Important Paintings & Contemporary Art Brochure

Webb’s: New Zealand’s Premier Auction House

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Sale 366 Preview 28 November 2013 Sale 357 Review 13 August 2013

28. 11 Important Paintings & Contemporary Art Entries now open

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Contact Sophie Coupland E: scoupland@webbs.co.nz P: 09 529 5603

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Important Paintings & Contemporary Art

28. 11 Important Paintings & Contemporary Art Entries now open

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INTRODUCING Important Paintings & Contemporary Art, November 2013

Webb’s is proud to

Pillars of New Zealand Art

announce highlights

to some of the most

Three gems of early New Zealand portraiture accomplished by Charles Frederick Goldie and Gottfried Lindauer are amongst the standout offerings of the sale: a pair of exquisite Maori female portraits by Goldie depicts chieftainesses Wiripine Ninia and Te Hei; the Lindauer painting delicately renders the likeness of Huia Whakamairu.

These exceptional paintings offer a valuable opportunity for collectors to acquire works from within the very mainstay of New Zealand’s art history canon.

significant and rare

Modern and Contemporary Momentum

from our forthcoming November sale of Important Paintings & Contemporary Art. Exposing the market

examples of New Zealand practice to have been seen in recent years, this industry-leading event will draw the 2013 auction year to a strong close.

With strong competition presently driving the collecting market for works of importance from the modern and contemporary periods, the sale will also survey the finest of New Zealand’s late-20th and 21st-century artistic practice.

Monumentality is key, and we are delighted to present Bill Hammond’s Farmer’s Market to our buying audience.

This work is an absolute triumph of the artist’s late period of production and is of magnificent quality, proliferated with fine, delicate detail.

Farmer’s Market has a magnitude of depth that is akin to the artist’s most celebrated paintings and is, without doubt, one of the most extraordinary works by Hammond to have ever been presented to auction. The accompanying dedicated supplement further elaborates the art historical and market context of this important work. Famer’s Market will be accompanied by a number of other outstanding works which are fresh to the market, including a brilliant painting by Michael Smither, Elizabeth with Sarah and Joseph, and Shane Cotton’s epic The Painted Bird.

In both the quality of works presented and the chronologically rigorous breadth of its selection, this prestigious sale will galvanise discerning collectors and institutions vying for outstanding works at the highest level of the market. The sale’s strong offerings are emblematic of Webb’s specialism in both engaging the richness of tradition which shaped New Zealand’s art-historical narrative, and spearheading growth as taste-makers in the secondary market for exceptional modern and contemporary works.

Important Paintings & Contemporary Art

Shane Cotton The Painted Bird acrylic on canvas signed S. Cotton and inscribed 2010 in brushpoint lower right; inscribed The Painted Bird in brushpoint upper left 3000mm x 1900mm Estimate: $120,000 - $160,000

SHANE COTTON Shane Cotton’s epic The Painted Bird represents the pinnacle of the artist’s evolution from a historical grounding in the richness of the New Zealand landscape to a deeply spiritual, upwards-looking release from gravity.

In the dark beauty of ominous clouds marbled with intermittent light, this monumental work is sombre: quasi-apocalyptic. Set against this dramatic and foreboding backdrop, a rush of movement from a single falling bird generates a remarkable point of dramatic focus, exposing the viewer to the possibilities of a rich and infinitely timeless space. This image of the falling bird, which plummets from the heavens and foregoes the instinct to fly as it is subjected to the forces of buffeting winds, is a graceful icon, synonymous with and recurrent within Cotton’s skyscapes. This beautiful painting was recently exhibited as part of Cotton’s mid-career survey at City Gallery Wellington entitled Shane Cotton: The Hanging Sky.

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In Context: The secondary market for Charles Goldie’s practice

X

Charles Goldie H ighest sale p r ice in last 12 months

Webb’s Total Goldie sales in last 12 months

(Webb’s August 2012, including buyer’s premium & gst)

webb’s sell through rate in 2012 - 2013

$339,250 Total turnover of the Goldie market since 1993

$13,762,559 As Charles Goldie was one of the first New Zealand artists whose work developed into a major vehicle for investment, the auction market for his practice has come to serve as an important barometer of both the art market’s fluidity and New Zealand’s economic confidence in a broader sense. Goldie belongs to a small cache of top-tier artists – such as Don Binney, Colin McCahon and Bill Hammond – whose practices have developed a crossmarket following that doesn’t subscribe to traditional, genre-based conventions.

