The big return on a very modest initial outlay shows that contemporary art is a market in which investors prepared to be adventurous can acquire collectable work without having to commit big money.
In 1991, the publication Art Monthly Australia offered its readers the opportunity to purchase a print by the Canberra artist Rosalie Gascoigne. The colour screenprint, titled Across Town, was printed in an edition of 100 and sold for $99. Gascoigne, who died in 1999, made only one other print edition, Close Owly, in 1990.
At Christie's sale of contemporary art in Sydney on May 24, a print of Across Town was sold for $6500 ($7894 when the buyer's premium charged by the auction house is included). This represents an increase in value of more than 6000% over 14 years. It is the sort of return that investors in any market dream of, and the collector who bought the work in 1991 had the added benefit of enjoying it for many years before selling it. The big return on a very modest initial outlay shows that contemporary art is a market in which investors prepared to be adventurous can acquire collectable work without having to commit big money.
The results of Christie's May sale showed the downside of the contemporary art market as well. Works by recognised contemporary artists, such as Susan Norrie, Dale Frank, Tracey Moffat and Imants Tillers did not sell. It is a fickle market.
Gascoigne was the star of the night, emerging as one of the few sure bets in contemporary art. A large wooden assemblage from 1992, Beaten Track, sold for $320,000 ($378,740 with the buyer's premium) after being offered with an estimate of $200,000 to $300,000.
Other artists whose work usually does well at contemporary sales had mixed results. Christie's offered four works by Tim Maguire, who specialises in flower studies scaled up to gigantic proportions. Three of the works sold just above their reserves, but one failed to sell. It may be that the market is tiring of Maguire's predictable approach.
Collectors will often sell the work of an artist who has been the subject of a recent retrospective or survey exhibition in a public gallery. They assume the retrospective will introduce the artist to a wider audience, lead to a re-evaluation of the work and push up market prices.
The photographer Bill Henson was the subject of a retrospective at the Art Gallery of New South Wales earlier this year. The show was a popular and critical success. Of six Hensons offered by Christie's, two did not sell, two sold for prices close to their estimates and two went for big prices. Henson's work features urban landscapes, such as junkyards, industrial sites and abandoned buildings, populated by groups of people who look as though they have just finished an orgy. Some of his work is more tame. With such a big sample of his photographs on offer, the collectors who bit the bullet and bought the more challenging work were rewarded with better sale prices.
Henson's saleroom price was generally lower than the prices now being asked for new work by his dealer, Roslyn Oxley. New work at the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in Sydney sells for as much as $15,000; prices at Christie's ranged between $7000 and $12,000.
The nature of auctions means there will always be bargains. When the Sherman Galleries in Sydney last held a show of Tasmanian landscape painter Philip Wolfhagen, gallery staff had trouble dealing with the competing demands of collectors eager to buy the work. Prices for new Wolfhagen paintings have gone sky high. But Christie's sold a very nice Wolfhagen triptych for a reasonable $15,000 ($18,217 with premium). Perhaps the best bargain was the final lot in the sale, a 1983 Ken Unsworth painting, The Passage. Against an estimate of $1000-$1500, the picture was sold for $500, a price that would have been a bargain back in 1983.
The sale highlighted a couple of artists who have not, up to now, had much of their work sold in the secondary market but are likely to become strong saleroom favourites. Adam Cullen's 2002 painting The Best Person to Keep an Eye on Your Symptoms is You sold for $8500 ($10,323 with premium) against an estimate of $3000-$5000. Cullen uses loose brushstrokes and broad washes of colour, and creates images on a flat, cartoon-like plane. His art is big, bright, often garish and confronting, and the artist has a knack for self-promotion.
The work of Noel McKenna is a complete contrast. The Brisbane-born artist is quirky to the point of eccentricity; one painting done a few years ago features a map of Australia with all the horse-racing tracks marked on them. He works in a naive style that complements the subject matter.
Christie's offered two of McKenna's paintings. The 1999 Fringe Dwellers sold for $7800 ($9473 with premium) against an estimate of $6000-$8000. Home Palm, from the same year, sold for $4000 ($4858 with premium), in line with its lower estimate.
One difficulty with the contemporary art market is actually defining it. Christie's, which has been the leader in contemporary art sales in Australia, has tended to include any work from the early 1980s onwards in its contemporary catalogues. There was plenty of early-1980s work alongside pieces only a year or two old. Is the market that is looking to pay $320,000 for a Rosalie Gascoigne the same market that is out shopping for work by Tim Silver, a young artist who makes clay models of electric guitars, skateboards and sports cars? That is one factor that contributes to these sales being such a mixed bag of results.