Range keeps art buyers spoiled for choice

By DON MILNE

One of the problems in writing about the art market is: Which one? Because there is not just one market, but many.

For starters, there is the division between the primary market, in which artists sell directly to the public or through dealer galleries, and the secondary market, in which works are recycled through galleries or, more often, the auction houses.

Most people buy works of art because they like them. Some buy for investment, lured by the promise of handsome returns. Some collect contemporary art, others prefer the works of long-dead artists.

Some sell their art because they are tired of it, are venturing into different areas of collecting, need the money or the room, or hope to gain a good return on their outlay.

Webb's sale last week illustrated the market's diversity. About 140 works were for sale, ranging from Blomfield and Goldie through McCahon, Hanly and Hotere to painters still in their 30s, such as Peter Robinson, Tony de Lautour and Simon Kaan.

Also on offer was a small section of international works, mostly prints, by such luminaries as Picasso, Matisse and Leger, and a smaller offering of photographs.

In one market - mostly, but not exclusively, the lower-priced end - about 30 works sold at or above Webb's higher estimate. In another - mostly, but again not exclusively, works carrying higher price-tags - about a dozen works were passed in (a rather ordinary portrait by Lindauer failed to attract even an opening bid) and about 60 sold subject to vendors' approval, but many would have found homes when vendors revised their expectations.

But there were some outstanding sales just as there were at Dunbar Sloane's in Auckland last month. A 1968 bird/landscape painting by Don Binney went for $170,000, $10,000 above the higher estimate.

A mixed-media work by Roy Lichtenstein (not an artist often seen in New Zealand) went to $57,000, and very spirited bidding for Colin McCahon's North Otago Landscape meant the price went to $190,000, $40,000 above the higher estimate.

But two of Brent Wong's early, mysterious landscapes, with echoes of Magritte (what are those objects in the sky?) failed to sell on the night, although bidding reached $70,000 on each. Both were estimated at from $90,000 to $120,000.

Works by this talented, reclusive artist are seldom for sale, so it's hard to determine their worth. There were gasps, however, when Simon Kaan's Composition with waka went for $26,500, well above the higher estimate of $10,000.

Kaan, born in 1971 of Chinese and Maori descent, has had two sellout shows in Wellington and is an artist to watch.

At Sloane's, Ralph Hotere's Song Cycle - The Voyage didn't quite make the $300,000 hoped for but still did well at $280,000.

Manifesto Cafe, by Michael Smither, sold for $55,000 after negotiation. But of 10 Smither works at Webb's, only four reached the reserve to sell on the night.

For something completely different, Cordy's hit the jackpot last week with two delightful English stumpwork pictures from the time of Charles I.

The smaller one went for $6000 and the larger, with an estimate of $10,000, exceeded expectations by going to $22,500. Don't expect to start a collection, however. Auctioneer John Maconie has never seen any offered for sale here before.

Coming up:

Cordy's catalogue sale is on October 19.

Webb's next affordable art sale is on November 2.

The International Art Centre has an investment sale scheduled for November 24, with collectable art offered for sale on December 5.

Sloane's last big Auckland sale for the year will be late in November.