His market is unique in that the focused nature of his output allows for a very precise analysis of the artist’s sales results and their relevance to the overall market.

$1,162,500

100%

Over the past two years, Webb’s has been at the forefront of a major period of development in the artist’s secondary market. During this time, a total of $2,308,900 in sales was transacted, of which Webb’s was responsible for $1,302,500; this equates to a market share of 56.4% (the remainder of the market is shared between three other houses). During this time, seven works each achieved in excess of $200,000 and, of these, four achieved prices of $240,000 or more. In terms of sell-through rates, 93% of the works offered were sold and, of those marketed by Webb’s, the sell-through rate has sat at 100%. A highlight from this period was the groundbreaking price of $339,250 for No Koora te Cigaretti, a Portrait of Mihipeka Wairama, Tuhourangi, which set a new record for a female portrait.

Goldie’s practice resonates with the broader market’s values on a number of levels; not only does it engage poignantly with New Zealand’s national history, the works are also of limited availability and the steady nature of the historical rise in results for Goldie’s works has resulted in a controlled release to the market.

Needless to say, when the results achieved over the last two years are considered against the quality of the works that have been offered, they reflect an active, competitive environment that is hungry for exceptional cultural assets.

Accordingly, as with the well-established core of the market for high-value artworks, the acceleration of activity in this area indicates that, presently, the top tier of the market is more decisive than it has been in almost a

Important Paintings & Contemporary Art

average price per cm2 since 1997 for PAINTINGS BY charles goldie

Average price per cm 2 achieved for maori subjects vs overall turnover of the new zealand art market

average price per cm 2 in 2013

$313.50

decade. Further, when viewed against the curve of the full market’s gains over the last two years, it can be read as an indicator of strong future growth.

Looking back over the last 20 years of sales for Goldie’s work, it is clear that, while there is certainly an upward directional thrust in the annual average price achieved for works, the median does fluctuate based on the period, scale and volume of the works that are made available in a particular year. However, when the annual average price per square centimetre is laid over this data, it paints a much clearer picture of resilient and unwavering annual growth in this area of the market, accented by a particularly powerful surge in recent years.

Further, when the average annual price per

Goldie

square centimetre achieved for Maori subjects is set against recent annual turnover for mixedvendor auctions held across the New Zealand market, the two data sets roughly mirror one another, with the recent rise in the Goldie market serving as a forerunner for a current acceleration of activity market-wide.

Webb’s has, in 2013, achieved some of the highest sale totals for mixed-vendor offerings since the market’s 2003 peak. Traditionally, a flagship sale on the New Zealand auction market seeks to achieve a total of $1 million and, while this has remained true for our competitors, Webb’s last two flagship events (held in March and August) achieved in excess of $1.7 million and $2.1 million respectively.

While these recent results certainly benefited

Overall

from a broad base of works whose prices significantly exceeded presale estimates, the core of this growth was driven by a strong, dedicated reception for high-value artworks of cultural importance. As Webb’s is the service provider at the forefront of the market’s current development, our sale campaigns have enjoyed an unparalleled level of attention from the market place and an unmatched level of access to active collectors. Webb’s domination of the market for Goldie’s practice is emblematic of our influence on the direction of the broader secondary market.

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competitor

Important Paintings & Contemporary Art

Webb’s market position for Gottfried Lindauer’s work.

Webb’s holds both the record price for a single portrait and the highest price in the history of the market for a work by Gottfried Lindauer.

Market Share: Top 10 Prices (by volume)

Top 10 Prices: 60% of the top 10 prices achieved 150% ahead of our nearest competitor.

Prices in Excess of $100,000: 83% of works that have sold for more than $100,000 150% ahead of our nearest competitor.

