Modernism – This Sale in Review

28 - 31 Important Paintings & Contemporary Art – This Sale in Review

Foreword

The Catalogue32 - 149 Important Paintings & Contemporary Art

150 - 167 Upcoming Auctions & Market Commentary

Terms & Conditions & Index of Artists

168- 172 Webb’s Departments & People

174 The Last Word - Josh Williams - Profile

173 Webb’s Terms & Conditions for Buying

176 Index of Artists

Webb’s Auction House. 18 Manukau Road, Newmarket, Auckland 1149, New Zealand

Ph: 09 524 6804 E:[email protected]

WEBB’S

3CATALOGUE 357

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Important paIntIngs &

Contemporary art sale 357

tuesday 13 august 2013, 6:30pm

Buyer’s premiumA buyer's premium of 15% will be charged on all items in this sale.

GST (15%) is payable on the buyer's premium only.

Viewing

Evening Viewing

Lecture - Savita Apte

Fri 2 Aug ................................................................................................... 9:00am - 5:30pm

Sat 3 Aug ................................................................................................ 11:00am – 3:00pm

Sun 4 Aug .............................................................................................. 11:00am – 3:00pm

Mon 5 Aug ............................................................................................... 9:00am – 5:30pm

Tues 6 Aug ............................................................................................... 9:00am – 7:30pm

Wed 7 Aug .............................................................................................. 9:00am – 5:30pm

Thurs 8 Aug .............................................................................................. 9:00am – 7:30pm

Fri 9 Aug ................................................................................................... 9:00am – 5:30pm

Sat 10 Aug .............................................................................................. 11:00am – 3:00pm

Sun 11 Aug ............................................................................................ 11:00am – 3:00pm

Mon 12 Aug ............................................................................................. 9:00am – 5:30pm

Tues 13 Aug ........................................................................................ 9:00am – 12:00noon

Tue 6 Aug................................................................................................... 5:30pm - 7:30pm

Thurs 8 Aug............................................................................................... 5:30pm - 7:30pm

Sun 11 Aug................................................................................................................. 3:00pm

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the new zealand market. Over the last 12 months, the secondary market has continued to benefit from the buying patterns that first emerged in the post-2008 market place and have now gained a definitive footing. Collectors are now paying more attention than ever before to factors such as a work’s condition, provenance, relevant market context and, above all, academic significance. Accordingly, while the uptake of works that do withstand careful scrutiny has not necessarily accelerated, the widespread refinement of the market’s collective buying methodology has resulted in an enthusiastic following for rare, high-quality works and this demand has been a strong driver of growth. Consequently, in the first half months of 2013 alone, the secondary art market in New Zealand as a whole turned over an impressive estimated total of $7 million.

As Webb’s is the largest service provider on the New Zealand market (Webb’s total turnover for the last financial year was double that of our closest competitor), a careful analysis of our results provides valuable insight into the workings and motivations of the market. The 2013 financial year saw us achieve a very healthy 34% increase in turnover (based on a year-on-year comparison), and the average value of a painting sold at Webb’s now rests at $13,845 against the industry average of $9,000. This data reflects a collector base with an appetite for quality and an eye for the long-term investment potential of rarefied cultural commodities.

There are three notable sectors of the market that have been the core of this growth: the market for Maori subjects by Charles F. Goldie, the market for good examples of modernist New Zealand painting from 1960 to 1980 and the market for key, major works by contemporary practitioners such as Bill Hammond. Coupled with the strong results from the first sale cycle of 2013, the fact that the buying public has continued to focus its attention towards key areas that engage strongly with New Zealand’s national history indicates that the market is willing to pay a premium for significant paintings.

California Design This month, Auckland Art Gallery launched its exhibition California Design, 1930–1965: Living in a Modern Way. The exhibition includes furniture by Charles and Ray Eames, fashions from Levi Strauss & Co. and graphics by Saul Bass as well as a number of landmark industrial designs, ceramics, jewellery and architectural drawings.

Auckland Art Gallery has also organised a comprehensive accompanying public programme that includes talks by our friends at Mr. Bigglesworthy, Dan and Emma Eagle, and fashion designers Kate Sylvester and Benny Castles.

sophie Coupland Director Fine Art Department

California Design1930-1965: living in a MoDern Way

when 6 July - 29 Sept 2013, 10am - 5pm daily where Auckland Art GalleryCost Free entry

shane Cotton the hanging sky Currently on show at City Gallery Wellington is Shane Cotton’s mid-career survey exhibition The Hanging Sky, which will run until 6 October. The exhibition was curated by Christchurch Art Gallery senior curator Justin Paton and was organised in conjunction with Brisbane’s Institute of Modern Art, where it was first exhibited. The show also toured to Sydney’s Campbelltown Arts Centre.

In the 1990s, Shane Cotton distinguished himself as an important new talent with his ochre-toned paintings which dissected New Zealand’s still-developing cultural history and national identity. In the mid-2000s, however, the artist made a number of significant changes to the mode of working that first brought him acclaim – most notably, while his previous works tended to focus on the land (both literally and conceptually), his new works turned their attention towards the sky. The Hanging Sky encapsulates this energetic latter period in the artist’s career.

A new monograph of the same title, published by Craig Potton Publishing (Nelson), has been released to accompany the exhibition. The book includes 72 full-colour, large-scale plates and features essay contributions from Justin Paton, Robert Leonard, Eliot Weinberger and Geraldine Kirrihi Barlow.

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Important paIntIngs and Contemporary art

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Organised in collaboration with The Andy Warhol Museum (Pittsburgh), Te Papa’s much-anticipated survey Warhol: Immortal will run until 25 August. The exhibition features over 150 works from throughout the artist’s career including drawings, paintings, polaroids and the artist’s highly celebrated experimental films.

A number of Warhol’s important 1980s’ portraits depicting figures such as Queen Elizabeth II, Chairman Mao, Jane Fonda and Prince are exhibited, in addition to a major self-portrait loaned from the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.

Another notable inclusion is a re-creation of Warhol’s well-known installation Silver Clouds, which debuted at New York’s Leo Castelli Gallery in 1966. The installation consists of many helium-filled balloons made from a reflective silver plastic. In Warhol’s own words: “Silver was the future, it was spacy… silver was also the past – the silver screen... And maybe more than anything, silver was narcissism – mirrors.”

auCklanD art fairThis year sees the biennial Auckland Art Fair return for its fourth instalment; it will run for four days from 7 to 11 August and, once again, will move to a new venue: The Cloud on Auckland’s Queens Wharf. Including 36 galleries from throughout Australia and New Zealand, the fair will provide a concise snapshot of current Australasian art practice. In addition to this line-up of commercially focused galleries, the fair will also showcase a number of sculptural projects by contemporary practitioners such as Rohan Wealleans, Alex Monteith, Seung Yul Oh,

Israel Birch and Niki Hastings-McFall.

Each year, the fair also hosts a comprehensive public programme featuring panel discussions by local experts and a keynote address by an international art-world figure. This year, the keynote address will be delivered by the senior curator of photography at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Sandra Phillips, and will be held on Friday 9 August, 6:30 - 8:00pm.

Warhol at te PaPa

Local Market Trends.

shane Cotton the hanging sky

when 15 Jun - 6 Oct 2013 where City Gallery, Wellington. Ground Floor.Cost Free entry

Warhol iMMortalAndy Warhol (1928–87) was a founder of pop art and one of the 20th century’s most defining artists. He changed the way we look at ourselves and each other.

when 1 Jun – 25 Aug 2013where Te Papa, Visa Platinum Gallery, Level 4Cost Admission charges apply

Shane Cotton: The Hanging Sky is a journey through this distinctive airborne world, as Cotton has enlarged, explored and complicated it across six years of energetic art-making. This exhibition is a chance for New Zealand audiences to experience this period of change and transformation in the work of one of our country’s most esteemed painters.

Auckland Art Fair / Full-page adWebbs Catalogue215x255mm

Image Powered by Nikon and Inhouse

PRINCIPAL PARTNER

MAJOR PARTNERS

CORE FUNDERS

HOSPITAL I TY PARTNERS

Auckland Art Fair 20137—11 August

Be enlightened.

Ticket information andEarly Bird CollectorsPackages availablefrom www.artfair.co.nz

The Cloud, Queen’s Wharf, Waterfront Auckland, New Zealand

NZ’s premier artevent opens with thegala Vernissage onWednesday 7 August

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Charles ninow Fine Art Department Specialist

Overall turnover of the NZ secondary market per year

Average price of artworks in the NZ secondary market traded per year

Webbs total turnover per year

Average price achieved for medium format works by Goldie

Refer www.aasd.com.au

WEBB’S

9CATALOGUE 357

Results from a slew of auctions of postwar and contemporary art held over the past two months in New York, Paris and London mirror the recent dynamics of the New Zealand market and prove that the market for cultural commodities made from the 1960s onward remains strong due to significant demand for rare and outstanding examples.

The recent season was kicked off by a series of blockbuster sales held in New York by all three of the major auction houses. The first of the sales was held by Sotheby’s on 14 May and achieved $293,587,000*. The Christies sale, held on 15 May, achieved a total of $495,021,500* and the Phillips sale,

held on 16 May, achieved $78,618,000*. Christie’s achieved the highest price of the week for an outstanding 1948 Jackson Pollock entitled Number 19, which sold for $58,363, 750*.

In June, Christie’s and Sotheby’s each offered a comparatively modest sale in Paris. Christie’s sale, held over two sessions, achieved a

total of $32,500,00*. Sotheby’s sale, also held across two sessions, achieved a total of $34,000,000*. The highest price of the week was achieved for Crown Hotel (Mona Lisa Background) by Jean Michel Basquiat, which was sold by Sotheby’s for $6,500,000*. This sale continues a recent streak of strong results for Basquiat’s practice.

In late June, both Sotheby’s and Phillips held London-based sales of Postwar and Contemporary art. Sotheby’s offering realised $115,898,000* and Phillips’ offering realised $18,804,500*. Of the two sales, the highest price was achieved at Sotheby’s for a sought-after triptych by Francis Bacon which depicted his lover Isabel Rawsthorne. The work achieved $17,240,962*.

*All prices include buyer’s premium and are reported in US dollars.

the world of art.

siMon Denny in MassilliaMo’s the enCyCloPeDiC PalaCe

franCis uPritCharD at anton kern gallery, neW york

New Zealand participation in the Venice Biennale has not been limited to our pavilion. Simon Denny was included in the major exhibition The Encyclopedic Palace which was curated by the Biennale’s director Massimiliano Gioni. The exhibition is a sprawling selection of works from an international roster of over 150 artists. In the words of its director, the show is “a reflection on the ways in which images have been used to organise knowledge and shape our experience of the world”. Denny’s installation takes its lead from a work consisting of antiquated broadcasting equipment exhibited last year at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts.

In addition to Massimiliano’s exhibition, in recent months Denny has also staged two notable solo exhibitions on the international stage: The Personal Effects of Kim Dotcom at Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna and All you need is data: the DLD 2012 Conference REDUX rerun at Petzel Gallery, New York.

the international ConteMPorary Market: a snaPshot

Jackson pollock Number 19 oil and enamel on paper mounted on canvas, 1948signed Jackson Pollock and dated 48 upper left784mm x 574mmAchieved $58,363,750*

Last month saw the opening of Francis Upritchard’s solo exhibition, War Dance, at Anton Kern Gallery, New York. This show marks her debut outing with the gallery. While Upritchard has previously exhibited in New York dealer galleries such as Andrea Rosen Gallery and Salon 94 (Webb’s auctioned a series of major works from this exhibition in August 2011), this prominent new exhibition marks a significant milestone in the artist’s career. The high-profile gallery is situated in New York’s Chelsea district and is sandwiched between mega-dealers Gagosian and David Zwirner. Accordingly, the exhibition promises exposure to a crucial sector of the international primary market.

The exhibition takes its lead from the artist’s well-regarded exhibition, Three Figures, held at Ivan Anthony Gallery earlier this year, which presented a succinct series of standing figures elevated on plinths made from cut-and-welded steel. War Dance is of an ambitious scale and fills the gallery’s spacious main room with an imposing constellation of like figures. Like much of the artist’s previous practice, the exhibition examines the societal importance of ritual and, in this particular instance, focuses on the mesmerising effect of dance.

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On 20 June 2013, Australian artist Jeffrey Smart (born 1921) passed away in Italy, where he had lived for the last 48 years. The artist received significant critical and commercial acclaim during his lifetime. In particular, he is regarded for his smooth, highly saturated practice of the period from the 1960s to the 1980s which depicted idealised urban landscapes with exacting precision. Smart’s practice was heavily influenced by Fernand Leger (1881–1955), under whom he studied in 1949.

Notably, Jeffrey Smart’s practice enjoyed very healthy demand on the auction market even during his lifetime. The highest figure ever achieved for the artist’s work was for Autobahn in the Black Forest (1979–1980) which achieved a staggering AU$1,020,000* in 2011. The most recent notable figure achieved for the artist’s practice was AU$671,000* for a work entitled Luxury Cruise (1972–1973) which was included in the Grundy collection.

* Prices include buyer’s premium.

Jeffrey sMart Dies at age 91

Bill CulBert in veniCe

grunDy ColleCtion With total sales in excess of AU$19,180,000, the sale of the Grundy collection held by Bonhams in Sydney’s Circular Quay on 26 June has exceeded the previous Australian record for a single-vendor auction by more than 19%. Television producer Reg Grundy, who was responsible for Neighbours, among other shows, and his wife Joy Chambers-Grundy – an actress who appeared in a number of Grundy-produced shows including Neighbours – assembled the collection over a period of more than 30 years.

Across the sale, a total of 12 new auction records were set and the three highest prices were $2,287,500* achieved for You Yangs Landscape by Fred Williams, $1,952,000* achieved for The New House by John Brack and $1,464,000* achieved for The Breakfast Table by John Brack. Fittingly, Fred Williams’ You Yangs Landscape was met with a very strong critical reception prior to the sale. The You Yang ranges, situated 22 kilometres from Geelong, were the subject of a number of major plein-air paintings by Williams and You Yangs Landscape, in particular, was a triumph of the artist’s materially aware approach to depicting the bleak properties of the rural Australian landscape.

*All prices include buyer’s premium and GST and are reported in AU dollars.

Bill Culbert’s installation Front Door Out Back, which opened in June as a part of this year’s Venice Biennale, is the product of a career-long investigation into the physical properties of light that began in the 1960s.

The site of the exhibition is the Istituto Santa Maria della Pietà, an 18th-century complex designed by Venetian architect Giorgio Massari. The exhibition incorporates familiar motifs of Culbert’s work, old plastic bottles, Formica chairs and neon

bulbs, and allows them to assume epic proportions.

In his address at the exhibition’s vernissage, Sir Nicholas Serota, Director of the Tate Gallery, London, spoke glowingly about Culbert’s practice: “Bill’s is a very special mind… that light, that incredible ability to conjure something out of nothing and to give us an experience that all of us somehow had a sense of but could not make concrete. Here in Venice, Bill, as I say, has excelled himself.”

fred williams You Yangs Landscape 1 oil on canvas, 1963 signed Fred Williams lower left 1370mm x 1803mm Achieved $2,287,500

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Savita Apte A Different Perspective

An open invitation to a public lecture…It is with much pleasure that Webb’s presents to New Zealand celebrated international guest, Savita Apte, Director of Art Dubai and modern and contemporary South Asian art specialist.

ImPORTANT PAINTINGS ANd CONTemPORARy ART

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In this talk, Savita Apte will

look at the challenges and

rewards of extrapolating

knowledge and experience

of visual art from one

culture and overlaying

it on another culture. In

doing so, Apte will examine

the misconceptions and

mistranslations that arise

from this extrapolation and

the consequences these

may have on art producers

and the art market.

a Different PersPeCtive

when Sun 11 August, 3:00pmwhere Webb’s Auction HouseCost FreersVp: [email protected]

In A Different Perspective, Apte will also address the making of an emerging market in the context of global trends: focusing on the strengths and weaknesses of the international secondary art market and the parallels to be found currently in New Zealand. Apte will speak candidly about her impressions of the contemporary art scene in New Zealand and the unique and adventurous territory that artists from New Zealand have claimed for themselves through their constant interrogations. Apte will look at local art production and reception from a global perspective, against the backdrop of her own experiences with the Middle East and South Asia.

savita apte

Savita Apte is an art historian specialising in modern and contemporary South Asian art and has been actively involved in South

Asian art since 1989. She holds a postgraduate diploma in Asian Art and a master’s degree in Post-war and Contemporary Art. In 1995, she joined Sotheby’s as their consultant expert for modern and contemporary South Asian art, for their auctions in London and New York, and was instrumental in setting up the Sotheby’s Prize for Contemporary Indian art. She is a Director of Art Dubai, Asal Partners and Platform Projects Singapore and is on the advisory board of The Sovereign Art Foundation, Para Site and Asia Art Archive. Apte regularly lectures on South Asian art history and the market at Sotheby’s Institute London and Singapore, the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, and Oxford University Department for Continuing Education (OUDCE), and has two forthcoming publications on the subject. She is currently a PhD candidate at SOAS, University of London.

WeBB’S

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Bill hammondLast Night Jar in Congested Skyoil on three Belgian linen stretched canvases signed Hammond and dated 2004 (right panel) and inscribed Last Night Jar (left panel) and In Congested Sky (middle panel) in brushpoint upper edge 1800mm x 1200mm each Achieved $293,125, Webb’s march 2013

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BIll hammondTHE DARK ART OF

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market overview

On a stylistic level, Hammond’s visual language belies a deep artistic awareness which draws on the richness of art-historical narrative and incorporates a deep concern for and understanding of environmental issues; it expresses ideas about the balance of the natural world and ecology of New Zealand. Thus, the depiction of anthropomorphic figures, the adaption of popular song lyrics and a deeply evocative awareness of the physical potential of paint combine to create dizzyingly dense, superbly complex figurative canvases.

The relatively contemporary nascence of Hammond’s artistic production (1981) means that the market in question relies on a somewhat condensed, albeit dense, period of artistic production: just 32 years to date. However, by virtue of Hammond’s remarkable stylistic consistency and indomitable artistic identity, the fact of this chronological compactness has contributed to, rather than stunted, both the market growth and his reputation as a New Zealand art icon. The strength of the current market for Hammond’s works is therefore based on a strong concentration of stylistically distinct works each of which speaks a unique and recognisable figurative language and captures the essence of Hammond the artist.

market development

Having commenced the production of oil paintings in 1981, Hammond had already enjoyed a significant growth in contemporary awareness by 1995 and entered the consciousness of the New Zealand public. In 1995, Hammond marked another defining stage of his artistic career by way of his inauguration into the secondary auction market. His reputation as an artist had been secured by this stage and it is possible to trace the subsequent value development and market maturation which went on to influence the future sale of Hammond’s works at auction.

The sale of Hammond’s works experienced a remarkable transition from an average auction price of $5,382 per work in 1995 to $37,310 in 2013, an increase which boasts

an almost 700% growth in market value with the market having grown dramatically between 2000 and 2002. These results are significant, and their bearing on Hammond’s market can be corroborated through noting that the number of his works sold at auction every year also experienced a steady increase over this same period: from just two works sold at auction in 1995 to an impressive 13 so far in 2013.

Institutional presence

Hammond’s notable exhibition history in New Zealand has played out over the years with the support and engagement of numerous key New Zealand collections and museums, both public and private. Moreover, the curatorial instinct for, and inherent value of, Hammond as an artist, have prompted the ongoing acquisition of his works by key private and public institutions and individuals in New Zealand. All in all, this amounts to a formidable institutional presence nationwide.

The below list outlines some highlights of Hammond’s exhibition history, also reflecting the extent to which his omniscience and importance within our national visual arts programme has extended to the level of international representation:

23 Big Pictures, curated by Dunedin Public Art Gallery, 1999 – 2000 (nationwide)

Jingle Jangle Morning, Christchurch Art Gallery, 2007

Distance Looks Our Way: Ten Artists from New Zealand, Seville, 1991 – 1992

Headlands: Thinking Through New Zealand Art, 1992, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney

2000 Biennale of Sydney, 2000

Paradise Now? Contemporary Art from the Pacific, Asia Society Museum, New York, 2004

For the purposes of the present market analysis, it is of interest to examine the extent to which the accession of Hammond’s key works into notable public and private collections and the staging of solo and group exhibitions reflects key moments of strengthening in his market over the years.

Bill Hammond holds an exceptionally well-established and highly-regarded reputation as one of New Zealand’s pre-eminent contemporary artists. His brilliantly distinct style has become so irrevocably woven into New Zealand’s narrative of contemporary art that even the most perfunctory appraisal of one of Hammond’s canvases leaves no potential for misattribution.


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Bill hammondFortified Gang Headquartersacrylic on unstretched linen canvastitle inscribed, signed and dated 19962110mm x 1805mmexhibited: Peter mcLeavey Gallery, Wellington, 1996Achieved $330,781, Webb’s december 2007. This work remains the record price for a work by Bill Hammond sold at auction.

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An analysis of the dates of purchase of Hammond’s works by the public collections where his presence is contemporaneously most significant (Dunedin Art Gallery, Christchurch Art Gallery, Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery and Te Papa Tongarewa) provided valuable insight: a clear increase in the rate of acquisition for works took place from 1989, with another notable market boost occurring from 2002. It is interesting to note that this is in keeping with the peak in average sales prices and high volume of works sold on the secondary market in 2002, indicating that there is a strong correlation between the rates of public collection acquisition and the overall market status.

nuances of the market

Whilst the above analysis has identified the external parameters and time frames within which Hammond’s market developed, it is also of interest to take into account the physical attributes of Hammond’s works: the question of precisely from where the value-adding factors of his paintings are derived.

Consistent with the traditional behaviour of the art market, Hammond’s works on canvas have significantly outperformed his works on paper and other mediums, with the highest price for the former being achieved by Webb’s at $326,250 for

Fortified Gang Headquarters; the highest price for a work on paper being the $110,000 sale by Webb’s of Placemakers 3. Further confirming this, the overall average price for Hammond oil on canvas works sold at auction is now an impressive $71,967, with works on paper averaging a significantly smaller sum of $17,986.

Moreover, a survey of the dates of creation for top-performing Hammond works at auction revealed that, despite Hammond’s 32 years of active artistic production (1981≥), 83% of the top-performing works were created between 1994 and 2004. This indicates clear demand at the highest level for this period of Hammond’s work which encapsulates his bird paintings and confirms, perhaps not surprisingly, that the style of painting for which he is most celebrated and identified also translates into his strongest market point and has potential to garner the highest level of demand on the secondary market.

webb’s and hammond: 18 years

Webb’s is proud of the long-standing and privileged relationship we have established with Bill Hammond’s work which has spanned the duration of his presence on the secondary market in New Zealand. From the moment of his initiation by Webb’s into the auction market in 1995, we have played a crucial role and, until 1997, were the only auction house to consign works by Hammond. In doing so, Webb’s set the solid foundation for his future successes at auction and the subsequent growth of his secondary market which – as has already been outlined in the present analysis – was to experience substantial development. The successive sales of 255 Hammond works by Webb’s since 1995 until the present day has continued to play a significant role in fostering interest, attaining record prices and promoting growth in this artist’s subsector of the market. The privileged and influential nature of this relationship is revealed in the stronghold of market share which has been maintained by Webb’s over the years.

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By volume:

Webb’s have sold 80% of the top 10 works by

Bill Hammond at auction.

By value:

Webb’s are responsible for over 65% of the

$6,077,324 sales total for the artist.

The top 50 works by both value and volume.

Webb’s market position for Bill Hammond’s work.

weBB’s

19CATALOGUE 357

Across the top-50 results for Bill Hammond’s practice, the average sale price is $107,885. The top 50 sales of Hammond’s work have generated $5,394,254. Of this, Webb’s has facilitated approximately 68% in terms of value and 60% in terms of volume.

Of the 22 Bill Hammond works to have sold for more than $100,000 in New Zealand, Webb’s is responsible for the sale of 15.

webb’s results rest at more than three and a half times those of our nearest competitor.

The figures and positive consistency of our exceptional results speak for themselves. At Webb’s, we are extremely proud of our strong track record in this market subsector, and of the fact that we have excelled ourselves in the sale of Bill Hammond works over the last two decades. Looking forward, we are confident that our unsurpassed market access and expertise, as well as our knowledge of and passion for Hammond’s work will ensure that we maintain our highly competitive market share and continue to build on our successes in this field, expanding the potential for Hammond’s works to hold an even stronger presence on the secondary market.

