Submitted by aarAdmin on Thu, 10/13/2022 - 00:00
When it comes to some of Australia’s and the world’s best artists, prints and lithographs seem to be just as popular as major oil paintings.
And so it proved for Menzies Prints & Multiples Sydney auction on October 12 when several Australian auction records for artists were set during the bidding and 84 per cent of the 70 works on offer were sold.
The top two lots in the sale were taken out by 20th century American contemporary artist Andy Warhol for his colour screenprints of Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger 1975 (lot 15) – which changed hands for $104,318 (including buyer’s premium) – and The Nun (from Ingrid Bergman) 1983 (lot 1) that sold for $71,182.
Howard Arkley and Juan Davila’s joint screenprint effort entitled Interior with Built-in Bar 1991-92 (lot 12) was in fourth spot, selling for $55,227 – just behind Alexander Archipenko’s polychrome bronze Lying Horizontal Figure 1957 (lot 18) at $58,909.
The complete set of colour lithographs entitled Memories of Surrealism 1971 by Salvador Dali (lot 70) set a new auction record for the artist when it changed hands for $54,000 – as did Seated Figure 1992 (lot 9) for Francis Bacon at $36,818.
This was the same price as that achieved for Banksy’s Have a Nice Day (lot 24) while other artist auction records were set for Peter Blake’s Marilyn (lot 2 - $5523) and Richard Diebenkorn’s Untitled (July 25-26) (lot 31 - $6136).
Other top 10 entries included Bacon’s colour lithograph entitled Masque Mortuaire de William Blake (lot 8 - $24,545) and three works by Brett Whiteley.
These were Vincent (An Essay in Opposites) (lot 11 - $24,545), Lavender Bay in the Rain (lot 21) and Kookaburra (lot 22), each of which sold for $23,932.
John Kelly’s Three Cows Stacked (lot 17), with a $150,000-$200,000 catalogue estimate, sold privately post-auction for an undisclosed figure.
