Linke - Artinfo

26
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SYDNEY
P r iDE of thE NatioN
Consisting of some 285 lots
of Australian contemporary
and indigenous art, the sale
of the Laverty Collection at
Bonhams on March 24 presents
a rich trove of paintings by
the country’s chief 20th- and
21st-century practitioners.
Amassed over 40 years by
Sydney-based Dr. Colin Laverty
(the retired founder of a highly
successful private pathology
practice) and his wife, Elizabeth,
the 2,000-piece cache is the
moS cow
A Seat at the Table
product of instinct and inclination
rather than prevailing art trends.
“We collect with our hearts,
not with our heads,” Elizabeth
says. “We want people to
recognize indigenous Australian
art as great contemporary art and
not be pigeonholed as tribal or
ethnographic,” Colin adds.
The works on offer are valued
at $A4 million to $A6 million
($4.2–6.3 million) and include
major canvases from Ken
Whisson, whose eclectic
Talk about a movable feast. The spring
edition of the Russian Antiques Salon,
March 30 through April 7 at the Central
House of Artists, will feature a lavish table
spread modeled on Romanov state dinners
in commemoration of the upcoming 400th
anniversary of that dynasty. “Every year
we have a section that we use for a special
presentation,” explains director Natalia Koren. “This year we
found a private collection of the coronation menus of
several czars. We will have a large table set up the way it used
to be in the 18th and 19th centuries.”
paintings merge figuration
with abstraction; Abstract
Expressionist Peter Upward;
contemporary landscape artist
William Robinson, whose
paintings are in the collection
of New York’s Metropolitan
Museum of Art; and Rosalie
Gascoigne, the first female
artist to represent Australia
at the Venice Biennale. Works
by Aboriginal artists such as
Sunfly Tjampitjin, Emily
Kngwarreye, and Eubena
Filippo Indoni’s undated watercolor
Sweet Melody will be offered by Viardo Gallery
at the 34th Russian Antiques Salon.
Nampitjin are among the most
important in private hands, as
their loan history to institutions
such as London’s Hayward
Gallery attests. Fittingly,
the auction will be held at the
Museum of Contemporary Art
Australia, of which the couple
are longtime benefactors.
Bonhams’s senior consultant
Tim Klingender is banking on
the works’ novelty and quality
to lure a new audience. “In my
experience,” he says, “collectors
are jaded by seeing the same
things over and over.” Exhibiting
30 key pieces in New York and
London “will give international
collectors the opportunity
to respond directly to fresh,
exciting Australian art that
is characterized by a strong
visual language and a universal
aesthetic.” —nicholas forrest
Tommy Watson’sWangkamarl, 2003
(est. $74,000–105,000), left, and Ken
Whisson’s Flag to Replace the Red and
Blue Ensigns (Flag of My Disposition No.
14), 1980 (est. $32–53,000), above, will
be auctioned by Bonhams in Sydney.
Several of the 250 dealers are flaunting
unique items. The Russian Avant-Garde
gallery, for example, has prepared a
photography exhibit—rare at the classically
oriented Salon—including works by
Alexander Rodchenko and El Lissitzky
and ranging in price from $2,000
to $200,000. On a more traditional note,
seven Isaac Levitan works will
hang alongside genre paintings and Asian
watercolors at the Akant and Viardo
galleries’ joint booth. Natalia Marova,
of Shon Gallery, Moscow, will show 19th-century Japanese
ceramic statuettes and notes that with nearly 93,000 square
feet of space, “the Salon lets us show good works in a respected
place and make a real exhibition.” —nastassia astrasheuskaya From Top: Two images, Bonhams; russian anTiques salon, moscow
March/april 2013 | BlouinArtinfo.comAsiA