The following star lots from past sales are just a few examples which illustrate the privileged position Webb’s holds in this market, and the unrivalled opportunities we have had to manage the sale of important and art-historically significant Bill Hammond works over the past decade:

Whistlers Mother, Sticks and Stones, $264,000, December 2003

Fortified Gang Headquarters, $326,250, April 2008

A Lullaby of Birdland, $247,500, March 2010

All Along the Heaphy Highway, $247,500, August 2010

Last Night Jar in Congested Sky, $287,500, March 2013

Number of works by Hammond traded per year

Average price of works made since 1995

80% $107,885

Webb’s have sold 80% of the top 10 works by Bill Hammond sold at auction

Average sale price of the top 50 works sold by Webb’s

Proportion of the market by value of periods of Hammond’s practice

2000 - 2004

1990 - 1994 1985 - 1989

1995 - 1999

fine Jewellery & WatchesAntique and Contemporary Jewellery under the hammer. Sat 10 - Sun 11 Aug. Catalogue now online


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Webb’s is delighted to

present an exceptional

quality sale of Fine

Jewellery and Watches,

to be held on 10 August.

This sale represents

one of the finest and

most diverse offerings

to have been presented

to the market, and

includes contemporary

and antique pieces with

large diamonds and other

precious-stone jewellery

alongside rare and

collectable watches.

A magnificent selection of varying sizes of white and coloured diamonds of high colour and clarity will be presented; a star lot being a superb 5-carat cushion-cut diamond, colour E/F, clarity VS1, of excellent cut and with an estimated value of $230,000 to $260,000.

The sale will feature a range of fine antique earrings, bracelets, necklaces, brooches and rings dating from the Georgian to the late-deco periods, and set with diamonds, rubies, garnets, seed pearls, emeralds, amethysts and other precious stones. Rare and exceptional is a Victorian gold amethyst riviere with a detachable cross, made up of 30 large, regal, purple amethysts.

The sale will encompass a strong offering of high-value watches, including an iconic Rolex Red Submariner Men’s Wristwatch. This fine and rare example of an Oyster Perpetual Date 660ft = 200m, made in 1972, is highly collectable and will be sold together with other prestigious examples of Vacheron Constantin, Rolex, Patek Philippe, Chronoswiss, Cartier, Longines, Omega and Garrard watches. An exceptional collection of affordable, easy-wear watches also forms part of this outstanding selection.

And for the specialist collector, the sale’s high-quality array of Chinese jade and pearl jewellery is a must-see.

These pieces will be presented alongside a substantial selection of vintage, retro and contemporary jewellery including bracelets, earrings, necklaces and rings together with affordable gold pieces which make up a second auction entitled Jewels: Buy/Sell/Collect to be held at 11:00am on Sunday 11 August.

when Sat 10 Aug 11amwhere Webb’s Auction House

fine JeWellery & WatChes

when Sun 11 Aug 11amwhere Webb’s Auction House

JeWels Buy - sell - ColleCt

lot 37. a rolex red submariner men’s wristwatch

lot 1. a Victorian amethyst riviere and Cross pendant

lot 90. a Brilliant Cut pear shaped Internally flawless diamond necklace

lot 92loose 5ct Cushion Cut diamondA magnificent cushion cut diamond. 10.09mm x 9.54mm x 6.58mm. Colour e/F (GemLab), clarity VS1, excellent cut. $230,000 - $260,000

WEBB’S

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upcoming highlight

A Rare and Magnificent Pair of Late 19th Century Chinese Carved Rhinoceros Horns


22 CATALOGUE 357

Chinese medicine practice in the 21st century); secondly, its ability to change colour in the presence of poison. The symbols of healing and longevity depicted on the present carvings are, therefore, of special significance to the perceived salutary benefits of rhinoceros horn, which led to its use in the production of highly prized drinking vessels. Eventually, these carved horns evolved from their original libationary forms into purely decorative objects. Items of great beauty, they were available only to the wealthy and illustriously important, and demand was such that, at the time of the Ming Dynasty, the price of rhinoceros horn exceeded even that of gold.

The present horns were formerly in the collection of Sir John Budd Phear (1825 – 1905). Sir John was a High Court judge in Ceylon and a noted anthropologist who wrote various articles and a book entitled The Aryan Village in India and Ceylon. His family owned Marpool Hall, Exmouth, and they gifted the large Phear Park to the city of Exmouth. Sir John’s son Gilbert Phear (1877 – 1955) was an engineer in the Indian service in Ceylon and migrated to New Zealand in the early 20th century. He married the present owner’s grandmother and the horns have passed down by descent. The value of such notable and distinguished provenance is high given the present-day existence of a black market for rhinoceros horns.

Prices for carved rhinoceros horns have rocketed over the past decade, with a more than 400% average increase being driven in part by exceptional demand from wealthy buyers in the Chinese market. The strength of the market today is also linked to the immense rarity of these objects: it is believed that there are no more than 3,000 to 4,000 extant carved horns worldwide. It is, therefore, particularly unusual and exciting to have such a fine pair in New Zealand.

Webb’s decorative Arts

department is delighted

to present a fine pair of

carved rhinoceros horns

as part of our October sale,

arguably the most fine and

rare example of a Chinese

antique ever offered on the

New Zealand market. On

a global level, extremely

high demand and market

scarcity has driven prices

for carved rhinoceros

horns to unsurpassed

levels over the last decade.

interiors: antiques anD DeCorative arts

interiors: antiques anD DeCorative arts

when 17 Sept 2013where Webb’s Auction House

These carved Chinese rhinoceros horns are not in our current auction, which will be held on Thursday 8 August, but will be presented on 17 September 2013.

Presenting, from the Jack Ryder collection, one of New Zealand’s most comprehensive offerings of maritime memorabilia, alongside Georgian-period sterling silver, Qing-period Chinese ivories and porcelain, English and French antique furniture, Persian rugs and collectable antiques.

when 8 Aug 2013, 6:00pm Catalogue now online.where Webb’s Auction House

These spectacular horns are carved to the tips with a pierced openwork design of trees, vines, gourds, lingzhi fungus, young deer and the ‘three friends of winter’, pine, prunus and bamboo, culminating in a band of clouds around the base. These richly intricate decorations represent the auspicious Chinese symbols of beauty, perseverance, healing and longevity. The horns are supported, tips down, on intricately carved lotus openwork stands in black zitan wood.

The tradition of rhinoceros-horn carving dates back at least as far as the eighth century AD. Historically, two properties were believed to be contained within the material: firstly, a medicinal healing power which had the potency to cure fevers, rheumatism, gout and an array of other medical ailments (this continues to make the horn an expensive component of traditional

WEBB’S

23CATALOGUE 357

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Michael Lett/Rebecca Books—Webbs Catalogue July/August 2013207x275mm (+5mm Bleed)

DUNCAN ROONEYD E S I G N

N E W C O L L E C T I O N O N L I N E N O W

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Michael Lett/Rebecca Books—Webbs Catalogue July/August 2013207x275mm (+5mm Bleed)

ModernismEarly New Zealand Modernism 1930 – 1960


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Early modern New Zealand practice indulged heavily in modes of representation pioneered by turn-of-the-century European modernists. However, in a local context, the practicalities associated with the way in which New Zealand artists implemented this influence were of more importance than are the original schools of thought. With clean, simple lines and flat, total palettes, the works in this sale bear a strong cubist influence. However, rather than probe the movement’s founding principles, they utilise a cubist-inspired methodology as a means of presenting imagery in a clear, direct manner.

Early modern practice reacted to the turn-of-century regionalism of luminaries such as Alfred Sharpe, John Barr Clarke Hoyte and Nicholas Chevalier. Where those practitioners presented the landscape as an untapped, idyllic natural resource, modernists such as John Weeks, Charles Tole and Russell Clark approached the subject in a pragmatic, utilitarian fashion. These artists focused on the relationship between the land and its inhabitants rather than presenting the landscape as an entity that was subservient to human habitation. Some of the works in this sale, such as Port Moles by Charles Tole, do this by literally picturing a landscape inhabited by man-made architecture, whereas others, such as Swing Band by John Weeks and Still Life with Bottles by Charles Tole, suggest a relationship by superimposing humans and human-made forms directly onto the landscape.

Much of New Zealand’s representational painting from 1970 onwards built on the model that was established from 1930 to 1960. While it could be said that the subsequent practice of artists such as Don Binney and Colin McCahon truly fulfilled the objectives of the ‘nationalist’ model. New Zealand’s early modernist period remains important because of the forthright manner in which it addressed its influences. In addition to employing a cubist-inspired treatment, works such as Swing Band and Still Life with Bottles also integrated subject matter

that was synonymous with European modernism (still life compositions and arrangements of musicians). By directly addressing its sources of inspiration, cultural production from this period served as a clear reflection of the cultural, geographic and economic conditions in which it was produced.

This catalogue includes

a number of works from

the early-to-mid-20th

century which form a

concise survey of early

modernist New Zealand

painting practice. This

period is important

because it documents

the development of a

‘national aesthetic’

that was specific to

New Zealand. Critical

discourse surrounding

the development of New

Zealand painting during

the 20th century has

focused on the effect of

our nation’s isolation from

international cultural

centres.

iMPortant Paintings & ConteMPorary art

when Tuesday 13 August 6:30pmwhere Webb’s Auction House

lot 6. Charles tole, Port Moles

lot 8. leo Bensemann, Nelson Landscape

lot 5. Charles tole, Still Life with Bottles

lot 7 John weeksBand and Dancersoil on board 600mm x 750mm $8,000 - $12,000

WEBB’S

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important Paintings & Contemporary artThis sale in review

lot 2 michael parekowhaiElmer Keithc-type photograph, edition of 10 980mm x 1180mm $13,000 - $16,000


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Our highly anticipated

winter sale of Important

Paintings and

Contemporary Art will

present a refined selection

of modern, historical

and contemporary works

from New Zealand and

international artists. The

consignment process

focused both on high-

growth sectors of the

market and on securing

works of superlative

academic merit.

Accordingly, the breadth

of the sale, which ranges

from early conceptual

sculpture to modern-

day contemporary

masterpieces, will

certainly satisfy the

market’s demand for rare

examples and seminal,

major artworks. The

following pages include a

comprehensive review of

the sale which canvasses

its three key areas: the

modern and historical

periods, contemporary art

practice and the private

collection of the late Allen

and Jeny Curnow.

modern and historical excellence

The refinement of collecting tastes and the evolution of art as an asset class with strong investment potential have translated into demand for our leading modern artists at the highest level of the art market. An understanding of this demand has driven us to strive more than ever to present exceptional works by artists whose reputations within the historical and modern narrative of New Zealand art are unassailable.

The early modernist period is well represented, with the inclusion of a rare and important limestone sculpture of a Tuhoe woman by Russell Clark alongside significant works by John Tole, John Weeks and Leo Bensemann. Consignments from the late modernist period are also strong, with a number of

historically important works including: a large-scale work on jute canvas by Colin McCahon from the Jump series in addition to a collection of eight works by the artist which are part of the auction; a masterpiece by Michael Smither from the seminal Domestic series; a Black Window by Ralph Hotere

lot 4

3. m

icha

el s

mit

her,

Port

rait

of S

arah

lot 45. shane Cotton, Kiddy Kiddy

WEBB’S

31CATALOGUE 357

presented in a villa sash window frame which comes from the family of the late Rodney Kirk-Smith, director of Auckland’s RKS Art gallery and the artist’s dealer and friend; and a pair of Hotere Song Cycle banners bearing Hone Tuwhare’s poem No Ordinary Sun alongside works by Dick Frizzell, Milan Mrkusich, Allen Maddox and Don Binney.

We are also delighted to present a strong body of early-20th-century New Zealand practice, including a superb work by Charles Frederick Goldie, dated 1915, and depicting one of his favoured subjects: Wiripine Ninia, a Ngati Awa chieftainess. Further significant historical works in the sale include an important 1913 Charles Blomfield painting, White Terraces, and a majestic watercolour by John Barr Clarke Hoyte.

Contemporary Curatorship

The analytical eye for, and the continual rediscovery of, the New Zealand landscape by contemporary artists is manifested in a number of the high-calibre works in this sale. Take, for example, the two striking works by the ever-diverse Andrew McLeod; the magnificent Seascape is a sublime expression of his artistic splendour on a large scale, whilst Golden Landscape, a 2009 work, combines the enigmatic and the romantic in a quintessentially McLeodian juxtaposition of the New Zealand landscape. A Bill Hammond painting, Moa Hunter Cave (2009), further engages with this theme, imagining a gorgeously dark and gold-illuminated New Zealand wilderness in a predatory narrative. Meanwhile, Shane Cotton’s Kiddy Kiddy offers a densely intricate and

emblematic engagement with New Zealand topography, the terrain having been deconstructed and stacked horizontally.

A number of the sale’s standout works also provide insight into the diverse role of portraiture in the production of New Zealand contemporary art. An important early work by Liz Maw, Aura, is an alluring portrait which encompasses Maw’s postmodern/post-feminist discourse in the form of a modern-day cerulean goddess, whilst Rohan Wealleans’ brilliant local Mondrian adaptation, Grey Lynn Boogie Woogie, offers a tantalisingly tactile local geographic portrait. The parameters of portraiture are boldly grappled with in Michael Parekowhai’s Elmer Keith photograph from the celebrated series The Beverly Hills Gun Club, whilst the dream-like magnificence of Seraphine Pick’s 1950s’ portrait, Careworn, represents the profound potential for psychological depth within the tradition of contemporary portraiture in New Zealand.

Included amongst the sale’s numerous other standout contemporary works are John Pule’s Tau Malal, an untitled work by Peter Robinson, and a large-scale work by Bill Hammond which has an emerald-green palette and is from the highly regarded Zoomorphic series. Two dynamic works comprise the sculptural constituent of this sale: a significant installation work by Greer Twiss, consisting of seven lead and timber components, which will be the

lot 38. liz maw, Aura

lot 42. Charles f goldie, Memories, Wiripine Ninia, a Ngati Awa Chieftainess


32 CATALOGUE 357

largest-scale work by the artist to have ever been presented at auction, and a large bronze sculptural work by Paul Dibble. Moreover, we are thrilled to be presenting the work of internationally renowned Hiroshi Sugimoto to the New Zealand auction market for the first time: a photogravure, U.A. Walker Theatre, New York 1978.

spotlIght: the Curnow Collection

On behalf of the Curnow family, we are very pleased to be offering the collection of the late Allen and Jeny Curnow. This collection, put together over many years, comprises a survey of early modernist and modernist New Zealand practice. Three works from the collection by Colin McCahon are being offered, of which his excellent Landscape with a Road is one. This work was a wedding present to Jeny and Allen from the prominent fiction writer, scholar and New Zealand literary critic, Bill Pearson.

Within the close-knit artistic community of West Auckland, McCahon and Allen Curnow were acquainted, creative contemporaries, having both moved up from Christchurch between 1951 and 1953, and developed a mutual artistic attachment to the wilder natural boundaries of Auckland’s West Coast. The two McCahon drawings in this sale, Jet out to Te Reinga and Towards the Muriwai Stations of the Cross, would have been purchased by Curnow from a show in the early ’70s, and symbolise something of the geographic connection shared by these two inspired minds: the literary counterpart to this vein of McCahon’s art being Curnow’s Karekare Beach poems.

The inclusion of two Charles Tole oil on board works in this sale, Port Moles and Still Life with Bottles, further reflects something personal of the collection: Jeny’s father was John Tole (the brother of Charles).

It is a privilege to handle the sale of these works, which were an essential part of the Curnow Collection: their rich and significant provenance is testament to the importance and inherent artistic value of each.

iMPortant Paintings & ConteMPorary art

when Tuesday 13 August, 6:30pmwhere Webb’s Auction House

lot 10. russell Clark, Seated Figure

lot 44. Colin mcCahon, Jump E16

WEBB’S

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Viewing from Friday 2 August

evening viewings

Tuesday 6 August 5:30pm – 7.30pm

Thursday 8 August 5:30pm – 7.30pm

Please join us to view the suite of sales.

13 August 2013 6.30pm

Important paIntIngs &

Contemporary art

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allen maddoxNever Let It Be Said

oil on canvas signed M., dated 17.11.75 and inscribed Never Let it be Said in brushpoint verso

610mm x 610mm

$8,000 - $12,000

1

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michael parekowhaiElmer Keith

c-type photograph, edition of 10 inscribed Michael Parekowhai, Elmer Keith, from the series The Beverly Hills Gun Club 2000, c-type photograph, edition of ten, 1050 x 1250mm (frame) on Michael Lett gallery label affixed verso 980mm x 1180mm

PROVENANCEAcquired by the present owner from Michael Lett, Auckland.

$13,000 - $16,000

2

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John puleTau Malalacrylic on canvas inscribed Tau Malal in graphite verso 2240mm x 1840mm

PROVENANCEAcquired by the present owner directly from the artist.

$18,000 - $25,000

3

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don BinneyUntitled

oil on board signed Don Binney and dated 1980 in brushpoint lower left 580mm x 465mm

PROVENANCEAcquired by the present owner in 1981.

$25,000 - $35,000

4 This untitled work by Don Binney depicts Tokatoka Peak, a distinctive landmark located near the Wairoa River in Northland, whose dramatically chiselled form is the product of many millennia of erosion. This painting is bereft of birds and belongs to a series of works dating from the late 1960s; Binney’s intention is to draw the viewer’s attention to the landscape and its value as a pictorial subject. The sharp lines, controlled use of paint and textural contrast across the paint surface are all typical of Binney’s distinct and recognisable style.

Binney’s eye for detail and adept technical manipulation of materials are evident in this work: the thick impasto of the foliage contrasts with the clean, sharp lines of the peak and the smooth paint application of the hills and sky. This approach serves to highlight New Zealand’s unique landscape

and the connection the land’s inhabitants have with it. Many landmarks in Northland hold deep spiritual significance for local iwi, and the luminosity of Binney’s golden sky appears to deify the heavy silhouette of Tokatoka. A stylistic reference to the religious icons of Gothic painting, this endows the composition with a harmonising balance, whilst the white house located at the far left of the work adds a point of visual interest.

This work is a superb example of Binney’s approach to landscape painting. His idiosyncratic flattening of forms and sinuous outlines further the impact of the unique and dramatic landscape he has chosen to portray.

ALEKSANDRA PETROVIC

37CATALOGUE 357

Charles toleStill Life with Bottles

oil on board signed Charles Tole and dated ‘67 in brushpoint lower left; inscribed ‘still life with bottles’ (No.2), Charles Tole 12 Seaview Road Auckland 5, oil on hardboard, 18 1/4 x 12 1/4 in ink on label affixed verso 305mm x 455mm

PROVENANCEFrom the collection of the late Allen and Jeny Curnow.

$8,000 - $12,000

5

Charles tolePort Moles

oil on board signed Charles Tole in brushpoint lower left; inscribed Charles Tole, ‘Port Moles, oil, hardboard, 15 1/4 x 14 1/4 1969-1972 in ink on label affixed verso 370mm x 330mm


$6,000 - $9,000

6

John weeksBand and Dancers

oil on board Webb’s certificate of authenticity affixed verso 600mm x 750mm

PROVENANCEAcquired by present owner from The Peter O’Connor Collection, Webb’s, 2005.

ILLUSTRATEDHenderson, Warwick, Behind the Canvas, New Holland Publishing; Auckland, 2012, p. 40.

$8,000 - $12,000

7

38 CATALOGUE 357

leo BensemannNelson Landscape

oil on board inscribed Leo Bensemann, Nelson Landscape, oil on board, 612mm x 840mm, 1965 - 1966 on Warwick Henderson label affixed verso 600mm x 830mm

PROVENANCEFormerly in the collection of the artist and passed by descent to the previous owner.

ILLUSTRATEDOtto, Caroline, Leo Bensemann, Landscapes and Studies, Nikau Press: Auckland p.40.

$15,000 - $20,000

8

39CATALOGUE 357

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dick frizzellTiki in the Woods

oil on linen signed Frizzell, dated 15/8/98 and inscribed Tiki in the Woods in brushpoint lower edge; Gow Langsford Gallery label affixed verso 795mm x 645mm

$20,000 - $25,000

9 Tiki in the Woods is a cubist cultural monograph: one through which we are able to glean valuable insight into Dick Frizzell’s early treatment of an image aligned with both New Zealand’s cultural identity and his own artistic identity.

Although Frizzell is most widely celebrated as an expressionist/pop artist, works such as Tiki in the Woods clearly demonstrate the extent to which cubism has been integrated into his practice. The form of the tiki has been rigorously deconstructed herein, the careful arrangement of severely angular planes pulsating and harmonising on the surface of the canvas. The work perfectly captures the paradox of cubism: striving for representation of form whilst, at the same time, existing in formal obscurity with no spatial or perspectival delineation.

In subject matter, Frizzell’s cubist handlings of the tiki form are precursors to his later pop-like treatment of this cultural image. Whilst these later works were frequently met with controversy, Tiki in the Woods values and thrives off the formal qualities of the tiki; this results in an absence of irony and renders the work one which, in a sense, therefore arguably upholds the essence and cultural integrity of the image.

RACHEL KLEINSMAN

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russell ClarkSeated Figure

limestone on rimu base dated 1957 and inscribed Seated Figure in ink on underside of base 330mm x 280mm x 270mm

EXHIBITED Joint Exhibition: Russell Clark, Stewart McLennan and Mervyn Taylor, Architectural Centre Gallery, Lambton Quay, Wellington, 1957.

PROVENANCE Acquired by the present owner from the above mentioned exhibition, 20 August 1957.

$25,000 - $35,000

10

Though small in size, this is an impressive work by Russell Clark from the period when subjects based on Maori culture dominated his art practice. Seated Figure has a strong affinity in pose and demeanour with a painting, Old Keta (in the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa), dated 1949, from the time of Clark’s first visit to the Ureweras and the start of his association with the Ngai Tuhoe people. The many attributes of this work together make up a culmination of Clark’s paintings, sketches, watercolours and sculptures that were inspired by rural Maori life. Using his acknowledged talents as a sculptor and his wide knowledge of the work of other artists, particularly that of Henry Moore (1898–1986) and Robert Nettleton Field (1899–1987), Clark played an active role in the drive amongst New Zealand artists to establish a national identity. It is significant that this piece was first exhibited at an exhibition in conjunction with another artist, E Mervyn Taylor (1906–1964), who was also deeply interested in Maori subject matter.

Clark transforms the natural squatting position of the subject into a sculpture in which the viewer can appreciate both the human and the artistic. The spirit and the dignity of Ngai Tuhoe and their strong connections with their land are what had impressed Clark. In Seated Figure, Clark has achieved a synthesis of this dignity and presence largely through the disposition of the arms and the placement of the feet. The arms work in unison to keep the head and thus the psychological/spiritual aspects of the figure as a major focus. They set up a circular movement which also balances the formal masses of the sculpture and leads the eye towards the head. The feet anchor the figure firmly on the base, alluding to the connection to the land. The viewer is acutely aware of a powerful presence carved from a block of limestone. The resulting organic sculptural unity of the natural and the abstract underlines Clark’s superb gifts of draughtsmanship, design and attention to detail. Purely abstract qualities of carving and design can be appreciated in the folds of the scarf forming the back of the head.

The folds create an active counterpoint of light, shade and texture to the smooth mass of the lower back. From all viewpoints, the figure has a unity of design and intention in which sculptural elements support the creation of character in a thoughtful, yet very physical, pose.

Seated Figure is a bold, definitive statement of a new approach to the representation of Maori in 20th-century New Zealand art. The subject is an unsentimental figure study from a particular time and place and, as stated by Michael Dunn, works from this period of Clark’s career, “rank amongst his major achievements”.

TONY MACKLE

Dunn, Michael, Russell Clark 1905–1966: A Retrospective Exhibition, Robert McDougall Art Gallery: Christchurch, 1975, p. 13.

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Colin mcCahonTowards the Muriwai Stations of the Cross

charcoal on paper signed Colin McCahon, dated ‘73 and inscribed Towards the Muriwai Stations of the Cross in graphite lower edge 280mm x 355mm


REFERENCEColin McCahon reference database number: cm001595

$12,000 - $17,000

12Colin mcCahonJet Out To Te Reinga

charcoal on paper signed Colin McCahon and dated ‘73 in graphite lower right 280mm x 355mm


REFERENCEColin McCahon reference database number: cm001594

$18,000 - $23,000

11

45CATALOGUE 357

Charles BlomfieldWhite Terraces

oil on canvas signed C. Blomfield and dated 1913 in brushpoint lower left 420mm x 590mm

PROVENANCEPassed by descent from the artist to the present owner.