Record Price for a Work by Lindauer Maori Women and Children on Riverbank Achieved $199,800, June 2000

Market Share: Prices over $100,000 (by volume)

$199,800 Record price for a work by Lindauer

Record Price for a Single Portrait Ihakara Tukumaru Achieved $177,300, August 2011 Gottfried Lindauer Mrs Huia Whakamairu, Wairarapa oil on canvas signed G. Lindauer and inscribed 1876 in brushpoint lower right; signed G. Lindauer and inscribed Mrs Huia Whakamairu, Wairarapa, New Zealand and 1976 in brushpoint verso 660mm x 530mm Estimate: $150,000 - $160,000

$177,300 Record price for a single portrait

300% Ahead of our nearest competitor (prices in excess of $100,000)

Gottfried LindauEr This rare portrait by Gottfried Lindauer is a magnum opus of the artist’s oeuvre, which illustrates both his convincing realist technique and his gorgeously evocative use of Caravaggian light. Lindauer painted portraits of chiefs and eminent Maori figures and this work captures the likeness of Mrs Huia Whakamairu, Wairarapa, of Ngati Kahungunu descent. Huia was a relative of Ihia Whakamairu who witnessed the sale of the land on which Masterton was founded. Dated 1876, this work is an early portrait executed

by Lindauer following his arrival in New Zealand. Lindauer is known to have painted a number of portraits in Wairarapa including portraits of Ihia Whakamairu and his wife Erihapeti in the following year of 1877. After moving to Auckland in late 1875, he established a relationship with businessman Henry Partridge, who eventually became the artist’s primary patron, and sought to construct a pictorial record of the Maori people. Bearing in mind that a certain ethnographic urgency informed Lindauer’s artistic mission, it is evident that beautiful works such as this portrait do not serve a purely documentary function, but evoke a deep sensibility and awareness of the subject’s mana and wairua, or spirit.

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Important Paintings & Contemporary Art

Webb’s market position for Charles Frederick Goldie’s work.

By volume: 80% of paintings offered in 2013 By value: Market Share: 2013 (by volume)

73% of paintings offered in 2013

Over the last two years, sales of Charles Goldie’s work across the market have registered an industry average of $121,569 per work. Webb’s have continued to exemplify excellence through high performance in this market sector, as demonstrated by our marketexceeding average of $140,350.

Market Share: 2011-2013 (by value)

Charles Frederick Goldie “One of the Old School”, Wiripine Ninia A Ngati Awa Chieftainess

Price per cm2 – Maori subjects

oil on canvas signed C.F. Goldie and inscribed 1913 in brushpoint upper left; inscribed “One of the Old School”, Wiripine Ninia A Ngatiawa Cheiftainess in ink on label affixed verso 230mm x 175mm Estimate: $230,000 - $280,000

Charles Frederick Goldie

Average annual price

300% Ahead of our nearest competitor in 2013

One of the Old School is an exquisite painting capturing one of Charles Goldie’s favoured subjects, the Ngati Awa chieftainess Wiripine Ninia.

Instilling the portrait with an engaging immediacy, Goldie has captured the strong and dignified form of his sitter with her eyes downcast, in a deep and contemplative spirit. This work is one of very few instances where Wiripine was captured by Goldie in a front-on position, enabling the viewer to fully appreciate the intricate detailing of her beautiful ta moko. Whilst many of Goldie’s works isolated his sitters in a studio setting, this particular portrait has set Wiripine against a background of carved wood, commenting on the dynamicity of the tension in her position as ‘one of the old school’ with tenuous and necessitated links to colonialism, as manifested in her Western attire of a shirt, a scarf and a shawl. Executed in 1913, the painting is an honest and sensitive treatment of its subject and an absolutely superb example from the peak of Goldie’s technical refinement.

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Charles Frederick Goldie Te Hei, A Ngati Raukawa Chieftainess signed C.F. Goldie, inscribed 1920 in brushpoint upper left; inscribed Te Hei, A Ngatiraukawa Chieftainess in graphite verso 265mm x 220mm Estimate: $230,000 - $280,000

Charles Frederick Goldie It is through exceptional paintings such as the present depiction of Te Hei, a Ngati Raukawa Chieftainess, that Charles Goldie’s skill as a veritable portraitist is made manifest: he has captured not only his sitter’s likeness, but truly something of her dignified mana and spirit. Technically speaking, the work is a masterpiece. Executed in 1920, it offers a beautifully raw and candid engagement on the artist’s part with Te Hei. She has been depicted in full Maori attire and wearing a magnificent pounamu, and there is certainly a sense of pride and regality as she looks resolutely out to meet the gaze of the viewer.

