The Australian | Michaela Boland
It is 100 years this year since the birth of the nation’s most successful artist, Sid Nolan, and yet no Australian cultural institution has seized on this as an opportunity to stage an exhibition of his work.
Unusually, leading art auction house Sotheby’s has. At the company’s Sydney display room, a collection of more than two dozen rarely seen artworks has been hung on display chronologically.
The New Daily | David Spicer
Many of the greatest paintings by late Australian artist Sidney Nolan will be seen in public for the first time over the next two weeks.
A gallery in Sydney’s eastern suburbs has borrowed 30 of the artist’s works from private collections to mark the centenary of his birth next month.
Newcastle Herald | Jim Keller
Newcastle art dealer and gallery owner Mark Widdup has expressed regret that a chance for a Hunter public gallery to own an important William Dobell work has been missed.
The Australian | Michaela Boland
As the nation’s art auction houses draw the shutters on a busy year, sales figures reveal a dynamic buyers’ market in an industry that’s working harder for the money. With just a few small sales outstanding this year, total artwork transactions at auction were $102 million, about 8 per cent down on last year.
The Australian | Michaela Boland
Charles Blackman’s Alice in Wonderland oil The Game of Chess set an auction record for the artist at Sotheby’s Australia’s final Important Australian art sale of the year at Sydney’s InterContinental Hotel last night.
The Daily Telegraph | Elizabeth Fortescue
A DOUBLE-SIDED painting with a mystery portrait on the back has intrigued Sotheby’s Australia specialists ahead of their attempts to find the picture a new home at auction in Sydney tonight (Wednesday 23 Nov).
The Daily Examiner
THE Grafton Regional Gallery is calling for the community to help fund the purchase of a 19th century painting of the Clarence River. The impressionist work, Susan Island on the Clarence River, Grafton, is up for auction in Sydney tomorrow.
Australian Auction Review | Richard Brewster
Arthur Streeton’s And the Sunlight Clasps the Earth 1895 has been recently re-discovered after being hidden from public view in a Tasmanian private collection for almost a century and will be auctioned by Sotheby’s Australia as part of its Important Australian Art auction from 6.30pm Wednesday November 23 at the InterContinental Sydney, 117 Macquarie Street, Sydney.
Significant award winning Australian landscape paintings have been brought together for sale by Sotheby’s Australia. William Dobell’s Storm Approaching, Wangi 1948 (estimate $100,000-150,000, lot 3) and Sali Herman’s The Red House 1965 (estimate $50,000-70,000, lot 29) were both awarded the Art Gallery of New South Wales’ Wynne Prize for the best Australian landscape painting. Also consigned is John Coburn’s Sacred Site 1989 (estimate $60,000-80,000, lot 25) which was an entrant to the 1989 Wynne Prize.
Geoffrey Smith, Chairman of Sotheby’s Australia commented: ‘It is unique that two of Australia’s most significantly recognised and awarded landscape paintings of the twentieth century appear simultaneously for auction. William Dobell’s Storm Approaching, Wangi is a work of exceptional quality and historical importance and appears for public sale for the first time. In 1948 Dobell was awarded both the Archibald Prize for portraiture for Margaret Olley (1948, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney) and the Wynne Prize for the present work. It was the first time an artist had been awarded both prizes in the same year and created a national sensation. This followed Dobell’s infamous and bitter court case regarding his Portrait of Joshua Smith (1943, Private Collection), which was challenged as a caricature after it won in 1943.’
Although Dobell won the court case, he became withdrawn and reclusive and fled Sydney for the protective isolation of the family weekender at Wangi Wangi, on the foreshore of Lake Macquarie, where he gradually resumed painting. When Dobell was announced the winner of both the 1948 Archibald and Wynne Prizes, crowds flocked to view the exhibition. On the opening weekend approximately 14,000 visitors attended and in the first week almost 40,000 visitors made the pilgrimage.
Sali Herman is most known for his paintings that depict the urban rituals of the inner city streets of Sydney. A large and impressive composition, The Red House 1965 perfectly captures the physical and spiritual aspects of this distinct urban landscape and became Herman’s third painting (from a total four) to be awarded the Wynne Prize.
SALI HERMAN 1898-1993, The Red House 1965.
Australian Financial Review | Peter Fish
Sotheby's Australia has pulled a rabbit from the hat for its Sydney fine art sale on November 23, with an early Charles Blackman taking the million-dollar top billing at the auction, amid a refined offering of works by artists ranging from Brett Whiteley and Arthur Streeton to a pre-World War II Herbert Badham Centennial Park scene.