$25,000 - $35,000

13

Charles Blomfield’s White Terraces depicts an environment now lost to the modern world. This is one of several important works from the artist’s career which helped influence perceptions of the landscape of colonial New Zealand.

The vast silica slopes of Rotomahana were a popular tourist attraction. Until their recent rediscovery submerged beneath the waters of Lake Rotomahana, they were thought to have been destroyed in the volcanic eruption of Tarawera in 1886. Blomfield’s depiction of the terraces captures the contradictions inherent in portrayals of regional landscapes from the 19th century; the landscape seems inhospitable and dangerous due to

the frequent volcanic and geyser activity, and yet the space, blue sky and overall majestic impression left by the scene is also suggestive of a paradise awaiting those colonial settlers brave enough to travel to the opposite side of the world.

The drama of this landscape, to which Blomfield returned repeatedly over the course of his career, is evident in White Terraces. The landscape has been portrayed as a tourist-free idyll and the painting conveys a nostalgia which only increased once it was discovered that the terraces were no longer in existence. For the modern-day viewer, Blomfield’s White Terraces also provokes reflection on

contemporary concerns over conservation and maintenance of the surrounding natural environment.

Images of dramatic landscapes are primary material used in contemporary marketing campaigns which promote New Zealand as a place where settlers from overseas can make their homes, or tourists can come for temporary visits. Blomfield’s White Terraces addresses the multiple narratives and mythologies inherent in defining and representing the landscape of New Zealand.

ALEKSANDRA PETROVIC

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Charles frederick goldieJustice and Divine Vengeance Pursuing Crime, After Pierre-Paul Prud’hon c. 1805 - 1806

oil on canvas signed C.F. Goldie and inscribed After Prud’hon, Paris and dated ‘97 in brushpoint upper right 320mm x 400mm

ILLUSTRATED Blackley, Roger, Goldie, Auckland Art Gallery and David Bateman Press: Auckland, 1997, p. 9.

REFERENCE Taylor, Alister and Jan Glen, Goldie: Prints, Drawings and Criticism, Alister Taylor Publishing: Auckland, 1979, p. 263.

$35,000 - $45,000

14

Justice and Divine Vengeance was painted while Charles Goldie was a student at the Académie Julian in Paris from 1893 to 1898. The school was famously resistant to avant-garde schools of artistic practice such as impressionism and, because of this, Goldie’s education at the academy placed a heavy emphasis on formal technique and realist approaches to figuration.

This work is of particular note because it relates, both technically and thematically, to Goldie’s monumental and highly celebrated 1898 collaboration with Louis John Steele entitled The Arrival of the Maoris in New Zealand (held in the collection of the Auckland Art Gallery). Like the aforementioned work, which found its

impetus in the French romantic painting The Raft of the Medusa (1818–1819) by Theodore Gericault, Justice and Divine Vengeance is based on a 1908 painting of the same title by Pierre-Paul Prud’hon, which was also a masterpiece of the French romantic period.

Works from this early, formative period in Goldie’s career – Goldie was just 27 when he painted Justice and Divine Vengeance – are characterised by an approach that is markedly more fluid than that which defined his later figurative paintings. Indeed, in both The Arrival of the Maoris and Justice and Divine Vengeance, form is convincingly described by knowing swaths that model tone without accounting for every variance in contrast. Justice and Divine Vengence

demonstrates that the heart of Goldie’s mimetic technique was an ability to expertly balance and manipulate ratios of colour.

Justice and Divine Vengeance is also noteworthy because it exposes the artist’s predisposition toward engaging with social and moral themes: Prud’hon’s original work was inspired by the ancient Roman poet Horace’s adage that “retribution rarely fails to pursue the evil man”. While Goldie’s controversial social commentary was a defining feature of his later Maori portraits, this is a rare example in which he engaged in extraneous themes prior to 1899.

CHARLES NINOW

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peter robinsonUntitled

sand, gesso and acrylic on paper signed P Robinson and dated May 94 in graphite verso 560mm x 1520mm

$20,000 - $30,000

16 Peter Robinson’s flair for clever, ironic cultural criticism is clearly expressed in this striking work. Through a process of appropriation, manipulation and reproduction, Robinson manifests an artistic ethos reminiscent of pop art. On the one hand, the repetition of a koru-derived form presents a visually tantalising sea of

dichromatic colour and uniformity. At the same time, however, it is also unmistakably evident that this Maori symbol has been simplified to the end that it is completely stripped of its significance. In Peter Robinson’s work, there is clearly a wry sense of humour at play.

RACHEL KLEINSMAN

Benjamin BuchananUntitled

vinyl adhesive on paper 890mm x 620mm

$1,500 - $2,500

17

michael harrisonUntitled

watercolour on paper signed MC. Harrison in graphite upper right 300mm x 205mm

EXHIBITED Hamish McKay Gallery, 2003.

$2,000 - $3,000

15

50 CATALOGUE 357

Colin mcCahonNumbers, Intended Tail-pieces for ‘Landfall’

watercolour and graphite on paper, pair signed McCahon and dated ‘58 in graphite lower right and inscribed 9.10.1.3.8.7.6.5.4 2.32.3.2.1 in graphite lower right edge 250mm x 205mm each

ILLUSTRATED Brown, Gordon H, Colin McCahon: Artist, Reed: Wellington, 1984, p.132.

REFERENCE Colin McCahon reference database number cm001028

$20,000 - $30,000

18 During the mid-1940s, McCahon kept a small notebook with him in which he made notes and drawings in relation to the use and implementation of the Golden Section. In this notebook, McCahon copied out a well-known passage from Plato’s Philebus in which the text’s protagonists debate the assertion that there is pleasure in looking at simple geometric forms and pure colours or in listening to clear musical sound. Specifically, the types of geometric forms discussed were those such as “a straight line, a curve, and the plain and solid shapes that are made by the use of a ruler, a square or a lathe” .

In Numbers, Intended Tail-pieces for ‘Landfall’, McCahon is clearly engaging with the sentiment echoed by Plato’s constructed dialogue. His augmentation of the numbers – i.e. with borders and in-painting – in order to create positive and negative spaces, indicates that this work is concerned with the politics and conventions of pictorial composition. By breaking down each number to a simple set of lines and arcs, McCahon has created a tension between the legibility and the aesthetic appeal of each symbol

and, in doing so, he raises questions about the appropriate function and purpose of image-making and aesthetic production.

As the title of this work suggests, the artist’s intention was that these symbols be used as tail-pieces for the Landfall journal; in his own words, “any page could end at any page number with a combination of these symbols, both to fill the gap and to state the page” . However, McCahon’s contribution was thought unsuitable by the then editor Charles Brasch and was therefore not used. While the purpose of this initial work was largely decorative, it became the impetus for a well-known series of larger ink drawings, each of which focused on a single number per page. When considering these larger studies, one can assume that the border around each number was intended to function in the same way as do the edges of a sheet of paper and that each small composition explored the potential of the number to serve as the sole focus of an entire composition.

CHARLES NINOW

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Colin mcCahonLandscape with a Road

enamel on board signed McCahon and dated ‘65 in brushpoint lower left; signed Colin McCahon, dated July 65 and inscribed Landscape with a Road PVA in brushpoint verso 610mm x 600mm

PROVENANCE

From the collection of the late Allen and Jeny Curnow.

REFERENCE

Colin McCahon reference database number: cm001593

$60,000 - $80,000

19

As McCahon was a studio-based painter, and because he did not make drawings for the landscape paintings of this period in his career, it is clear that Landscape with a Road does not picture any landscape in particular. Rather, it describes one that was conceived internally by the artist. The image’s execution was governed by a predetermined formal ideal and its final composition was defined by the artist’s handling of his medium and the aberrations associated with its fluid state. Realised in wide, flat strokes and with paint-soaked sawdust, the curvature of the hillside and the subtle arc of the road are as much informed by the sway of the artist’s arm as they are by their illustrative function.

The work presents the viewer with a minimal schema of narrative devices: the stark outline of a hillside and the exposed, rough surface of a tarsealed bitumen road. At first glance, the composition appears to depict a relationship between two diametrically opposed entities. Hard and soft; new and old; static and able to grow; man-made and from nature: the hillside and the road together inspire comparison with a raft of polemic conventions. However, while the formal and physical differences between the two pictorial elements are of importance, the painting’s foremost concern is to explore the way in which these two opposing forces mitigate one another.

Landscape with a Road directly addresses New Zealand’s unique geography and the way in which it has been used to sustain human habitation. The painting has a somewhat ‘nationalist’ mandate in that, even today, much of the country looks exactly like this picture: vast expanses of land interrupted by only occasional remnants of industrialised labour such as roads, fences or sown fields. For McCahon, however, who was living in the Auckland suburb of Grey Lynn, this scene was the antithesis of his immediate environment. Accordingly, unlike his earlier and later landscapes1, Landscape with a Road addresses the propensity of economic development and man-made structures to estrange human life from the natural world. The work does not condemn industrialised society outright; rather, it advocates the rural model.

Nigel H Brown has written of McCahon’s efforts to escape the “narrow regionalism that dogged most of the landscape painters… whose landscapes clung to the idea of providing… ‘a portrait of place’”2 . While Brown had specifically been speaking of the artist’s practice of the 1950s, throughout his career McCahon did maintain a reflexive awareness of the aesthetic traditions of his forebears. In providing the viewer with an image of the urban world’s ever-expanding reach, Landscape with

a Road sought to deflect the traditional function of regionalist painting. Regionalist practice established an aesthetic identity for the New Zealand landscape, which served as a reference point for urban populations. In addressing the ever-expanding human footprint on the New Zealand countryside, McCahon sought to update this self-image.

Predating the Necessary Protection series and the text paintings that the artist made in Muriwai from 1968 onward, Landscape with a Road is a noteworthy early example in which he overtly engaged with environmentalist themes. While certain works, such as the Gate series, which engaged with nuclear proliferation, had explored the destructive tendencies of human nature, works such as Landscape with a Road approached mankind’s relationship with the natural world in a personal, utilitarian fashion that avoided popular counter-cultural rhetoric.

CHARLES NINOW1See the Northland paintings of 1958 or the North Otago paintings of 1967.

2Brown, Gordon H, Towards a Promised Land: On the Life and Art of Colin McCahon, Auckland University Press: Auckland, 2010, p. 104.

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greer twissShow and Tell

lead, Tawa and lightbulb inscribed 2 1/2 with punch stamp on axe head; inscribed S & T with punch stamp on lamp shade Stool: 350mm x 330mm x 490mm; Glasses: 115mm x 40mm x120mm; Cup: 50mm x 95mm; Rose: 260mm x 40mm; Axe: 770mm x 155mm x 25mm; Lamp Shade: 230mm x 70mm; Scroll: 1050mm x 70mm; Overall: 1070mm x 1000mm x 1200mm

EXHIBITED New Vision Gallery, 1984.

Greer Twiss Sculpture, A SurveyShow 1959 - 1981, Auckland City Art Gallery, 1981.

$12,000 - $18,000

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“I’m interested in the way people see things and the preconceptions that they bring to things and I want [to make] works that disturb that relationship.” 1

Show and Tell belongs to a seminal series of works that Twiss made in the early-to-mid-1980s which sidestepped many of the concerns that had previously held his attention. Much of the artist’s earlier practice, which focused on the human form or spatial dynamics, had decidedly formal concerns whereas this later period saw the artist approach the conventions and potential of sculptural practice in a conceptual manner.

Presenting as an assemblage of ready-mades, the physical dimensions and visual weight of each hand-made object allow it to stand in effortlessly for its real-world counterpart. While the differences in colour, texture and material ensure that Twiss’ creations are not mistaken for the original objects, each does function as a simulacrum that allows the viewer to recall the conventions associated with the original object even though they are not immediately confronted by it.

Show and Tell examines the way in which we interact with objects and, in turn, the world around us. The work plays on the difference between concrete experience

and perception. Each of the objects has function that is innately related to the human body – some of these relationships are didactic (in the case of the screen), whereas others are supportive (such as the folding chair) or empowering (i.e. the axe or, perhaps, the wineglass). Show and Tell exposes the viewer’s predisposition towards each of these objects and also asks them to evaluate the personal significance assigned to each.

CHARLES NINOW1Twiss, Greer in Bruce Morrison (director), Profiles – Greer Twiss, TVNZ: Auckland, 1984.

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dick frizzellDrowning Woman

oil on canvas signed Frizzell, dated 20/9/2002 and inscribed Drowning Woman in brushpoint lower right 600mm x 600mm

$12,000 - $18,000

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paul dibbleLooking and Listening for the Sea; Monument to the Hinderlands

cast bronze on turned wooden base, artist’s proof signed Paul Dibble and dated 92, NZ incised on upper side of base Base: 1070mm x 560mm diameter;

Cast Bronze: 1100mm x 860mm x 375mm;

Overall: 2170mm x 860mm x 375mm

EXHIBITED Stories of our Fathers, Dowse Art Museum, 1992.

A Breath of Fresh Air, Bath House Museum, Rotorua, 1993.

$25,000 - $35,000

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philip ClairmontCorner of the Interior (Night)

ink and crayon on paper inscribed and signed P. Clairmont in graphite lower left 930mm x 630mm

$9,000 - $12,000

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philip ClairmontSelf Portrait

acrylic and collage on paper 610mm x 560mm $7,000 - $10,000

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Octofish

acrylic and polystyrene on paper, in perspex box 495mm x 430mm x 75mm

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nigel BrownTo Celebrate Particular Places, Particular Emotions

oil on board signed Nigel Brown and dated 1986 in brushpoint lower left; inscribed ‘Particular Places, Particular Emotions’ oil on board 1200 x 2080mm, Nigel Brown, Auckland in brushpoint verso 1200mm x 2080mm

PROVENANCE Acquired by present owner directly from the artist in 1994.

$20,000 - $30,000

26 Nigel Brown (born in Invercargill in 1949) completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the Elam School of Fine Arts, Auckland, in 1971. The following year, he married, moved to Titirangi and held his first solo exhibition. In 1980, his marriage broke up, and his main address now became a rented studio in Karaka Street in Newton, inner Auckland.

From the beginning, Brown painted in series, among them Driveways, Table and Bedroom followed by Trampers, Tour and Ned Kelly. From the early 1980s, he began to address social and political themes, such as the anti-nuclear issue, while his Past Lives now examined personal development and were inhabited by stick-like figures. In 40 Karaka Street, Newton, two such characters flank an oval composition centred on the artist’s interim home and studio. The old and somewhat ramshackle building, made more so by exaggerated perspective, is placed between a pair of cabbage trees and a crucifix-like telegraph pole. It is surrounded

by its own personal details and, significantly, appears accessible only by means of steep steps. The main message, To Celebrate Particular Places, Particular Emotions, is supported by dictionary definitions of terms, all suggesting a positive reflection on a location that played a significant part in the artist’s life during a period of emotional stocktaking and readjustment.

Similar images of Brown’s studio occurred in other paintings at this time. In Listen to the Women (1986), for example, his figures were in conciliatory mode, seeking to heal breaches within their own relationships and with society at large. This approach is echoed in To Celebrate Particular Places Particular Emotions where Brown offers a further perspective on emotion, defining it as “an effective state of consciousness in which joy, sorrow, fear, hate or suchlike is experienced”.

RICHARD WOLFE

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John toleAt Piha

oil on board

signed John Tole in brushpoint lower left 380mm x 480mm

PROVENANCE Acquired by the present owner from the Tole Estate, Webb’s, 1985.

ILLUSTRATED Henderson, Warwick, Behind the Canvas, New Holland Publishing: Auckland, 2012, p. 70.

$12,000 - $18,000

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robert ellisNear the City Centre

oil on board signed Robert Ellis and dated 1965 in brushpoint lower right; inscribed BL/10-1965/near the city centre, 91 x 122cm, Robert Ellis in another hand in ink verso 910mm x 1220mm

PROVENANCE Acquired by present owner from Webb’s, 1985.

NOTE It is likely that the inscription on the verso is the hand of Barry Lett of Barry Lett Gallery, Auckland.

$8,000 - $12,000

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seraphine pIckI Don’t Like Altered States

oil on linen, diptych signed Pick and dated ‘97 in graphite lower right; signed S. Pick and dated ‘97 in brushpoint lower right 395mm x 295mm

$7,000 - $12,000

29 The layers of paint in I Don’t Like Altered States fulfil two contradictory, yet intrinsically connected, functions: both to reveal and to conceal the complexities of the work. This duality creates a dream-line landscape, one which refers to memory, sexuality, pop culture, identity and narrative; all of these are recurring themes within Pick’s practice.

The unique symbolism of Pick’s art is herein communicated through words which allude to an alternate reality. Painted in thin layers and differing fonts, these carefully selected words float on the surface of the canvas, seemingly disconnected from the cloud-like formations layered beneath. These formations reference thought bubbles present in comic books and pop art, whilst simultaneously recalling clouds of condensation on a mirror or window, where

thoughts and words have been inscribed with a finger.

Pick’s intention is to express the passage of time, the fleeting nature of thoughts, dreams and ideas, and to address the confusions and interpretations inherent in memory and recollection. Lack of sight implies a lack of clarity, as if a translucent, painterly fog has descended onto the surface of the canvas. Pick’s previous diptychs, which, at first appearance, seem to be opposites of one another, possess similar painterly features indicative of her distinctive and individualistic style. I Don’t Like Altered States invites the viewer to engage with Pick’s unique symbolic vocabulary and attempt to decipher a meaning.

ALEKSANDRA PETROVIC

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andrew mcleodCamowhaiwhai

acrylic, pencil and letraset on paper signed A. McLeod and dated ‘99 in pencil lower left 1200mm x 900mm

$4,000 - $6,000

31rosalie gascoigneClose Owly

three colour silkscreen on grey arch 280 gsm paper, edition 1/60 signed Rosalie Gascoigne and dated ‘90 in graphite lower right; inscribed XII/XLV in graphite lower left; Rosley Oxley9 certificate of authenticity affixed verso 745mm x 485mm

REFERENCECommissioned by Biennale Director Rene Block for the Biennale of Sydney, July 1990.

$20,000 - $25,000

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32 allen maddoxDiptych No. 1

oil on two canvases (diptych) signed AM, dated ‘92 and inscribed Diptych No. 1 in brushpoint on each panel verso 1840mm x 920mm (overall)

$35,000 - $45,000

The elemental cross or ‘X’ has come to be widely recognised as a hallmark sign of Allen Maddox who spent almost 30 years painting lattices, grids and crosses. They are always and never the same as each painting presents a unique and matchless journey across a painterly wilderness that is as fashioned from a dynamic and diverse flurry of marks, daubs, splatters, drips and swirls of paint. This painting, like much of Maddox’s best work, precariously teeters on the edge of painterly chaos but it never descends. Instead, we are presented with a finely metered balance due to the rigorous use of geometric order and recognisable forms. The ‘X’ that marches across this work and much of Maddox’s oeuvre is a time-honoured sign that is redolent of love, kisses, negation and treasure. While potently symbolic, the intrinsically gestural quality of Maddox’s work allows each piece to operate on a purely aesthetic level that is just as enchanting as is its reticent narrative.

JEMMA FIELD

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marti friedlanderRalph Hotere - Studies Port Chalmers

gelatin silver print - reprint (photographer’s edition) signed M. Friedlander on FHE Galleries certificate affixed verso; inscribed Ralph Hotere-studies Port Chalmers, 1978 and Artists Studies, Port Chalmers, Dunedin, 2004. gelatin silver print, good toned photographer’s edition on FHE Galleries certificate verso 490mm x 400mm

PROVENANCE Acquired by the present owner from FHE Gallery, Auckland.ILLUSTRATED Hotere, Ralph, Bill Culbert, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Ralph Hotere: Black Light, Te Papa Press: Wellington, p. 119.

$4,500 - $7,500

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ralph hotereWoman with Flowers

ink on paper signed Hotere and dated ‘64 in graphite lower left; Wellington City Art Gallery label affixed verso 330mm x 220mm

$5,000 - $7,000

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andrew mcleodGolden Landscapeoil on canvas signed A. McLeod in brushpoint lower right 1000mm x 700mm

EXHIBITED New Work, Brooke Gifford Gallery, 21 July - 21 August 2009.

$9,000 - $12,000

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rohan wealleansGrey Lynn Boogie Woogie

acrylic on board 1000mm x 1000mm x 60mm

EXHIBITED Physical Education, Rohan Wealleans, Ivan Anthony Gallery, 2010.

$15,000 - $20,000

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Rohan Wealleans has a varied practice comprising paintings, sculptures and objects that aim to blur the lines between the disciplines. Wealleans is interested in narratives and weaves together many influences and ideas into his works.

Grey Lynn Boogie Woogie is exemplary of the artist’s exploration of painting and the painted surface. Small blocks of monochromatic colour dot the landscape of the surface of the painting. This intriguing topography is enhanced and made all the more interesting by the artist’s use of colour with his monochromatic palette. The many layers of greys, whites, blacks and neutrals are scraped and peeled back to expose the layers underneath, recalling the technique used by floor and wall strippers in the refurbishment of a house. These layers are then painted over even more: daubs of colour piled one atop another. This act creates a timely analogy for modern-day discussions around urban planning and this suburban neighbourhood which once housed the majority of Auckland’s artistic community.

The colours that Wealleans has chosen, ranging from the dark grey of the roads, to the stark white of the newly refurbished

villas, illustrate the neighbourhood. Wealleans uses these colours to create a multilayered narrative, his playful building up of a sculpted landscape on the surface of the painting therefore referencing not just suburban gentrification but also the ideas and techniques of the cubists and American abstract painters. Grey Lynn Boogie Woogie could be viewed as a Wealleans homage to Piet Mondrian’s Broadway Boogie Woogie, from his series of De Stijl works which ulitised colour in order to break down neighbourhood forms of the New York cityscape. The eye is drawn to many parts of the painting at once, and this almost-scattered approach to attention also echoes the artist’s range of interests and approaches to his practice. The peeling back of the paint in order to expose the layers beneath could also be an allusion to Wealleans’ interest in comic books and the narratives of science fiction. The peeling back of the paint could be a reference to the superhero peeling back his grey suit to expose the costume beneath. The dense layers and topography of the painted surface could be a reference to the hero’s urban metropolis, with gaps, nooks and points of interest located at every turn.

Through his use of the medium of paint, Wealleans has created a very tactile surface, a micro-environment that looks as if it has been created out of building blocks; it is playful and invites the viewer to touch it. When viewed from the side, the layers of paint resemble the inner operational systems of computers and other electronic devices. Wealleans’ repeated references to processes, both organic and artificial, add to the richness in meaning and the range of references upon which Grey Lynn Boogie Woogie draws. The paint acts as the DNA, the very building blocks of the work, and as a system for processing the many narratives and references of the work. This habit of bringing together various and seemingly disparate strands of narrative into a cohesive idea is what characterises Wealleans’ practice. Grey Lynn Boogie Woogie, as the pun-like title suggests, is an elaborate dance around ideas important to the artist and creates an intriguing narrative that invites repeated viewings, closer inspection of and reflection on its multifaceted nature.

ALEKSANDRA PETROVIC

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Colin mcCahonPortrait

ink on paper signed McCahon and dated Nov. 16 ‘59 in brushpoint lower left 760mm x 560mm

$45,000 - $65,000

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The impact of the sitter in Colin McCahon’s 1959 Untitled Portrait is made all the more tantalising by her anonymity. Taking his cues from the tradition of Picasso portraiture in the most fundamental sense, McCahon has drawn on basic cubist principles and engaged angular and perspectival experimentation in constructing the work: specifically, the sitter’s nose is shown in side profile whilst the rest of her features have been depicted from a frontal view.

McCahon’s choice of medium is particularly crucial to appreciating the essence of this work; executed in a thick, confident line of black ink, the portrait evokes a child-like simplicity in its manifestation of bold, black brushstrokes and facial stylisation. This renders a vividly clear and startlingly articulate depiction of the sitter in raw, pure form. At the same time, the simplicity of the portrait should not be overstated, as it is equally evident that McCahon has exemplified his technical adroitness and mastery of the medium through integrating enhanced tonality and shadow around the subject’s face and shoulders. This depiction of light is impressive given the technical limitations of working in monochrome.

