Important Paintings & Contemporary Art

Webb’s

New Zealand’s Premier Auction House

13 August 2013 Important Paintings and Contemporary Art

Further entries now invited

Webb’s

New Zealand’s Premier Auction House

A contemporary tradition for over thirty seven years...

Webb’s winter catalogue of important paintings and contemporary art will present a strong survey of modernist New Zealand practice accented by key works by our most celebrated contemporary artists. In recent history, no other auction campaign has included such a formidable roster of early consignments. The unrivalled depth and quality of this offering echoes the ethos that first defined Peter Webb Galleries’ approach when it was established over 37 years ago. Webb’s continued ability to break new ground in the modern and contemporary markets is the result of a contemporary tradition where expert knowledge is matched with a determination to achieve exceptional results for our vendors.

To celebrate the quality of the offering and to contextualise the works, they were photographed in situ in a house designed by Peter Bartlett in 1968: a showcase of innovative 1960s’ architecture. Completing the tableau is 20th-century furniture thanks to Mr. Bigglesworthy.

The modernist sector of the sale ranges from examples from the 1950s to major works from the 1980s. The early modernist works include a number of refined works

by Charles Tole, one of the most accomplished Kauri paintings by Colin McCahon held in private hands and a rare portrait by McCahon dated 1959 (see page 6). The sale also includes refined examples of abstraction from the 1960s: Meta Grey No. 1, a corner painting by Milan Mrkusich dated 1969 (page 9), and a black-and-white koru composition by Gordon Walters from 1966 (page 12). Late modernist works include a superb painting from McCahon’s Jump series (page 5), a domestic painting, Portrait of Sarah, by Michael Smither (illustrated opposite) and a rare diptych from Hotere’s series of banner paintings of the late-1970s entitled No Ordinary Sun (page 8).

Contemporary New Zealand practice is extensively surveyed and, following Webb’s continued dominance in the Hammond market, we present a further major painting by this artist. Zoomorphic Lounge (page 4) belongs to the artist’s highly acclaimed late-1990s period and features a palette dominated by emerald green and a composition populated with avian forms. Also consigned is a rare, major work, Kiddy Kiddy (page 13), from Shane Cotton’s celebrated and culturally significant 1990s period. A number of more recent works by acclaimed contemporary New Zealand artists such as Andrew McLeod, Liz Maw and Rohan Wealleans will also be included.

Final entries to this sale event close on Friday 21 June. Please make contact with us for a no-obligation appraisal. Webb’s well-referenced appraisal process will ensure that a decision to consign your cultural assets is made with confidence and clarity.

Michael Smither Michael Smither’s Portrait of Sarah is a peerless example of the artist’s distinctive and highly stylised painterly vision that allows him to transform seemingly mundane objects and ephemeral scenes from everyday life into venerable works of art. Throughout the 1970s much of Smither’s work drew inspiration from his own domestic environment and this seminal body of work has come to be indelibly associated with the artist. Portrait of Sarah offers a self-portrait alongside a portrait of his young daughter in the garden and, like many of Smither’s key pieces from this period, it effortlessly highlights the fact that some of the most significant and intimate familial instants occur during the outwardly banal tasks of daily life. Here, Smither captures a fleetingly personal moment and renders it universal by making it at once deeply tender and slightly humorous.

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Michael Smither Portrait of Sarah oil on board signed M.D.S and dated 74 lower right in brushpoint 1,220mm x 1,220mm Reference: Painted whilst the artist was resident at The Gables, New Plymouth. $150,000 - $200,000

Important Paintings and Contemporary Art

CONTACT Auckland Sophie Coupland E: scoupland@webbs.co.nz M: 021 510 876 Wellington Carey Young E: cyoung@webbs.co.nz M: 021 368 348 South Island Gillie Deans E: gdeans@webbs.co.nz M: 027 226 9785

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Webb’s

New Zealand’s Premier Auction House

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

By volume: 70% of the top 10 works By value: 69% of the top 10 works The top 50 works: Of the 50 most valuable works by Bill Hammond sold at auction, Webb’s has facilitated 68% of sales by value at $3.7 million. A total of $5.3 million constitutes the value transacted for the top 50 sales. With an average price across the 50 works of $120,885, Webb’s result sits well above the industry norm. As well as holding the record price for Hammond’s work at $330,000, we also achieved the two highest prices across the market in the past two years at $293,000 and $235,000.

