Hammer heads

Since the appearance of Art +Object in 2007 the Auckland auction world has been nothing if not exciting. A+O shook Webb’s initially with a super-energetic jump out of the starting gate that included smart catalogues, a front foot approach to collectors and the shock of the new. It didn’t take Webb’s long to catch up and now both houses produce catalogues that can match anything in the world for panache. Then a couple of years ago A+O scored the Les and Milly Paris collection from under Webb’s noses. Lots of talk followed about how A+O managed such a coup, most of it around massive reductions in commissions when the two houses struggled to secure what turned out to be a $4.5 million dollar sale.

Now the word on the street is that yesterday Webb’s has made another mega move with the trimming of staff, reduction in its range of sale catagories and its intention to put art front and centre. At least part of this strategy probably lies at the door of 51 percent shareholder John Mowbray. His stamp business Mowbray Collectables has struggled on the stock market since listing and he’d be looking for a leg up from the art biz.

Another player behind this tighter focus on art (and lets face it we’re talking modern and contemporary art) would have to be investment guru and art collector Christopher Swasbrook who was made chairman of the Webb’s part of the Mowbray collectables empire last year. You can see what he thinks is the sort of art that has pull by visiting his collection web site here. A+O has never been backward in coming forward when a challenge is issued so watch out for some action over the next six months.

Signature style

The I’ll-never-wash-my-hand-again syndrome is common enough in the world of popular music and entertainment. Once touched by greatness (ok celebrity) you’ve got an association you want to remember. That’s why people collect signatures (preferably not on their arms with black felt tip pen) although you do have to wonder what these associations are worth. Someone on Trade Me is testing the water at the moment with a ‘Philip Clairmont, Signed, Nostalgic Object, Icon’.

The icon offering is a copy of the album Soon Over Babaluma recorded by the German band Can in 1974. We know it was owned by Clairmont because he hand printed his name on the sleeve presumably to make sure it came back if borrowed. It ended up with Clairmont’s friend the artist Allen Maddox and was in turn passed on to the Trade Me seller. 

So, there you go, two associations for the price of one.

And what do you pay for a record that was once owned by Philip Clairmont and presumably touched by Allen Maddox? Bidding starts at $500. OTY.

Image: top, the associated Can album and bottom, the crucial Clairmont name on the reverse of the sleeve. (thanks for the heads up P)

Post McCahon

If you follow the auction business you'll know that a piece of NZ art's true cross is on the block: Colin McCahon’s Partridge Street letterbox. It's been owned by the artist Paul Hartigan for the past 25 years and at one stage was incorporated into a photograph Hartigan made called Temple (thanks A). While the letterbox may not be art itself, McCahon did choose to sign it, as opposed to just painting his name in block capitals, say (although given McCahon’s history of ‘writing painting’ even that would have caused a flutter). The McCahon box is based on an American classic, the Joroleman mailbox. It was named after American Postal Department engineer Roy Joroleman who designed it in 1915, if the McCahon box is an official American one it will have the words ‘U.S. Mail and Approved by the Postmaster General’ stamped on its base.

In the taxonomy of the museum world objects like this (often offered up for donation) used to be wryly slotted into the “Nelson’s toe nail clippings” category, things that in themselves are only of limited interest but are highly valued by association. Simon Starling alluded to the allure of association when he produced his concatenation of copies based on the Australian writer Patrick White’s desk. McCahon’s letterboxes have their own independent art connection via the Australian artist Peter Atkins who has based at least one of his abstract paintings on a McCahon letterbox.  And while we are free-basing postal associations here, let’s not forget the 1997 issue of McCahon stamps.

But for now, if your heart is set on owning a Colin McCahon letterbox be prepared to stump up at the Art + Object auction (estimates $12,000 to $18,000) on 21 May.

Take flight

The presiding image above is of the Wellington Koru Club’s last standing artwork, Jeff Thompson’s Penguin. If you thought we were unkind to Auckland and Dunedin, think again and check out these airport efforts. Clockwise from the top, Oslo, Wolverhampton, Charlotte and Birmingham.

But wait, help is at hand. Dick Frizzell, Robert McLeod, Jenny Dolezel, John Reynolds and Philip Trusttum (do we detect a Hamish Keith selection here?) have all been commissioned by Kapiti cheese to “pay homage to New Zealand’s most cherished, hand-crafted cheeses.” This is because “Kapiti recognises that premium cheese is an art in itself.” And so, thanks to four guys and a gal, interpretations of five of Kapiti’s classic cheeses have been transformed into limited edition artworks. The airport connection? “The Kapiti Art Collection will be exhibited in selected domestic and international Air New Zealand Koru lounges.”

Tickle me Elmo

What is it with art museum shops? At least in New Zealand most of them manage to limit themselves to books and catalogues about local art and artists. So far, at least, we haven’t seen McCahon glasses (“with these amazing painted lenses, every landscape becomes a South Otago landscape”) or even a Len Lye rocking chair (“make every sculpture a kinetic sculpture when you do the rocking”). But when it comes to art from countries and artists a little further away, it’s no holds barred. And so, offerings like the ‘The Screaming Scream Pillow’ (“Squeeze me and I scream”) available at the Auckland Art Gallery bookshop, along with its mate the ‘Light Up Starry Night’ pillow (“Press the moon and the stars light up”). For some reason they don’t stock the Giggling Mona Lisa pillow or even the wind-up Michelangelo Pillow (the detail of God and Adam from the Sistine Chapel plays “I want to hold your hand”). We assume trivialising great art like that is, quite rightly, considered tasteless.

Art Collectables I

Above: The Klimt Glory Box (spotted at Hearst Castle, California)
Below: The Klimt Dance Costume: set with single fringed appliqué for bra (Don't ask)
Click on picture to enlarge image