Cover: 31 Bill Hammond Flag Right: Jim Speers Untitled (Contemporary Art, May 28) Left: 23 Paul Dibble Soft Geometric, Series 2, No.1 Above: 8 Dale Frank Abandoned IMPORTANT PAINTINGS AND SCULPTURE Preview and Creative NZ function for the artists representing New Zealand at the Venice Biennale, 2009: thursday 26th march - 6 - 8pm viewing friday 27th march - thursday 2nd april 2009 Auction thursday 2nd april 2009 at 6.30pm 3 abbey street, newton, auckland contents INTRODUCTION AN X-Ray IMAGE OF LIFE 2 34 Fomison’s ‘Detail for Dancing Skeleton’ IMPORTANT PAINTINGS AND SCULPTURE FLAG BY BILL HAMMOND 7 (viewing times) 38 A WATERFALL by COLIN McCAHON “The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there” 19 an essay by Laurence Simmons 41 an essay on Bill Hammond’s FLY I Had a Mind as Invisible as Light ... BENT, BUCKLED AND BUFFED 23 by JOHN PULE 44 an essay on Ralph Hotere’s 1984 by DAVID EGGLETON SIXTY CONDITIONS OF SALE SCULPTURE SIXTY-ONE ABSENTEE BIDDING 26 8 lots of New Zealand sculture SIXTY-TWO CONTACTS SIXTY-THREE SUBSCRIBE SIXTY-FOUR INDEX OF ARTISTS Welcome to ART+OBJECT’s fi rst major catalogue for 2009. Last year’s fi nal art auction saw A+O register our fi rst one million dollar art sale and an indication that the art market at auction continues to be robust in New Zealand. A+O is proud to be selected to assist in fundraising and raising awareness for New Zealand’s participation at the 53rd Venice Biennale which opens in June. Artists Judy Millar and Francis Upritchard have been selected to represent New Zealand and plans are well underway for the transport to and installation of artworks in their respective locations. Creative NZ staff and the artists have been meeting art patrons and supporters to outline their exhibitions and plans for this prestigious art event. Both artists have generously created specifi c works to assist in the raising of funds for the Biennale. These works will be auctioned as lots 1 and 2 in this catalogue and may be seen at ART+OBJECT during the week’s viewing prior to the sale on April 2. These works are offered without the usual buyers’ premium and all funds raised go directly towards the signifi cant costs associated with exhibiting at one of the leading international art events. This is a rare opportunity to acquire a signifi cant work by these artists and contribute to the profi le of the New Zealand art community in such a direct way. It is our opinion that the future provenance of these works in being associated with New Zealand’s participation at Venice will add signifi cant value, so please bid with confi dence and gusto. Fondazione Claudio Buziol, the location for Francis Upritchard’s exhibition at the Venice Biennale “The debut 2008 vintage is punchy, with very good intensity of smooth melon/lime flavours fresh and full of youthful impact” Invivo 2008 Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 4 stars, 2009 Buyer’s Guide to New Zealand Wine by Michael Cooper “Classy label, captivating wine” John Hawkesby, Canvas Magazine >ck^kdBVgaWdgdj\]HVjk^\cdc7aVcX :mXajh^kZl^cZeVgicZgid6gi DW_ZXi lll#^ck^kdl^cZh#Xdb THE JIM DRUMMOND SALE THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF A VISIONARY COLLECTOR TWO DAY AUCTION : SATURDAY MAY 2ND SUNDAY MAY 3RD Left: Unknown carver Fireplace surround as a pare and whakawae, c.1880. (detail) $15 000 - $25 000 entries invited Peter Robinson I Exist I Am Not Another I Am (detail) lamda print mounted to aluminium, ontemporary 2001, (edition of 5) c 2200 x 1190mm $10 000 - $15 000 art + objects MayMay 28 "35 803-% "6453"-"4*"µ4 #*((&454&--*/( "35."(";*/& 0/4"-&"13*- 5)&,*/(1*/4 "/%3&"4(634,: )"/:"3."/*064 #*--$6-#&35 .$-&"/&%8"3%4 304&."3:-"*/( %"33&/4:-7&45&3 THE 21 CENTURY AUCTION HOUSE IMPORTANT PAINTINGS AND SCULPTURE thursday 2 april 6.30pm 3 abbey street, newton auckland VIEWING thursday 26 march opening preview 6pm – 8pm friday 27 march 9am – 5pm saturday 28 march 11am – 4pm sunday 29 march 11am – 4pm monday 30 march 9am – 5pm tuesday 31 march 9am – 5pm wednesday 1 april 9am – 5pm thursday 2 april 9am – 1pm 1 Francis Upritchard Chinese Ibis and Money Tree modelling material, paint, wood & glass vitrines, 2009 9 x 125 x 66 and 216 x 124 x 103mm Proceeds raised from the auction of this work will go to the artist’s individual project for Venice THE 21ST CENTURY AUCTION HOUSE Creative New Zealand and ART+OBJECT are proud to support artists Judy Millar and Francis Upritchard to represent New Zealand at the Venice Biennale 2009. Proceeds raised from the auction of these works will go to the artists’ individual projects for Venice. 