MENZIES AUSTRALIAN & INTERNATIONAL FINE ART & SCULPTURE 24 September 2015

Several of the best works in this sale are well above the buying budgets of my clients, so as usual I have not written about them. This is a shame, because if any of you has a spare $350,000, Ian Fairweather’s Fascismo is a superb late painting and easily museum standard.

But overall it’s an interesting sale containing some unusual and offbeat items. So I have taken the opportunity to introduce some new artists I’ve not previously recommended, and to reiterate my enthusiasm for a couple of others I’ve had little success with. Other works I’ve not recommended because I have no-one collecting in the area, for example the two terrific 1973 prints by US pop master Jim Dine, or the 1976 screenprint by Bridget Riley, the major figure in the international op art movement.

I hope you enjoy seeing some new artists and, as always, I am very pleased to discuss any works of interest to you that I have not included in the presentation.

JOHN CRUTHERS rococo pop pty ltd In a recent sale I recommended a painting by Albert Tucker called Woman 1950, of a prostitute standing in a doorway in a bombed-out looking Paris. I commented that the years Tucker spent overseas, roughly 1947-60, represented a highpoint in his work. He saw a lot of great art, worked hard and strove to produce work that measured up to the best contemporary art he was seeing.

The current work is a study in which Tucker tries a variety of stylistic devices borrowed from late cubism to depict the female form in interior space. Picasso is the obvious reference point, and one can feel Picasso’s breakthrough painting Les demoiselles d’Avignon 1907 behind the work. Tucker’s handling of the forms and space is interesting without being radical. Perhaps the strongest aspect is his employment of the pig-like faces first developed in his wartime series Images of modern evil.

For a collector interested in radical impulses in Australian mid century modernism, this is a potentially good painting. It shows Tucker working confidently in an international idiom, in a way that few Australian artists were back home. In this way it connects to the world rather than stressing its difference.

The work is under-estimated and I suggest $12- 15,000 as more reasonable. I’d recommend the painting to the high estimate.

1. ALBERT TUCKER 1914-1999 Figures with Red Hair 1949 gouache on paper 26.0 x 33.0 cm $6,000 - $9,000 13. MARGARET PRESTON 1875-1963 Flowers (Australian) 1955 also known as Native Wild Flowers oil on canvas 43 x 35.5 cm $35,000 - $45,000

Margaret Preston’s period of greatest influence in Australian art was roughly 1925- 45. Her work moved from a lively English inflected post impressionism to include radical elements of cubism and stylization, often introduced via her woodblock print-making. Later in the period she turned from still life to the landscape and, under the influence of Aboriginal art she was seeing on her travels in the outback, produced landscapes in an Aboriginal palette and featuring the dramatic stylization of Aboriginal bark paintings.

In the final decade of her painting life, roughly 1945-55, she built onthese developments in a series of striking monoprints and colour stencils that depicted bush scenes and even overt Aboriginal subject matter. Over the period she made fewer paintings, but those she did mirrored her prints and constitute an overlooked and undervalued area of her oeuvre.

The current work is typical. A handful of native flowers, including wattle, bottlebrush, daisies and a dried banksia cone are placed in a white vase and painted quickly and purposefully. They are set against a piece of patterned Aboriginal fabric to stress the Australian-ness of the whole effort. As in many of her late works, Preston is consciously remaking Australian art.

Included in the artist’s catalogue raisonne, the current painting was sold at Sotheby’s in 1987 for $30,000. It next appeared at Niagara Galleries’ Blue Chip XVI in 2014, price $65,000. I viewed it then and mentioned it to a couple of clients. It’s now on offer at $35-45,000 and should be buyable within estimates, quite an attractive price. Recommended to the high estimate, but possibly buyable cheaper. John Olsen’s best early work was made from the late 1950s to about 1965. The wild, expressive and calligraphic line work that fueled his painting was used to depict Olsen’s immediate environment, first in Spain and then back in harbor-side Sydney. It culminated in his breakthrough body of work, the You Beaut Country series.

