Deceased Australian sculptor remembered at auction

Collectors will have the opportunity to remember Bruce Armstrong, one of Australia’s most important sculptors who died earlier this year aged 67, when Menzies online auction of Prints & Multiples closes from 6.30pm on Wednesday August 28.

His bronze sculpture entitled The Cricketer, conceived in 1987 and cast in 2021, (lot 14) is among more than 80 works on offer from some of Australia’s best artists.

Melbourne-based Armstrong was well-known for his carved wooden animal sculptures throughout the city landscape – the most famous and largest being Bunji 2002, a 25-metre high eagle that stands sentinel over the Docklands precinct.  

His death has left a giant hole in Australia’s contemporary art scene and the auction offering, a departure from his normal genre, shows a figure in the unmistakeable pose of a bowler set to propel a ball at speed towards an imaginary batsman.

Australia’s most famous black and white photograph, entitled The Sunbaker 1937 (lot 16) and printed c1972 by iconic photographer Max Dupain (1911-1992), is a major auction feature.

The enduring image was the result of a spontaneous moment when Dupain photographed his British-born builder friend Harold Salvage at rest on the sand during a 1937 camping trip to Culburra on the New South Wales south coast.

The photograph did not enter the public domain until the mid-1970s when it was printed and used as a promotional image for Max Dupain: Retrospective in 1975 at the Centre for Photography.

Iconic modern Australian artist Brett Whiteley (1939-1992) has several works in the auction including Lipstick 1981 (lot 8), a colour lithograph featuring one of his many nudes rendered in many drawings, paintings, prints, ceramics and sculptures that established him as a leader in the genre.

Among the internationals on offer is renowned contemporary American artist Jeff Koons metallised porcelain Balloon Dog (Yellow) 2015 (lot 3).

The artist instils a sense of childlike joy by using balloon animals from birthday parties or fetes and this piece, according to Koon, could have been twisted on request by a clown.

Fellow American Andy Warhol (1928-1987) also is featured through colour screen prints with two similar subjects Cow (Yellow Cow on Blue Background) 1971 and Cow (Brown Cow on Blue Background) 1971 (lots 1 and 2) from a much-celebrated series of wallpaper designs he produced between 1966 and 1976.

An unusual John Olsen (1928-2023) bronze sculpture Untitled (Leaping Frog) 2004-05 (lot 13) is a tribute to the popular Australian artist’s greatest motif and much loved and admired aspect of his oeuvre.

Olsen’s first interactions with frogs occurred during 1971 while on the set of Wild Australia where his eyes were opened to the diverse nature of Australia’s ecosystems.

John Kelly is another artist to feature through his painted bronze Three Cows in a Pile 2001 (lot 15), the subject for which he is best known.

Other artists include Cressida Campbell with her colour screen print The Verandah 1987 (lot 9), Margaret Preston’s (1875-1963) woodcut Calabash Bay, Berowra c1939 (lot 23) and Fred Williams (1927-1982) etchings You Yangs Landscape No. 2 1963-66 (lot 24) and Circle Landscape, Upwey 1965-66 (lot 25).

Viewing:

12 Todman Avenue

Kensington NSW

10am-5pm

Wednesday August 21 to Wednesday August 28