5 Malakoff Street, North Caulfield, Vic, 3161 Telephone: (61 3) 9509 9855 Facsimile: (61 3) 9509 4549 Email: [email protected] Website: www.diggins.com.au ABN.19006 457 101
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A CLOSER LOOK AT…. artworks under $20,000
In the interests of the end of financial year and the welcome news that small businesses can write off assets under $20,000, we will take A Closer Look At… the paintings, sculpture, barks and works on paper under $20,000 in our Collectors’ Exhibition 2017.
PAINTINGS ELIZABETH KUNOTH KNGWARRAY 1961 - $18,000 Yam Seeds in My Grandmother’s Country 2012 synthetic polymer on linen 121.5 x 299 cm Elizabeth is from the Utopia region, home to the Petyarr sisters and perhaps Australia’s most famous indigenous artist, Emily Kngwarray. Like Emily, Elizabeth paints the Yam plant, important not only as a food source but of totemic significance. Over this large- scale canvas Elizabeth has created thousands of tiny coloured marks, depicting the yam seeds being blown about in the wind. Her precise brushstrokes create a pulsating sense of movement which draws the viewer in, yet from a distance we can appreciate the balance of the composition and harmony of colour. Elizabeth has twice been a finalist in the Wynne Prize for Landscape painting at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (2008 and 2010) and is represented in the National Gallery of Australia; the National Gallery of Victoria; the Art Gallery of South Australia; Moree Plains Gallery, as well as private collections both in Australia and internationally.
JAMES CANT 1911 – 1982 $9,000 and $14,00 The Dead Girl 1953 oil on canvas 51 x 40.5 cm $9,000 The Dispute 1952 oil on canvas 91 x 71 cm $14,000 After early training in Sydney, Cant travelled to London in 1934 where he was influenced by cubism and surrealism, creating avant-garde works including assemblages and exhibiting with de Chirico, Max Ernst and Paul Klee. Following his return to Sydney in 1939 and the disruption of the war, he became more attracted to social realism and was a founding member of the Studio of Realist Art in 1945. By 1955 he had settled in Adelaide, with his wife, fellow artist Dora Chapman and continued to exhibit his work, now focussed on Australian landscapes. Cant was the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the Art Gallery of South Australia in 1984 and is represented in the National Gallery of Australia; the Art Gallery of New South Wales; the National Gallery of Australia and other state galleries. The two works included in this exhibition were painted in London where Cant lived in the early 1950s. The image of The Dead Girl arose from the notorious Teddington Towpath Murders and is thought to be based on a newspaper photograph of a murder victim. “The painting sinks from light into darkness as a painterly metaphor of the tragedy of the much-reported brutal event and its psychological implications.” The dark and brooding quality was remarked upon by Doug 5 Malakoff Street, North Caulfield, Vic, 3161 Telephone: (61 3) 9509 9855 Facsimile: (61 3) 9509 4549 Email: [email protected] Website: www.diggins.com.au ABN.19006 457 101
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Hall AM in his opening speech. The Dispute, depicting two girls fighting over a doll, strikes a familiar chord whether from childhood memories or parental observations. Download our catalogue to read the catalogue essays by Associate Professor Ken Wach Listen to Doug Hall’s speech on our website http://www.diggins.com.au
The Dead Girl The Dispute
BESSIE DAVIDSON 1879 -1965 $9,950 The Laundry Boat On The River Seine, Paris oil on cardboard 19 x 21 cm Bessie Davidson is known for her still lifes, interiors, portraits and landscapes imbued with a beautiful use of light, tone and colour. She is perhaps more recognised in her adopted city of Paris where she was appointed Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur for Art and Humanity by the French Government in 1931. Davidson gained critical acclaim as an artist and was the first Australian woman to be elected to the Societe National des Beux-Arts. During the Second World War, Davidson remained in France, living in Normandy and then Grenoble before returning to Paris in 1945. She captured scenes of Paris such as the Laundry Boat. Davidson’s work was exhibited at the Australian Embassy in Paris in 1999 and included in the exhibition Australian Impressionists in France at the National Gallery of Victoria in 2013. She is represented in the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of South Australia as well as regional galleries in France and Scotland.