The work is strong of form in the tradition of McCahon’s landscape paintings and

there is an elemental significance present in this portrait which is suggestive of his fascination and continued exploration of the physical, natural world. As the thick line dividing the bottom third of the canvas defines the sitter’s shoulders, so too does it recall the strong divisions of McCahon’s New Zealand landscapes which demarcate land and sky, heaven and earth. In a similar way, though the triangular lines and solid circle in this lower section of the work ostensibly represent the neckline of a shirt, they are also highly evocative of the natural forms which dominate McCahon’s waterfall paintings. This is a powerful visualisation of the connection that McCahon sought between the New Zealand people and a landscape that he saw with “too few lovers”.

McCahon’s positioning of the sitter at the forefront of the picture plane is direct and confronting, and invites the viewer to uninhibitedly engage with the portrait. Through this process of viewer engagement, the humanising aspects of the portrait are made manifest – the slight asymmetrical imperfections of her face adding an element of realism to an otherwise stylised work. Through the incorporation of this aspect of humanity and the presentation of his female subject as a bold presence dominating the

picture plane, McCahon thus exemplifies his ability to depict women in a manner where (unlike many of the American Abstract Expressionists he had been influenced by) the overriding sentiment is not one of insipid or gratuitous femininity, nor is there the unease of feeling that she is the passive recipient of a male gaze. In such a way, the sitter has not been submissively positioned within the frame of the picture: rather, she fills it and forcefully claims ownership of the canvas.

It is interesting to note that, though the sitter is unidentified, the date signed on the painting – “Nov 14 1959” – enables us to ascertain something of the conditions surrounding its creation: this portrait was accomplished just one day before McCahon completed the impressive work The Last Titirangi Landscape of his Titirangi period. Moreover, in both composition and style, this work recalls McCahon’s Portrait for Una Platts, also created in 1959 and housed in the collection of Auckland Art Gallery.

RACHEL KLEINSMAN

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liz mawAura

acrylic on board

signed Liz Maw and dated ‘01 with incision on upper left thigh 1330mm x 1070mm

EXHIBITED Jesus, Aura and Erebus, Ivan Anthony, 22 May - 15 June, 2002.

$22,000 - $28,000

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Liz Maw is interested in her subject, yet the subject of her work is rarely the person depicted. Her interest lies in using portraiture as a vehicle for exploring the meanings and symbols through which society turns images into icons. Aura references the postmodern contemporary condition of self-absorption, idolatry, obsession with celebrity, perfection and beauty. By focusing on the immaculately painted lines, smooth brushstrokes and tonal blending of the skin, Maw draws attention to the unattainable ideals of beauty that are often portrayed through advertisements and media: the skin tone of Aura is immaculate and blemish-free; her nails are painted; her eyelashes long; and her hair wavy and flowing freely with not a single strand out of place. As such, she appears almost mythical: a distorted symbol in the form of a strong, beautiful figure and exuding a potent sexuality – despite being painted in icy-cold shades of blue. This juxtaposition is subtly unsettling; the attraction and elusiveness of the model recalls the aloof allure of fashion models in

editorials. An implied consumerism through desire and beauty is the underlying concept and sentiment of the work, whose flawless surface qualities symbolise the persona of the sitter. In this way, Maw draws together postmodern and post-feminist discourse around sexuality and representation of the female form. This potential for creation of new life is constantly alluded to in Maw’s works, as her subjects are imbued with an enchanting and alluring quality which transforms them into symbols of fetish and desire.

The compositional starkness of Aura should not be interpreted as an aesthetic understatement; upon close inspection, the subtle details of the pressed particle board are revealed to be rich in detail, contracting with the meticulous control of the paint. Moreover, despite the vacuity of the space in which Aura is physically presented, the power and significance of the work derives from the fact that she does not exist in isolation, but actually belongs within the context of a much broader narrative. Her pose with exposed breasts and flowing hair,

for example, references the iconic New Zealand mythological representation of Pania who married Karitoki and became a reef which provided his tribe with fish. Simultaneously, her presentation references the richness of the art-historical tradition of portraiture: from Renaissance portraits symbolising the status and power of their sitters, to velvet paintings of mystical figures and icons, to contemporary depictions of individuals as iconic symbols of contemporary society. Other portrait works by Maw have explicitly referenced music and popular culture, depicting individuals such as Robert Plant and David Attenborough, and fellow artists Bill Hammond and Francis Upritchard, utilising the reputation and charisma of each subject, and transposing these qualities to the physical concept and meaning of the work.

ALEKSANDRA PETROVIC

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Zoomorphic Lounge belongs to a series of Hammond’s paintings, all created in the late 1990s, which further explored and expanded Hammond’s distinctive visual style, through the subject matter, as well as through the medium of the paint itself. An emerald-green world recalls a primordial landscape: a time before time, before settlers, before man. Hammond’s expert manipulation of our perception of space creates a setting in which the figures of Zoomorphic Lounge appear to float, suspended amongst the clouds; an erupting volcano is emitting smoke in the distant background of the upper-left corner of the work. A striking menagerie of hybrid creatures and shape shifters occupies this environment; some have human bodies and heads of birds, while another has the body of a whale and the arms and head of a human. It appears to float or swim through space, as drips of paint travel downwards, evoking data streams and binary codes from science fiction films.

Zoomorphism is the representation of animal forms and the transformation between them. It is an omnipresent theme, recurring in much of Hammond’s work: from the humanoids depicted in earlier works to the elegant bird creatures from recent years, which reference Hammond’s travels to the subantarctic Auckland Islands. It also refers to his reverence towards the endemic birdlife of New Zealand. Hammond spent the majority of his time in the Auckland Islands on Enderby Island, which was once the location of a whaling station.

Influenced by the works of Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Hammond utilises zoomorphism to provide an allegory to this very recent but almost-forgotten past. Other figures in Zoomorphic Lounge feature the heads of native birds, most notably the huia, which was driven to extinction by an overzealous trade in its plumage. The distinctive heads and beaks of these birds represent the spirit world; they also provide a visual link between the past, when these birds lived undisturbed and undiscovered, and the present, when conservation efforts are mounted in order to prevent the extinction of further species. The bird heads atop the figures of Zoomorphic Lounge appear godlike, even ghostly, with the two figures perched on a branch also having human heads, painted with translucent layers of paint. These human heads are Hammond’s reference to art history, to painters whose works he has closely studied, and offer another component to this richly layered work.

In folklore, the depiction of a bird acts as a symbol of a dreamer; the appearance of a bird symbolises the dreamer’s personality. When viewed in the context of Zoomorphic Lounge, however, the birds are the dreamers, lost in a trance-like state, preoccupied in their world and watched over by the ibis, while the human heads are the personalities of the new inhabitants in this bird land. The depiction of these dual heads is echoed in the figure located in the bottom quarter of the painting, whose silhouette references the mythological stone carvings found on Assyrian temples. The presence of this figure

within the work gives the optical illusion of balance, as well as providing a visual link to the figures located above. The figures of Zoomorphic Lounge resemble guardians of a paradise, an early warning system to perils, which are yet to come. The central bird creature, painted in thin layers of gold paint and bearing resplendent green wings, holds a crystal ball and appears to be effortlessly and gracefully perched on a pale-blue egg. This detail, when viewed within the context of the entire painting, could be seen as a symbol of an oracle, foretelling the fates of the other creatures in the painting. Far from appearing unnerving or unsettling, the scene depicted by Hammond is almost trance-like, calming and inviting. The creatures look as though they have a story to tell, or are engaged in the act of narrating over a beverage.

Zoomorphic Lounge contains a myriad of references, creating complex layers of meaning through Hammond’s imagery. Hammond alludes to the many strands of narrative, mythology and history through his creatures, evoking a rich visual syntax for the viewers to immerse themselves in and decode. References ranging from Renaissance painting and Egyptian hieroglyphs, to pop culture and science fiction serve to create details that require repeated viewings. Hammond’s knowledge and use of the medium of paint is also striking, serving to create a richly textured world, and a unique setting for the characters of the work.

ALEKSANDRA PETROVIC

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Bill hammondZoomorphic Lounge

oil on canvas signed W.D. Hammond, dated 1999 and inscribed Zoomorphic Lounge in brushpoint upper edge 2000mm x 840mm

$180,000 - $240,000

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dick frizzell1949 Tiki

oil on canvas inscribed 1949 Tiki, signed Frizzell and dated 5/8/92 in brushpoint lower left 630mm x 500mm

$20,000 - $30,000

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dick frizzellCountry Butchery

oil on canvas signed Dick Frizzell, dated 10/9/90 and inscribed Country Butchery in brushpoint lower right 900mm x 1210mm

$25,000 - $35,000

41 In Dick Frizzell’s own words, the New Zealand landscapes he painted between 1988 and 1992 were fundamental in helping “a new generation re-see the world”. Considering the rustic nostalgia of works such as the present depiction of an unidentified butchery, simply titled Country Butchery, it is easy to perceive the extent to which this sentiment holds true.

By the late 1980s, Frizzell had a well-established reputation as a painter, having thus far occupied himself with capturing aspects of New Zealand culture: casting an inquisitive eye on the world around him and creating works of a pop-inspired nature. Following this period of artistic establishment, however, Frizzell suffered what he described as “painter’s block”; this obstacle forced him to reconsider his artistic parameters and – culturally speaking – look

inwards for inspiration. The paintings which were subsequently produced took their cues from the New Zealand landscape, and exude a fresh honesty and pleasantly distinct nostalgia that marks them as Frizzell’s own.

Country Butchery does not offer a detailed close-up or analytical study, but rather an agreeable snapshot which appears to have been captured from the roadside. The viewer is left with the feeling of passing through – of driving along the road and turning briefly to appreciate the sight of the bright-yellow butchery perched on the edge of the road. The overall impression is, therefore, one of placid recognition, not just of the anonymous butchery, but of the overall sense of familiarity evoked by this quintessentially New Zealand rural scene.

RACHEL KLEINSMAN

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Charles frederick goldieMemories, Wiripine Ninia, a Ngati Awa Chieftainess

oil on canvas signed C.F Goldie and dated 1915 in brushpoint upper left; inscribed Memories, Wiripine Ninia A Ngatiawa Cheiftainess, Sale price £17-17-0, C.F. Goldie on label affixed verso, inscribed Memories, Wiripine Ninia A Ngatiawa Cheiftainess, Sale price £17-17-0, C.F. Goldie on second label affixed verso 340mm x 260mm

PROVENANCE Acquired by the grandfather of the present owner directly from the artist.

$200,000 - $250,000

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As is the case with this fine portrait of Wiripine Ninia, Goldie often painted his favourite Maori sitters more than once. Dated 1915, this work was created a few years later than were his other portraits of the subject which were dated 1911 and 1912; one example of these is the Te Papa version called One of the Old School. Here he shows her as a transitional figure attired in European clothes with a grey shirt and a green neck scarf whereas, in the Te Papa painting, he dressed her in a traditional Maori cloak with a prominent greenstone tiki. We know that Goldie kept a supply of Maori cloaks and artefacts in his studio which did not belong to his sitters who were paid a small fee for modelling them. Goldie’s aim for his portraits went well beyond catching a likeness; it extended to presenting an interpretation of a theme or sentiment based on his own ideas and preoccupations. In smaller works like those of Wiripine Ninia, he usually restricted himself to the head and shoulders so that the head became the main bearer of meaning and mood in the painting.

The word ‘Memories’ in the title is like a prompt to the interpretation of the portrait as Goldie intended it to be. He depicted Wiripine Ninia in old age with white hair and deeply wrinkled skin, furrowed like an ancient parchment that tells the story of her life – surely not an easy one! Studies of old age were common in late-19th and early-20th-century European paintings, especially those based on Rembrandt who was fashionable at the time with prominent critics and collectors. The psychological emphasis in Rembrandt’s portraits, enhanced by the use of chiaroscuro, draws our attention to the inner thoughts of his sitters as much as to outer appearances. By showing Wiripine Ninia with her head slumped down and eyes nearly shut, Goldie conveys the notion that she is lost in thoughts and memories of times past. For her, the present-day world, changed by the arrival of the pakeha and modernisation, is less real than was the world when she and her people were in control of their land and culture. She becomes a potent symbol for the ending of an era. Goldie evoked this idea

many times and spelled out his meaning in his famous large-scale portrait of Ina Te Papatahi, 1906, which is in the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, with the extended title: The Memory of What Has Been and Never More Will Be. By wearing European-style clothing with her traditional chin moko and greenstone ear pendant, Wiripine Ninia appears caught between the old and new worlds, but with her dignity and mana intact.

Goldie brings us up close to Wiripine Ninia’s head by drawing it to fill most of the canvas. His skilful, illusionistic technique allows us to study every detail of her chiselled moko and wrinkled skin with a tactile quality that makes her reverie seem vivid and real. In choosing the profile view of her head, he adds to the dignity of his sitter, a cheftainess, by echoing the regal profile portraits of Queen Victoria and King Edward VII on imperial coinage. Memories is an accomplished and authoritative portrait by Goldie at the peak of his prowess.

MICHAEL DUNN

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Art historian Bernard Smith appositely described Michael Smither as an “artist who uses paintings as a language which reveals every aspect of his personal experience”. This statement rings particularly true when one considers the present work, an intimately theatrical portrayal of Smither’s daughter which was painted during his time at The Gables in New Plymouth. For Smither, the construction of familial scenes began a decade earlier in 1964, when his eldest child, Sarah – the subject of the present work – was born. Sarah’s birth marked the beginning of a new artistic divergence for Smither, whose subsequent observation-inspired domestic narratives are among his most celebrated works.

There is a tangible element of human warmth and emotive intimacy present in Portrait of Sarah: a work whose viewing experience is governed by an acute awareness of the paternal/filial relationship present between both painter and subject, and the two painted figures. This sentiment of fatherly tenderness enhances Sarah’s vulnerability and further emphasises the viewer’s awareness of her exaggeratedly petite stature in comparison to the adult form of her father behind her. Despite the

familial closeness of this scene, however, it is crucial to acknowledge that Smither yields no stylistic deference to sentimentality: on the contrary, the tender undertones of the work are brilliantly tempered by the stark, almost jarring quality of Smither’s hyper-realistic style.

Acknowledging the significance of this realism is key to appreciating the work: the carefully planned and tightly constructed canvas has been stripped down to its essentials. Vividness of colour, extreme linear clarity and painstakingly constructed treatment of human form therefore combine to effect a sense of contrived theatricality in the work. This is present, for example, in the careful point of Sarah’s right foot as she steps over a garden hose: her resulting stance a nod to the Ancient Greek contrapposto pose which, combined with her naked form, is reminiscent of Classicism. The child, all the while, remains visually and literally grounded in the present day by the anchor of her bright-red gumboots.

Despite the physical proximity of father and daughter in this work, there is a psychological disconnect which renders their stories separate. Close examination of

Smither’s figure reveals that he is engaged in a reflective contemplation of a seed he holds tenderly in his hands: a symbol of parental nurture and a reminder of the journey of guardianship he has undertaken from the earliest stage of his child’s existence. Moreover, imbuing the work with subtle religious undertones, Smither has also appropriated the gesture of John the Baptist, pointing with his forefinger to the heavens and implying an even more symbolic, potentially parable-based significance for the seed in his hand and the narrative of parenthood.

Michael Smither (born 1939, New Plymouth) was a founding member of the region’s Group 60, along with Don Driver. Smither’s distinctly consistent style of stark realism draws on the conventions of such seminal New Zealand realists as Rita Angus and Bill Sutton. Smither, along with a select number of other key New Zealand artists such as Don Binney, therefore represents the carrying forward and revival of realism after the tradition, which was established by the aforementioned nascent realists, lost momentum in the mid-1950s.

RACHEL KLEINSMAN

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michael smitherPortrait of Sarah

oil on board signed M.D.S and dated 74 in brushpoint lower right 1220mm x 1220mm

PROVENANCE Painted whilst the artist was resident at The Gables, New Plymouth.

Private collection; acquired by the present owner in 1977, most likely from Peter McLeavey Gallery, Wellington.

$150,000 - $200,000

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Colin mcCahonJump E16

acrylic on unstretched jute canvas signed C.McC, dated 74 and inscribed (E16) in brushpoint lower edge 930mm x 430mm

ILLUSTRATED Colin McCahon reference database number: cm001303

$220,000 - $250,000

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In its raw, abstracted brilliance, Colin McCahon’s Jump E16 invites the viewer to meditate on and engage with the questions of life: what it is to live and take risks, to plunge into the unknown. The immediacy and pure, uninhibited forms of this exceptional painting reveal much of McCahon’s existential philosophy.

In 1973, the return of gannets to their Muriwai nesting colony provided McCahon with the inspiration for the Jump series. The simple and beautiful image expressed in Jump E16 is of these fledgling gannets flying for the first time. Invoking the form of the island’s cliff face to frame the right-hand side of the picture plane, the completed work is a striking, bold composition which engages the viewer in a deep, philosophical and metaphysical reflection.

The reduced forms and flat picture plane of the work shape a palpably tense, bold and confronting tableau: one whose pithy title presents the viewer with a directive – a call to action: ‘Jump’. However, the painting is more than a simple invocation to follow the actions of the gannets and carpe diem. As with many of McCahon’s other works, there is a strong underlying spiritual message present in Jump E16. Whilst he frequently created religious-inspired narratives to convey these reflections and spiritual sentiments, in the case of the present

work, this has been more subtly expressed through the manipulation of form and colour: a uniquely New Zealand take on the tradition of Abstract Expressionism. The division between the upper section of the composition and the earthly realms of the landscape, for example, recalls the implied dichotomy between heaven and earth present in Barnett Newman’s zip paintings. The dotted line which diagonally cuts across the canvas of Jump E16 fades as it reaches the upper realms of the composition: this line is, in other words, not simply a tracing of the physical trajectory of the gannets’ jump, but a metaphor for the soul’s journey from earth to heaven.

Through the methodical deconstruction of forms to their most fundamental physical qualities, the cliff face and features of the landscape have become inextricable from the canvas and physical painted qualities of this work. In this respect, the work demonstrates McCahon’s awareness and sound understanding of European formalism, incorporating reductivism in a manner which reframes traditions such as De Stijl, Constructivism and Suprematism in the context of the New Zealand landscape. McCahon’s earlier Here I Give Thanks to Mondrian (1961) is another example of how this European awareness underpinned his work; it was an awareness which also

prompted him to engage and grapple with the ‘problem’ of contemporary art, abstraction and the fact that, in McCahon’s own words, “Mondrian, it seemed to me, came up in this century as a great barrier – the painting to END all painting”.

After its completion, the present work was exhibited as part of McCahon’s 1974 show Jumps and Comets: Related events in my world, and was subsequently sold by Barry Lett Galleries in 1974. The current sale of this work offers an exciting opportunity to obtain a museum-quality work by the artist, the standard of which rarely becomes available and has not been seen on the auction market since the mid-1990s.

Jump E16 has been documented as part of Colin McCahon’s catalogue raisonné (Inventory number CM001303).

RACHEL KLEINSMAN

Bibliography

The Colin McCahon Research and Publication Trust, “Chronology, Part 3: 1970 – 1978” in The Colin McCahon Online Catalogue, http://www.mccahon.co.nz/files/ Q_of_F-Part4.pdf

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shane CottonKiddy Kiddy

oil on linen signed © Cotton in brushpoint lower left, dated 1997 in brushpoint lower right 1830mm x 1520mm

PROVENANCE Acquired by the present owners from Hamish McKay Gallery in 1997.

$150,000 - $200,000

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Kiddy Kiddy is a superb emblem of Shane Cotton’s history period. Spanning nearly two metres in length, the painting’s impressive scale and densely charged canvas offers valuable insight into the bicultural politics and philosophy of Cotton’s work.

Between 1994 and 1998, Cotton’s artistic focus was on the creation of deeply and densely symbolic figurative tableaux such as the present work: canvases which weave rich and complex narratives of both personal and national poignancy. Bearing compositions of stacked, two-dimensional landscapes fronted by suspended motifs of an intricate and unique iconography, these works arguably represent the style most readily identifiable with Cotton’s artistic identity.

On a formal level, the aesthetic qualities of Cotton’s history paintings are a manifestation of his bicultural engagement: the technique employed in the compositional construction of Kiddy Kiddy recalling both the formal qualities of Maori figurative painting in its sepia-toned qualities and flat picture plane, and the European tradition of topographical landscape painting. In fusing these two styles, the direct inference and essential fabric of Kiddy Kiddy therefore breathes Cotton’s bicultural narrative.

The painting’s iconography draws on Cotton’s own heritage for inspiration, alluding to

stories, symbols and moments in Ngapuhi history to engage issues of cultural identity and challenge our understanding of the Pakeha /Maori cultural dichotomy. Various threads and elements have been presented as motifs suspended on the picture plane. The coiled eel, a symbol of Cotton’s Ngapuhi iwi, is one example, whilst the less subtle imposition of a copyright watermark over the landscape conspicuously points to present-day issues surrounding land ownership and cultural appropriation. Interestingly, this copyright motif has been repeated as part of the artist’s signature in the lower right of the painting: a pertinent statement which links Cotton’s broader questions of land and cultural ownership to the issue of the artist’s own personal identity and creative ownership.

Cotton also seizes the potential of language to function as an aesthetic tool. Kiddy Kiddy, as the work has cleverly been titled and as is branded onto the surface of the canvas, offers the anglicised spelling of the Maori pronunciation of Kerikeri. This is a direct reversal of the place name’s contemporaneous treatment whereby the Maori spelling is conferred with the English pronunciation ‘Kerry Kerry’. This speaks to the imposition of European convention on Maori tradition, as well as a tension and awareness surrounding cultural exchange in

New Zealand. The use of Kerikeri as a place to illustrate this point is significant also, as it alludes to historical tension between European settlers and Hone Heke at the Ngapuhi missionary settlement.

The sale of this exceptional work coincides with Shane Cotton’s mid-career exhibition at City Gallery Wellington, a survey focusing on his Hanging Sky works. Although these works represent a significant stylistic shift from the landscape-grounded narratives of his history period, many strongly echo the iconography of Kiddy Kiddy, conveying disconnected symbols and motifs in the tradition of the works of his earlier history. Particularly striking about paintings such as Head #!?$ (2009 – 2012), for example, is the way in which the richness and autonomy of each floating symbol carry that symbol’s own independent message and significance, much in the spirit of Kiddy Kiddy. Despite the fact that these symbols appear to be physically solitary, their common presence on the canvas means that each forms part of a wider narrative and is irrevocably linked to Cotton’s political message – as well as to the thread connecting his work over the decades.

RACHEL KLEINSMAN

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peter siddellCloudscape

oil on canvas signed Peter Siddell and dated 1987 in brushpoint lower right; inscribed Cloudscape 1988 o/c in another hand in graphite upper edge of stretcher verso. 455mm x 840mm

$45,000 - $65,000

46 Siddell’s practice is situated within the realist tradition, yet it is his treatment of his chosen subject matter that elevates a work such as Cloudscape and endows it with meaning. Siddell’s technical mastery of the medium of paint highlights the subject of his work, emotion and memory, neither of which can be represented. Siddell chooses to depict a selective reality, which could also be interpreted as an enigmatic hyper-reality, as every detail within the painting is applied with precision.

The distinctive villas located in the lower part of the composition in Cloudscape are devoid of human inhabitants. This omission imbues the work with a feeling of eeriness which is reminiscent of the loneliness felt when wandering through the streets when

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their residents have departed en masse for a coastal holiday. The vivid colours make the absence of humans even more striking and it is Siddell’s intention to draw attention to the altered topography and the facades in order to examine the viewer’s familiarity with the subject matter by making it appear unfamiliar. Nostalgia is also evoked through Siddell’s detailed villas, which seem captured in a moment of time. The subjectivity of memory and the changing urban landscape are underlying concepts behind the work, drawing the viewer’s gaze towards the seeming permanence of the villas overshadowed by a looming sky and an omnipresent landscape.

Compositionally, Cloudscape recalls the urban paintings of Ed Ruscha and Edward

Hopper. The contradictions of suburban existence are symbolically alluded to through Siddell’s portrayal of the sky. A sense of anticipation – for imminent rain or the clearing of clouds – dwarfs the landscape below, threatening to end the silence in the empty villas. The villas themselves disappear into the horizon in an orderly arrangement of grids and networks of trees and houses, unveiling the selectivity, skill and preparatory construction undertaken by the artist. When viewed in its entirety, Cloudscape appears to be a film still, seeking to capture mystery, ambiguity and subtle disquiet. The various levels of control, in both the medium and the composition, in Cloudscape also hint at societal restrictions regarding living environs and their balance

within the surrounding landscape.