Later in this period he visited Hill End and like many artists was inspired by the atmospheric old gold mining town to develop a new approach to painting that involved heavier brushstrokes, walking the paintbrush rather than a graphic line around the painting. While the current work’s title does not suggest a Hill End subject, it is similar in style and palette to Hill End works from the same year included in Olsen’s AGNSW retrospective.

The other reference point in the work is the 1962 Ian Fairweather exhibition at Macquarie Galleries. This put Fairweather on the map as a major artist and was lauded by critics, included Olsen’s close friend Robert Hughes. The over-painting and sense of shifting faces within the image, ‘sliding’ as Olsen calls it, is typical of Fairweather’s 1962 works such as Nightlife.

This is a powerful small painting that would suit an Olsen collector with Olsen’s more common early 1960s styles already covered. It would benefit from the paper support being bleached to lessen browning, but the paint layer is in good shape overall. The estimates 14. JOHN OLSEN born 1928 are toppy and I’d hope to buy it mid estimate. The Image Slides 1963 Strongly recommended. oil and gouache on paper 55.0 x 75.0 cm $18,000 - $26,000 John Perceval overcame a broken home and childhood polio to become one of ’s most interesting young artists in the 1940s. A close friend of Arthur Boyd, his tough street scenes of the war years were the equal of Boyd’s, but his focus was often on children, not the tormented adults of his friend.

In the post-war period he painted bucolic landscapes and achieved both critical acclaim and commercial success in the late 1950s with his Williamstown series. Painted en plein air at the old dock town near , the works were a passionate alla prima response to the tugboats and jetties, buoys and scudding swans of the ramshackle location. Their thick impasto and heavily worked surfaces gave them a liveliness of paint that expressed Perceval’s almost ecstatic view of the world.

By the early 1960s Perceval had begun to drink heavily. He could maintain enough control to complete successful paintings, but by about 1965 he was struggling, and the next two decades were lost years for Perceval. He did not emerge until the later 1980s to paint disappointingly lifeless versions of his best earlier works.

In Suburb through the heath Perceval presents a view out of bush towards suburbia. The intensely worked foreground of flowers, grasses and trees gives way to houses with windows and roofs. The surface is almost knitted in paint, with heavily interwoven brushstrokes. While not a work of the best quality, it’s quite a good painting and purchased at the lower estimate, represents the chance to own a strong work by a major post-war painter.

17. JOHN PERCEVAL 1923-2000 Suburb Through the Heath 1963 oil on canvas 81.5 x 97.0 cm $30,000 - $40,000 When viewed, this mid period landscape by Ken Whisson has a satisfying blockiness, the outlined buildings suggesting stage sets in a play – fittingly given the title, Ghosts on the lake, which could refer to a Russian play by say Anton Chekhov. The painting has a distinct whiff of late 19th century European modernism. The lack of human presence is very noticeable – the buildings and walk ways are empty and somehow transparent.

Whisson’s approach to painting is to begin each work with no idea what he will paint. He makes the first marks and a subject or subject matter suggests itself. If he stalls or reaches a dead end, he puts the painting aside to return to it later. The current painting was completed in four sittings over four years, which even for Whisson is a slow gestation.

At 70 x 80 cm the painting is in Whisson’s smallest size. Estimates are high at $20-28,000 and I’d suggest it will sell closer to $18,000, at which it would be reasonable buying.

21. KEVIN WHISSON born 1927 Ghosts on the Lake: The Guest House 1992-96 oil on linen 71.0 x 80.5 cm $20,000 - $28,000 71. LYNDON DADSWELL 1908-1986 Abstract Tower c1974 bronze 42.5 x 21.0 x 16.0 cm $10,000 - $15,000

Lyndon Dadswell was a significant post-war sculptor and teacher in Sydney. From 1935 he studied sculpture in London at the Royal Academy, influenced by Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. Later he enlisted in the Australian Infantry Forces where, after being injured in service, he was appointed a war artist. In 1943 he returned to Sydney to continue what was to become a long and successful career as a teacher at East Sydney Technical College.

