Three paintings make auction debut at Melbourne Menzies art sale

Three significant works by Lin Onus, John Olsen and Bronwyn Oliver are making their auction debut at Melbourne-based Menzies Important Australian and International Art sale from 6.30pm Thursday August 27 at 1 Darling Street, South Yarra as an outstanding display of modern, contemporary and First Nations art is up for grabs.

With a catalogue estimate of $350,000-$500,000 and appearing on the front cover, Onus’s (1948-1996) Bulla Goonyah 1993 (lot 38) is an excellent example of the artist’s finest subject.

The title translates to Two Fish, not immediately evident because they are hidden among the painting’s rippled but sunlit dark waters flowing among the more conspicuous ferns and gum leaves over the subdued pebbled underwater floor.

By doing this, the artist is challenging viewers preconceptions and assumptions, instead encouraging them to look beneath the surface to what lies beneath.

Son of a politically active Yorta Yorta Aboriginal father and Scottish mother, Onus was in a unique position to act, as he describes it, as a bridge between cultures.

He was acclaimed for combining ecological knowledge – largely obtained from time spent in the Barmah Forest, the important floodplain forest ecosystem that straddles the Murray River on the New South Wales-Victoria border – with cultural memory and was awarded the Member of the Order of Australia the same year he painted Bulla Goonyah.

John Olsen’s (1928-2023) Wattle and the Chasing Bird Landscape 2009 (lot 39) is a wonderful self-portrait of the artist chasing a bird through one of his archetypal landscapes. With a $160,000-$220,000 catalogue estimate, it features among a strong selection of modern Australian paintings by blue-chip artists such as Arthur Boyd (1920-1999), Charles Blackman (1928-2018) and Margaret Olley (1923-2011).

Boyd is well represented by two of his most sought-after subjects – Windmill, Wimmera Landscape c1987 (lot 33) and Figure by a Round Pool 1976 (lot 42).

Five Blackman oil paintings, the most notable entitled Suite 1961 (lot 41) depicting his famed women and children with shaded faces with a $100,000-$150,000 catalogue estimate, is a marvellous representation of his popular oeuvre that also features a colourful, bold rendition of a steam locomotive (lot 43).

The third work to appear at auction for the first time is Bronwyn Oliver’s (1959-2006) Horn 1992 (lot 37), one of several significant sculptures in the sale.

With a catalogue estimate of $200,000-$250,000, the Verdigris copper piece was created during the artist’s two-month residency at Auckland City Art Centre, featuring on the exhibition catalogue’s front cover.

Designed to be wall mounted, the woven copper strands created an equally intricate shadow – referred by Oliver as the horn’s “ghost”.

Other important works include Lisa Roet’s The Cradle (lot 36), also known as the Orangutan’s Foot, another example of which resides at Melbourne Zoo, Olsen’s Leaping Frog 2004-05 (lot 35) and Bruce Armstrong’s (1957-2024) Perching Bird (lot 34).

There is a great selection of contemporary indigenous Australian art with exemplary paintings by such iconic artists as Emily Kngwarreye (c1910-1996) and Sally Gabori (c1924-2015) who respectively have Altyerre, Spinifex Dreaming 1994 (lot 24) and My Country 2006 also known as Where I was Born (lot 45) in the auction.

These are joined by works from highly acclaimed living artists Danie Mellor, Reko Rennie and Gaypalani Wanabe who recently won the Art Gallery of New South Wales Wynne Prize 2026.

Another attraction is the innovative installation piece by the indigenous artist collective Tennant Creek Brio featuring a decommissioned poker machine speared with jalkara entitled One Eyed Man 2020 (lot 22).

Other popular contemporary artists Tim Storrier and Ben Quilty feature with their respective works Blaze Line 2003 (lot 40) Rorschach, Joe, Paris 2014 (lot 27).