Cloudscape invites the viewer to create, as well as decipher, a narrative, in order to gather meaning. Siddell draws attention to the urban environment, especially the villas, which recently have become highly desirable choices of abode. The sky acts as a metaphor for the unknown that is approaching, as well as a litmus test relying on the individual viewer. The work alludes to cinema through its scope and subject matter, especially to film noir in the exploration of light and the depiction of the sky which highlight the contradictions of urban existence.

ALEKSANDRA PETROVIC

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peter siddellMount Eden

oil on board signed P. Siddell and dated 1978 (2003) in brushpoint lower left 370mm x 920mm

$40,000 - $50,000

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ralph hotereNo Ordinary Sun

acrylic on two unstretched canvases signed Ralph Hotere and dated Port Chalmers ‘79; Hone Tuwhare’s poem No Ordinary Sun inscribed in ink across the upper and lower sections of both works.

3020mm x 980mm each

$250,000 - $300,000

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This majestic diptych, belonging to one of the most popular and admired groups of the artist’s work, his canvas banners of the mid-to-late 1970s, brings together two of this country’s leading artists in a major act of collaboration.

Ralph Hotere and Hone Tuwhare, painter and poet, were two Maori boys from Northland both of whom ended up living in the far South, initially as recipients of fellowships at the University of Otago – Hotere as Frances Hodgkins Fellow in 1969 and Tuwhare as Robert Burns Fellow in 1969 and 1974. In Dunedin, they soon began collaborating; Tuwhare’s collection Come Rain Hail (1970) has a striking cover by Hotere and includes the poem Hotere which comments directly on the cover design:

But when you score a superb orange circle on a purple-thought base I shake my head and say: hell, what is this thing called love Like, I’m euchered man. I’m eclipsed

The circle image, pervasive in Hotere’s work from the early 1960s, recurs in these monumental banners of 1979.

Long banners first appeared in Hotere’s

work around 1975 when he participated in a multimedia stage work, Anatomy of a Dance: Song Cycle for Sound Movement Theatre, also involving composers, dancers and the poetry of Bill Manhire. The banners were painted with (for Hotere) unprecedented and career-changing expressionistic freedom, and consisted of strips of loose canvas marked with linear patterns and with Manhire’s enigmatic poems inscribed on raw canvas at top and bottom. They were subsequently exhibited separately as Song Cycle in Auckland and Dunedin in 1976. Rodney Wilson commented on a remarkable feature of their making in Art New Zealand 2 (1976): “Hotere had exposed the banners for up to two weeks at a time to the elements. Sun has blazed on them or rain has worn at them eroding carefully and strictly defined forms”.

In 1979, Hotere was commissioned to provide three banners for the foyer of the new Hocken Library building at the University of Otago. These enormous works, almost five metres long, hang side by side with the words of Tuwhare’s poem, Rain, distributed along the bottoms of the three panels.

In the same year, Hotere made these two

banners of another Tuwhare poem, No Ordinary Sun, on identical 3 x 1 metre canvas strips, the poem being written – utilising both stencilled and hand-written capital letters – on bare canvas at the top and bottom of each panel (as in Song Cycle). One of Tuwhare’s earliest poems (published in 1958), No Ordinary Sun became the title-poem of his first collection in 1964. Its searing environmental message would have spoken directly to Hotere who often articulated anti-nuclear sentiments in his work.

Hotere’s weather-assisted, speckle-and-splatter technique covers the banners (apart from black borders and the tops and bottoms which carry the text) with a blinding snowstorm of multicoloured, though predominantly creamy-white, paint into which two perfect circles are inscribed, as if the ‘radiant ball’ – in Tuwhare’s phrase – of the sun (or fission fireball) was seen through the toxic atmosphere of a nuclear winter. Others may prefer a more abstract reading of this consummately powerful work.

PETER SIMPSON

No Ordinary Sun

Tree let your arms fall:raise them not sharply in supplicationto the bright enhaloed cloud.Let your arms lack toughness andresiliance for this is no mere axeto blunt nor fire to smother.

Your sap shall not rise againto the moons pull.No more incline a deferential headto the wind’s talk, or stirto the tickle of coursing rain.

Your former shaginess shall not bewreathed with the delightful flightof birds nor shieldnor cool the adour of unheedinglovers from the monstrous sun.

Tree let your naked arms fallnor extend vain entreaties to the radiant ball.This is no gallant monsoon’s flash,no dashing trade wind’s blast.The fading green of your magicemanations shall not make pure againthese polluted skies . . . for thisis no ordinary sun.

O treein the shadowless mountainsthe white plains andthe drab sea flooryour end at last is written

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tony fomisonVulcan the Ugly, Making Something Beautiful

oil on hessian on board signed Fomison, dated 1982 and inscribed “Vulcan” in graphite on segment of original frame affixed verso, inscribed Started 13.6.81 and Finished 28 (remainder of inscription illegable) verso, Ferner Gallery of Fine Art label affixed verso and inscribed Tony Fomison, Vulcan the Ugly, Making Something Beautiful, 1981-82, $500 in another hand on label affixed verso 370mm x 260mm

$25,000 - $35,000

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Trevor Moffitt

Goodbye Mum

oil on board signed Moffitt and dated ‘80 in brushpoint lower right; signed Trevor Moffitt in brushpoint upper left verso 780mm x 1160mm

PROVENANCE Acquired from the present owner from Brooke Gifford Gallery, Christchurch in 1980.

EXHIBITED My Father, Brooke Gifford Gallery, Christchurch, 1980.

ILLUSTRATED Ronayne, Chris. Trevor Moffitt: A Biography, David Ling Publishing: Auckland, 2006, centre spread.

$45,000 - $55,000

50 This series My Father’s Life, to which this work belongs to, was divided into three parts; the first covering the subject’s life up to and including the events of 1914–1918. When war broke out, Bert Moffitt, late father of Trevor Moffitt (born 1898) sailed off to join several of his brothers who had already left for service overseas. Paintings in this section covered military training (Learning to Kill for the King), returning home (Greeting Mother) and, in particular, the departure (Goodbye Mum).

Bert was one of some 103,000 New Zealanders dispatched overseas, 16,554 of whom did not return. Goodbye Mum presents the soldiers on board their troopship, their distinctive lemon-squeezer hats standing out in a sea of regulation khaki. The men lack discernible individual features, while their anxious expressions and diffident farewells add to the melancholy air. Painted in Moffitt’s characteristically robust and broad-brush manner, these men have been reduced to the bare essentials: universal soldiers steaming off to a distant conflict and an uncertain future.

Back home from the war, Bert Moffitt worked as a rural labourer (as recorded in Going Rabbiting and Loading Out) and struggled to provide for his family through the Depression. His experiences were hardly atypical for the times and, as seen in My Father’s Life, he represented a sort of Kiwi Everyman.

These paintings dealt with prevailing attitudes, as well as the physical nature of day-to-day work and survival, and the more simple aspects of home life. Goodbye Mum is a key image within a unique series in New Zealand: an extended examination of family dynamics and circumstances.

Another such painting captured a later landmark event in the Moffitt household, when Trevor announced his intention to become an artist. In No Son of Mine Goes to University (1982, in the collection of Christchurch Art Gallery), Bert lays down the law and vents his feelings on the matter of higher education. Fortunately, his resolute son stuck to his guns and left home for art school in Christchurch. Some 51 years after that inter-generational showdown, Trevor Moffitt would be described as “arguably New Zealand’s leading narrative painter”1 and he is now represented in over 20 public collections throughout the country.

RICHARD WOLFE1Ronayne, Chris. Trevor Moffitt: A Biography, David Ling Publishing: Auckland, 2006, dustjacket, pp. 203–205.

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Trevor Moffitt

Greeting Mother

oil on board signed Moffitt and dated ‘79 in brushpoint upper right; inscribed ‘Greeting Mother’, No 25 and $300 in graphite verso, Elva Bett Gallery stamp applied upper right verso 650mm x 445mm

PROVENANCE Acquired by the present owner from Brooke Gifford Gallery, Christchurch in 1980.

EXHIBITED My Father, Brooke Gifford Gallery, Christchurch, 1980.

ILLUSTRATED Ronayne, Chris, Trevor Moffitt: A Biography, David Ling Publishing: Auckland, 2006, centre spread

$9,000 - $12,000

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michael smither

Stones in a Blue Bottle

oil on board signed MDS and dated ‘96 in brushpoint upper right 337mm x 375mm

ILLUSTRATED

Gribben, Trish, Michael Smither: Painter, Ron Sang Publishing: Auckland, 2004, p. 239.

$20,000 - $25,000

52 Michael Smither’s domestic scenes of family life form an integral part of the history of painting within New Zealand. The paring back of the accoutrements of modern life to just the essential moments, thoughts, objects and people is what characterises the best works by Smither.

In Stones in a Blue Bottle, Smither chooses to focus acutely on an assemblage of seemingly peripheral objects from a domestic setting, and picture them in his crisp, lucid style with high-density colour. Smither’s depiction of the stones as little orbs of light, placed within a blue bottle, draws attention to Smither’s precise painting style. The colour, tone and shadow of the stones are seamlessly blended, with each stone looking like a perfect,

smooth, blue orb, devoid of any surface imperfections. By depicting them in this way, Smither imbues these stones with a subtle mysticism, enticing the viewer to contemplate the importance of this subject and the allure of the calming blue tones in which they have been portrayed.

Smither has recalled that his very first drawings of stones and rocks were motivated by the desire to steer his mind away from an acute toothache. In Stones in a Blue Bottle, the respite offered by this deliberately methodical act is incorporated into the work’s narrative schema; the act of viewing the stones, and the overall work, is meditative in itself.

ALEKSANDRA PETROVIC

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53 allen maddoxBlue Cross

oil on board Denis Cohn Gallery label affixed verso 510mm x 510mm

$8,000 - $12,000

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fatu feu’u

Vai Nu’u

acrylic on canvas signed Fatu Feu’u and dated ‘04 in brushpoint centre left; inscribed Vai Nu’u and acrylic on canvas in ink verso 1520mm x 1980mm

$8,000 - $12,000

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philip trusttum

Untitled, from the Tennis Series

acrylic on canvas signed P. S. Trusttum and dated 8.3.1994 in brushpoint lower left on second panel 1820mm x 885mm; 1820mm x 225mm; 1820mm x 820mm; overall: 1820mm x 1930mm EXHIBITED Warwick Henderson Gallery, 1999.

$6,000 - $10,000

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hiroshi sugimoto

U.A. Walker Theatre, New York 1978

photogravure signed H. Sugimoto in graphite lower right 280mm x 370mm

EXHIBITED Theatres, Sonnabend Gallery, New York, 2000.ILLUSTRATED Belting, Hans, Hiroshi Sugimoto: Theatres, Sonnabend Sundell Edi-tions and Eyestorm: New York and London, 2000, dustjacket.

Note: Accompanied by original artist-made brushed aluminium case.

$4,000 - $6,000

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andrew mcleodHenry Fuselli, Tribute 1

digital print, edition of 3 1190mm x 840mm

$6,500 - $8,500

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peter stichburyGlister

giclee print on Ilford Galerie gold silk paper, 32/50 signed P Stichbury and dated 08 in graphite lower edge 265mm x 230mm

$4,000 - $6,000

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geoff thornleyOchre Albus 1974

ink on paper on canvas inscribed and signed Geoff Thornley in ink upper right on stretcher verso 1090mm x 1090mm

$7,000 - $9,000

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gavin hipkinsSecond Empire (falls 2)

c-type print, edition of three inscribed B314=14 in ink lower left verso 600mm x 600mm

EXHIBITED The Valley, Hamish McKay Gallery, 12 November - 9 December 2010.

$2,500 - $3,500

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rohan wealleans

Study for Brainy Painting No.8

acrylic on paper signed Rohan Wealleans, dated 2008 and inscribed Study for a Brainy Painting No.8 and NYC in graphite lower edge 300mm x 220mm

$1,800 - $2,500

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A subtle humour permeates through the layers of paint and imagery within Seascape. The frame of the work acts as a portal to an alternate world, a rabbit hole created by the artist through which the viewer glimpses an illogical reality which is both familiar yet un-familiar. An odd assortment of flotsam and jetsam occupies the composition, including a shipwrecked figure, juxtaposed against a stormy background. McLeod’s application of paint echoes the furore and meteorological drama of the background; with thick layers of colour applied onto the canvas, creating a tactile surface. This is juxtaposed with the delicate, thin lines of the plants in the foreground, inviting the viewer to closer inspection. The odd assemblage of objects and figures, appear seemingly idiosyncratic, yet when the disparate elements are viewed together, resemble a nightmarish scenario of chaos and turmoil.

The dramatic scene depicted by McLeod references the works of Henry Fuseli, both through the colour palette and depiction of the central figure, who is portrayed holding a

plant. German artist Arnold Böcklin, whose dramatic portrayals of victims caught in tumultuous seas McLeod utilises as one of his many visual references. McLeod undercuts the intensity of the scene depicted with the selected assortment of objects; further highlighting the feelings of irregularity and strangeness which are evoked by the work. This seemingly scattered approach towards symbols and composition reference the works of Surrealist painters like Giorgio de Chirico, Max Ernst as well as Salvador Dali. The domestic and recognisable objects in Seascape are utilised by McLeod seek to evoke a metaphoric experience based of recognition as well as juxtaposition. McLeod doesn’t cover up the disparity in lighting and tone; further, it is highlighted in order to increase awareness of the irregularity of the scene portrayed. The viewer is engaged into composing a narrative, or several narratives, in order to make sense of the many disparate elements within the work.

McLeod is a collector of seemingly disparate images and references, coordinating them into an overall composition and creating a symbolic code for the viewer to decipher. His interest is not in the material properties of paint; but using it to highlight the symbolic juxtapositions within his work. The desire to decipher the narrative and symbolic code has been explored by many artists, as well as writers, and McLeod draws on this history of desire within his practice. The world created by McLeod deliberately blurs the boundaries between reality and dreams, highlighting the viewer’s subjectivity, perception and response to the arrangements on the canvas. The complexities created by the many images within the work highlight the visual aesthetic of McLeod’s practice and hint at a seemingly endless encyclopaedia of knowledge and research, ranging from technicolour posters, sci-fi films and literature, music and architectural plans, amongst many others.

ALEKSANDRA PETROVIC

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andrew mcleod

Seascape

oil on canvas signed A. McLeod in brushpoint lower right 1800mm x 1800mm

EXHIBITED Peter McLeavey Gallery, 2009.

$15,000 - $20,000

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“… from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, while this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.” 1

Boulder Bay is a real place. It is a small bay in Hammond’s native Lyttelton, nestled beside the much larger, well-known surf beach of Taylors Mistake. Along the water’s edge, only a thin strip of jagged, rocky beach separates the ocean from the few small holiday homes tucked in beneath the surging hillside. With its high wind chill and inhospitable bedrock, Boulder Bay is essentially a blank slate; the area has not been exposed to high levels of human traffic and it is not home to any dominant fauna. The area’s isolation has ensured that it has remained largely inaccessible to outside influence and, because of its unique environmental conditions, it has been proposed as the ideal site for the development of an, as yet, uninitiated colony of white-flippered penguins (an endangered

species native to the Christchurch area).

Boulder Bay takes this proposal to introduce a new species of bird to the area as its conceptual impetus. The political implications surrounding the evolution and development of bird species has been a pre-eminent focus of the artist’s mid-practice and this proposed, real-life event near the artist’s home mirrored many of the fictitious events that he had depicted in his paintings over the previous decade. The floating avian figures receding back towards the horizon line suggest the path of a species from elsewhere into the bay, whilst the different variations on bird-like figures in the foreground allude to the potential for a species to assume higher evolutionary forms if left to develop without predatory interruptions.

This painting is not, however, a simple ode to the preservation of the species; there is a wry commentary on the forces of nature offered by Hammond’s inclusion of a slender, skull-headed figure in the centre of the picture plane. The serpentine beast’s curled tail refers to the ‘golden ratio’ – the natural rule which governs the proportions and patterns by which living beings must grow. Specifically, the tail mimics the form

and proportion of a sea shell or a native fern frond: two natural spiral shapes whose volume progressively increases by a ratio of one-third as it develops. The skull has an ominous, foreboding quality drawing on obvious symbolic connotations (as a signifier for death and danger). On the whole, the figure references the unwritten and uncompromising laws that govern the natural world.

The figure’s presence sees Hammond ruminate on Darwin’s adages that “as new species in the course of time are formed through natural selection, others will become rarer and rarer, and finally extinct” and that “forms which stand in closest competition with those undergoing modification and improvement will naturally suffer most” .2 In Boulder Bay, the artist posits that, in a world where every existing species is vying for domination, the constant extinction of life forms is an unavoidable casualty of environmental equilibrium

CHARLES NINOW1 Darwin, Charles, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, John Murray: London, 1859, p. 490.

2 Ibid.

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Bill hammondBoulder Bay 6

oil on canvas signed W.D Hammond, dated 2001 and inscribed Boulder Bay 6 in brushpoint lower left; inscribed W D Hammond, Boulder Bay 6, 2001, oil on canvas, 400 x 600 on printed Michael Lett label affixed verso 400mm x 600mm

$45,000 - $65,000

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seraphine pickCareworn

oil on linen signed Seraphine Pick and dated 2006 in brushpoint lower right 1070mm x 970mm

EXHIBITED Seraphine Pick, Brooke Gifford Gallery, 28 November - 23 December 2006.

$20,000 - $25,000

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Seraphine Pick carefully constructed her artistic existence within the balance of the surreal and the other-worldly, and her works reflect a delicately constructed universe where intense spatial distortion and a transformative treatment of perspective contribute to a sense of non-referential obscurity. This is very much the case with Careworn, where the gravitas of a blindfolded 1950s’ housewife in the foreground is enhanced by a jarring manipulation of scale. With a palpable burden of anxiety and discomfort weighing on this figure and permeating the atmosphere of the painting, a grey suffusion envelopes two evanescent figures present at the angular intersection of two white walls: bemusing features of a secondary, disconnected narrative.

In the 2000s, Pick’s work underwent considerable stylistic transformation, developing into more intensely dream-like surrealist projections. Careworn forms part of a series of ‘blindfold’ paintings that she created at this time; the subject of the blindfolded female took its inspiration from 18th and 19th-century psychological forays into sensory deprivation, whereby blindfolds were used as tools for mental treatment and experimentation.

In considering that Pick’s artistic concern lies in the exploration of memory and consciousness, there is the possibility that the background narrative, in its dream-like quality, is an outward manifestation of the main figure’s own inner reflections. This would amount to our complete immersion in the psychological dreamscape of her thoughts: a notion both intimate and unsettling. The viewer is therefore prompted to question: who are the painted figures and what is the relationship between them? What music is playing on the record player and can our blinded protagonist hear it? The insight Pick offers us into this woman’s consciousness constitutes both a candid and a dissatisfying mental snapshot for which there is no obvious explanation. In this, there is a charged feminism about the figure in Careworn; through refusing the viewer complete control and comprehension of her story, Pick does not render her work a simple narrative where the viewer is in the position of power, but rather one where we are offered but a flashing glimpse into her consciousness, and forced to try and glean what we can.

In situating her figures in their own solitary psychological landscapes – into which the viewer is immediately and unreservedly

drawn – Pick also challenges the tradition of female portrayal in art. Virginia Were commented on how “her paintings read like extended essays or narratives about different feminine archetypes – the pouting femme fatale, the bored housewife, the innocent young girl” . This reflects an almost Sherman-like approach to the exploration of form on Pick’s part, with her characters drawing on the public consciousness of familiar images which stereotypically categorise what it is to be female: in this case, the image of a 1950s’ housewife. In taking control of and redefining these images, Pick provides a fresh reference point upon which meaning can be conferred. In her own words, these paintings are “open-ended images that the viewer brings their own stories to” and it is this approach which should be applied to the viewing of Careworn.

This work was exhibited as part of Seraphine Pick’s solo exhibition at Brooke Gifford Gallery in 2006.

RACHEL KLEINSMAN

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Bill hammond

Moa Hunter Cave

acrylic on canvas signed W.D Hammond, dated 2009 and inscribed Moa Hunter Cave in brushpoint upper left 900mm x 600mm

EXHIBITED Peter McLeavey Gallery, 2009.

$70,000 - $80,000

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Bill Hammond’s alluringly dark and brooding Moa Hunter Cave is both a lamentation and an illumination. The work offers an interesting departure from the elegant depictions of contrived anthropomorphic paradises which have come to be so readily identifiable with the style of Hammond; there is something intensely dark and sinister about this portrayal of a moa hunter’s lair.

Depicted near the entrance of the cave is the work’s dominating figure: an immense human-limbed creature, distinctly resembling the New Zealand Haast’s eagle, which kneels erectly in profile view and commands the viewer’s attention. A number of Hammond’s recent paintings contain similar depictions of these now-extinct New Zealand eagles, creatures which he bestows with the same sense of sinister pride that is palpable in the present work. On the whole, these stand out as gorgeous and distinct works, emblems of this gothically inclined period of his production.

Undoubtedly the most visually striking aspect of Moa Hunter Cave is the luminescence of gold ink which emanates and bleeds through the canvas, radiating into the cave and shedding light on the

minutiae of rocks and plant life, and the emerald-green chest of the eagle. The potency of the gold is such that, in parts, it reflects from beneath layers of green and blue, yielding an effect of stunning translucency. This use of light brings into stark evidence the viewer’s oppressively claustrophobic placement: rather than inviting us to gaze into the cave, Hammond has positioned the viewer within its deepest recesses, instead encouraging us to peer out alongside the predators in their natural environment, and feast on every available glimpse of light.

Setting the scene within the cool obscurity of a cave, Hammond has rendered this melancholy depiction of avian hunters as one which breathes a dank, dark death. In addition to lamenting the extinction of the moa, the broader cautionary ecological message links the painting to Hammond’s wider body of works, and demands further exploration of the relationship between humans and the environment. In recalling the extinction of the moa, the unavoidable fact of the Haast’s eagle’s extinction is also brought to the fore. The human limbs afforded to these predators manipulate our perception of, and question the role of humanity in, this process of extinction.

Finally, it is impossible not to take note of the atmospheric reverence which instils the chief eagle with a sense of spiritual aura. On dissecting this further, the many layers of Hammond’s non-denominational spiritual symbolism are revealed. Whilst the work’s situation within a cave is a conspicuous reminder of the visual device of the grotto in Christian art, the eagle’s stance recalls the Muslim sitting position for prayer. Moreover, the setting of the forest integrates Hammond’s awareness of Maori spirituality, a theme which has recurred throughout his work: the presence of the great eagle representing Tane, god of the forest. Remarkably, this eagle depiction was originally inspired by ancient Egyptian and Assyrian art; Horus, Lord of the Skies, was an eagle-headed figure which Hammond adapted to a uniquely New Zealand context. In this sense, Hammond has used the device of the eagle as a means of imbuing a sense of multilateral spirituality and recalling the predation and extinction of the moa; read the fragility and preciousness of the untouched natural world.

RACHEL KLEINSMAN

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66 allen maddox

Untitled

oil on canvas 460mm x 450mm

$5,000 - $8,000

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milan mrkusich

Meta Grey No.1

acrylic on canvas signed Mrkusich and dated ‘69 in graphite verso; signed Mrkusich and inscribed Painting; Meta Grey No.1 in stencilled paint verso 715mm x 715mm

$25,000 - $35,000

67 This work brilliantly manifests the essence and modernist genius of New Zealand’s master of abstraction, Milan Mrkusich. Mrkusich has herein synthesised the monochromatic grey of his canvas with abstract, geometric form, constructing a composition whose power lies in its timeless, spaceless resonance. The curvilinear motif of a squared circle was central to many of Mrkusich’s paintings throughout the 1970s. Though commonly referred to as ‘corner paintings’, these works do not derive their gravitas from the break in form at the corners of the composition, but rather by virtue of the fact that, in emulating a photographic corner mount, they frame, define and give focus to the viewer’s exploration of Mrkusich’s monochromatic expression. The present work, a strong and adroit manipulation of form and colour, also recalls his Bauhausian influence and architectural formation.