Goldie’s artistic ambition was partly documentary, as was the case with Lindauer, and it is well known that, through his practice, he too was seeking to ethnographically record what he considered to be a dying people. Understanding this, the viewer can sense the reflective sentimentality and awe-filled solemnity that is evoked through this beautiful ancestral portrait.

Important Paintings & Contemporary Art

Gordon Walters Untitled ink on paper 635mm x 483mm Estimate: $60,000 - $70,000

Gordon Walters This superb untitled koru painting exemplifies the crisp, technical finesse and delicacy of form characteristic of Gordon Walters’ finest work. The gravitas of the painting is born of the notion that, in Walters’ own words, “dynamic relations are most clearly expressed by the repetition of a few simple elements”. In both its repetition and illusory dynamism, this painting presents a seamless monochromatic visual exchange. The polarity of black and white creates neither starkness nor a harsh contrast but, instead, affords a painterly fluidity, where no single dominant form or colour emerges.

The incorporation of a single detached circle to the lower right of the composition recalls the centrality of the principles of geometric abstraction within Walters’ work.

First exhibited two years after the artist’s seminal exhibition at New Vision Gallery in 1966, this work is illustrated in Michael Dunn’s 1983 publication Gordon Walters (p. 36), and was originally purchased by John Perry, former director of Rotorua Museum.

Important Paintings & Contemporary Art

Webb’s market position for Michael Smither’s work.

Top 20 by Volume: 65% by volume of the top 20 works sold 550% ahead of our nearest competitor

Market Share: Top 20 (by volume)

Top 20 by Value: $1,124,782 in sales over the top 20 191% ahead of our nearest competitor Prices in excess of $50,000: Webb’s have transacted $1,178,690 in sales 267% ahead of nearest competitor by value 350% ahead of nearest competitor by volume

Market Share: Top 20 (by value)

191% Ahead of our nearest competitor (by value)

Michael Smither Elizabeth with Sarah and Joseph oil on board signed M. D. Smither and inscribed 68 in brushpoint lower left 1100mm x 1210mm Estimate: $120,000 - $180,000

Michael Smither

Market Share: Sales over $50,000

127% Ahead of industry average (paintings sold 2012 – 2013)

Elizabeth with Sarah and Joseph is a momentous and highly resolved work from Michael Smither’s Domestic series. This seminal period in Smither’s oeuvre saw his artistic identity and role as a parent collide in the production of a number of charming, hyper-realist familial insights. This rendition of his young family captures something significant of Smither’s artistic remit at the time: to give centrality and importance to the everyday aspects of domestic life. Using a brightly coloured palette and through applying an extreme linear plasticity and clarity of form; the figures of his wife, daughter and son have been effected in a manner both intimate and humorous. The genius of Smither’s figural treatment in this work is in his ability to stylistically temper any overtones of tenderness and sentimentality with a sense of theatricality and light-hearted exuberance. This delightful painting is certainly one of the most significant of this series to have ever been presented to the market.

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Allen Maddox Grid Painting oil on canvas 560mm x 510mm Estimate: $12,000 - $18,000

ALLen Maddox Allen Maddox’s practice of the mid to late 1980s saw the artist return to using the more-regimented square grids that first held his attention a decade earlier. However, while certain aspects of this period were familiar, his practice of the time also ushered in an electric use of colour that was a complete departure from his previous work. His work from 1986 and 1987, particularly, is celebrated because of its somewhat jarring palette that blends seemingly contradictory colour combinations into bright, pulsating harmonies.

Important Paintings & Contemporary Art

Tony Fomison Untitled graphite on paper 210mm x 330mm Estimate: $14,000 – $18,000

Tony Fomison This beautiful graphite drawing from the mid-1980s is an elemental, potent example of Fomison’s engagement with the natural environment. In this sublimely executed work, the artist has depicted an anonymous masculine form tenderly holding a limbed log of wood, as if cradling a dead child. There is a gravitational oppression in the figure’s mourning; this metaphysical journey of lamentation also concerns the viewer and our own fate. Solemnly moving in its spiritually reverential aura, the work questions the role of humanity in the process of ecological destruction, whilst interweaving the cultural and self-identification concerns of an artist who was, in his own words, “taught by the landscape”.