Continued demand for Hammond’s work reflects his position as one of New Zealand’s most highly celebrated senior practitioners.

Top 10 works by volume

Top 50 works by value

Webb’s percentage. Refer: Australian Art Sales Digest, aasd.com.au Results for individual works inclusive of BP & GST

Bill Hammond 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 whilst, at the same time, exploring New Zealand’s history, both colonial and recent, and the significance of the land and animals to the concept of our national identity. This work is a striking menagerie of hybrid beings, shape-shifters and avian creatures which occupy a primordial, emerald environment. Hammond’s distinctive visual language offers the viewer a narrative composed of metaphors, allegory and symbolism. The work employs a myriad of references, ranging from Renaissance painting, to Egyptian hieroglyphs, to pop culture and science fiction. 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.

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Bill Hammond Zoomorphic Lounge oil on canvas signed W.D. Hammond and dated 1999 and inscribed Zoomorphic Lounge in brushpoint upper edge 2,000mm x 840mm $180,000 - $240,000 Alvar Aalto Model 43 Lounger Maker: Artek | Finland, 1937 A piece of design history. First shown at Paris’ World’s Fair in 1936, this cutting-edge organic lounger cast ripples through the design world.

Available at mrbigglesworthy.co.nz

Important Paintings and Contemporary Art

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Webb’s

New Zealand’s Premier Auction House

Colin McCahon Jump E16 is a powerful evocation of fledgling gannets flying for the first time. Invoking the form of a cliff face to frame the right-hand side of the picture, McCahon has constructed a bold and engaging composition.

Reduced forms and compositional flatness shape a palpably tense tableau, one whose pithy title presents the viewer with a call to action: “Jump”. Jump E16 is also a metaphor: a reflection on the journey of the soul. The division between the upper section of the painting and the

Colin McCahon Jump E16 acrylic on unstretched jute canvas inscribed C.McC 74 in brushpoint lower left, inscribed (E16) in brushpoint lower right 930mm x 430mm Reference: Colin McCahon database number: cm001303 $220,000 – $280,000

earthly realms of the landscape recalls Barnett Newman’s spiritual zip paintings. The dotted line which fades across the canvas is, therefore, not simply a tracing of the physical trajectory of the gannets’ jump, but a metaphor for the soul’s journey from earth to heaven.

We marketed our first work by Colin McCahon in 1976. Since 1992 we have successfully sold more than 194 of the artist’s works with a total of $12 million in recorded sales. By value, this equates to 69% of this artist’s work ever sold at auction. We’ve sold 80% of the top 10 prices on the New Zealand market, and hold 90% of the top results by value.

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Important Paintings and Contemporary Art

Colin McCahon Executed in a thick, confident line of black ink, Colin McCahon’s Untitled Portrait from 1959 possesses a powerful and commanding presence. Beginning in 1938, McCahon’s interest in portraiture spanned more than 30 years. This is McCahon employing the basic principles of cubism but in a highly unique and idiosyncratic manner. Reduced to her bare, essential features, the sitter is transcribed through two mutually exclusive viewpoints; the nose is shown in side profile while the rest of her features, the outline

Colin McCahon Unttitled Portrait ink on paper signed McCahon and dated Nov16 1959 in brushpoint lower left 760mm x 560mm $50,000 - $70,000

of the face and the cascade of hair are all depicted from a frontal view. The strong, black ribbon that references the woman’s shoulders can be seen also as a horizon line that demarcates head from landscape. The triangular lines and solid circle could be seen as the neckline of a shirt with a button yet they are also highly evocative of the elemental forms that dominate McCahon’s waterfall paintings. Here, then, 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”.