RACHEL KLEINSMAN

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Dale Frank’s abstract works function like a record of time which has been meticulously planned and captured through the artist’s use of materials. The highly reflective, varnished surface acts as both a mirror and a portal to a seductive, immersive tonal universe. The burst of colour, which envelops the entirety of the canvas, begins to reveal Frank’s subtle manipulations of paint and the intricate thought process engaged in creating this seemingly simple, yet profoundly engaging work.

On first impression, this work appears to have been created in a moment of artistic fervour, where the idea, inspiration and concept exploded forth from the artist onto the canvas. Frank has subverted this simplistic first interpretation by focusing his practice on the planning and careful knowledge of the medium of paint, in order to evoke and provoke the viewer. The surface of the work is evidence of this, as

the alluring tactile qualities of the paint are submerged below a glossy surface bereft of marks, dust or imperfections. Frank’s working methodology, including evidence of a carefully monitored and controlled environment, moves away from earlier works of New York-school artists such as Mark Rothko and Robert Motherwell, whose respective practices Frank references in his work. The deeper, richer shade of red, located in the right-hand side of the painting, could be interpreted as a product of automatism or the subliminal gestural act, as well as evoking a sensory experience. Yet this subtle differentiation in colour also highlights the dualities of Frank’s practice, and of the work. The spontaneity of the application is contrasted against the controlled and distilled, almost sanitary, environment in which the work is created. The colour, occupying the entirety of the canvas, is alluring, yet its brightness and intensity are

overwhelming. It is only on closer inspection that the tonal shifts in the paint become discernible; this is another characteristic of Frank’s practice. The meaning of the work is mutable and fluid, much like the paint, which seems captured under the solid, varnished surface layer and open to interpretation with each repeated viewing.

Within a slightly different context, the composition of this work could also reference the album cover of Loveless by My Bloody Valentine, whose album of distorted guitars and reverb also sought to create an immersive, evocative environment. The absence of easily discernible meanings is the concept behind the painting, as Frank explores the many associations and implied meanings in order to push the boundaries of visual and sensory experience.

ALEKSANDRA PETROVIC

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dale frank # - http://www.free-nude-male-celebs.com/leonardodicaprio/leonardodecaprio015.html

varnish on canvas signed DF and dated 2001 in brushpoint lower right; signed Dale Frank and dated 2001 in graphite upper left verso 2000mm x 2000mm

$30,000 - $50,000

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John reynolds

Alien Hand Painting # 1

enamel, graphite and ink on canvas signed Reynolds, dated 2006 and inscribed Alien Hand Painting #1 in ink verso 1010mm x 1520mm

$8,000 - $12,000

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John reynoldsAlien Hand Painting # 5

enamel, graphite and ink on canvas signed Reynolds, dated 2006 and inscribed Alien Hand Painting # 5 in ink verso 1010mm x 1520mm

$8,000 - $12,000

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ralph hotere

Towards Aramoana, Black Window

acrylic on board in colonial villa sash window frame signed Hotere, dated Port Chalmers, ‘81 and inscribed Towards Aramoana in brushpoint lower edge; signed Hotere, dated Port Chalmers, ‘81 and inscribed Black Window, Towards Aramoana, Les Saintes Maries de la Mer from the stables of Aurora Tce. VII Seven - RKS. Art Nov. Dec ‘81 in ink verso 1000mm x 900mm

PROVENANCE From the family of the late Rodney Kirk-Smith, director of RKS Art Gallery and the artist’s dealer and friend.

$130,000 - $180,000

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Towards Aramoana is a visual poem, imbued with a deep sense of spirituality and rebellion. The work was motivated by Hotere’s personal conviction to preserve Aramoana’s pathway to the sea from a proposed plan to build an aluminium smelter, and comments on both the impact of human habitation on the natural environment and the power structures that govern interpersonal relationships. Hotere’s engagement with contemporary political discourse is not, however, the only focus of Towards Aramoana; the artist is also exploring the formal qualities of painting through line, colour and composition

The recycled villa sash window frame is an iconic feature of much of Hotere’s practice of the 1970s and 1980s, and the obscured visibility is intended to critique the traditional function of a window. Hotere uses this recurrent shape to defy preconceived notions of openness and utility. Rather than presenting an idyllic landscape, the artist confronts the viewer with an opportunity for contemplation and reflection. The presentation of a vantage point to an outside

world which is denied to the viewer could be interpreted as a sign of rebellion, of foreboding, as well as a call for support. The villa sash echoes Hotere’s own belief that Aramoana’s struggle was emblematic of the struggle of tangata whenua.

The oppressive black paint is broken up by the white cross, which possesses both symbolic and narrative potential. The obfuscation that the colour black offers is diffused by its placement between washes of colour, which remain visible beneath the black and white gestural lines. Hotere had been exploring these formal concerns throughout his series of Black Window paintings, and these artist’s visceral markings, layered atop subtle fields of colour, explore the power of the human gesture and its ability to communicate with an audience. Upon closer inspection, Towards Aramoana offers a hopeful and positive outlook; one that is echoed by the events which occurred in Aramoana that led to the abandonment of the planned smelter. The idea of an individual facing off against a much-greater oppressor has

often been utilised in art, and Hotere’s works referencing Aramoana display an optimism, as the viewer deciphers the meaning within the work.

Towards Aramoana comes from a larger series of works that explore Hotere’s surroundings and the very personal connection between a person and the land. The topography of Aramoana is alluded to, as Hotere’s concern is not with representing the land at the heart of the conflict, but in reaching out to the viewer and communicating a deeper message about responsibility, custodianship and harmony between people and the land. By addressing the power struggle which occurred in Aramoana, Hotere brings to the forefront the necessity to preserve the surrounding natural environment, as well as the need for perseverance, optimism and determination, a theme which has gained prominence with the passing of time.

ALEKSANDRA PETROVIC

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andrew mcleodBudget

acrylic and graphite on canvas signed Andrew McLeod in graphite lower left 760mm x 760mm

$7,500 - $10,000

74sara hughes

Crash 6

acrylic on linen signed Sara Hughes in ink, dated 2006 and inscribed Crash 6 and acrylic on linen in vinyl cut text verso

910mm x 1860mm

$10,000 - $15,000

72 shane CottonMangarota

oil on linen on board signed Cotton and dated 1995 in brushpoint centre right 125mm x 175mm

$10,000 - $12,000

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michael smither

Lava Flow Cave

oil on board signed MDS and dated 04 in brushpoint lower left 1130mm x 1100mm

$50,000 - $70,000

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Painted in 2004, Lava Flow Cave continues Michael Smither’s focus on the Taranaki landscape and coastline, which has formed a significant body of works in his oeuvre that stretch back to the 1960s. Many of Smither’s most-acclaimed and coveted paintings feature the round stones, rocky shorelines and aquatic environments of the Taranaki region. Smither spent much of his life in New Plymouth and his intimate and extensive knowledge of the district has meant that it repeatedly surfaces as the focal point of his painterly works. Appearing to have been taken directly from nature, these paintings are, in fact, often drawn from memory or based on a combination of drawings and various viewpoints; this results in paintings that are wholly unique and individual.

As one of New Zealand’s most-celebrated, realist painters, Smither has a vision of nature that is highly stylised and personal. Taking nature as his starting point, Smither invariably interprets his chosen scene through unusual, slightly skewed vantage points. Using clear directional lighting, he flattens and simplifies his forms and then translates them onto the canvas through a palette of high-keyed colour that is at once

intensely concentrated yet remarkably congruous. Thus, in this manner which has become indelibly associated with Smither, Lava Flow Cave is completed through an unexpected viewpoint with the spectator be-ing positioned in very close proximity to the pool of water and directly over it so that we immediately peer down into its cool, tranquil depths. As a result, the present painting possesses an almost-abstract quality since, by cropping out all contextual information, Smither has ostensibly left us with a patch-work of painterly forms. Although the forms in Lava Flow Cave are all instantly recogni-sable and familiar, the painting simultane-ously maintains a mythical other-worldly element, offering a glimpse into an unparal-leled, kaleidoscopic whirlpool of chromatic enchantment.

It is testament to Smither’s controlled aptitude for close observation and his deft handling of paint that such seemingly mun-dane subject matter as rocks, hardened lava and flat pools of water, can be both a source of enduring inspiration and one that he is able to imbue with a celestial, captivating and almost dream-like quality. Harking back to his earlier rock-pool paintings, Lava Flow

Cave offers the viewer an extreme close-up of an intricately detailed, motionless rock pool that is encircled by a halo of solidified lava flow. The array of smooth, round rocks, which are like oversized pebbles, and the rough, textured bands of hardened lava completely dominate the work. The pres-ence and erosion of the lava stream and the lustrous, rounded edges of the stones testify to the energetic dynamism of both land and sea, which is then contrasted against Smither’s painterly technique. Executed in an exceptionally even and polished manner that leaves little trace of the artist’s brush, Lava Flow Cave offers a quiet recess from the tumult of wind, tidal movement and hu-man interference. The glassy body of water is almost imperceptible save for the patch of reflected light, while dappled segments of sapphire, moss-green, indigo and lilac hues provide the painting with an inviting irides-cence. The strikingly simple composition in tandem with the confident application of paint produces a work that is principally and fundamentally Smither. JEMMA FIELD

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ralph hotere

Kind of Blue

lacquer and acrylic on corrugated iron with cast pewter mountings 2500mm x 1780mm

PROVENANCE Accompanied by a letter of authenticity from the commissioning agent, Mary Vavasour, Vavasour Godkin Gallery. Commissioned by Mary Vavasour for the present owner through Sue Crockford Gallery.

$100,000 - $130,000

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Born of the dynamic and demonstrative three-dimensionality afforded by corrugated iron, Kind of Blue rhythmically lurches out to meet and confront the viewer in all its tactility of form. Pewter nails, accenting the work at regular intervals along the top and bottom of the iron sheet, precisely adorn Hotere’s dark creation as if dotted along a landscape, at once offering a visual anchor and a sense of utility which recalls the function of corrugated iron. The work itself implies meaning through its title, which is a reference to the iconic Miles Davis jazz album Kind of Blue, and Hotere has recaptured this phrase to draw attention to the colouring and deeper potent symbolism of his work.

Of the two exacting perpendicular incisions which carve out strips in the corrugated iron, the horizontal appears to have been frozen in a moment of growth: arrested and yet threatening to continue razing its way across the metal. Both lines intersect to compose the unmistakeable shape of a cross: a form composed of negative space and holding a timeless, spaceless resonance, whilst closely aligned to and recalling the charged imagery of the crucifix. The painted blue key from which the horizontal incision is born also serves as a symbol, prompting reflection on ownership of and connection to the land and recalling the use of the key

as a papal motif in Hotere’s earlier Avignon paintings. A critical dialogue, the work highlights the politics of the marginalisation of Maori in New Zealand and goes to the heart of Hotere’s artistic ethos. As the strips create a powerful negative space dividing the work, they also mark a glaring gash in the rippling perfection of the sheet of iron: a powerful national metaphor for the physical act of bulldozing and defiling land.

Hotere’s awareness of broader European art-historical tradition and movements greatly influenced his work and shaped him as a master of minimalism, giving his artistic existence a wonderfully rich contextualisation which allowed him – as the first Maori painter to have been written into a history of art – to develop a biculturally integrated approach to his work. Kind of Blue strongly recalls something of Italian spatialist Lucio Fontana’s concetto spaziale works, where the emotive potency exists not in the work’s physicality, but in the absence of space created through the iconoclastic act of cutting the canvas. It is such potency of anti-form that gives greatness to the present work of Hotere’s, where the desecration and division of the iron also constitutes an articulation of the implied action in his own earlier geometric works, where perfect-slit crosses appeared to pierce through the canvas (think Red on

Black, 1969, in the collection of Auckland Art Gallery).

Despite the consciousness of European form and tradition which shaped Hotere’s artistic identity, it is important to understand that he did not adopt European techniques unreservedly, but rather assumed an informed awareness through which his own unique approach and artistic language was able to thrive in a New Zealand context. To realise this, consider the eloquent and all-consuming black of the present work – this not only represents Hotere’s signature expression of minimalistic infinity, but also is an evocation and adoption of the formal fundamentals of Maori painting, the sobriety of his palette reflecting colours associated with traditional Maori art. The unravelling of the horizontal strip of metal across the canvas similarly offers a dynamicity of form which directly recalls the identifiably New Zealand image of an unfurling fern frond: a symbol of new life. Fundamentally, the very fabric of this work, corrugated iron, is also a typically New Zealand material which echoes the waves of the sea and calls to mind an explicitly local setting.

RACHEL KLEINSMAN

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Colin mcCahonNorthland Drawing

Indian ink on paper signed McCahon, dated April ‘59 and inscribed Northland in Indian ink lower left 630mm x 495mm

REFERENCE Colin McCahon reference database number: cm001263

$28,000 - $38,000

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philip trusttum

Garden Painting

oil on board signed PS Trusttum and dated 1974 in brushpoint lower right 1364mm x 1210mm

$12,000 - $18,000

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roger mortimer

Opunake

oil on canvas signed Roger Mortimer, dated 2010 and inscribed ‘Opunake’ in graphite on stretcher verso; signed Roger Mortimer, dated 2010 and inscribed ‘Opunake’ in graphite on canvas verso 550mm x 550mm

EXHIBITED Hapuku Lodge, Ivan Anthony Gallery, 2010.

$3,000 - $5,000

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adam lee

The Virtue

oil and acrylic on linen signed Adam Lee and dated 2012 and inscribed Adam Lee, 2012, oil and syn-thetic polymer paint in graphite upper centre verso 1120mm x 900mm

$6,000 - $10,000

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John pule

Nofo La Koe

acrylic on canvas inscribed Nofo La Koe, signed John Puhiatau Pule and dated 1999 in ink verso 2420mm x 1830mm

$23,000 - $28,000

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peter stichbury

Untitled

graphite on paper signed P.S. and dated ‘01 in graphite lower left 430mm x 310mm

$4,000 - $6,000

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peter stichbury

Untitled

graphite on paper signed P.S. and dated ‘01 in graphite lower left 430mm x 310mm

$3,500 - $5,500

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rita angus

Irises

watercolour on paper signed Rita Angus and dated 54 in brushpoint lower right 500mm x 700mm

PROVENANCE

Thought to have been acquired from Helen Hitchings Gallery, Bond Street, Wellington by Mary and Martin Pharazyn in 1958 and passed down by decent to the present owner.

$20,000 - $30,000

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This fine watercolour belongs to a numbered series of landscapes by Colin McCahon which were created in response to his new environment at French Bay on the Manukau Harbour. He had moved north to Auckland in May 1953 and was immediately struck by the wet climate and dramatic lighting of the area when compared with Canterbury. He recalled: “At this time, the bush and the harbour were of prime importance as subjects... the November light for that first year was a miracle. It remains an obsession and is still a miracle.” Painted in watercolour and gouache on paper, Manukau 2 depicts the harbour and background hills to the left and bush to the right. Above, a cloudy sky animates the scene and is reflected in the waters of the harbour.

Although it is easy to make out the landscape elements in naturalistic terms, McCahon’s painting has other concerns. The artist shows a modernist interest in the formal structure of the imagery as evidenced in the division of the surface by a scaffolding of curved and straight lines. These divisions have very little to do with nature and much to do with constructing a painting on a

two-dimensional surface. The lines animate the surface and refer us to it. They also help divide the surface into planes that are merged into one another by the technique of passage introduced into painting by Cézanne and the Analytic Cubists. In this technique, an opening, allowing one form to be merged with another, facilitates the transition between them and allows foreground and background to be interlocked. Cubism, and especially the work of Georges Braque, was of interest to McCahon at this time. He was especially concerned with making the painting appear as something solid and permanent rather than ephemeral and illusory. He noted: “In nature there are no empty spaces; the air between houses is as real as the air inside houses and the houses themselves...” In this painting, we can see this principle in action as the clouds and their reflections in the water are made to appear to be as substantial as are the hills and the foreshore.

A further aspect to note is the subdued palette which is restricted to mainly blue/grey and ochre tints. Rather than imitating local colours, McCahon created an image

of sky and water and the ochre of bush and foreshore. In doing so, he was once more following the example of Braque and Picasso who found that a restricted palette enhanced the objecthood of their cubist works and drew attention to their formalist nature. It is also possible to see in Manukau 2 the use of multiple viewpoints for, at times, we seem to be looking at forms like the hills at eye level while the harbour and bush appear as if viewed from above. This presentation had the advantage of freeing the artist from the constraints of conventional one-point perspective and allowing the element of time and movement to enter the work. All these ideas and more were to figure prominently in McCahon’s large paintings. Related works include the Towards Auckland paintings and the Kauri series. This is a fine painting in its own right and one that is of great interest because it contains fertile ideas that McCahon was to follow up in his later series.

MICHAEL DUNN

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Colin mcCahon

Manukau 2

acrylic on paper signed McCahon, dated Jan ‘54 and inscribed Manukau 2 in brushpoint lower left; inscribed McCahon, Colin, 1919-1987, Manukau Harbour, 540 x 740mm, acrylic on paper, 1954 on printed label affixed verso 540mm x 740mm

REFERENCE

Colin McCahon reference database number: cm000852

$55,000 - $75,000

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ralph hotereViolet IV

acrylic and brolite lacquer on board signed Hotere and dated Dunedin ‘69 in brushpoint lower edge; inscribed Violet IV in brushpoint verso; Bett-Duncan Gallery, Wellington label and Govett-Brewster Art Gallery label affixed verso 1125mm x 595mm

$70,000 - $80,000

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Much has been written about Ralph Hotere’s use of black. In Violet IV, it offers a metaphorical sanctuary with opportunities for exploration into spirituality, mysticism and mythology. Framed by lighter shades located in the upper and lower parts of the work, the central area of Violet IV lures the viewer into examining the sleek, glossy surface as well as the delicately and meticulously constructed circle.

Hotere’s utilisation of the circle brings forth a myriad of meanings: unity, infinity, regeneration and completeness, amongst many others of the Christian tradition and of Maori mythology. Many cultural fables have been passed down through time, claiming that the ability to draw a perfect circle is the mark of an excellent draughtsman or artist – as well of a conjuror, illusionist or shaman capable of revealing deeper truths. Hotere himself is a conjuror and an illusionist. The elegant, thin line tracing the boundary of the circle displays more than just the mastery of the artist’s chosen medium. The placement

of the circle within the composition serves an important purpose; the viewer is enticed to gaze deeper into the surface of the painting and spend time examining the composition, in turn, transforming the act of looking into something more meditative. The circle acts as a portal into another dimension, possibly alluding to the transformative power of an eclipse. Situated between the two planes of grey, it could be viewed as the faint outline of a planetary orb viewed against the night sky. Thus, the field of black is filled with potential. It is not oppressive, nor sorrowful, but optimistic and imbued with an intense spirituality, reminding the viewer that a dark night is a necessary prelude to a new dawn. The title of the work, Violet IV, also alludes to light. Despite the absence of the colour within the work, violet is one of the seven colours that together produce white light.

It is important to take note of the light reflected in the surface of the work, created with layers upon layers of brolite lacquer,

as it was Hotere’s intention to utilise the highly reflective qualities of the medium in bringing forth underlying concepts. The reflected image on the surface exists only for the duration of time during which the viewer sees it – this allusion to time is an important concept within much of Hotere’s work. Violet IV is therefore a document of a passage of time: not just of the time of its creation but also of the passage of time consumed with each viewing, and the passage of time in darkness before there is light. The universe existed in absolute blackness for a still-debated amount of time, a time before time until, suddenly, there was light, white, intense, blinding light and the birth of the universe. Hotere’s work acts as a document of time that cannot be accurately recorded as it is fluid and variable, and the darkness is an absolute essential in exploring existential truths and mysticism before reaching spiritual nirvana, complete with clarity, precision and light.

ALEKSANDRA PETROVIC

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michael smitherMoonlight Wave About to Invade Rock Pool

oil on board signed M.D. Smither and dated ‘69 in brushpoint lower left; signed M. D. Smither and inscribed moonlight wave about to invade rock pool and $250 in ink verso 1200mm x 900mm

$40,000 - $60,000

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Painted at the end of the 1960s, Michael Smither’s Moonlight Wave About to Invade Rock Pool comes from one of the artist’s most iconic series of work. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, these works cemented Smither’s artistic reputation and he came to be known primarily as a painter of pools and rocks. The rock pool paintings all feature a simplified composition consisting only of patches of water, clusters of smooth, rounded rocks in various configurations and occasionally, an indication of sea life. It is probable that like the majority of Smither’s rock pool paintings, Moonlight Wave About to Invade Rock Pool, is based on an amalgamation of several different views, experiences and drawings that the artist completed in Taranaki from 1965 onwards.

By dispensing with extraneous details and focusing on a relatively simple composition, Smither draws attention to the painterly treatment of forms. Characteristic of Smither’s early work is the use of an extreme close-up view that allows for the viewer to be looking down on the scene and up

at the breaking wave simultaneously. The gathering of rocks that frame the bottom edge of Moonlight Wave About to Invade Rock Pool, provide a solid compositional base, anchoring the painting against the crashing movement of the sea. Adding to the solidity of the foreground is the smooth, settled brushwork, which etches out uniformly polished rocks and a glassy pool of water, which gives way to a flurry of visible strokes that mark out the impending wave. This variance in technique works to underline the contrast between the concrete permanence of the rocks and the perpetual motion of the sea. The painterly treatment of the wave imbues it with immediacy that speaks of the raw energy and power of the ocean in its ability to disrupt, change and overwhelm all that lies in its path. In doing so, Smither inserts an air of fragility into the work, as the glassy calm of the water in the foreground is poised on the brink of disappearance.

In addition to the formal strength of Moonlight Wave About to Invade Rock Pool and Smither’s reductive approach, the piece is also highly symbolic. While

water is traditionally associated with the Virgin Mary, with purity and cleansing while rocks are often used as a metaphor for the steadfastness of Christ. In the present painting then, rather than being overwhelmed by water, the rocks can be seen to be renewed and purified by its continual ebb and flow. Sitting motionless in the water, the rocks are attended to by their own seamless shadows that are akin to inverted haloes.

The nuanced array of blue tonalities used in Moonlight Wave About to Invade Rock Pool, adds to the overall tranquility of the painting as shades of sapphire, indigo and navy make an appearance alongside darker shadowed areas, the bubbling white foam of the rushing wave and the ribbon of grey of ocean in the distance. The bold reductive approach seen in Moonlight Wave About to Invade Rock Pool, speaks of Smither’s confident familiarity with the Taranaki coastline, which allowed him to craft convincing scenes from a scattering of formalist elements.

JEMMA FIELD

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ann robinson

Puka Vase

45% lead cast crystal glass, 1/1 signed A.Robinson and dated 2002 with incision on underside of base 635mm x 170mm diameter

$20,000 - $30,000

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shane Cotton

Where Ya From Man

acrylic on canvas signed S. Cotton, dated 2011 and inscribed ‘where ya from man?’ in brushpoint lower right; dated 2011 and inscribed where ya from man in ink verso 760mm x 760mm

EXHIBITED Black Barn Gallery, 2011.

$16,000 - $20,000

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rita angus

Farm Buildings in a Landscape and Landscapeoil on canvas, double sided inscribed Two oil sketches by Rita Angus in brushpoint lower right verso, likely in another hand verso 250mm x 350mm

PROVENANCE

Collection of the Bensemann family. Gifted to Leo Bensemann by Rita Angus.

$35,000 - $55,000

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VERSO

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philip Clairmont

Untitledacrylic on paper 1050mm x 750mm

$14,000 - $18,000

91 This untitled painting by Philip Clairmont was made after his return to New Zealand in late 1983. Overseas, Clairmont had seen the work of his idols in the flesh, finally. The influences of Bacon, Beckmann and neo-expressionism in general are vividly encapsulated in this work.

The work was found in the studio after the artist’s untimely death and comes from his estate. Dark, bold lines and expressive imagery speak to the anarchistic punk aesthetic and associated counter-cultural music of The Clash, presaging that Orwellian year, 1984.

In addition to the enigmatic figure that is the work’s central focus, the painting includes a vibrant depiction of a heart. This symbol was synonymous with the artist’s later work and was featured prominently in his iconic screen print, Black Crucifixion, of 1981.

Inspired by McCahon’s advice on the use of paper as a substrate for painting, Clairmont made a number of highly successful large-scale works on paper in the early 1980s. As it did for McCahon, this format allowed Clairmont to work in a fluid, free and unencumbered manner.