The subtle brilliance of this work is in the way it exudes a silent and overwhelming tragedy. Selfreferential in the inclusion of an amulet resembling the artist’s own ceramic creations, the drawing imagines the world as an extension of Fomison’s own psyche, offering a tenderly introspective and insightful reflection. As such, this allegorical and intense meditative engagement breathes the very essence of Fomison’s philosophy and is deeply moving in its aesthetic simplicity.

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Important Paintings & Contemporary Art

13 . 8 In Review

Important Paintings & Contemporary Art Highlights

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SALE IN REVIEW Important Paintings and Contemporary Art, August 2013

Webb’s August sale of Important Paintings & Contemporary Art achieved a total in excess of $2.1 million and saw Webb’s take a dominant hold of the contemporary market and accelerate its lead in the market for high-value works from the modern and historical periods.

The results of this auction, which saw an average sale price of $39,185 realised per work, are a reflection of the confidence that has been invested in Webb’s as the leader of the New Zealand art market. In the lead-up to the sale, this was demonstrated in the substantial breadth of the sale’s offerings – the catalogue comprised a comprehensive selection of high-calibre, contemporary, historical and modern works of key importance to New Zealand’s art history. In review, this excellence is clearly affirmed by the prices achieved at the auction; the total for this single sale at Webb’s exceeded the combined totals of the two recent major art sales held by our competitors. This auction stands as one of the highest-grossing mixed-vendor sales held on the New Zealand market in almost a decade.

Webb’s has a long history of playing a pioneering role in new areas of the market.

The sale in August generated a suite of results for contemporary artworks made within the last decade that far outstripped any previous secondary market benchmarks for the respective artists. Liz Maw’s largescale cerulean goddess Aura, which achieved $56,300, well exceeded the previous record price for her work at auction of $29,900 (by 188%). Moreover, Rohan Weallean’s Grey Lynn Boogie Woogie, a tantalising monochromatic geographic portrait paying homage to Mondrian’s Broadway Boogie Woogie, achieved $16,875, also a record price for the artist. Further strengthening the contemporary contingent of the sale, the excellent Elmer Keith bird portrait, which is now so iconically identifiable within Michael Parekowhai’s practice, achieved a price of $18,760. These prices affirm that there is strong demand driving the market for works by outstanding New Zealand contemporary practitioners and stand as testament to the effectiveness of Webb’s marketing procedures and relationships with key collectors.

The top-performing lot on the evening was an exceptional portrait by Charles Frederick Goldie: Memories, Wiripine Ninia, a Ngati Awa Chieftainess. The work is in pristine condition and represents the peak of the artist’s technical prowess so it was a pleasure to present it to the market. The strong price of $281,400 that it achieved is indicative of the firm and sustained

market demand for iconic works of historical importance from masters such as Goldie.

Strong demand for the magnificent emeraldgreen Zoomorphic Lounge by Bill Hammond, which belongs to his critically acclaimed late 1990s’ period, yielded the second-highest price of the evening: $205,200. Not since 2009 had a painting from this celebrated period been offered. Another standout work was Michael Smither’s monumental Portrait of Sarah, which garnered significant interest from the market, achieving a final sale price of $120,000.

In both its scale and resolve, this was one of the most significant works from Smither’s seminal Domestic series to have ever been offered at auction.

The ongoing strength of the market for exceptional works from major modernist artists was also clearly reflected in saleroom activity.

Landscape with a Road by Colin McCahon, an exceptional work from the Curnow collection, achieved the staggering total of $117,250.

Painted in 1965 and presenting a stark hillside and lonely road, this work conveys McCahon at his very essence. Additionally, a rare 1959 portrait by McCahon outstripped all previous benchmarks for the artist’s figurative practice and achieved the staggering figure of $86,800, a 166% improvement on the reserve. Ralph Hotere’s practice was also well received, with the artist’s masterful 1988 painting, Kind of Blue, achieving $105,500.

Considering areas of growth in the New Zealand art market, it is interesting to note that works by important early modernists, which have traditionally received a less-resolved response from the market, are experiencing an upwards trend in value development. The top price achieved for a work from this period was $47,000 for Russell Clark’s majestic limestone sculpture of a Tuhoe woman, which broke the previous record price for the artist’s sculptural practice by an incredible 185%. Another highlight of the sale was the $21,105 figure achieved for Charles Tole’s Port Moles. The work measures only 37 x 33cm and this is the most substantial price ever achieved, by square centimetre, for the artist’s work at auction.

