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John Olsen

November

Art gallery owner Tim Olsen and the artwork Comedian by Maurizio Cattelan.

‘Too cool, too avant-garde’: This gallery owner is over conceptual art

The son of one of Australia’s greatest landscape painters says the contemporary market is oversupplied with galleries but undersupplied with enduring talent.

  • Michael Bailey

Where did all the Jeffrey Smart paintings go?

Over the past decade, on average, 15 of the artist’s oils have sold each year, but only three have sold in 2024.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue

July

Actors Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman signed the ceiling at Darcy’s restaurant after Crowe’s Oscar statuette was accidentally rammed through the plasterboard during a night of celebration. The fragment has a pre-sale estimate of $800 to $1500 in Davidson Auctions.

Russell Crowe, Nicole Kidman and piece of Oscar party history

An overexcited incident with the actor’s Gladiator statuette created a piece of history that is now going to auction with other art from Sydney restaurant Darcy’s.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue

June

Among three major Brett Whiteley artworks owned by the late Melbourne businessman Ron Walker is Her, 1967. In oil and mixed media on plywood, and measuring 183 x 237.5 cm, the work is estimated at between $1.8 million and $2.4 million in Smith + Singer’s July 24 sale catalogue.

Fine art collection of late Ron Walker to fetch up to $8m

He helped build modern Melbourne but the works that hung in his Toorak mansion, and are now for sale, had a very Sydney flavour.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue

Big name Indigenous artists bring the love to Redfern

A high-end auction brings Indigenous art to the people, while Menzies hopes Kirk Douglas can be their hero.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue
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April

Family art collection left behind as PwC partner leaves Australia

The Caddy collection contains many lovely examples of paintings and works on paper by distinguished Australian artists at tempting estimates.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue

January

Artist Ann Thomson.

Artist Ann Thomson, 90, celebrated in her ‘butterfly moment’

The feisty Australian painter’s lifelong dedication to making art will be celebrated in Sydney on Saturday night.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue

December 2023

Zali Steggall and Allegra Spender.

10 long reads for the weekend

Welcome to the weekend. To start off your day, we’ve curated 10 great reads to enjoy.

John Peter Russell’s Souvenir de Belle-Île, (Marianna Russell with Goats, Goulphar, Belle-Île), 1897, was the year’s top lot.

Art sales top $140m but it’s a buyers’ market now

Australian art auction houses largely defied inflation, interest rates and conflict, but the pandemic-era surge has run its course.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue

November 2023

Different Directions, 1964, by Yvonne Audette, carries an estimate of $120,000 to $160,000 in the catalogue for Deutscher and Hackett’s November 22, 2023 auction in Sydney. A diptych, the work measures 128 x 161.5 cm overall. 

Antipodeans old and new carry hopes at end-of-year sales

Smith & Singer is hoping to end the year with a bang to trump Deutscher and Hackett as the top-selling auction house of the year.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue

October 2023

Former NAB director’s art collection goes under hammer

Artwork in the estate of a Melbourne business blue-blood who shrugged off a fraud scandal in the 1990s will go under the hammer in Melbourne on October 29.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue

May 2023

John Olsen

Revered artist John Olsen showed ‘a different world was possible’

Australia’s art community paid tribute to the painter with Wendy Whiteley, Ken Done and Ben Quilty joined by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese among those at a state memorial service in Sydney.

  • Liz Hobday
Russell Drysdale’s Children Dancing, 1950, has never been traded at auction before, and comes from a private collection in Melbourne. It carries the highest estimate ($1.3 million to $1.6 million) of all the 91 lots in Deutscher and Hackett’s May 3, 2023 auction of Important Australian and International Fine Art, in Melbourne.

Drysdale dances to heights but art market turns cautious

A Russell Drysdale proved the first work to pass the $2 million mark at auction this year, but for the second night in a row the overall result was underwhelming.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue
This exquisite portrait by New Zealand master Charles Frederick Goldie was passed in at $1.35 million at the Smith & Singer’s Important Australian and International Art auction in Sydney on May 2, 2023. The painting’s estimate was $1.4 million to $1.6 million. Its title is Reverie: Ena te Papatahi, a Ngapuhi Chieftainess (Ina Te Papatahi, Ngā Puhi), 1916. The consignor was veteran Sydney art dealer Denis Savill.

How Smith & Singer’s big Sydney sale failed to fire

The sale was meant to be one of the biggest of the year, but several of the most highly priced works failed to sell.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue

April 2023

The Sydney-based vendor of this Banksy screenprint, Girl with Balloon, 2004, probably paid about $100 for it in London in 2004. Deutscher and Hackett have estimated it at $450,000 to $650,000 in its May 3, 2023 auction of fine art in Melbourne. This signed print of Banksy’s highly recognisable image is likely to sell to an overseas buyer. It is number 71 in an edition of 150.

Bought for $100, this Banksy could sell for $650,000

A Sydney vendor who bought a print of the street artist’s infamous Girl with Balloon in London could be floating on air if expectations are on the money.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue
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John Olsen was “like a human version of popping a champagne cork, the promise of fun and excitement”.

The light and shade behind John Olsen’s genius

The director of the National Art School got to know the legendary artist on a personal level, gaining insight into his love of Spanish painting, his dog … and rugby league.

  • Steven Alderton
Psychedelic Head, 1990, by the late Melbourne artist Howard Arkley sold for a mere $7150 in 1992. Its estimate in Smith & Singer’s May 2, 2023 auction is $250,000 to $350,000. The large work, measuring 175cm by 135cm, is from the Selwyn and Renata Litton collection.

Olsen, Arkley and other art stars headline $10m sale

How the market reacts to John Olsen’s death will be tested when he joins a who’s who of modern Australian art - and a few Lucian Freuds - in Smith & Singer’s sale.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue
EMBARGOED FOR GW - SEPT 3/16 ISSUE GW. Portrait of Australian Artist John Olsen photographed at his studio in Bowral. Pic by Nic Walker. Date 12th August 2016.

Farewell John Olsen, a titan of Australian art

When we look back on this complex, vital, sometimes selfish man and his achievements, it’s the bright-eyed, charming, self-confident character that one remembers.

  • John McDonald
Photo of the late John Olsen at the National Art School, his alma mater, at the 2021 opening of Goya’s Dog, Olsen’s last exhibition.

Tributes for John Olsen, the artist who upended a staid tradition

John Olsen has been remembered as the artist who, in the 1960s, upended Australia’s staid tradition of representational painting.

  • Michael Bailey
John Olsen with his Archibald Prize-winning piece Janus Faced.

Acclaimed Australian artist John Olsen dead at 95

The Archibald, Wynn and Sulman prize winner, who has died in Sydney, had a much praised career that spanned more than 60 years.

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/person/john-olsen-3qt