Earlier in his career his work was figurative, but by the post-war period he was exploring abstraction, still influenced by the work of Henry Moore but like Moore with distinct figurative references. The current work is a relatively major piece as, due to his teaching load, Dadswell’s production of major work was quite limited. It’s an interesting take on what was known at the time as organic abstraction – abstraction inspired by organic forms. In the flesh the work presents very well and would sit comfortably with painterly abstraction by the likes of John Olsen, Tony Tuckson and Ralph Balson.

Dadswell was honoured with a retrospective at the Art Gallery of NSW in 1978. He died in 1986 and his estate passed to his daughter, Penelope Zylstra. She has now died and the estate residue is being sold at various auctions. As a result casts of this work have come to market several times. Mostly they have been passed in, but another from the artist’s estate sold at Shapiros in Sydney earlier this year for $16,320. It is a very impressive piece, one of his career highlights for me, and I’m happy to recommend it to mid-estimates. Robert Campbell Jnr was a significant artist in the first two decades of koori (or non-tribal) Aboriginal art. This movement was pioneered by Adelaide artist Trevor Nickolls and far north ceramic artist Thancoupie in the mid 1970s, and developed in tandem with the dot painting movement at Papunya in the western desert in the 1970s. Both artists had Aboriginal heritage and were western trained. But neither had an active tribal context and when they wanted to express their Aboriginality in their art, they had to develop new approaches and iconography. Campbell was in the second wave of koori artists, along with Riverland Aboriginal Ian Abdulla and Cooma based Harry Wedge.

Campbell was born and lived at the Burnt Bridge Mission in Kempsey in northern NSW. A member of the Ngaku language group, he worked in rural laboring jobs for most of his life. His father was a skilled artist who decorated and carved boomerangs and other artifacts for the market, applying his graphic designs using poker work onto wood. Campbell learnt from him and at some point began to transfer his father’s designs onto canvas. Although he painted on canvas, his technique was very similar – his art was figurative and depicted Aboriginal people and native animals in graphic scenes that often contrasted old ways with new ways, or depicted key moments in Aboriginal/white history. Like his father, Campbell sold his art to tourists, and by 86. ROBERT CAMBELL JNR 1944-1993 the side of the road, to passing cars. Ngaku language group Untitled 1993 Sometime in the 1980s, a western artist called Tony Coleing stopped by the roadside to check synthetic polymer paint on canvas on board out Campbell’s work. He was immediately taken with it and began to collect it. He also told 52.0 x 93.0 cm his Sydney dealer, Roslyn Oxley, about the artist. Within a year Campbell had his first solo $5,000 - $7,000 exhibition at Oxley, at that time Australia’s leading contemporary art gallery. Campbell’s work was an immediate hit. It was collected by museums and private collectors alike, and included in major touring exhibitions. When he died in 1993 Oxley staged an estate exhibition. Over 20 years later, a book has just been published on the work of Robert Campbell Jnr.

The first two works in the current sale were painted in the last year of Campbell’s life and come from the same private collection in the Blue Mountains in NSW. Although their titles are not known, they are typical Campbell works – old time hunting scenes, one land based and the other marine. As with all of Campbell’s works, the Aboriginal figures are depicted in suits, their ‘uniform’ in the same way that suits are the uniforms of non-indigenous people. The fish and animals are graphically depicted in a style that owes a lot to rock art and bark painting, with infill paintings of wavy lines and dots.

