Specialist print auction to bring new buyers to art market

Some of Australia’s leading artists will be represented at Leonard Joel’s fourth specialist print auction for this year when more than 100 works go under the hammer from 11.30am on Thursday November 14 at 333 Malvern Road, South Yarra.

Leonard Joel introduced the specialist print auction concept in 2010 to highlight a relevant section of the art market that has largely been overlooked.

Since its introduction, the specialist print auction has become increasingly popular particularly among newcomers to the art market.

“Prints are an affordable method of entering the art market and this auction showcases different types of print making,” Leonard Joel art specialist Caroline Rook said.

The Thursday auction contains both monotype and limited edition prints with some of the artists, such as Norman Lindsay, clearly identifying and carefully cataloguing their work.  

Highlights for this auction are the five Norman Lindsay works, including The Dream Merchant 1920, and a group of works by Belgian artist Fernard Khnopff (1858-1921) put together by researcher Michael Murphy.

Another interesting work, the woodcut Nedlands 1921-1922 by commercial artist Archibald Bertram Webb (1887-1944) who lived and worked in Perth, is bound to attract plenty of attention.

There are three intriguing Japanese woodblocks – two by one of Japan’s most important woodblock artists in the early to mid 20^th century, Kawase Hasui (1883-1957).

One of these is the Zojoji Temple at Shiba from the Series Toyoko Nijukei 1931-1941 and the other Snow in Shiba Park, Tokyo.

Contemporary artists such as Jason Benjamin, who has two works in this sale, also are popular. Benjamin is well known for his landscapes and travel pictures with whimsical titles, although the two coloured etchings in this auction are floral arrangements with the unusual titles of Flying in and Filling up my Hopeless Heart and More than he Could Hold, both completed in 2005.

Several female artists Barbara Brash, Dora Chapman and British-born Sue Gollifer also are represented in the sale.

The 11.30am auction will be followed at 2pm by the Private Collection of a Gentleman, containing an interesting selection of Australian and international art.

Highlights include sculptures by renowned artists John Clutterbuck and Graham Fransella, oil paintings by William Dobell and Richard Larter and international prints by Durer, Rembrandt and Salvador Dali.