Additionally, a new record price was set for John Tole’s practice, with a fine painting entitled At Piha selling for $12,897.

Important Paintings & Contemporary Art

RETURN on reserve price

360% Charles Tole With its crisp lines and shallow gradients, Charles Tole’s Port Moles chrysalises many of the concerns that were central to the artist’s practice. Along with a limited roster of other mid-century practitioners, Tole was an early proponent of cubism’s use in New Zealand and, to this end, Port Moles use of simplified form speaks candidly to the development of modernist painting in New Zealand. However, unlike some of his earlier works which subscribe to a strictly geometric schema, Port Moles softens its cubist influence with a locally devised, utilitarian approach to figurativism. Starting with the rise of the Binney market, which occurred some four years ago, the market’s regard for works which reference the development of a national aesthetic has continued to rise. The price achieved for Port Moles underlines the role that Tole played in this important narrative.

Charles Tole Port Moles oil on board 370mm x 330mm Achieved $21,105

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165% improvement on previous record

Liz Maw Aura oil on board 1330mm x 1070mm

218% Return on reserve

Achieved $56,300

Liz maw In presenting a subject that is both deity and idealised physical specimen, Aura plays on postmodern notions commonly associated with images of the female form; it examines the cultural function of celebrity, religion and sexual identity. Painted in 2002, the work employed the iconic, 1970s psychedeliainspired, blue palette that was synonymous with Liz Maw’s early practice. As such, it is a highly refined example from the artist’s formative years in which her key conceptual concerns were superbly crystallised. The work was originally shown in the artist’s first solo exhibition – Jesus, Aura and Erebus at Ivan Anthony Gallery. As the title suggests, the exhibition included only three paintings and the price achieved for this work recognises the rarity of Maw’s practice, the importance of the female form within her oeuvre and the market’s regard of the artist as a senior practitioner with future investment potential.

Important Paintings & Contemporary Art

113% improvement on previous record

Rohan Wealleans Grey Lynn Boogie Woogie acrylic on canvas 100mm x 1000mm x 60mm

121% Return on reserve

Achieved $19,930

ROHAN WealleanS Rohan Wealleans’ Grey Lynn Boogie Woogie belongs to small series of works that the artist made in 2010, which were typified by a markedly more rigid structure than that used in the artist’s previous work. Since Wealleans graduated from Elam School of Fine Arts in 2003, he has built a strong following in the primary market and has amassed an impressive roster of exhibitions in public institutions. Primary market and institutional suport are considerations that the market looks towards as indications of investment potential. Grey Lynn Boogie Woogie’s restrained approach and use of materials appealed to the market’s core principles and, at the same time, spoke to the artist’s key thematic and pictorial concerns.

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Top

6%

Of priceS achieved for hammond

Bill Hammond Zoomorphic Lounge acrylic on canvas 2000mm x 840mm Achieved $205,190

184%

Development in value since work was FIRST offered in 2001

BILL Hammond Painted in 1999, Bill Hammond’s Zoomorphic Lounge belongs to the artist’s highly sought-after late1990s’ period. While the artist’s signature avian-headed figures first became established features of his practice in 1993, it was in the late 1990s that the artist pioneered his iconic use of emerald green and metallic pigments. Before this painting was sold recently, it had been almost a decade since a work from this period of the artist’s career had been presented to the market and, in recent years, the Hammond market as a whole has experienced a significant upwards shift in activity. The figure achieved for Zoomorphic Lounge places it within the top 6% of results achieved for Hammond’s practice at auction and reflects both the innate quality of the work and the health of the Hammond market as a whole.

Important Paintings & Contemporary Art

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6%

Charles Frederick Goldie Memories, Wiripine Ninia, a Ngati Awa Chieftainess

Of priceS achieved for GOLDIE

oil on canvas 340mm x 260mm

120% Return on reservE

Achieved $281,400

Charles Frederick Goldie Memories, Wiripine Ninia, a Ngati Awa Chieftainess is a fine, highly accomplished example from Charles Goldie’s celebrated early period (1903–1920). The works made during this time are typified by their exacting, miniature detail while the works from later in the artist’s career employed a more expressive approach. It is for the artist’s early practice, particularly, that the current market has shown significant fervour and Memories attracted competition because it fulfilled the collecting public’s desired criteria in a number of ways. While the sitter’s gaze is turned away from the viewer, her pose reveals a partial view of her beautifully rendered ta moko. Furthermore, Wiripine Ninia was a sitter with whom Goldie had a long association and the scale of the work is somewhat larger than that of the smaller-format paintings to which the market is more accustomed.