The third painting, from 1990, is a small version of one of Campbell’s best known works, the largest version of which is in the Art Gallery of NSW. It was included in Campbell’s solo exhibition at Roslyn Oxley Gallery in 1991. This is close to an iconic image in Campbell’s career and I am certain it will be hotly contested. The first two works could be buyable at the high estimate 87. ROBERT CAMBELL JNR 1944-1993 and would be good buying. The fishing scene on the other hand will very likely exceed the top Ngaku language group estimate. I recommend it strongly up to $12,000. Untitled 1993 synthetic polymer paint on canvas 53.0 x 94.0 cm $5,000 - $7,000 88. ROBERT CAMPBELL JNR 1944-1993 Fishing at Sunset at Euroka 1990 synthetic polymer paint on canvas 56.0 x 98.0 cm $7,000 - $9,000 111. LYNDON DADSWELL 1908-1986 Bronze Abstract 1971 bronze 32.0 x 22.0 x 12.0 cm $5,000 - $7,000

Bronze abstract 1971 is a companion piece to lot 71 Abstract tower c1974, and also from the collection of the artist’s daughter, Penelope Zylstra. It has the same figurative/organic echoes and fluted forms cast in bronze.

While the other bronze is the more major piece, this work is very appealing and could sit well on a mantle piece or in a bookcase. It is intimate and detailed, with a very touchable feeling and patina.

It should be buyable within estimates. 124. VIVIENNE SHARK LEWITT Born 1956 Anubis Marries (Another Time, Another Place) 1980 synthetic polymer paint on canvas 121.0 x 90.0 cm $6,000 - $8,000

Several paintings by this mid career Melbourne artist have come to auction recently and I’ve recommended most of them and bought three – two for clients and one personally. Shark LeWitt was a first wave post-modernist artist who came to attention in Melbourne around 1981 with small, droll paintings using scenes from history and mythology to comment on human behavior. Around 1990 came a major shift in her work, when she introduced contemporary subjects and social mores into her paintings. For the next decade and a half she was a favorite of collectors and curators alike, selling out her admittedly small solo exhibitions. Her upward trajectory culminated in a mid career survey at the Ian Potter Museum of Art in about 2007.

In recent years the artist has struggled to paint and has effectively stopped showing, although she is still represented by Anna Schwartz and Roslyn Oxley, two powerhouses of Australian contemporary art. I don’t know why she’s stopped, but the lack of new works to promote her has had an effect on her secondary market, with works that sold at auction in the mid 2000s for up to $15,000 making $8,000 or less. I cannot believe her work will not return to public favour. It is beautifully made and executed, refined and often gently humorous in its commentary on the human condition. So I regard the current low prices as an opportunity.

Anubis marries is a contemporary restaging of a marriage scene in the style of Egyptian tomb art. Anubis, a mythical creature, is marrying a human woman. Both their heads are turned sideways to be viewed in profile, but the woman appears less confident than the Anubis. While his hand is over his heart, her head is turned away.

This painting was included in Australian Visions, an important exhibition of Australian contemporary art at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1984. While slightly lacking the polish of her mature work, it’s an interesting painting with a definite late 1970s ‘new wave’ feeling. My sense is that it will struggle to reach the low estimate and could probably be purchased afterwards by making an offer. Peter Kingston is best known for his lively paintings and prints of Sydney Harbour and its landmarks, particularly its beaches, ferries and Luna Park. In this way he follows both Brett Whiteley and Martin Sharp. But as this portrait shows, he has definite abilities as a straight painter.

Clive Evatt Jnr was the son of a well known barrister and the nephew of Labor politician Doc Evatt and Mary Alice Evatt, herself a painter. He became one of Sydney’s best known barristers in the 1980s, although within the art world he is better known for his support of Aboriginal art – both as an early collector, and as the backer of Hogarth Galleries, one of Sydney’s first dedicated galleries focusing on Aboriginal art.

Kingston’s portrait shows a man barely contained by the frame, his restless energy compressed into a lounging pose on a couch. His black suit is suitably shiny and the red kerchief and socks provide a typical flash of colour. His mouth is open in mid conversation.

I’ve never recommended a painting by Kingston, but there is something arresting in this small portrait. It would suit a collector drawn to strong, interesting images rather than names or historical figures. There may be competition from the NPG, so I’d suggest $4,000 or a bid above may be needed. Recommended.

