News & Video
'I asked, is John going to die? And the consultant said, probably'
16 August 2020Irish Independent | Emily Hourican
Renowned artist John Kelly spent 45 days in hospital when he was struck down by rare condition, and the near-death experience has left him 'seeing the world very differently', he tells Emily Hourican. Just over two years ago, I interviewed artist and sculptor John Kelly at his home, Reen Farm, in West Cork. At the time, he was busy creating an extraordinary and beautiful memorial, the Think and Thank Garden at Reen, which is where the very first deaths from the Great Famine were recorded in 1846.
Pierre Soulages
25 July 2020The Spectator | Donald McDonald
A French painting purchased in Melbourne in 1953 has been repatriated selling for $5.26m earlier this month in Paris. For 67 years the painting had hung in a private house in Melbourne until it was ‘rediscovered’ by Smith & Singer who returned it to France on behalf of an Australian client, the son of the original purchaser.
How a £3m Soulages Almost Sank off the Coast of Tasmania
14 July 2020The Art Newspaper | Elizabeth Fortescue
When Claude Bonin-Pissarro accompanied an exhibition of 119 Modern French paintings from France to Australia in 1953, he told an Australian newspaper that he was very satisfied with security arrangements surrounding the pictures. No one had tried to steal or destroy the works by Picasso, Matisse, Derain, Léger and others, Bonin-Pissarro said...
Smith and Singer repatriated the painting to France and on Friday 10 July, Christie’s Paris sold it for a hammer price of €3.2m “following fierce bidding from representatives in Hong Kong, London, New York and Paris”.
Brack Daughter Portrait Fetches $900,000
25 June 2020The Age | Nick Miller
An oil painting by one of Australia's most celebrated artists, John Brack, of his laughing, pigtailed four-year-old daughter Charlotte has smashed expectations at auction, costing its new owner nearly $1 million to take home.
Laughing Child, painted in 1958, sold to a telephone bidder on Wednesday for a hammer price of $750,000 ($915,000 after the auction house premium). Pre-auction estimates were around half the amount.
Laughing to the Bank: Brack Daughter Portrait Fetches $900,000
25 June 2020The Sydney Morning Herald | Nick Miller
An oil painting by one of Australia's most celebrated artists, John Brack, of his laughing, pigtailed four-year-old daughter Charlotte has smashed expectations at auction, costing its new owner nearly $1 million to take home.
Laughing Child, painted in 1958, sold to a telephone bidder on Wednesday for a hammer price of $750,000 ($915,000 after the auction house premium). Pre-auction estimates were around half the amount.
Smith & Singer Achieve Highest Australian Fine Art Auction Total of 2020 to date with $6,620,940
25 June 2020Lost Wartime Painting Of Renowned Darling Point House & Double Bay Returns To Sydney
22 June 2020Property from the Renowned Collection of the Late Mr Graham Joel Emerges at Auction this June
19 June 2020John Brack 'Laughing Child' 1958 oil on canvas
17 June 2020The Spectator | Donald McDonald
In a futile attempt at participating in the current cultural revolution, I tried to suffer ‘harm and offence’ from an art catalogue. But it seems I’m no good at this revolutionary business because I only derived pleasure from the catalogue of Important Australian & International Art of works to be auctioned by Smith & Singer (formerly Sotheby’s Australia) on 24 June.