Surrealist tribute to Dobell’s army of cows
24 May 2022The Australian | Nicholas Jensen
It was one of the more bizarre tactics of Australia's wartime defence.
The Australian | Nicholas Jensen
It was one of the more bizarre tactics of Australia's wartime defence.
JOHN KELLY: THE LAZARUS SERIESThe digital catalogue for the upcoming selling exhibition JOHN KELLY: The Lazarus Series exhibition at Smith & Singer is now available to view online. During the past two and a half decades John Kelly has developed a distinguished reputation in Australia and internationally for his work that combines his unique intellect and humour. Bristol born, Kelly moved to Australia with his parents in 1965, the year of his birth. Kelly now resides in West Cork, Ireland and has English, Australian and Irish nationality. It was during his time in Australia that Kelly developed his affinity with one of his most recognised subjects, William Dobell’s camouflaged cows, created when, during World War II, Dobell was commissioned to make paper-mâché cows with the purpose of confusing enemy aircraft about the locations of Australian airbases. This significant exhibition will feature 16 major works by the artist and will be open to the public Monday–Friday, 10 am – 5 pm, 17 May – 10 June 2022 at 14-16 Collins Street, Melbourne. To enquire about the availability of works in the exhibition please contact our specialists. |
JAMES GLEESONSmith & Singer are honoured to offer James Gleeson's Prometheus Encyphered 1986 for private sale. James Gleeson remains a colossus within the history and development of Australian art, primarily as an artist, but equally for his enormous contribution to our visual culture in his roles as author, art critic, arts administrator and advisor. For almost seven decades Gleeson practiced Surrealism and explored the realms and possibilities of the Surrealist creed, that sought to show that there exists, beyond the obvious and everyday, an alternative reality experienced through dreams, hallucinations, and differing mental states. Rather than focusing on purely private fantasies, the most significant contributions made by Surrealist artists, including Gleeson, are the visionary and profound statements that comment on the human condition. We are particularly delighted to present James Gleeson’s magnificent and magisterial Prometheus Encyphered for Private Sale. |
The Age | Nick Miller
On May 9 (US time), at the Rockefeller Center in New York, Andy Warhol’s Shot Sage Blue Marilyn might become the most expensive 20th-century artwork ever to sell at auction.
ARTHUR BOYDSmith & Singer are delighted to offer Arthur Boyd's Nebuchadnezzar Eating Grass with Lion's Head on Fire (1968) for private sale. Arthur Boyd’s epic and historical series of paintings on the theme of the banishment and punishment of the proud, cruel, and mercenary Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, were described by Ursula Hoff as ‘mesmerising’ and ‘a tribute to Boyd’s artistic culture, to his awareness of the art that surrounded him both in Australia and in the Old World, and to the heights to which he aspires.’ Although the iconography references the biblical text, Boyd’s compositions diverge to reference the Australian landscape as well as to the then current political anxieties of the Vietnam War and to the psychology of brutal dictators of the twentieth century. These powerful canvases create an extraordinary impact through their use of agitated brushwork and a diverse, vibrant palette, ranging wildly from intense aggression to more delicate and muted tones. Nebuchadnezzar Eating Grass with Lion’s Head on Fire remains one of the most dramatic and sumptuous within the comprehensive series and featured on the cover of Boyd’s solo exhibition at Arthur Tooth & Sons in London in 1969 and represents a rare opportunity to acquire a seminal work from one of Australia's most radical voices.
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Financial Review | Gabriella Coslovich
The Australian auction market has enjoyed one of its strongest-ever starts to a year. Some $41 million worth of art has been sold so far, compared with $14 million in the year-earlier period.
Financial Review | Gabriella Coslovich
Jeffrey Smart's seamless blend of the mysterious and the everyday has long held market appeal -
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.