Lights. Camera. Auction!

On Sunday night we caught the second part of the doco on the launch of Art+Object. It certainly looked different to the auctions we've been to in the past. For a start there was smartly displayed work, that didn’t look like it had come out of a regional museum’s study collection. TVNZ got into the spirit with a Reservoir Dogs-like graphic and the Art + Object team had a great whew-thank-god-it-worked moment on camera at the end. Ben Plumbly captured the mood when he declared, “We’ve broken the mould.” So, clever timing to find the latest Art+Object catalogue for the Gow Collection in the mail yesterday. Nothing wrong with the collection of objects either, in fact it’s a pretty interesting read. Bev and Murray Gow have put together a wide range of stuff and it’s good to have a chance to ruffle through it. And yet, with its A4 format, a number of works that would have been better discretely sold off line, and illustrations that seem more arranged than designed, this auctiosure seems a long way off brand from Art+Object as the “The 21st Century Auction House”.
Images: Middle, the Gow Collection catalogue from Art+Object. Outer, scenes from the TVNZ documentary on Art+Object's first auction.