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138% improvement on average price for works FROM this period*

Colin McCahon Landscape with Road enamel on board 610mm x 600mm

182% Return on reserve

Achieved $117,250

COLIN M c Cahon Depicting a minimal schema of narrative devices – the stark outline of a hillside and the rough surface of tar-sealed bitumen road – Landscape with Road was painted in the same year as were many of McCahon’s Waterfall paintings and shares the same concerns as were evident in the works of this series. Focusing the path of movement through a static field of vision, the work has an esoteric frame of reference positing human life as a spiritual journey. The work’s pre-sale estimate was calculated using the median price achieved for smaller-format works on board, which was then scaled up accordingly. The auction mechanism is an effective method of highlighting works that are truly important and, accordingly, the price achieved for Landscape with Road reflects both its aesthetic parallels with the artist’s seminal North Otago paintings of the late 1960s and the pronounced scarcity of well-resolved paintings on board. *last 24 months

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1.2%

of results achIEved for the artist’s work at auction

Michael Smither Portrait of Sarah oil on board 1220mm x 1220mm Achieved $120,000

52%

ACCOUNTS FOR 52% of smither sales by value for 2013

MICHAEL Smither Portrait of Sarah is a monumental painting from Michael Smither’s time at The Gables in New Plymouth.

Highly resolved and finely-executed, the work’s viewing experience is governed by an acute awareness of the paternal/filial relationship between the painter and his subject, and the two painted figures. Smither is celebrated as an artist “who uses painting as a language which reveals every aspect of his personal experience”, and the market’s receptiveness to works from his Domestic series has traditionally been unyielding; 70% of the top 10 prices achieved for Smither’s practice are held by works of this series.

This was certainly demonstrated in the tenacious response to Portrait of Sarah, the second-largest painting by Smither to have ever sold at this level of the market. Achieving the fourth-highest price for the artist’s practice, this sale also secured a 65% volume share for Webb’s in the top 20 sales of Smither’s work and exemplified the continued demand for classic, iconic paintings from this seminal period in his production.

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Important New Zealand’s Paintings Premier & Contemporary Auction House Art

168% improvement on previous record for a figurative work on paper

Colin McCahon Portrait ink on paper 760mm x 560mm

185% Return on reserve

Achieved $86,800

COLIN M c Cahon McCahon’s Portrait belongs to a small number of figurative paintings that the artist made in the late 1950s after undertaking a research trip to the USA. Like the monochromatic Northland drawings that the artist made during this time, Portrait features a much more expressive approach than that which had defined his previous practice – owing to the influence of mid-century American abstract expressionism. While Portrait sat somewhat outside McCahon’s oeuvre, the market recognised that the subject’s boldly defined shoulder line related strongly to the artist’s landscape practice and thus rewarded the work with a price in the vicinity of what one might expect to achieve for a well-resolved landscape (on paper) of its size.

Important Paintings & Contemporary Art

185% improvement on previous record for a sculptural work

Russell Clark Seated Figure limestone on rimu base 330mm x 280mm x 270mm

182% Return on reserve

Achieved $46,900

RUSSELL Clark Russell Clark’s limestone sculpture Seated Woman smashed the previous record for the artist’s sculptural practice at auction by 185%, exceeding its reserve by an astonishing 209% to achieve $46,000. There is a monumental beauty to this significant modern work, which depicts an unnamed sitter of the Ngai Tuhoe iwi with whom Clark had a long personal association.

The phenomenal price it achieved speaks to the market’s increasing responsiveness and appreciation for this modernist market sector.

Webb’s Auction House

New Zealand’s Premier Auction House

Further entries are invited now for the forthcoming auction of Important Paintings & Contemporary Art to be held on 28 November 2013. Webb’s scholarly, well-referenced appraisal process will see the value of your work contextualised against recent results; a consultative approach will ensure that you are well informed around current market dynamics.

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

Contact Sophie Coupland E: scoupland@webbs.co.nz P: 09 529 5603

Charles Ninow E: cninow@webbs.co.nz P: 09 529 5601