CHARLES NINOW AND ORLANDO CLAIRMONT

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John weeks

Waitakere Bush

oil on board John Leech Gallery certificate of authenticity affixed verso 615mm x 855mm

PROVENANCE

Corporate collection, Auckland.

$20,000 - $30,000

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John weeks

Landscape near Te Kuiti

oil on board John Leech Gallery certificate of authenticity affixed verso 760mm x 700mm

PROVENANCE

Corporate collection, Auckland.

$25,000 - $35,000

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peter siddellWoman Before A House

oil on board signed P. Siddell and dated 1978 in brushpoint lower right 630mm x 830mm

$15,000 - $20,000

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John walshTipi Haere II

oil on board signed J. Walsh, dated 2003 and inscribed Tipi Haere in graphite lower left verso 1230mm x 1230mm

$15,000 - $20,000

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stanley palmerUrupa Landing

oil on linen signed Palmer and dated 90 in brushpoint lower right 830mm x 1920mm

PROVENANCE Corporate collection, Auckland.

EXHIBITED Stanley Palmer: Poor Knights, Fisher Gallery, Manukau, 1992.

ILLUSTRATED Ensing, Riemke, Stanley Palmer: Poor Knights, Fisher Gallery: Auckland, 1992, p. 33.

$18,000 - $25,000

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peter siddell

Governor’s Rock (Karekare)

acrylic on five canvases signed Peter Siddell and dated 1991 in brushpoint lower right on fifth panel; signed Peter Siddell and inscribed ‘Governor’s Rock’ 1991, Windsor & Newton ALKKYD (oil) and medium LIQUIN in graphite lower edge on third panel verso 1395mm x 590mm each; 1395mm x 2950mm overall

PROVENANCE Gifted to the present owner in 2008.

$70,000 - $90,000

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John Barr Clarke hoyte

Lion Peak, Milford Sound

watercolour on paper signed J.C. Hoyte in brushpoint lower right 565mm x 955mm

$35,000 - $45,000

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Lion Peak, Milford Sound would have been executed following Hoyte’s sketching tour of the South Island in 1877. During this trip, he devoted particular attention to capturing the lakes and fiords of the Milford region. An impressive, larger-scale watercolour, this work aptly demonstrates Hoyte’s eye for topographical detail and draws comparison with his view of Milford Sound currently in the collection of Auckland Art Gallery (accession number 1968/31).

As a colonial landscape painter, Hoyte was, in part, driven by a desire to document the New Zealand countryside – a process closely associated with the English tradition of topographical draughtsmanship. That this methodical approach was adopted by Hoyte is evidenced by the minute detail and clarity afforded to every aspect of the present work; the form of Mitre Peak dominating the very depths of the picture plane is no less carefully constructed or detailed than are the trees and vegetation framing the immediate foreground of the picture. Such a degree of exactitude would have

been achieved through the use of under-drawings, with each zone of the landscape being carefully planned and constructed by Hoyte in advance. The final result is a crisp, stunning likeness of the Fiordland scene.

Though Hoyte was concerned with the documentary function of his landscapes, the present work should also be recognised as distinct from many of the other watercolours and aquatints being produced in 19th-century New Zealand. Hoyte sought to go beyond a purely topographical function and manipulate the treatment of depth and perspective through experimenting with the use of colour and light. As the viewer’s eye is drawn across the lake towards the distant Mitre Peak, a sense of atmospheric depth is subtly enhanced through the gradual introduction of bluish hues. This ability to experiment with tonal effects is a further indicator of Hoyte’s adroitness in dealing with the medium of watercolour.

At the same time, unlike some of his international and New Zealand contemporaries such as J M W Turner and

John Gully, Hoyte avoided the temptation to imbue his landscapes with romantic sentiment and notions of the sublime. This view of Lion Peak, whilst exuding a sense of serenity and repose (enforced by the oft-used motif of a single sailing boat on the lake), is careful not to allow atmospheric effects and lighting to dominate and, in doing so, does not give way to any sense of overpowering sentimentality or romanticism.

One of New Zealand’s pre-eminent 19th-century artists, John Barr Clarke Hoyte (22 December 1835–21 February 1913) is celebrated for his watercolours which depict magnificent views of the New Zealand landscape. One critic who attended an 1871 exhibition featuring Hoyte’s work in Auckland described his paintings as “masterly, truthful views of a beautiful country”,1 and this is a sentiment which certainly resonates when considering the splendour of Lion Peak.

RACHEL KLEINSMAN1 Auckland Art Gallery, J C Hoyte, Auckland Art Gallery Press: Auckland, 1957, p. 11.

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toss woollaston

Greymouth Landscape

oil on board on canvas signed Woollaston in brushpoint verso, the signature is obscured by the canvas support; a photograph of the inscription affixed verso, c. 1950 455mm x 515mm

$12,000 - $18,000

99 PROVENANCE Accompanied by a letter of authenticity from Warwick Henderson Gallery, dated 2013, stating that “this painting was professionally remounted, c. 1985, the work was laid onto stretched canvas. A rough and over painted sketch on the reverse of the original artist’s board was signed and the signature was photocopied and attached to the reverse of the painting for reference”.

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ralph hotereAramoana, for Ian Wedde’s Pathway to the Sea

watercolour on paper signed Hotere and dated ‘75 in graphite lower edge 350mm x 500mm

$18,000 - $24,000

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Jenny dolezelLife Doesn’t Frighten Me

oil and found object on canvas inscribed, signed J.D. and dated 1995 in brushpoint lower right 1100mm x 1500mm

$17,000 - $20,000

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don BinneyRemuera Jug III

collage, acrylic and oil stick signed Don Binney and dated 1996; inscribed Don Binney, Remuera Jug verso III, montage over acrylic/oilstick on Arches Aquarelle paper on Brooke Gifford Gallery label affixed verso 380mm x 580mm

$12,000 - $16,000

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robert ellisEntrance to the City on the River Bend

oil on board signed Robert Ellis and dated 1964 in brushpoint lower left; inscribed Entrance to the City on the River Bend by Robert Ellis 122 x 122cm in ink upper right verso 1200mm x 1200mm

$14,000 - $18,000

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robert ellisCity with Orange River

oil on board signed Robert Ellis and dated 1965 in brushpoint lower left; inscribed BL/10-1965/No 15 City with Orange River/Robert Ellis 122 x 91cms in another hand in ink on stretcher verso 1220mm x 910mm

EXHIBITED Barry Lett Gallery, 1965.

NOTE It is likely that the inscription on the verso is the hand of Barry Lett of Barry Lett Gallery, Auckland.

$12,000 - $15,000

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JaguarXF

high gloss metallic on steel dated 2013 signed front and back

4,461mm x 1,939mm

$90,000 +

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upComIng auCtIons & market

CommentaryUpcoming Auctions & Market Commentary

150 - 151 Important paintings & Contemporary art - Nov 2013

152 - 153 oceanic & african art – Sept 2013

154 - 155 modern design – Oct 2013

156 - 157 a2 art – Sept 2013

158 - 159 Ceramics – Oct 2013

160 - 161 fine & rare wine – Aug 2013

162 - 163 Interiors: decorative arts – Oct 2013

164 - 165 Vintage motorcycles & Classic Cars – Nov 2013

166 Bethunes rare Books – Sept 2013

167 natural history – Sept 2013

Who to Talk to at Webb’s

Terms & Conditions & Index of Artists

168- 172 Webb’s Departments & People

173 The Last Word - Josh Williams - Profile

174 Webb’s Terms & Conditions for Buying

176 Index of Artists

WEBB’S

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entries noW inviteD for noveMBer 2013 auCtion

ContaCt sophIe [email protected] 021 510 876

importAnt pAintingS & contemp- orAry Art

shane CottonThe Painted Bird

acrylic on linen2010

3000mm x 1900mm $120,000 - $160,000

Exhibited: Shane Cotton, The

Hanging Sky, City Gallery, Wellington, Wellington and

Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane. Curated by Justin

Paton. 2013.


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“Over the last 12 months, the market has shown significant demand for rare, high quality artworks of cultural and historical importance.”

Our forthcoming sale of Important Paintings and Contemporary Art, to be held in November, will present a significant survey of museum-quality New Zealand artworks, covering the contemporary, modern and historical periods. Over the last 12 months, the market has shown significant demand for rare, high-quality artworks of cultural and historical importance. Nationwide

in-person appraisals are available free of charge. We encourage you to make an appointment to experience the scholarly approach that has defined Webb’s market-leading position since 1975.

Already consigned to the November sale is the monumental work by Shane Cotton, illustrated opposite. The work takes its title from the critically acclaimed 1965 novel by

Jerzy Kosinski written from the perspective of a young boy who wanders across europe during World War II. Using Cotton’s iconic falling tui image, The Painted Bird explores the challenges faced by modern-day tangata whenua. This work is currently exhibited at City Gallery, Wellington, Shane Cotton: The Hanging Sky, until 6 October.

01 – Ralph Hotere , Vidyapati’s Song. Achieved $222,78002 – Bill Hammond, Last Night Jar in Congested Sky. Achieved $293,12503 – Evelyn Page , No1. Breakfast at Hobson Street. Achieved $193,46004 – Michael Illingworth, What lies beneath these fragments of reference? Achieved $193,460

05 – Charles Frederick Goldie, No Koora te Cigaretti. Achieved $345,90006 – Bill Hammond, At the Flood. Achieved $234,50007 – Pat Hanly, Torso A. Achieved $76,200

sophie CouplandDirector Fine Art Department

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WeBB’s iMPortant Paintings & ConteMPorary art sales highlights

WeBB’s iMPortant Paintings & ConteMPorary art Market highlights

7.9 mILLIONfine art sales 2013

$234,000top 10 average price in 2012

Webb’s majority share of the Goldie market in 2012, by value

Webb’s majority share of the top 50 works by Hammond, by value

WEBB’S

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entries noW inviteD for sePteMBer 2013 auCtion

ContaCt Jeff [email protected] / 021 503 251

Maori Canoe Bailer. Achieved $20,000

oceAnic AnD AfricAn Art


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“ With a remit to elevate Maori and Oceanic art as an investment class in its own right for the connoisseur collector, Jeff established a landmark campaign to repatriate Maori taonga and Oceanic artefacts to New Zealand.”

In 2012, Webb’s top ten prices in this field resulted in a market-leading average sale price of $49,663; turning over a total of $1,234,345, the Tribal Art department achieved a record result. Three years ago, Webb’s joined forces with leading Oceanic art specialist Jeff Hobbs. With a remit to elevate maori and Oceanic art as an investment class in its own right for the connoisseur collector, Jeff established a landmark campaign to repatriate maori taonga and Oceanic artefacts to

New Zealand. He has been successful in repatriating a number of pieces and collections of significant Maori taonga. Collaborating with international collectors brings Webb’s unique opportunities to work with a generation of international tribal art collectors who understand that New Zealand should have the opportunity to repatriate pieces.

Webb’s work within this field also extends to institutional valuations with Webb’s undertaking the valuation, earlier this year,

of the national collection of maori taonga and Oceanic treasures at Te Papa.

With Webb’s highly anticipated tribal art sale approaching, we expect there to be demand for exceptional examples of pounamu workmanship and prestigious carving. Certainly, the Oceanic field of collecting is very strong at present with international collectors seeking off-market examples found in New Zealand.

01 – Rare Tongan Whalebone Chest Ornament. Achieved $23,40002 – Prestigious Kahu Kiwi – A King’s Cloak. Achieved $79,70003 – Tahitian Shark Hook. Achieved $16,40004 – Pair of Cased Huia and Kiwi. Achieved $25,80005 – Whalebone Rei Puta, The Ryman Collection. Achieved $140,300

06 – Early Poutokomanawa. Achieved $27,00007 – Kotiate. Achieved $25,80008 – Rare Fijian War Club. Achieved $32,70009 – Historic Mere Pounamu. Achieved $146,60010 – Ashanti Royal Lion. Achieved $22,300

Jeff hobbsWebb’s Oceanic Art Specialist

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WeBB’s oCeaniC & afriCan art sales highlights

WeBB’s oCeaniC & afriCan art Market highlights

1.2 mILLIONtribal art sales 2012

$49,663 258%top 10 average price in 2012 increase in turnover in last 4 years

WEBB’S

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entries noW inviteD for oCtoBer 2013 auCtion

ContaCt Josh wIllIams [email protected] / 09 524 6804

Contour Chair by Bob Roukema for Jon Jansen$2,500 - $4,000

moDern DeSignin assoCiation With Mr. BigglesWorthy


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“Early examples of modern classics along with the more glamorous, high-end offerings have seen consistent increases in price.”

International and local trends in the modern design field illustrate a rapidly growing market, together with an increased appreciation for good design. As the pioneers who paved this road are rediscovered and celebrated, seasoned collectors continue to seek out the key pieces that define an era. From the work of early innovators such as Charles and Ray eames through to the contemporary craft of marc Newson, iconic works are highly coveted and anticipated. Increasing

demand has fuelled higher prices across the spectrum of modern design and created a strong investment market for key pieces. early examples of modern classics along with the more glamorous, high-end offerings have seen consistent increases in price. These have been followed closely by rare and celebrated pieces from New Zealand designers, such as Garth Chester and Bob Roukema. Webb’s partnership with mid- century specialists mr. Bigglesworthy

has succeeded in presenting the market with quality modern design sales. Our extensive market knowledge and our resources for sourcing classic and desirable designs both locally and internationally have resulted in a higher calibre of stock being offered to the market place and this was reflected in the strong sales results from the last auction of mid-century design held in April.

01 - A Hans Wegner Oak Dining Table by Carl Hansen. Achieved $8,10002 - An Archie Shine Sideboard by Hamilton. Achieved $5,200 03 - A Sigurd Resell Falcon Chair & Footstool by Vatne Mobler. Achieved $4,60004 - A pair of Eames soft pad chairs. Achieved $5,90005 - A Curtis Jere Flying Birds Sculpture. Achieved $3,90006 - A BMF Nagel Modular Candelabra. Achieved $2,900

07 - A Peter Protzman Zebrawood Desk by Herman Miller. Achieved $7,000 08 - A Pair of Eames Aluminium Group Chairs by Herman Miller. Achieved $4,200 09 - A Pair of Charles Pollock 657 Sling Chairs by Knoll. Achieved $6,60010 - A Set of Six Hans Wegner Wishbone Chairs by Carl Hansen. Achieved $8,100 11 - An Isamu Noguchi Coffee Table by Herman Miller. Achieved $4,50012 - A Tendo Moko Rocking Chair and Ottomon. Achieved $ 3,200

Josh williamsWebb’s Modern Design Specialist

WeBB’s MoDern Design sales highlights

WeBB’s MoDern Design Market highlights

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sell-through rate94% 70% of lots sold by value

WEBB’S

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entries noW inviteD for 25 sePteMBer 2013 auCtion

ContaCt Charles nInow [email protected] / 09 524 6804

richard orjisFloros

Type - C photogrphic print 305mm x 210mm

Signed and dated 2006 verso$1,600 - $2,500

A2 ArtImportant paIntIngs and Contemporary art

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“ Through implementing higher-value and quality thresholds and consistent marketing excellence, value turnover for A2 sales has increased by over 400% in the last three years.”

Webb’s A2 (Auction Tier Two) sales make up a bespoke sales category specialising in works with values ranging between $1,000 and $20,000. This auction category fosters its own dedicated audience of collectors looking to buy at this level of the market. Through these sales, Webb’s plays a vital role in nurturing the reputation and proliferation of New Zealand contemporary

artists and promoting the accessibility of works which sell at mid-market levels.

Webb’s are proud of the firm position we have established in this part of the market sector and it is through our A2 sales that we continue to be a driving force for the sale of affordable works. Through implementing higher-value and quality thresholds and consistent marketing excellence, value

turnover for A2 sales has increased by over 400% in the last three years.

With a number of exciting works by prominent New Zealand artists already consigned, our September sale promises to be a success once again and to garner high levels of demand from a dedicated audience.

01 - Bill Hammond, Singer Songwriter. Achieved $6,25002 - Gordon Walters, Karaka. Achieved $6,75003 - Jason Grieg, Untitled (Figure with monkey). Achieved $2,05004 - Peter Stichbury, Glister. Achieved $4,50005 - Ann Robinson, Puka Vase. Achieved $22,000

06 - Fiona Pardington, Te Huia Kai-manawa. Achieved $7,00007 - Diena Georgetti, Blok Plastik/Parlour. Achieved $5,50008 - Sam Mitchell, ‘Pop’. Achieved $2,46009 - Judy Millar, Untitled. Achieved $1,000

market growth 2010 – 2013

Charles ninowWebb’s Fine Art Specialist

WeBB’s a2 art sales highlights 2013

WeBB’s a2 art Market highlights

1.2 mILLIONA2 art sales 2012

162% 400% The average sale price of works in A2 sales has grown by 162% in the last three years

Total turnover of works in A2 sales has grown by 400% in the last three years

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WEBB’S

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entries noW inviteD for oCtoBer 2013 auCtion

cerAmicSContaCt BrIan [email protected] / 09 524 6804

A pair of earthenware square section baluster vases, by Richard Parker

$2,000 - $3,000


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“The results achieved demonstrate that interest in this area has escalated with both a larger audience and improved prices.”

Webb’s has been promoting New Zealand studio ceramics for over 40 years and holds many of the country’s record prices for works offered in curated, stand-alone auctions in this field. Having relationships with collectors and those involved in the studio ceramic movement, our specialist Brian Wood carries a degree qualification in, and comprehensive knowledge of, the history of the movement, contemporary practice and the market. Webb’s sales comfortably cross the boundaries of the historical and contemporary periods with

works dating from the 1960s through to more recent production, alongside works by international studio ceramicists. The results achieved demonstrate that interest in this area has escalated with both a larger audience and improved prices. We hold New Zealand’s record price at auction for the work of Len Castle with a Blossom slab vase selling for $14,025 and in 2012, an Inverted Volcano sold for $9,380 alongside significant achievements for the work of Barry Brickell, with a terracotta sculpture recently achieving $5,284; Roy

Cowan, with an outdoor ceramic sculpture selling for $8,215; and a denis O’Connor wood-fired lidded jar selling for $2,045. In addition to the well-known names in New Zealand ceramics such as Barry Brickell, Len Castle, mirek Smisek, Bronwynne Cornish, Richard Parker, Chester Nealie, Helen mason, Peter Stichbury, Juliet Peter, Roy Cowan, Warren Tippett and denis O’Connor, we also have a remit to promote contemporary ceramics by practitioners currently engaged in the medium.

01 - Len Castle, Inverted Volcano. Achieved $9,38002 - Barry Brickell, Dragon Dog. Achieved $2,93103 - Martin Poppelwell, Red Skull. Achieved $1,16804 - Len Castle, Yellow Sulphur Bowl. Achieved $6,862

05 - Peter Hutson & Co, Wahine Figure. Achieved $15,24206 - Len Castle, Blue Crater Lake Bowl. Achieved $5,14607 - Mirek Smisek, salt glazed Branch Pot. Achieved $2,34508 - Denis O’Connor, woodfired lidded box. Achieved $2,045

Brian woodWebb’s Studio Ceramics Specialist & Head of Valuations

WeBB’s CeraMiCs sales highlights

WeBB’s CeraMiCs Market highlights

$14,025Webb’s hold the record price for the work of Len Castle sold at auction

300% Increase in the average price for Len Castle’s Inverted Volcano works sold at Webb’s in the past three years

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WEBB’S

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entries noW inviteD for august & sePteMBer 2013 auCtions

fine & rAre Wine

ContaCt sImon [email protected] / 09 524 6804

2001 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, Assortment Case.

$30,000 - $40,000


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“ With the total turnover for wines in 2012/13 achieving $1.8m, a 28% year on year improvement, Webb’s fine wine market continues to mature.”

Firm local demand for quality fine wines continues to drive Webb’s results. With the total turnover for wines in 2012/13 achieving $1.8m, a 28% year on year improvement, Webb’s fine wine market continues to mature. Volume of supply remained firm across the same period. With this, the top ten average price per bottle year on year sits slightly up at $5,347. The average sale rate also remained strong at 78% (a 4.5% increase).

The majority of wine sold by Webb’s originates from europe, particularly Bordeaux. This source of product represents more than 60% of Webb’s yearly sales by value. The emergence of Asia’s interest in fine wine over the last five years is the largest factor to have fuelled growth in the value of ‘blue chip’ world wines over a relatively short period. Over the last three months, prices have eased slightly and yet, concurrently, interest from buyers in Burgundy and Champagne has been

developing. For the last quarter, volatility and price drift have remained low.

As the secondary market continues to mature for wines produced in New Zealand, Simon Ward expects to see increased interest from buyers and correlatively higher prices for top vintages from our best local producers. With this, Webb’s is preparing to build a standalone platform for this specific aspect of the New Zealand secondary market.

Webb’s market growth 2007 – 2013

simon wardWebb’s Fine and Rare Wine Specialist

WeBB’s fine & rare Wine sales highlights

WeBB’s fine & rare Wine Market highlights

1.54 mILLIONFine & Rare Wine sales 2012

80% Webb’s holds 80% of the secondary market in fine wine

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01 – 2009 Chateau Petrus (Magnum). Achieved $5,862.5002 – 1967 Chateau Lafite Rothschild (Imperial). Achieved $9,086.8803 – 1945 Chateau Latour. Achieved $4,103.7504 – 1976 Chateau Petrus (Jeroboam). Achieved $5,862.50

05 – 2007 DRC La Tache (Magnum). Achieved $4,103.7506 – 2008 Chateau Petrus (Magnum). Achieved $3,517.5007 – Remy Martin Louis XIII Grande Champagne Cognac. Achieved $7,035.00

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entries noW inviteD for 17 oCtoBer 2013 auCtion

ContaCt Josh [email protected] / 09 524 6804

A rare pair of 19th-century Chinese Carved Rhinoceros Horns

POA

interiorS: DecorAtiVe ArtS & AntiqueS


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“This new approach has seen more eclectic and unusual offerings, which appeal to a broader and younger audience.”

The first half of 2013 has seen a strong growth in both the value and volume of sales at the Interiors: decorative Arts auctions. This follows positive sales trends over recent years in this field with the introduction of curated auctions which blend the traditional style of antiques with interior design and decorative styling. This new approach has seen more eclectic and unusual offerings, which appeal to a broader

and younger audience of people who have little interest in the likes of traditional ‘brown’ Victorian furniture. With all pieces illustrated online, increased engagement from collectors across the country and offshore alike has boosted a growth in sales in new areas. In particular, demand is high for taxidermy, industrial furniture, memento mori, vintage New Zealand collectables, mid-century modern items, and especially

esoteric, rare and unusual objects. The market for quality Chinese antiques continues to rise with significant and steady growth and with collectors in this area being increasingly well informed. The longstanding trend of strong demand from high-end specialist collectors in the areas of sterling silver, quality clocks, rare porcelain, antique rugs and militaria continues with steady sales from a discerning audience.

01 - A Large Chinese Ming Banquet Bowl. Achieved $29, 00002 - A Colonial Taxidermy Case of New Zealand Birds. Achieved $14, 000 03 - A Pair of Carlo Bugatti Salon Chairs. Achieved $31, 50004 - A Victorian Arthur & Dent Carriage Clock. Achieved $20, 700 05 - An 18th Century Meissen Armorial Tray. Achieved $8,700

06 - A Pair of Chinese Huanghuali Chairs. Achieved $28, 000 07 - A Victorian Sterling Silver Butler’s Tray. Achieved $11, 70008 - A Set of George IV Sterling Silver Candlesticks. Achieved $23,400

Josh williamsWebb’s Decorative Arts Specialist

WeBB’s DeCorative arts sales highlights

WeBB’s DeCorative arts Market highlights1.12 mILLIONDec Arts sales 2012

74% sell-through rate 2013

1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8

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entries noW inviteD for noveMBer 2013 auCtion

ContaCt neIl [email protected] 524 6804

1970 Venom Thruxton 500 Dodkin TunedRealised: $55,100

VintAge motor- cycleS & clASSic cArS


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“Gone are the days of sending precious machines to the northern hemisphere markets in the hope of making a sale – the success of our auctions has enabled us to transact in this complex field to an international standard.”

