This rare painting could be about to set a new Australian art record
By Linda Morris
A work by the late Indigenous artist Emily Kame Kngwarreye carrying a hefty $3.35 million price tag is the star attraction of this year’s Sydney Contemporary, Australia’s biggest art fair.
The annual fair opens to the public on Thursday, and despite the cost-of-living crisis, a raft of high-profile gallery closures, and shrinking discretionary spending, this major work is expected to find a home with a serious collector or museum, says Christopher Hodges, director of Utopia Art Sydney.
Art dealer Christopher Hodges in front of Emily Kame Kngwarreye’s Untitled (alhalkere) 1992. Credit: Rhett Wyman
Were the untitled Kngwarreye to sell for its asking price, it would be the highest price paid for a painting by a female Australian artist, and the highest price for a Kngwarreye. Her distinctive depictions of the Australian desert, which have made her a global art figure, hold the current auction record of $2.1 million.
“The Emily Kame Kngwarreye painting we are taking is not just any Emily work,” Hodges said. “This is a painting on a grand scale, a painting of the highest quality, a painting where you can see the artist exploring and engaged.
“Works of this size and calibre are extremely rare, and thus this is a painting for a serious collector, be that private or public.”
Sydney Contemporary represents the most concentrated week of art sales in Australia. Last year it attracted 25,000 visitors and raked in $21 million in sales. This year, 86 galleries will showcase more than 400 artists at Carriageworks, from Thursday to Sunday.
The Kngwarreye work in full.Credit: Rhett Wyman
Apart from the Kngwarreye, other key works include a William Kentridge bronze with a price of $1 million, and a rare Pablo Picasso ceramic, Face and Owl (1958), for $85,000.
For its eighth edition, the fair’s works on paper section has grown to meet rising demand for art books and more affordable purchases.
Paper versions of works by Indigenous artist Sally Scales are $4500, one-quarter of the price of her canvases.
Surry Hills gallery Ames Yavuz has prints for sale by Vincent Namatjira, Abdul Abdullah and Tom Polo for less than $12,000. A print by the late American contemporary artist Chuck Close is asking $125,000 from Utopia.
“Paper represents such a good opportunity, a platform to show the best art practice and introduce future collectors to the joy of buying and living with the best art,” curator Akky van Ogtrop said.
Some 20 artists are debuting new work for purchase, including Trent Parke, Brook Andrew, Imants Tillers, Shirley Purdie and Antonia Perricone Mrljak.
Australian Galleries is presenting a single artist, Melbourne painter Graeme Drendel, with 70 works, including 10 new major wall-size pieces.
“We just found over the years a one-artist show seems to work better,” said director Stuart Purves, who hoped the fair will spark an uptick in the Australian market generally.
The biggest of the installations is a giant inflatable gibbon from Melbourne-based Lisa Roet, known for artwork exploring the connections between humans and primates. Suspended above the building entrance, the work – on display for the first time in Australia – can be purchased for $185,000.
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