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Summer Burn Off by Tim Storrier
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Oil on canvas, signed and dated lower right '94
122x243cm - valued at $250,000 for insurance
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Sometimes, a work of art jumps out at you and stops you in your tracks. In this case, this is clearly one of Tim Storrier's best, the artist at his peak. What was so striking was the location on the 33rd floor in an open plan office reception looking across Sydney Harbour in the visitors seating area.
The natural light on the painting and the huge expanse of Sydney Harbour contrasted with a kind of brilliance with the fire and sky or air element - bringing all the elements together in a vibrant juxtaposition.
Storrier is an enigmatic artist but this theme of his of the desert, the fire and sky are in some way an expression of the raw primordial and yet ravishing desert interior. This painting incongruously placed within a huge man made monolith adds a shock to senses aspect which always causes a re-action in the visitors.
Valuing art is an art form in itself, artists have good and bad periods in their life, when they seem to be on fire (excuse the pun) and periods when they are not on top of their game, or perhaps have gone too long with one theme. Many artists' works are over valued because of their names, and the assumption that if it's by them, it must be good. In the case of Storrier in this painting, he has reached his apogee and you can see it in an instant, the confidence of astering the subject, the boldness and balance the vibrancy of the dancing flames against the stillness and emptiness of the landscape, the destruction versus the beauty of the flames, the artist's practice versus the spontaneity of nature.
Storrier's symbolic choice of fire alludes to the natural and vital process of decay and renewal that occurs in bushfires that ravage Australia's environs. Fire also holds survival, sacrificial and mythical connections. |
Kings Road Chelsea by Janet Cumbrae-Stewart
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Evocative to my generation, Kings Road Chelsea was the heart of 'Swinging' London in the sixties, but prior to that, it was the heart of the Bohemian art world from the late 19th Century where the heavy handed mores of the Victorian and Edwardians were put to one side through the medium of the arts.
The Impressionistic pastel on paper will be offered at Davidson's auction house in Annandale in June. The painting which shows the view from a window (probably her studio) in the Kings Road Chelsea, is dated 1923. It has turned up in an estate in Frenchs Forest, Sydney.
This is a departure from the porcelaineous nude women and girls that Janet Cumbrae-Stewart painted in the early part of the 20th Century in and around Melbourne, her home, with great skill and a detached lesbian voyeurism, appropriate, perhaps, to the times.
This impressionistic nature make me think of Degas and his brilliant contexts - if only Janet had expanded her horizons - there is a serious talent here. And it's frustrating because she limited herself to the static figure with occasional hints through paintings such as the Chelsea view that she could have taken her art much further. That's not to decry her gorgeously textured studies of women and girls one of which made $60,000 at auction recently, certainly she deserves recognition as a great exponent of the nude form.
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Roland Wakelin Found in Dee Why
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A collection of eight unknown major art works by the renowned modernist Roland Wakelin, regarded as the founder of Australian contemporary art, discovered in a private home in Dee Why, were sold at auction in Sydney in April.
We were able to guide and support the sale of the paintings as well as negotiating commission rates resulting in a successful sale, achieving over $50,000. It is interesting to note that specific artists achieve different prices at different auction houses, and that commission rates vary considerably - beware the hidden costs!
Roland Wakelin, who is represented in many major art galleries around Australia, is sought after by collectors. He was born in 1887 and died in 1971, and lived in Dee Why during the 1920s.
Like "colourist" Roy de Maistre, Wakelin was a modernist, particularly in his use of colour and harmony, with clear influence from Cezanne and the other major impressionists.
Using classical subject matter - landscape, cityscape or still life - he applied high keyed colours for a gentle, soft-focus, dream-like modernist effect. Wakelin's work was the subject of a major retrospective at the Art Gallery of NSW in 1967.
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Adrianus Eversen
1818 - 1892
Dutch Winter Street Scenes
(possibly Amersfoot)
A pair, oil on panel, signed lower left, and lower right. Each 42.5x34.5cm
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Adrianus Everson often painted imaginary views with the intention of evoking an atmosphere rather than representing accuracy. He worked in Amsterdam and studied under Cornelius de Kruyf, and then under Cornelius Springer. He spent most of his life in Amsterdam, where he exhibited regularly. His work is represented in several museums.
The two paintings realised the total of AU$124,000 after being consigned to Christies in Amsterdam.
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