News & Video

The Age /Sydney Morning Herald | Kerrie O'Brien

A rarely seen painting by one of Australia’s pioneering impressionist artists, Frederick McCubbin, will go under the hammer for the first time in 140 years.

The 1884 painting The Letter is one of McCubbin’s earliest contributions to the late 19th-century art movement known as Australian Impressionism and has been long held by his family, known to exist by only a handful of scholars.

The work features McCubbin’s sister Harriet, an artist who modelled for him as well as his contemporary Tom Roberts, reading a letter, apparently deep in thought.

Measuring 45.5cm x 22.6cm, the piece will be auctioned by Smith & Singer in November with an estimated price range of $300,000-$400,000. But the auction house says there’s a chance it will sell for well above that, given the rarity of McCubbin’s work of this era and the degree of interest it is expected to generate.

The Australian  |  Stephen Lunn

It didn’t take long for Margaret Olley’s Still Life With Fruit and Flowers to find a buyer.

Art dealers Smith & Singer sent a note to those well-heeled members of its mailing list just after 10am on Thursday offering the painting for private sale. By 11.30am it had found a new home.

The buyer negotiated an undisclosed price understood to be just shy of $100,000, not a record for an Olley, but serious money.

Amour Fou & Art Magazine  |  Anon.

Criss Canning is one of Australia's leading artists and is world-renowned for her still life art. After a long career she hangs in the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Art Gallery of Ballarat, Artbank and in many private collections around the world.  She has had over 21 solo exhibitions and in 2007 was the subject of a major retrospective organised by the Art Gallery of Ballarat. 

She lives and works in a country house surrounded by a gorgeous garden which she maintains with her husband David Glenn. She is also a worldwide star on social media with a large number of followers who can admire her artwork and also videos of her garden.

Irish Arts Review  |  John P O'Sullivan

 In 1994, an Irishman, an Englishman and an Australian walked into the Piccadilly Gallery in Cork Street, London, and announced his arrival on the European art scene. All three of these were John Kelly, son of an Irish father and an English mother, who grew up in Melbourne - thereby allowing him access to three passports. Walking into a high-profile London gallery hawking your artistic wares rakes nerve and usually leads to a brief encounter and a chastened exit. (1.7 MB)

Financial Review  |  Gabriella Coslovich

In Australia and around the world the irreverent British graffiti artist is becoming more sought after and the prices at auction have become as much a talking point as the works themselves.

In his 2005 monograph Wall and Piece the elusive British street artist Banksy wrote ‘Despite what they say graffiti is not the lowest form of art’.  And if the measure of merit is in the price people are prepared to pay for an artist’s work (an enduringly debatable point), then Banksy has proved himself right many times over.

7 NEWS  |  Alex Turner-Cohen

The Age  |  Kerrie O'Brien

The Daily Telegraph  |  Elizabeth Fortescue

Banksy’s Love Is In The Air is number 450 of an edition of 500 printed in 2003, according to Smith and Singer auctioneers’ chairman Geoffrey Smith.

The Mail on Sunday  |  Jack Mahony

A lucky customer who bought a Banksy print from a museum gift shop for 'less than $300' is expected to pocked $150,000 from its sale after it turned out to be an original planted by the mystery artist.  

The owner, who wishes to remain anonymous, bought the work in Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art in 2003. 

Herald Sun  |  Elizabeth Fortescue

Banksy’s Love Is In The Air is number 450 of an edition of 500 printed in 2003, according to Smith and Singer auctioneers’ chairman Geoffrey Smith.