
News & Video


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.

Call for entries | Bowness Photography Prize 2022
17 May 2022
Girolamo Nerli - Important Australian Art for Private Sale
12 May 2022
Exhibition Catalogue Announcement – John Kelly
10 May 2022
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. |

Important Australian Art for Private Sale
10 May 2022
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.