Modern British Art weathers the storm
Confidence in the primarily domestic market for Modern British Art might be expected to be low in the run-up to an election and further delays on Brexit, but the £14million total for a series of sales last week was within target, and 14 records were broken. The standout example was a painting of a horse
drawn hansom cab by Robert Bevan, the post-impressionist Camden Town Group artist. Beautifully depicted in dappled mauve, purple and lilac tones, it was a prime example of the group’s work, still barely recognised outside Britain, and sold to the collector/dealer Daniel Katz for a record £531,000.
Meanwhile, following my article last week about the sibling rivalry between the early 20th century British artists John and Paul Nash, the gap between them narrowed. While the dominant elder brother, Paul, topped the rankings with a First World War view of soldiers in their trenches, which sold at the upper end of its estimate for £81,000, four landscapes by the younger John attracted much more bidding. All doubled their estimates, with one view of a beach breakwater selling for a record £56,000.
Following its strong beginning in the Eighties, the market for Australian Aboriginal art rather went down the tubes, with overproduced tourist art and fakes muddying the water. Now, though, it is making a comeback.
“It’s been a record year in New York City for Aboriginal art,” noted the online art portal Artsy, in September, on the occasion of several exhibitions, including one at the influential Gagosian Gallery of works from the actor Steve Martin’s collection. Now, Sotheby’s is launching the category in New York with a sale next month. It represents “a major paradigm shift” among collectors, who are now, says Tim Klingender of Sotheby’s, more
open to contemporary artwork that falls “outside the Western canon”.
In Britain, there are still hangovers from the critical backlash that greeted an Aboriginal art show at the Royal Academy in 2003, which was described as decorative “tourist tat” by one critic. But various commercial outlets have survived. One is the dealer Georgina Martin, who sources her work direct from the official community art centres in Australia’s Western Desert, and whose Frewen Arts organisation is currently exhibiting both established and lesser-known Aboriginal artists at the Dellasposa Gallery, near Hyde Park, London. Prices range from £3,500 to £15,000 – less than one tenth of the prices quoted at the Sotheby’s auction.