5 Malakoff Street, North Caulfield, Vic, 3161 Telephone: (61 3) 9509 9855 Facsimile: (61 3) 9509 4549 Email: [email protected] Website: www.diggins.com.au ABN.19006 457 101
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HERBERT GALLOP 1890 – 1958 $7,500 Hawkesbury River 1920 oil on panel 25.5 x 30.5 cm Herbert Gallop was an artist and arts educator, holding the position of Art Master, National Art School, East Sydney Technical College Sydney. In the 1920s he was commissioned by The Regent Theatre in Sydney to produce large oil paintings of Puss in Boots and Sleeping Beauty. He was a regular finalist in the Wynne Prize for Landscape painting at the Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1935 and1955. The Hawkesbury River area, especially around Richmond at the foot of the Blue Mountains, attracted many artists, most famously Charles Conder in 1888 and Arthur Streeton from the mid 1890s but also including Julian Ashton, A.J. Daplyn, A.H. Fullwood and Girolamo Nerli. The view depicted by Gallop mirrors that painted by Arthur Streeton in his iconic work The purple noon’s transparent might (1896) which was acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria in 1896. Gallop may well have seen Streeton’s iconic painting and was drawn to paint from a strikingly similar vantage point. He has used the same framing device of the tree branches in the right foreground and captured the same sense of heat haze, with the bright sandy banks and the purple mist of mountains along the horizon. It is interesting to see the development of the land in Gallop’s painting, such as the clearing of trees and a greater number of buildings and roads.
ESTHER PATERSON 1892 – 1971 $19,990 (At the Market) oil on cardboard 59 x 45.5 cm Esther Paterson studied painting from a young age at the National Gallery of Victoria School, following in the footsteps of her artist father, Hugh Paterson, and uncle, John Ford Paterson. She is known for her depictions of street scenes, landscapes, portraits and book illustrations. She was a council member of the Victorian Artists Society; a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, London and president of the Melbourne Society of Women Painters and Sculptors. Her work is held at the National Gallery of Victoria and the Geelong Art Gallery. (At the Market) shows the bustling scene probably at the South Melbourne Market and is of particular historical interest in the depiction of the automobile and the fashion of the working men and gossiping women as they run their errands with children in tow. 5 Malakoff Street, North Caulfield, Vic, 3161 Telephone: (61 3) 9509 9855 Facsimile: (61 3) 9509 4549 Email: [email protected] Website: www.diggins.com.au ABN.19006 457 101
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(At the Market)
WORKS ON PAPER CHARLES BLACKMAN 1928 – $11,000 Loneliness 1976 charcoal on paper 60 x 78 cm Blackman is one of Australia’s most recognised Australian contemporary artists, particularly with his Schoolgirls and Alice series, who is represented in all Australian state gallery collections as well as most regional and many university collections and corporate and private collections in Australia and internationally. His drawing competence earned him his early employment in newspapers and his passion for drawing has not abated throughout his career. His compelling drawings often evoke grander themes of the human experience beyond the immediate imagery. Loneliness finds a forlorn figure hunched amongst the darkness of trees; a quiet moment of reflective solitude but with a menacing overtone that is characteristic of much of Blackman’s oeuvre.
MARION ELLIS ROWAN 1848 – 1922 $2,950 Petrea Voybillis Trop America Verbanaceae gouache and watercolour on paper 57 x 38 cm Ellis Rowan was inspired by the gardens of her youth at Mount Macedon, her father’s plantings informed by government botanist Ferdinand Mueller, founder of the National Herbarium of Victoria and Director of the Royal Melbourne Botanic Gardens from 1857 – 1873 and the family gardens themselves designed by the then director of the Botanic Gardens, William Guilfoyle. Ellis Rowan was awarded the bronze medal at the Melbourne Intercolonial Exhibition in 1872 and won numerous awards with her 5 Malakoff Street, North Caulfield, Vic, 3161 Telephone: (61 3) 9509 9855 Facsimile: (61 3) 9509 4549 Email: [email protected] Website: www.diggins.com.au ABN.19006 457 101
L A U R A I N E · D I G G I N S · F I N E · A R T paintings of wildflowers, crossing the boundaries between fine art and natural history illustration. Rowan’s work is characterised not only by its detailed accuracy but also her own compositional charm and touches of dramatic interest such as the inclusion of insects. She travelled extensively recording numerous botanical species both in Australia, as well as New Zealand; the United Kingdom; the United States of America and Papua and New Guinea. She is represented in State collections and the significant Rowan collection is held at the National Library of Australia. Petrea Voybillis Trop America Verbanaceae
CONSTANCE STOKES 1906 – 1991 $4,000 Sunset 1979 sepia ink and pastel on paper 27 x 37 cm Constance Stokes was a talented, ambitious artist, celebrated as a success in her time and today with the growing recognition as the reputation of women artists in general is renewed. She studied at the Gallery School at the National Gallery of Victoria under Bernard Hall, where her natural talent shone and she was awarded the Travelling Scholarship in 1929 which enabled her to continue her studies at the Royal Academy in London with Sir Walter Westley Russell and Sir Wlater Thomas Monnington and in Paris with Andre Lhote. She was included in the Twelve Australian Artists exhibition at Burlington Galleries, London in 1953; was represented at the 1953 Venice Biennale and was a finalist in the Archibald in 1935. There is a beautiful aesthetic in Stokes’ drawings; the sensuous almost languid figures heightened by her use of colour and sense of the decorative beyond the figure itself.
