Submitted by aarAdmin on Sun, 12/02/2012 - 00:00
Her massive social media following (almost 600,000 Instagram devotees) might have had some bearing on the result – but when contemporary Australian ‘instafamous’ artist Catherine Jenna Hendry’s (CJ Hendry) first work to appear at auction, listed as lot 17 and entitled Red Paint Swatch (Small) and Blue Paint Swatch (Small), went under the hammer on December 1 in Sydney at Menzies Important and International art sale it sold for $63,818.18 (including buyer’s premium), more than twice the catalogue estimate.
Hendry, 33, was born in South Africa but raised in Brisbane, where she studied architecture and finance before pursuing an art career.
She is known for her hyper-realistic, large-scale renderings of luxury objects using a self-developed scribbling technique that sometimes takes 200 hours to complete.
River Red Gum in Landscape (lot 1), a watercolour on paper by iconic Aboriginal artist Albert Namatjira (1902-1959), was another work to excel – changing hands for $62,590.91 against a $25,000-$35,000 catalogue estimate.
Ben Quilty continues to perform well at Australian auctions these days and his work Overpass 2002 (lot 14) was no exception bringing $56,454.55 on an estimate of $30,000-$40,000.
Jeffrey Smart (1921-2013) is another artist who is a popular auction choice and Study for the Island 1961-62 (lot 19) did not disappoint with a $196,363.64 (above estimate) result.
Likewise, Margaret Olley’s (1923-2011) Patricia with Fruit and Flowers 1965 achieved an excellent $159,545.45 return on its $55,000-$75,000 catalogue estimate.
Works by other Australian female artists such as Grace Cossington Smith (1892-1984) and Ethel Carrick (1872-1952) are a must have for many buyers and so it proved for their respective paintings Piano and Chair 1964 (lot 21) and Concert in the Luxembourg Gardens 1909 (lot 22) that sold for $83,454.55 and $92,045.45.
Arthur Streeton (1867-1943) always stands tall among traditional Australian landscape painters and Pale Blue and Gold 1933 (lot 24) was no exception with a hammer plus buyer’s premium figure of $331,363.64 against a $180,000-$250,000 catalogue estimate.
And modern Australian artist and icon Brett Whiteley (1939-1992) always eye-catching works rarely stay uncontested the etching, ink and oil on paper entitled Harry’s Building – Sydney Harbour 1976 (lot 38) changing hands for an (above estimate) $115,363.64.