To be in partnership with a machine which extends the power of the body through technology, is an intrinsic part of being modern. With the 19th and 20th centuries producing complex and refined combustion technology, vintage motorcycles and classic cars continue to make up a maturing class of cultural investment. In recent years, Webb’s has created a platform through

which domestic collectors can access the international market. Gone are the days of sending precious machines to the northern hemisphere markets in the hope of making a sale – the success of our auctions has enabled us to transact in this complex field to an international standard. Testament to this is the sale of the Ferrari Lusso for $1,110,000 to an international collector.

Recent results have also dictated that international demand for the best examples has set local values. Having recently secured the management of another lifetime collection of vintage motorcycles, Webb’s is delighted to be offering an additional extraordinary selection of quality machines.

01 - 1949 AJS 7R 350. Achieved $42,00002 - The Brian Thomas Manx. Achieved $110,00003 - Meikle / Munro Speical. Achieved $83,500

04 - 1964 Matchless Rickman Matisse G50. Achieved $70,35005 - 1963 Ferrari Lusso. Achieved $1,110,00006 - 1955 Vincent Black Knight Series D. Achieved $100,000

neil CampbellWebb’s Vintage Motorcycle Specialist and CEO

WeBB’s vintage MotorCyCles & ClassiC Cars sales highlights

WeBB’s vintage MotorCyCles & ClassiC Cars Market highlights

$60,600Top ten average bike price

market growth 2009 – 2013

1 2 3

4 5 6

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BetHuneSContaCt Ben ashley [email protected] / 09 524 6804

A selection of works to be presented in the Bethunes September sale.

The upcoming Bethunes September auction will present a strong selection of collectable titles published by The Caxton Press, featuring rare limited editions by authors such as denis Glover, A.R.d. Fairburn and Allen Curnow, plus very scarce copies of

Oriflamme and Sirocco printed by The Caxton Club Press, the predecessor to The Caxton Press. Further highlights include a large number of important works from the collection of ‘Gone West’ bookstore owner; murray Gray.


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nAturAlHiStory


ContaCt Ben ashley [email protected] / 09 524 6804

Offering a distinguished collection of natural history treasures, Webb’s September Natural History auction is particularly strong on taxidermy, including a group of mounted swordfish and lion heads. Further highlights include fossilised dinosauria; rare trilobites

and ammonites; crystals; shark and mammoth teeth, and a wide selection of visually stunning petrified wood. For the seasoned collector, as well as the novice or enthusiast, this sale features a comprehensive selection of distinctive natural history items.

Rowland Ward Mounted Lion Head.$1,200 – 1,500.

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WeBB’s PeoPle

sophie Coupland — BA, director & Head of department, Fine ArtWith 15 years’ experience in the fine art industry, Sophie’s 19th to 21st-century fine art knowledge is extensive and highly referenced. She has managed the sale and placement of many of the country’s finest and most-coveted works of art, and headed the Webb’s Fine Art department through the rise of the market (1999 – 2004).

Charles ninow — MFA, Fine Art Specialist

Charles joined Webb’s in 2011 and has an expert, well-referenced knowledge of the New Zealand secondary market. Particularly, his areas of interest lie in the modern and contemporary periods. In addition to this, he is also engaged with current critical discourse surrounding the primary market and the institutional sector. Charles holds a master’s degree from Elam School of Fine Arts.

gillie deans — Resident South Island Specialist

With over 30 years’ experience within the visual arts community, Gillie provides fine art services to Christchurch and South Island clients including current market and insurance valuations, conservation and advice around the purchase and sale of artworks by auction or private treaty.

Carey young — Head of Fine Art Services, Wellington

Founder and director of newly opened Wellington contemporary gallery The Young, Carey previously worked for leading dealer gallery Hamish McKay and has over ten years’ experience in the industry. She is available in Wellington to provide commentary on current market trends and valuations for market and insurance purposes.

rachel kleinsman — BA, MA, Fine Art Specialist, Assistant manager

Rachel is an art specialist with a strong knowledge of the international art market, and has worked for Christie’s, Sotheby’s and White Cube gallery in London. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art History and Modern Languages (Victoria University of Wellington) and a Master of Arts degree in Art Business (Sotheby’s Institute of Art, London).

hannah daly — BA , Registrar, Fine Art department

Hannah holds a Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in Art History and History from The University of Auckland. She has a strong interest in European modernism, particularly across the fields of fine art and design.

aleksandra petrovic — BFA, PgDipFA, Junior Fine Arts Specialist,Registrar

With an interest in modern and contemporary art, Aleksandra has previous experience in commercial and contemporary art spaces and galleries, and a background in fine art.

Mobile: +64 21 510 876DDI: +64 9 529 [email protected]


Mobile: +64 27 226 [email protected]


DDI: +64 9 524 6804 [email protected]

DDI: +64 9 524 [email protected]


Over 37 years of experience in fine art and auctions.founded in 1976, webb’s created a market for contemporary art at auction through the 1980s and led the rise of the art market in the early 2000s, establishing a position as new zealand’s foremost auction house. webb’s has a total turnover of roughly twice that of any other new zealand auction house, unsurpassed specialist expertise and the business diversity needed to cater for an all-encompassing range of collecting genres; thus, our identity is shaped as an acclaimed industry authority.

fine art department.webb’s fine art department has an unmatched reputation for excellent service in achieving record prices at auction for contemporary, early modern, modern and historical artworks. our extensive fine art calendar leads the market and consists of specialist sales of Important new zealand works of art, Contemporary art, historical works of art, photography and a2 art (auction tier two).


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peter webb [email protected]

ann webb [email protected]

neil Campbell LLBBEcom Mobile: +64 21 875 966DDI: +64 9 529 [email protected]

sophie Coupland BA Mobile: +64 21 510 876DDI: +64 9 529 [email protected]

Charles ninow Mobile: +64 29 770 4767DDI: +64 9 529 [email protected]

rachel [email protected]

aleksandra petrovicDDI: +64 9 524 [email protected]

hannah [email protected]

James hoganMobile: +64 21 510 [email protected]

Josh williamsDDI: +64 9 524 [email protected]

amy mooreDDI: +64 9 [email protected]

zora Bell BoydMobile: +64 21 268 589DDI: +64 9 529 [email protected]

peter downeyDDI: +64 9 529 [email protected]

libby lewisDDI: +64 9 529 [email protected]

anna CarrDDI: +64 9 529 [email protected]

simon wardMobile: +64 21 642 277DDI: +64 9 529 [email protected]

helen winskillDDI: +64 9 529 [email protected]

dan keoneDDI: +64 9 524 [email protected]

steve galpinDDI: +64 9 524 [email protected]

duncan rooneyDDI: +64 9 524 [email protected]

Jeff hobbsMobile: +64 21 503 [email protected]

katrina sewellDDI: +64 9 524 [email protected]

Chris allsopMobile: +64 21 679 319DDI: +64 9 529 [email protected]

Ben ashleyDDI: +64 9 524 [email protected]

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DePartMents

James hogan — Head of department, Antiques & decorative Arts

James has worked with Webb’s for over 20 years, and is a highly experienced senior valuer and appraiser of antiques and decorative arts from the 18th to the 21st centuries. His particular interests include New Zealand colonial furniture, English and Continental furniture from the 18th and 19th centuries, retro and modernist furniture and interior objects.

Josh williams — BA, Auction manager, modern design Specialist

Having worked for Auckland Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and in antique shops in London, Josh’s specialist interests include Georgian furniture and antiques, and mid-century modern design. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree (The University of Auckland) and a Postgraduate Certificate in Museum Studies (The University of Sydney).

steve galpin — estate & decorative Arts Specialist

Steve has worked for six years as Webb’s senior in-house valuer of decorative arts and antiques. With an extensive knowledge of decorative arts from the 18th to the 20th centuries, Steve is one of New Zealand’s most broadly knowledgeable experts on antiques, decorative arts and the sale of antiques at auction.

duncan rooney — BFA, Auction Administrator

With a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from The University of Auckland’s Elam School of Fine Arts, Duncan is also a keen carpenter, designing and making a range of contemporary furniture in his spare time. Duncan is available to provide advice to clients on all matters relating to our weekly sales and the auction process.

fine Jewels & watches.Webb’s jewellery sales include a wide selection of fine and magnificent jewels together with valuable watches, significant diamonds, the finest antique and modern jewels, and watches from the most sought-after makers in the world.

zora Bell Boyd — BA (Hons), BDes, Specialist – marketing managerZora has a background in precious gemstone trading, bespoke jewellery manufacture and high fashion. She established Wunderkammer, a boutique fashion destination, and her own jewellery range, and has over 10 years’ experience sourcing precious stones and antique jewellery from locations as far afield as South America and Asia.

peter downey — Senior Specialist , Valuer - Antique Jewellery.

A founding director of Webb’s jewellery department in the 1980s, Peter has 44 years of market experience and is one of New Zealand’s foremost jewellery specialists. He has a comprehensive knowledge of all materials and styles, and his specialist areas include Castellani, Giuliano, Fabergé, Cartier, art nouveau and art deco.

libby lewis — LLB, AJP, DG (GIA), Specialist Contemporary Jewels

With 10 years’ experience providing a bespoke jewellery service, Libby spent three years in Dubai trading diamonds and working with one of the largest jewellery businesses in the region. She has a diploma as an accredited jewellery professional and a diamond grading certificate from the Gemmology Institute of America.

Antiques & Decorative Arts, Collectables & Estates Department.The Antiques & Decorative Arts department comprises a dedicated, experienced team of specialists covering 20th/21st-century design, new zealand ceramics, maori and oceanic arts, folk art, colonial furniture, european ceramics and glassware, asian arts, clocks, marine and nautical instruments, sterling silver, textiles and vintage clothing, and toys and dolls. Complementarily, the Collectables & Estates department hold affordable weekly sales offering a wide variety of interesting and useful items including antiques, household furnishings, collectables, appliances, crockery, cutlery, jewellery, paintings and prints.









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DePartMents

fine wine department.Webb’s Fine & Rare Wine department leads the New Zealand auction market in the sale of fine, collectable wine. Webb’s sales feature fine New Zealand wines, premium Australian wines, Champagne, first growth Bordeaux, premium Burgundy and a selection of sauternes, ports, Italian wines and Cognacs.

simon ward — RAWM, Consultant, Fine Wine department

Simon joined Webb’s as director of the Fine Wine department in 2009. With over 20 years in the industry encompassing production, sales, marketing and winery management, Simon’s international experience includes four years based in Italy. He holds an Associate Diploma of Wine Marketing (Roseworthy College, South Australia).

oceanic and african art department.two sales are held annually in this specialised area of collecting. sales feature artefacts from the pre-contact and contact periods through to 20th-century works. pieces covered include those used for ritual, ceremonial, decorative and practical purposes within traditional maori and oceanic and african cultures, as well as new zealand colonial furniture.

Jeff hobbs — Consultant, Oceanic And African Art department

Jeff is a veteran expert in Oceanic, Tribal Arts and antiquities. A successful dealer and consultant in New York and the United Kingdom during the 1990s, he subsequently owned and operated Wellington’s well-respected Sulu Gallery. Jeff has travelled internationally on behalf of Webb’s repatriating significant Maori and Oceanic material.

Vintage motorcycles & Industrial design department.webb’s is the market leader in the sale of collectors’ motorcycles in australasia. as the largest auction house in new zealand to hold scheduled exhibitions and auctions of important motorcycles, webb’s delivers international prices and expert service to its clients and caters for both local and global demand for superior machines.

neil Campbell — LLB, BEcon, managing director

A trained lawyer with a degree in Economics, Neil worked in the film production sector for many years, and as a script-writer (his story ‘The Freezer’ was made into a film in 2006). Neil formerly represented the New Zealand Union for Film Directors, and worked as the in-house content lawyer for TVNZ. Neil ensures Webb’s team is well-supported and focused on providing the best range of services in New Zealand.

modern design.held twice annually, these sales present design classics and pieces by the world’s most celebrated designers. webb’s modern design partnership with mid-century specialists mr. Bigglesworthy ensures that high-calibre, classic and desirable designs are offered.

Josh williams — BA, Auction manager, modern design Specialist

Having worked for Auckland Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and in antique shops in London, Josh’s specialist interests include Georgian furniture and antiques, and mid-century modern design. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree (The University of Auckland) and a Postgraduate Certificate in Museum Studies (The University of Sydney).





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DePartMents

Valuations department.webb’s provides valuation services to public institutions, and corporate and private collections, including auckland art gallery, te papa tongarewa and numerous regional galleries and museums. domestic valuation services include single items or entire collections and cover artworks and the full spectrum of antiques, interiors, modern design and collectables.

Brian wood — BFA, Head of Valuations

Leading the Valuation department, Brian has a sound knowledge across the collecting genres and is a specialist in studio ceramics. Brian ran his own art and antique gallery before heading overseas. On his return to New Zealand, he completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree majoring in ceramics and managed a private art collection before joining Webb’s.

Bethunes at webb’s – rare Book department.Bethunes operates as the rare book department of webb’s. the department deals in rare, out-of-print and collectable books, historical photography, maps and plans, manuscripts, documents and ephemera, posters and prints, and postcards.

Ben ashley — BA, Head of the Rare Books department

Ben has a background of over ten years’ experience in high-end retail, and his varied skills and knowledge provide a fresh, pragmatic approach to book sales and appraisals. Ben studied New Zealand Literature at The University of Auckland, Victoria University of Wellington and the International Institute of Modern Letters.

management, owners & founders.

neil Campbell — LLB, BEcon, managing director

A trained lawyer with a degree in Economics, Neil worked in the film production sector for many years, and as a script-writer (his story ‘The Freezer’ was made into a film in 2006). Neil formerly represented the New Zealand Union for Film Directors, and worked as the in-house content lawyer for TVNZ. Neil ensures Webb’s team is well-supported and focused on providing the best range of services in New Zealand.

Chris allsop — DipActg, DipIntlMktg, General manager

Chris Allsop comes to Webb’s with over 20 years’ experience in accounting, administration and business management. Having been with Webb’s for seven years, he brings to the business exceptional financial and management skills.

peter & ann webbPeter and Ann Webb’s contribution to the New Zealand contemporary art market is extensive. The founder of one of New Zealand’s first dealer galleries, Peter introduced a highly successful auction programme which eventually prompted the gallery’s conversion into an auction house. In 1980, during one of Peter’s last major gallery shows, Colin McCahon’s New Paintings, he met Ann, who joined the company later that year. The two were married in 1990. As Executive Director of Webb’s, Ann helped build the business that would become the country’s foremost specialist auction house.

mowbray Collectables ltdMowbray Collectables Ltd is a publicly listed parent company which houses a range of auction based assets in key fields of collecting and cultural investment. Mowbray Collectables also hold a 25% equity stake in Sotheby’s Australia and 14% of BuddyBid.com. John Mowbray is the former President of the International Federation of Stamp Dealers Associations and is a director of Webb’s and Sotheby’s Australia.




Mobile: +64 21 679 319tDDI: +64 9 529 [email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]


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the last WorD

Josh wIllIamsDecorative Arts SpecialistThe last two years have marked a turning point for Webb’s Decorative Arts department with the introduction of INTERIORS auctions: a curatorial-focused take on traditional antique auctions. This has led to broader audience appeal and a new generation of buyers, culminating in our most successful sales results to date.

Leading this exciting shift is Decorative Arts specialist Josh Williams. This year marks Josh’s seventh at Webb’s. Much of Josh’s day involves valuations and appraisals, as he describes it, “much in the same way as the Antiques Roadshow – with more modest estimates!” Josh defines himself as a specialist-generalist and his knowledge of decorative and applied arts is extensive. “There are periods of

design and genres of collecting that fascinate more than others so my knowledge is naturally deeper in these areas.” With a love of Georgian period furniture and sterling silver, items of historical New Zealand interest and mid-century modern, Josh is one of New Zealand’s leading ‘go-to guys’ for authentication and valuation information in these fields. Josh is also a skilled auctioneer with a natural flair for the job. He leads the marketing of antiques with a focus on liaising with collectors – this is something which he describes as great “because it always revolves around a passion for beautiful things”.

“The antiques market has evolved from a broad field of specialist collecting to a much more interior design-led

fashion for interesting objects and decorative styling, such as the ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’ and industrial furniture trends,” Josh says. This is something which has been incorporated into Webb’s INTERIORS auctions, and has led to a new generation of buyers who, in the past, may have been put off by traditional brown Victorian furniture. “Popular culture has a big effect on current trends, with shows like Downton Abbey highlighting period living and blogger The Selby showcasing homes and workspaces of creative individuals.” According to Josh, while the current trend is in favour of mid-century modern, there remains strong demand for good-quality antique furniture to create more blended interiors.

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ConDitions of sale for Buyers1. Bidding. The highest bidder shall be the purchaser subject to the auctioneer having the right to refuse the bid of any person. Should any dispute arise as to the bidding, the lot in dispute will be immediately put up for sale again at the preceding bid, or the auctioneer may declare the purchaser, which declaration shall be conclusive. No person shall advance less at a bid than the sum nominated by the auctioneer, and no bid may be retracted.

2. reserves. All lots are sold subject to the right of the seller or her/his agent to impose a reserve.

3. registration. Purchasers shall complete a bidding card before the sale giving their own correct name, address and telephone number. It is accepted by bidders that the supply of false information on a bidding card shall be interpreted as deliberate fraud.

4. Buyer’s premium. The purchaser accepts that in addition to the hammer or selling price Webb’s will apply a buyer’s premium of 15% for the Important Paintings and Contemporary Art sale, (unless otherwise stated), together with GST on such premiums.

5. payment. Payment for all items purchased is due on the day of sale immediately following completion of the sale.

If full payment cannot be made on the day of sale a deposit of 10% of the total sum due must be made on the day of sale and the balance must be paid within 5 working days.

Payment is by cash, bank cheque or Eftpos. Personal and private cheques will be accepted but must be cleared before goods will be released. Credit cards are not accepted.

6. lots sold as Viewed. All lots are sold as viewed and with all erros in description, faults and imperfections whether visible or not. Neither Webb’s nor its vendor are responsible for errors in description or for the genuineness or authenticity of any lot or for any fault or defect in it. No warranty whatsoever is made. Buyers proceed upon their own judgement.

Buyers shall be deemed to have inspected the lots, or to have made enquiries to their complete satisfaction, prior to sale and by the act of bidding shall be deemed to be satisfied with the lots in all respects.

7. webb’s act as agents. They have full discretion to conduct all aspects of the sale and to withdraw any lot from the sale without giving any reason.

8. Collection. Purchases are to be taken away at the buyer’s expense immediately after the sale except where a cheque remains uncleared. If this is not done Webb’s will not be responsible if the lot is lost, stolen, damaged or destroyed.

Any items not collected within seven days of the auction may be subject to a storage and insurance fee. A receipted invoice must be produced prior to removal of any lot.

9. licences. Buyers who purchase an item which falls within the provisions of the Protected Objects Act 1975 or the Arms Act 1958 cannot take possession of that item until they have shown to Webb’s a license under the appropriate Act.

10. failure to make payment. If a purchaser fails either to pay for or take away any lot, Webb’s shall without further notice to the purchaser, at its absolute discretion and without prejudice to any other rights or remedies it may have, be entitled to exercise one or more of the following rights or remedies:

A. To issue proceeding against the purchaser for damages for breach of contract.

B. To rescind the sale of that or any other lot sold to the purchaser at the same or any other auction.

C. To resell the lot by public or private sale. Any deficiency resulting from such resale, after giving credit to the purchaser for any part payment, together with all costs incurred in connection with the lot shall be paid to Webb’s by the purchaser. Any surplus over the proceeds of sale shall belong to the seller and in this condition the expression ‘proceeds of sale’ shall have the same meaning in relation to a sale by private treaty as it has in relation to a sale by auction.

D. To store the lot whether at Webb’s own premises or elsewhere at the sole expense of the purchaser and to release the lot only after the purchase price has been paid in full plus the accrued cost of removal storage and all other costs connected to the lot.

E. To charge interest on the purchase price at a rate 2% above Webb’s bankers’ then current rate for commercial overdraft facilities, to the extent that the price or any part of it remains unpaid for more than seven days from the date of the sale.

F. To retain possession of that or any other lot purchased by the purchaser at that or any other auction and to release the same only after payment of money due.

G. To apply the proceeds of sale of any lot then or subsequently due to the purchaser towards settlement of money due to Webb’s or its vendor. Webb’s shall be entitled to a possessory lien on any property of the purchaser for any purpose while any monies remain unpaid under this contract.

H. To apply any payment made by the purchaser to Webb’s towards any money owing to Webb’s in respect of any thing whatsoever irrespective of any directive given in respect of, or restriction placed upon, such payment by the purchaser whether expressed or implied.

I. Title and right of disposal of the goods shall not pass to the purchaser until payment has been made in full by cleared funds. Where any lot purchased is held by Webb’s pending i. clearance of funds by the purchaser or ii. completion of payment after receipt of a deposit, the lot will be held by Webb’s as bailee for the vendor, risk and title passing to the purchaser immediately upon notification of clearance of funds or upon completion of purchase. In the event that a lot is lost, stolen, damaged or destroyed before title is transferred to the purchaser, the purchaser shall be entitled to a refund of all monies paid to Webb’s in respect of that lot, but shall not be entitled to any compensation for any consequent losses howsoever arising.

11. Bidders deemed principals. All bidders shall be held personally and solely liable for all obligations arising from any bid, including both ‘telephone’ and ‘absentee’ bids. Any person wishing to bid as agent for a third party must obtain written authority to do so from Webb’s prior to bidding.

12. ‘subject Bids’. Where the highest bid is below the reserve and the auctioneer declares a sale to be ‘subject to vendor’s consent’ or words to that effect, the highest bid remains binding upon the bidder until the vezndor accepts or rejects it. If the bid is accepted there is a contractual obligation upon the bidder to pay for the lot.

13. sales post auCtIon or By prIVate treaty. The above conditions shall apply to all buyers of goods from Webb’s irrespective of the circumstances under which the sale is negotiated.

14. Condition of Items. Condition of items is not detailed in this catalogue. Buyers must satisfy themselves as to the condition of lots they bid on and should refer to clause six. Webb’s are pleased to provide intending buyers with condition reports on any lots.


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CORPORATE RATES. ECO FRIENDLY. CENTRAL LOCATION. COMPLIMENTARY BROADBAND.OHTEL 66 ORIENTAL PARADE WELLINGTON NZ P +64 4 803 0600 E [email protected] WWW.OHTEL.COM

life imitating art. your space. our place.

9542 Webbs advert 2013 PRINT.indd 1 24/07/13 11:51 AM

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inDeX of artists

Angus, Rita 75, 82

Bensemann, Leo 8

Binney, Don 4, 95

Blomfield, Charles 14

Brown, Nigel 26

Buchanan, Benjamin 25

Clairmont, Philip 21, 22

Clark, Russell 11

Cotton, Shane 43, 59, 74

Dibble, Paul 20

Dolezel, Jenny 95

Ellis, Robert 28, 99, 100

Feu’u, Fatu 69

Frank, Dale 55

Friedlander, Marti 97

Frizzell, Dick 9, 10, 38, 39

Gascoigne, Rosalie 30

Goldie, Charles Frederick 15, 40

Hammond, Bill 35, 51, 54

Harrison, Michael 23

Hipkins, Gavin 90

Hotere, Ralph 46, 58, 62, 72, 93, 97

Hoyte, John Barr Clarke 92

Hughes, Sara 60

Lee, Adam 67

Maddox, Allen 1, 33, 56, 80

Maw, Liz 36

McCahon, Colin 2, 13, 17, 18, 35, 42, 66, 71

McLeod, Andrew 31, 32, 50, 52, 86

Moffitt, Trevor 47, 48

Mortimer, Roger 68

Mrkusich, Milan 57

Palmer, Stanley 63

Parekowhai, Michael 2

Pick, Seraphine 29, 53

Pule, John 3, 65

Reynolds, John 83, 84

Robinson, Ann 73

Robinson, Peter 16

Siddell, Peter 44, 45, 78, 98

Smither, Michael 41, 49, 61

Stichbury, Peter 80, 81, 87

Sugimoto, Hiroshi 85

Thornley, Geoff 88

Tole, Charles 5, 6

Tole, John 27

Trusttum, Philip 64, 70

Twiss, Greer 19

Walsh, John 101

Wealleans, Rohan 24, 34, 90

Weeks, John 7, 76, 77

Woollaston, Toss 92


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important paintings & contemporary art

Documents

world of art

local art world8

contemporary artcatalogue

dark art of bill hammond18

new zealand market

webbs departments people174

amwebb catalogue dps

savita apte12