Submitted by aarAdmin on Fri, 04/11/2025 - 00:00
Such is buyer thirst for major works by iconic Australian artist Brett Whiteley (1939-1992) that every time one pops up at auction it is snapped up.
Add the fact that it is an early work – and then expect to see fireworks.
This was the case at Menzies Sydney auction on April 9 when one of two works, entitled Untitled Painting III (lot 35) – both painted in 1961 and never before seen in Australia – more than doubled its lower catalogue estimate and was knocked down for $950,000 or $1,165,909 including buyer’s premium.
The other Whiteley , Untitled Black Painting (also known as The Black of Anxiety) (lot 36), sold for a credible $343,636, premium included.
These two paintings stemmed from a time when Whiteley’s enormous artistic talents first stormed the international market as part of his solo exhibition in March 1962 at London’s Matthieson Gallery.
The real surprise on auction night was the work entitled Awelye 1996, also known as Awelye – My Story and Emily’s Story (lot 29) by leading indigenous artist Emily Kame Kngwarreye (c1910-1996), which changed hands for $589,091 on a $80,000-$120,000 estimate.
A tribute to country and Aboriginal women’s law ceremonies, this expansive five-metre long work is yet another example of why Kngwarreye continues to cast such a long, positive shadow over indigenous art in Australia.
Impressionist Rupert Bunny (1864-1947) showed his ongoing popularity with buyers with his painting The Hours c1902 (lot 45) (also known as Les Heures, Rite of Spring, La Rond des Heures and Fete Champetre) that sold for a deserved $368,182, while Howard Arkley (1951-1999) demonstrated his skill for painting suburbia with Sampler: Formal (lot 30), featuring a single chair, which reached a credible $355,909.
Always fascinated with the Australian residential scene, Arkley once explained to a British interviewer during his 1999 stint as Australian representative to the Venice Biennale that that was where 95 per cent of Australians lived.
A painting that he completed with his second wife Christine Johnson entitled Suburban landscape 1987 (lot 31) brought $147,273.
Arthur Boyd (1920-1999) was another Australian modern artist to feature in the top 10 results with Flame Trees, Horse’s Skull, Black River (lot 34) that sold for $220,909. With the foreground featuring the remains of a horse’s skull caught in barbed wire, it is a reminder of a family pet named Flame who met such a fate during a flood and was then buried under a flame tree.
Another of his works Jinker on the Sandbank, Shoalhaven (lot 37) brought $147,273, while Blue and Gold (lot 40) reached $171, 818.
Norman Lindsay’s (1879-1969), The Dancer 1935 (lot 44) featuring dancer Gloria Williams from the popular Sydney vaudeville and variety theatre the Tivoli, sold not far short of its upper catalogue estimate to change hands for $184,091.
