Menzies Art Brands

Menzies chairman and head of private sales Cameron Menzies is chuffed to be celebrating the company’s 25 years in the art auction industry and its 100^th sale by auctioning 36 paintings belonging to the ANZ Bank collection – given that, as one of the big four Australian banks, it has always been such a staunch presence in its business aspirations.

“These paintings are representative of its Australia-wide and international collection which numbers several hundred works,” he said.

Ten Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) pottery pieces and prints by some of Australia’s best-known artists are part of Menzies timed online Prints & Multiples Sydney auction ending from 6.30pm Wednesday August 30 at 12 Todman Avenue, Kensington.

While there are several high-priced items among the 110 lots, many are estimated for only a few thousand dollars and will no doubt appeal to first time auction goers looking to buy a work by a well-known artist.

Leading Australian landscape artist Fred Williams (1927-1982) was fascinated with a “billabong” in the Melbourne suburb of Kew and during the mid-1970s used it as the basis for his Kew Billabong series – numbering more than 30 paintings.  

Describing it as “splendid” but noting that the place was in fact “just a rubbish dump of all things”, he admitted to using a rubber tyre in his painting as a motif (first ever) and found it a great place to work.

Several Jeffrey Smart (1921-2013) paintings feature among works by Australia’s top artists in what are undoubted drawcards for Menzies forthcoming art auction from 6.30pm Wednesday March 29 at 1 Darling Street, South Yarra.

The highest estimate work is Bus by the Tiber 1977-78 (lot 18), an oil on canvas that first appeared in 1980 in Rudy Komon Art Gallery in Sydney and carries a $600,000-$700,000 catalogue estimate.

Several Jeffrey Smart (1921-2013) paintings feature among works by Australia’s top artists in what undoubted drawcards for Menzies forthcoming art auction from 6.30pm Wednesday March 29 at 1 Darling Street, South Yarra.

The highest estimate work is Bus by the Tiber 1977-78 (lot 18), an oil on canvas that first appeared in 1980 in Rudy Komon Art Gallery in Sydney and carries a $600,000-$700,000 catalogue estimate.

The number of pre and post-World War II European migrants who have built a successful life in Australia could probably fill a book of Who’s Who.

Among them is Sydney businesswoman the late Millie Phillips who with her Jewish family in 1938, aged nine, fled Poland and Nazi persecution to emigrate to Sydney.

Like many of her fellow migrants, Millie displayed an indomitable spirit helping her to overcome many near insurmountable challenges, including the loss in 1978 of her eldest daughter Lynette in a very tragic and public death.

Some of the world’s and Australia’s best artists – including Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and Andy Warhol (1928-1987) – are represented in Menzies forthcoming Prints & Multiples live online auction from 6.30pm Wednesday October 12 at the company’s Sydney gallery at 12 Todman Avenue, Kensington.

While the Picasso work is a soft ground etching entitled Jeune Femme Surprenant le Reflet d’une Hirondelle dans son Miroir 1936 (lot 32), Warhol’s is a colour screenprint of Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger (lot 15) completed in 1975.

In a somewhat unusual move for the Australian art auction scene, a rare and significant religious painting by Justin O’Brien (1917-1996) entitled Madonna c1959 (lot 26) appears for the first time on the secondary market and is the centrepiece of Menzies forthcoming sale from 6.30pm Wednesday June 29 at 1 Darling Street, South Yarra.

Another “auction first” – in the form of John Brack’s (1920-1999) The Wedding Breakfast 1960 (lot 30) – will be the focus of attention at Menzies March 31, 2022 Important Australian & International Art sale in Sydney, beginning at 6.30pm at 12 Todman Avenue, Kensington.

The central painting of Brack’s Wedding series, it was created for the 1960 Helena Rubenstein Travelling Art Scholarship Exhibition and has featured in every major survey exhibition of his work since then.

Contemporary Australian 'instafamous' artist Catherine Jenna Hendry (CJ Hendry), 33, will make her Australian auction debut at Menzies Wednesday December 1 Important and international Art sale from 6.30pm at the company's Sydney gallery at 12 Todman Avenue, Kensington.