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Webb’s

New Zealand’s Premier Auction House

Webb’s market position for Ralph Hotere’s work.

By volume: 70% of the top 10 works By value: 70% of the top 10 works The top 50 works: Webb’s has transacted 60% of sales of Ralph Hotere’s work by value; this amounts to $3.4 million of the $5.9 million that constitutes the total of the top 50 results for Hotere’s practice at auction. We have maintained an industry-leading average of $119,785 per work and have achieved the two highest prices in the past six months at $189,000 and $224,000. With a highest sale of $315,000, our results reflect an ongoing dedication and engagement with the market at the highest level.

Top 10 works by volume

Top 50 works by value

Webb’s percentage. Refer: Australian Art Sales Digest, aasd.com.au Results for individual works inclusive of BP & GST

Ralph Hotere Spanning two hanging canvases, Ralph Hotere’s No Ordinary Sun is home to the elegiac lyricism of the eponymous poem by the renowned Hone Tuwhare. It is one of the earliest paintings inspired by this particular poetic piece and No Ordinary Sun forms part of a significant body of collaborative work between artist and poet; it is among Hotere’s most celebrated and coveted paintings. Here, dynamic, energised bands of dappled paint are firmly anchored between sections of text. As in all of Hotere’s wordpaintings, the weight and placement of text is carefully considered so that

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

3,020mm x 980mm each $280,000 – $350,000

heavy, blocky, stencilled words are juxtaposed with the comparatively freeflowing handwritten text to create a harmonious compositional balance.

Two faintly etched circles can just be seen hovering amongst the speckled sections of paint. The primordial form of the circle frequently appears in Hotere’s work and encompasses a myriad of symbolic meaning, possibility and allegory. In this painting it is perhaps that to which the title refers; this is no ordinary sun, but one that has been forged under the influence of Tuwhare and the hand of Hotere

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G-Plan Housemaster Chair Maker: G-Plan Furniture | United Kingdom, 1970.

A juxtaposition of plush upholstery against a sharp exoskeleton of teak and chrome combine to create a bold, outspoken statement.

Available at mrbigglesworthy.co.nz

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Webb’s

New Zealand’s Premier Auction House

Milan Mrkusich The present 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.

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Milan Mrkusich Meta Grey No. 1 acrylic on canvas inscribed Mrkusich, Painting, Meta Grey No. 1 1969 in stencilled paint, signed Mrkusich and dated ’69 in graphite verso 715mm x 715mm $25,000 – $35,000

Important Paintings and Contemporary Art

Allen Maddox 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 fashioned from a dynamic and diverse flurry of marks, daubs, splatters, drips and swirls of paint. This painting, like much of

Allen Maddox Untitled oil on canvas, diptych signed AM and dated ’92 in brushpoint verso 1,840mm x 920mm (overall) $35,000 – $45,000

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.

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Webb’s

New Zealand’s Premier Auction House

Ralph Hotere 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 and it offers comment on both the impact of human habitation on the natural environment and the power structures that govern interpersonal relationships.

The recycled villa sash window frame is an iconic feature of much of Hotere’s practice of the 1980s and the window’s obscured visibility is intended to critique

Ralph Hotere Towards Aramoana, Black Window acrylic on board in colonial villa sash window frame inscribed Towards Aramoana, signed Hotere and dated Port Chalmers, ‘81 in brushpoint lower edge 1,000mm x 900mm $150,000 – $170,000

the traditional function of a window. Hotere uses this recurrent shape to defy preconceived notions of openness and utility. Rather than present an idyllic

Rosewood Falcon Chair by Sigurd Ressell

landscape, the artist confronts the viewer with an opportunity for contemplation

Maker: Vatne Mobler | Norway, 1970s With the Falcon chair, Ressell has combined materials, line and form to create an enduring design icon.

Available at mrbigglesworthy.co.nz

and reflection. The 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 while the white cross has both symbolic and narrative potential.

