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Sidney Nolan

November

Visitors viewing Lindy Lee’s Ouroboros at night.

National Gallery handed $15m in biggest-ever donation

Kerry Stokes’ $15 million donation is about one-quarter of what the Canberra institution needs to raise for a new sculpture garden.

  • Michael Bailey

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

May

John Peter Russell’s Cruach en Mahr, Matin, Belle-Île-en-Mer, c.1905 carries a pre-sale estimate of $1.5 million to $2.5 million in Deutscher and Hackett’s 24 April sale of Important Australian and International Fine Art in Melbourne.

Australia’s best art auction result in 17 years

Bullish bidders dropped $17 million on Impressionists, Whiteleys and others at the strongest result for a mixed vendor sale since the heady pre-GFC days of 2007.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue

April

Arthur Streeton’s Sunlight at the Camp is estimated to sell for between $1 million and $1.5 million.

Streeton stuns at $10m art auction

Arthur Streeton’s historic scene took top honours, but works by Bronwyn Oliver and Nicholas Harding were the big surprises.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue
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March

These ‘bad boy’ art works are not for the faint-hearted

Pieces from Sydney enfants terribles, Brett Whiteley and Adam Cullen, will be auctioned in Melbourne at the end of March.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue

December 2023

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

September 2023

Brett Whiteley’s Yellow, 1975, will be available for the first time in almost 50 years when Smith & Singer offer it by private auction in Sydney on October 10.

Whiteley’s Yellow a one-man show with $3.5m hopes

A Brett Whiteley painting bought in Sydney in 1975 and being offered for the first time since is the latest work to headline its own dedicated sale.

  • Andrew Burke
Lyonel Feininger’s drawings in Fred Werner’s sketchbook dated 1889.

Sketchbook found behind a bookshelf expected to clean up

Works by Lyonel Feininger have sold for up to $36.2 million, so a book with his works discovered in a Sydney retirement village is set to attract plenty of interest.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue

August 2023

John Peter Russell’s “Souvenir de Belle-Île”, 1897.

Belle-Île indeed: Record smashed in biggest sale in a decade

The $4 million paid for John Peter Russell’s Impressionist classic pushed Deutscher and Hackett’s sale beyond $15 million.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue
John Peter Russell’s “Souvenir de Belle-Île”, 1897.

Impressionist Russell’s Souvenir tops $11m-plus sale

A work by the Australian painter who taught Impressionism to Matisse tops Deutscher and Hackett’s August sale, which could prove the biggest of the year so far.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue

July 2023

Eager buyers snap up Perceval’s Williamstown tugboats

The two paintings by the artist closely bound up with the Boyd artistic dynasty smashed estimates even though they were done after the 1950s.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue

May 2023

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

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
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Sydney sculptor Alex Seton’s Bianco marble flag, Welcome/Unwelcome, 2011, struck a nerve with collectors. Estimated at $8000 to $12,000, it sold for $20,864 (including buyer’s premium) at Menzies’ March 29, 2023 Important Australian and International Art auction in Melbourne.

Remarkable marble flag sets standard for contemporary art

Reko Rennie, Del Kathryn Barton and a hanging flag sculpted from marble outperformed at Menzies’ Important Australian and International Art auction in Melbourne last week.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue

March 2023

Rosalie Gascoigne’s Amber, 1992, is estimated at just $50,000 to $70,000 in Menzies’ catalogue, way down from its 2007 sale price.

Rosalie Gascoigne works cheap at half the price?

Months after Rosalie Gascoigne’s art joined the millionaires club, two works are on the market with estimates half what they previously sold for.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue
Perth artist Elizabeth Durack in 1997 with a work by her alter ego, Eddie Burrup. “Big Sorry” expresses “his” feeling at the loss of Princess Diana.

Controversial ‘curiosity piece’ to test art market’s appetite for scandal

West Australian blue blood Elizabeth Durack outraged the art world when she started painting as Indigenous artist “Eddie Burrup”.

  • Elizabeth Fortescue

December 2022

Ethel Carrick, Sur La Plage, On the Sands, Dinard, 1911, sold for more than double it’s high estimate at $1,996,591 at Smith & Singer.

The 10 top art sales of the year

A record number of women made it into the top ten auction prices this year. That number was two.

  • Gabriella Coslovich

November 2022

Lloyd Rees, Sydney - The Source, 1973, from the collection of Millie Phillips, being auctioned at Menzies next week with an estimate of $500,000 to $600,000.

Groundbreaking miner’s art collection goes under the hammer

‘Force of nature’ Millie Phillips was a pioneer for women in the mining industry and a dedicated collector of blue-chip Australian artists.

  • Gabriella Coslovich

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/person/sidney-nolan-5dd