Monumental Art: Emily Kame Kngwarreye’s First at Art Basel
In a first for Art Basel which concluded on 16 June 2019, paying for a stand at the world’s most prestigious art fair, has become somewhat easier (if you are accepted into the fair by the vetting committee in the first place – 290 this year from 34 different countries). Art Basel director Marc Spiegler […]
Ian Fairweather’s Auction Record Shines at Deutscher + Hackett
Rarely has the Cell Block Theatre at the National Art School seen so many art industry personalities, insiders and habitués as at the Deutscher + Hackett’s fine art auction on 10 April 2019. Many would have been there to observe how Charles Blackman’s Alice on the Table (lot 9) fared, after the artist’s Sleeping Alice […]
Dave’s Faves for the Deutscher + Hackett Auction April 2019
The first 8 lots of the Deutscher + Hackett sale on 10 April 2019 in Sydney contain four outstanding works by some of the Australian masters of the abstract from the 1960s to the contemporary (Balson, Miller, Audette and Frank), a beautiful selection for the connoisseur of non-figurative art. This serves as the lead-in to […]
Dave’s Faves for the Sotheby’s Auction April 2019
Sotheby’s autumn auction in Sydney on 9 April presents 81 lots of outstanding Australian art. This includes two oils by Russell Drysdale, a true rarity by this master of the Australian country town and outback landscape. Another eye catcher will be lot 27 John Olsen’s “Seafood Paella” – however, a very big wall (and pocket) […]
Dave’s Faves for the Menzies Auction March 2019
The first Menzies auction of 2019 starts with two collections, one from the estate of Gwendoline Mutton and the other from Sir Walter Baldwin Spencer. The collection presented in the middle of the catalogue is a real stand-out in the sale. Titled the Thomas Tyrwhitt Balcombe Family Collection, lots 56 to 68 are a veritable […]
Dave’s Faves for the Deutscher + Hackett auction Nov 2018
13 ink drawings and watercolours no larger than A4 start off the Deutscher + Hackett sale on 28 November in Melbourne. Their modest size and medium belies their importance: among them are the last pre-settlement portraits of Tasmanian Aboriginal people and extremely early depictions of Western Australia, created between 1801 and 1804 on the Baudin […]
Dave’s Faves for the Menzies Auction November 22nd
In their last auction of the year, Menzies present a diverse offering of 125 lots in their summer sale held in their South Yarra premises in Melbourne. The star painting is without a doubt the cover lot: Jeffrey Smart’s “Outside the Ministry” from 1970, and it’s as impressive a Smart as you are ever going […]
Dave’s Faves for the Sotheby’s Auction November 2018
Sotheby’s Sydney auction on 20 November starts with a veritable fanfare from the collection of John Symonds, of Aussie Home Loans fame. Among the 14 artworks are masterpieces by some of Australia’s greatest modern and contemporary artists: Blackman, Boyd (Arthur and David), Brack, Nolan, Olsen and Smart to name a few. This selection was awarded […]
Dave’s Faves for the Bonhams Auction June 2018
If you love fine art and auctions, November is going to be a very busy month with 4 major art auctions scheduled, before the long break until March/April 2019. It is Bonhams who are launching the summer auction season on 14 November, followed by Sotheby’s on 20 November and Menzies on 22 November, and Deutscher […]
Hot or Not? at Sotheby’s on a Chilly Sydney Winter Night
On an evening in Sydney with an arctic chill in the air, Sotheby’s sale of Important Australian Art in Sydney on 28 August 2018 did break a number of Australian auction records. But one still has to wonder about the random nature of selling art in the auction room, which can particularly be observed in […]