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Important Paintings and Contemporary Art

Peter Robinson & Gordon Walters 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 unmistakeably 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. Not only did he appropriate the koru form itself, he also appropriated the treatment of the form from

Gordon Walters Untitled Koru black ink on paper, 1966 sheet size: 635mm x 483mm; Provenance: Previously in the collection of John Perry, Director of Bath House Museum Exhibited: Drawing, New Vision Gallery, 1968 Illustrated: Michael Dunn, Gordon Walters, Auckland Art Gallery, 1983, p. 36. $60,000 – $70,000

cornerstone New Zealand modernist Gordon Walters. The untitled black-and-white koru composition on the right, painted in 1966, is an early, refined example of the very aesthetic that Robinson was ‘riffing’ on. It takes on the simple contours of the koru and distils them to a rigid field of binary tones. While the content of Walters’ images was very simple, his practice raised complex questions about the notion of cultural ownership.

Peter Robinson Untitled oil and bitumen on paper 560mm x 1,520mm $20,000 – $30,000

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Webb’s

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New Zealand’s Premier Auction House

Important Paintings and Contemporary Art

Webb’s market position for Shane Cotton’s work.

By volume: 80% of the top 10 works By value: 68% of the top 10 works The top 50 works: Of the top 50 works sold by Shane Cotton, we have transacted 67% by value: $1.3 million of the $2.0 million in total sales traded. We have established the two highest prices for Cotton’s work at auction at $257,000 and $229,000; these represent the highest prices achieved in the past three years. Also, we are the only house to have achieved in excess of $200,000 for a work by the artist at auction.

Top 10 works by volume

Top 50 works by value

Further entries are currently invited for this forthcoming auction of Important Paintings and Contemporary Art to be held on 13 August 2013.

Webb’s scholarly, well referenced appraisal process will see the value of your work contextualised against recent market results and a consultative approach will ensure that you are well informed around current market dynamics.

Webb’s percentage. Refer: Australian Art Sales Digest, aasd.com.au Results for individual works inclusive of BP & GST

Shane Cotton Shane Cotton’s paintings weave together strands of New Zealand’s history, bicultural identity and social politics, challenging the viewer to actively engage and decode a complex iconography. Kiddy Kiddy recalls both the qualities of Maori figurative painting and European topographical painting. The work draws on Cotton’s own bicultural heritage and Ngapuhi ancestry for inspiration, suspending various

Shane Cotton Kiddy Kiddy oil on linen signed Cotton in brushpoint lower left, dated 1997 in brushpoint lower right 1,830mm x 1,520mm $150,000 – $200,000

1994 and 1998, Cotton’s artistic focus was on the production of deeply symbolic ‘historic’ figurative works. The present sale of Kiddy Kiddy offers a rare opportunity to acquire an exceptional example of this period of Cotton’s work.

Auckland Sophie Coupland M: 021 510 876

symbol, is one example, whilst a copyright symbol superimposed ownership and cultural appropriation in New Zealand culture. Between

CONTACT

E: scoupland@webbs.co.nz

symbols and motifs on the picture plane. The coiled eel, a Ngapuhi over the landscape points to present-day issues surrounding land

We look forward to hearing from you and providing informative market assessments for any works considered for consignment into this prestigious auction.

Wellington

Pieff ‘Mandarin’ Leather Sofa Maker: Pieff Furniture | United Kingdom, 1970s The luxurious ‘Mandarin’ Series from Pieff was all about combining chrome with other high-end materials.

Available at mrbigglesworthy.co.nz

Carey Young E: cyoung@webbs.co.nz M: 021 368 348 South Island Gillie Deans E: gdeans@webbs.co.nz M: 027 226 9785

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Discover the creative lifestyle that shaped design history.

6 Jul — 29 Sep 2013

Tickets $15 and under eventfinda.co.nz

Principal partner

This exhibition was organised by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Exhibition item Charles & Ray Eames Elephant (detail) 1945 Moulded plywood Eames Collection, LLC Š The Eames Foundation. Courtesy Eames Office LLC (eamesoffice.com)

Exhibition partner

Media partner