Menzies Art Brands

Menzies Art Brands will auction some of Australian iconic artist Brett Whiteley’s best works over two nights from 6.30pm Wednesday September 21 and Thursday September 22 at 1 Darling Street, South Yarra as part of two-pronged sale offering 289 works with a low estimate of $8.3 million.

The auction comprises 129 lots in its Australian & International Fine Art & Sculpture sale from various vendors and on the second night involves the dispersal of the Stock-in-Trade of Savill Galleries.

Eugene von Guerard’s View of Hobart Town, with Mount Wellington in the Background is the centrepiece of a strong presentation of early and colonial works at Menzies forthcoming Sydney auction of Australian & International Fine Art & Sculpture from 6.30pm Thursday June 23.

Menzies head of Australian art Tim Abdallah believes the work, painted in 1856, is clearly a museum quality magnum opus, which the auction house expects to sell for more than $1.25 million. 

What immediately strikes art lovers as they enter Stonington Mansion to view Menzies Art Brands first offerings for 2016 is the enormous Garry Shead painting entitled The Studio 2001 prominently displayed in the foyer.

This must be the auction for enormous works – major paintings by Tim Storrier and Rick Amor in an adjoining room are equally impressive, as is the upstairs display of Michael Johnson’s giant Vermillion 1995.

The usual high profile modern artists – led by John Brack’s Adagio 1967-69 (lot 41) with a $600,000-$800,000 estimate – are guaranteed to pull a large auction crowd at Menzies final sale for the year from 6.30pm Thursday December 10 at 12 Todman Avenue, Kensington in Sydney.

Possibly of greater interest is a group of seven rare works by colonial painter Thomas Tyrwhitt Balcombe (1810-1861) who was born on St Helena – home of exiled French Emperor Napoleon – before moving in 1824 with his family to Sydney, where his father had been appointed colonial treasurer.

Fred Williams was the first Australian artist to be honoured with a major exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

The year was 1977 and he already was regarded as Australia’s most important artist.

This exhibition introduced Williams to an international audience and the following year he began a series of new paintings on the Werribee Gorge – now regarded as among the most important of his career.

In the latest development of its concerted move to introduce major international art works to the Australian market, Menzies has three highly significant works by famous international artists as the centrepiece of its forthcoming Thursday June 25 auction from 6.30pm at 1 Darling Street, South Yarra.

These are American Andy Warhol’s Head After Picasso (lot 39), French expatriate Fernand Léger’s China Town (lot 40) and British sculptor Lynn Chadwick’s Maquette II Jubilee III 1984 (lot 32).

Eva Breuer’s private collection of 76 paintings is among Menzies highlights for its auction from 6.30pm Thursday March 26 at Menzies Gallery 12 Todman Avenue, Kensington in Sydney.

One of Sydney’s leading art dealers until her death from cancer in 2010, the sale of her collection follows the closure of the Eva Breuer gallery, which her daughter Nicky McWilliam continued to run after her mother died, in May 2014.

Most art followers saw Eva Breuer as a luminary of the Australian art world who was respected for her enthusiasm, energy and high standard of practice.

Leading Australian art auction house Menzies has launched itself into the charity auction market by supporting Arthritis and Osteoporosis Victoria (A&OV) in its Art for Arthritis fundraising efforts as part of the company’s final fine art sale for the year.

Several iconic Australian paintings will be on offer when the auctioneer raises his hammer for the first time at 6.30pm on Thursday December 11 at 1 Darling Street, South Yarra.

More than 230 rare leather-bound first editions from Victorian and earlier times belonging to the Parliamentary Library of NSW are part of an online timed auction by Lawsons Auctioneers, which ends at 10am on Friday November 14.

The NSW Parliamentary Library, founded in 1840 as the Library of the Legislative Council of New South Wales, is Australia’s oldest continuously operating official research library.

Menzies forthcoming Sydney auction will showcase a major Eugene von Guerard work entitled View of Hobart Town with Mount Wellington in the Background and painted in 1856.

This is 52 years after Hobart was founded and the painting, currently residing in a private Sydney collection, is a precisely detailed panoramic view of Tasmania’s State capital.