2 Judy Millar Simon-Peter acrylic and oil on canvas, 2009 2000 x 800mm Proceeds raised from the auction of this work will go to the artist’s individual project for Venice 3 Tony Fomison I Was a Teenage Werewolf oil on canvas on board signed and dated 19 – 29. 6. 70 inscribed “I was a teenage werewolf” film 1957 Exhibited : ‘Fomison: What shall we tell them?’, City Gallery, Wellington (touring), 1994 Illustrated: Ian Wedde (ed), Fomison: What shall we tell them? (City Gallery, Wellington, 1994), p. 9. Reference : Ian Wedde, ‘Tracing Tony Fomison’, in ibid., p. 9 – 10. : ibid., p. 50. : Denis Gifford, A Pictorial History of Horror Movies (London, 1973), p. 9. Provenance: Purchased by the current owner from CSA Gallery, Christchurch in 1970. : Private collection, Christchurch. 330 x 232mm $18 000 - $28 000 4 Stephen Bambury The Rhythem of his Truth acrylic and resin on two aluminium panels title inscribed, signed and dated 2001 verso 608 x 650mm: each panel 1216 x 650mm: overall Provenance: Private collection, Auckland $20 000 - $30 000 important paintings + sculpture 11 5 Shane Cotton Journey in Four Parts: One Horsepower acrylic on canvas 700 x 1000mm Exhibited : ‘Shane Cotton: Survey 1993 – 2003’, City Gallery, Wellington 17 July – 19 October 2003 (touring). Illustrated : Lara Strongman (ed), Shane Cotton (Wellington, 2004), p. 85. : Art News New Zealand, Spring 2001, cover. $35 000 - $45 000 rom the moment Shane Cotton burst onto the New Zealand art scene in the early 1990s his work has been soaked in historic, cosmological, and artistic reference points and clues. These clues can be by turns symbolic, literal, sly, bewildering or confronting. His finest work presents as a conceptual crossword Fwith Cotton the quizmaster asking the question, ‘can you crack this code?’ If you haven’t done a bit of homework you can feel a bit of a dunce, but that is the point, you need to work hard to keep up with these works. They can be read, but as the saying goes, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. But knowledge is power because Cotton is addressing the tough stuff of New Zealand’s history. In Cotton’s hands the story of Aotearoa is a midden in a blender: a post-colonial melange of trades and appropriations but also the odd revelation or as he has described it, ‘collision and collusion’. The reading can be taxing, but also full of illuminating surprises. 1994’s Picture Painting had me flummoxed until I connected the cosmic flower as a direct quoting from Gordon Walters’ Chrysanthemum of 1944. Remember, this was at the same time that Dick Frizzell’s Grocer with Moko was stirring the pot and in the aftermath of the Headlands debate over just who ‘owns’ indigenous imagery and in particular designs such as moko or koru which could be attributed to indigenous visual cultures. It cuts both ways Cotton seems to be saying and many of his symbols can be decoded by reference to a multiplicity of texts and sources. Curator Lara Strongman describes this jazzy, freeform approach in her essay from the Cotton’s Survey exhibition of 2003,’The entwined eels, for example which first appear in his works from late 1997, are not only a Ngapuhi tribal form but one of the world’s most ancient visual symbols of infinity: the serpent swallowing its own tail appears in artforms as diverse as Egyptian hieroglyphs and Anglo-Saxon metalwork.’ Journey in 4 Parts: One Horsepower from 2001 presents us with a striking image in the form of the white horse operating as a symbol with any number of readings. A quick reference to the 21st century decoder Google and one can find that the white horse entered the lexicon of symbols more than three thousand years before Christ at Elam in present day Iraq (now there’s a sly reference). A classical reading sees the horse as a civilizing influence but a more sinister one could be the pale horse, Death’s steed, from the Book of Revelations. This particular canvas is from the series Blackout Movement of 2001, within which Cotton explored the intermingling of Christianity, Maori spiritual beliefs and tribal identity that emerged around the Northland Prophet Papahurihia or Te Atua Wera, a figure of great significance to Ngapuhi, from whence Cotton traces his tribal descent. The cinematic quality of this painting, the rare literalism in the use of the horse as an easily deciphered symbol and the journey of the title all coalesce to create a sense of destiny and an air of quiet hopefulness bathes this work: a new dawn brings fresh promise. HAMISH CONEY important paintings + sculpture 13 o local artist has been more aware of, and more preoccupied by the history of colonialism than Ralph Hotere. He is the artist as member of a minority people: the dispossessed, the culturally marginalised Maori.