125. PETER KINGSTON born 1943 Portrait of Clive Evatt Jr. 1993 oil on canvas 61.0 x 76.0 cm $2,000 - $3,000 Guan Wei was born in China in 1957 and studied in the Department of Fine Arts at Capital University. He came to Australia in 1989 to take up a residency at the Tasmanian School of Art. While there, the Tiananmen Square protests took place in Beijing, to which the Australian government responded by offered permanent residence to all Chinese students in Australia. Guan Wei elected to remain and became an Australian citizen.

Guan Wei began exhibiting very quickly after arriving in Australia. The breakthrough came when he began showing at Sherman Galleries Sydney in 1993, where he continued to exhibit for over a decade. At the time Gene and Brian Sherman were major buyers of Chinese art and their support was crucial for Guan Wei. Subsequently he has show in Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Beijing and New York. His work was included in many significant touring exhibitions and he was awarded the Sir John Sulman Prize at the Art Gallery of NSW in 2002.

Guan Wei paints from his Chinese heritage and his use of motifs and figurative elements is classically Chinese. But his repertoire of motifs includes many archetypal Australian images such as kangaroos, koala bears, Aboriginal wandjina figures and Ned Kelly. These he weaves into multi-cultural, almost visionary landscapes that sketch out his sense of the nation Australia could become.

The current work is a diptych painted quite early after Guan Wei’s resettlement in Australia. The work seems to be a double self portrait, in which the artist signals his relocation from China to Australia. In the first the artist has his back turned, proffering instead a fan – a symbol of Chinese inscrutability, perhaps? In the second he faces the viewer, holding up a passport or travel document showing his face with an official looking red stamp.

To me this is a very nice early work and would be really worth a bid if you like Guan Wei’s work. It last sold for $15,000 at auction in 2007. His auction record is now 126. GUAN WEI born 1957 $27,000. I’d recommend these works to the top estimate, (i) Fan (ii) Self Portrait (The Little Toy series)1991-3 which is still not expensive for a major artist. synthetic polymer paint on canvas (2) 86.5 x 92.0 cm $10,000 - $15,000 I discussed a very appealing etching of a group of besieged pears in the Peter Elliott sale at Mossgreen recently, but had no takers. Prior to that I’ve frequently recommended his prints, with only one client deciding to collect them.

So I’m not expecting a strong response to these two etchings. But as they are good things, and as Baldessin is arguably the best print-maker of his generation – beating out Fred Williams, , and Alan Mitelman – it is worth me telling you about them. Personally, I love prints and collect pretty actively, mostly women artists. It’s a good collecting area as prints are cheap and if not framed, easy to store. For collectors on a budget, they’re a great way of learning about collecting. It also means you can buy the best works by major artists, which is not possible if you’re collecting paintings.

These works are from Baldessin’s mid career, after his skill had been recognized. They feature the full repertoire of motifs – the female nude, compacted interior space with windows and stairs, factories and smoke, deployed in shallow space to suggest the psychological pressures of modern life. I’m away from my library so can’t research what collections they are in, but I’d be surprised if each was not in the NGA and probably the NGV. They were exhibited in the first exhibition from Baldessin’s estate and reproduced in the catalogue.

The first should be buyable under mid-estimate and the second at low estimate or a bid above. My personal preference is slightly towards the second work, which has a slight echo of ’s early 1960s suite Rake’s progress. Stylistically it is also related to an important set of collaborative prints Baldessin made with Imants Tillers in 1975-76. But given their shared subject matter, they would make a terrific pair. Recommended.

232. GEORGE BALDESSIN 1939-1978 Personage, Window and Factory Smoke 1969-1966 etching and aquatint 45.0 x 49.5 cm $3,000 - $5,000 233. GEORGE BALDESSIN 1939-1978 Personage with Staircase 1973 etching and aquatint 60.5 x 90.0 cm $2,500 - $3,500