5 Malakoff Street, North Caulfield, Vic, 3161 Telephone: (61 3) 9509 9855 Facsimile: (61 3) 9509 4549 Email: [email protected] Website: www.diggins.com.au ABN.19006 457 101
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BARKS DICK NGULEINGULEI MURRUMURRA c.1920 – 1988 $12,000 Mimih Woman and Two Njanjmah (Bush Cats) natural pigments on bark 31 x 48 cm Dick Nguleingulei Murrurrurru was one of the foremost artists of western Arnhem Land and of the last generation of men to grow up painting onto rock. He is amongst a group of southern Kunwinjku artists whose painting maintains its roots in rock art origins, depicting flora and fauna in the x-ray style and characterised by the use of fine parallel lines, usually executed in a striking palette of white and red. He has been represented in several major exhibitions including Old Masters: Australia’s Great Bark Artists, National Museum of Australia, 2013.
NELSON MALDJIWA NAYILBIDJ 1927 – 1974 $16,000 Mamandi Spirit Attacking Mimih Spirit natural pigments on bark 24.8 x 40 cm “Nelson Maldjiwa’s painting is a visual synecdoche of the battle between good and evil. It relates to a genre of bark paintings about sorcery that were made at Oenpelli (Gunbalanya) and Minjilang (Croker Island) in western Arnhem Land in the 1960s and 70s.”
To read further about these barks please download our catalogue to access the essays by Wally Caruana.
5 Malakoff Street, North Caulfield, Vic, 3161 Telephone: (61 3) 9509 9855 Facsimile: (61 3) 9509 4549 Email: [email protected] Website: www.diggins.com.au ABN.19006 457 101
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SCULPTURE STEPHEN BOWERS 1953 – $6,500 Explorer’s Skull earthenware, underglaze colour, metallic stains clear glaze height: 13 cm Stephen Bowers is a highly skilled ceramicist who delights with his crafting ability and use of wit. He draws on history, natural science, artistic tradition and pop culture to create his striking works. A limited series of fictitious Skulls imagine the mortal remains of various national types. The brittle skulls, with their pun on ‘bone china’, are adorned with exquisitely detailed decorated headscarves and bring to mind tales of pirates and sea traders of porcelain and exotics from the Orient. Bowers is represented in most state galleries in Australia as well as several international museum collections. An extensive exhibition of his work toured Australia in 2013-15, accompanied by the publication Stephen Bowers: Beyond Bravura, a celebration of the intellect, imagination and inventiveness of an original artist whose career spans over 35 years.
AUGUSTINE DALL’AVA 1950 – $15,000 Running Water 1996-97 marble, azure quartz, painted and natural stones, stainless steel 49 x 80 x 18.5 cm The focus of Dall’ava’s sculpture is on the juxtaposition of shape, placement, colour, and angles of each element to assemble a balanced whole. Each piece is a conversation between all the different components; between the inclusion of found objects, with their inherent element chance and their purposeful positioning to create an artwork of elegance and lyricism. There is a sense of playfulness and intimacy to Dall’Ava’s work, where the lightness and spiritedness of each piece belies the reality of the heavy weight of marble. Gus’ work is represented in many public, private, university and corporate collections including the National Gallery of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria and he was the subject of a solo exhibition at McClelland Gallery in 2009, as well as completing several public commissions.
5 Malakoff Street, North Caulfield, Vic, 3161 Telephone: (61 3) 9509 9855 Facsimile: (61 3) 9509 4549 Email: [email protected] Website: www.diggins.com.au ABN.19006 457 101
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The Australian Taxation Office advises as follow: If you buy an asset before 1 July 2017 and it costs less than $20,000, you can immediately deduct the business portion in your 2017 tax return. You are eligible to claim a deduction for the business portion of each asset (new or second hand) costing less than $20,000 if:
• you have a turnover less than $10 million (this has increased from $2 million), and
• the asset was first used or installed ready for use in the 2016-17 income year.
The threshold currently reduces to $1,000 from 1 July 2017. Registered tax agents can help you with tax advice.