More than $1 million of NZ art works under the hammer
Auckland - More than $1 million worth of some of the best New Zealand art works will be auctioned in Auckland later this month.
Standout works in the Webbs auction on March 29 include Bill Hammond’s Limbo Bay, a 2001 work featuring his iconic bird figures, which could fetch up to $120,000.
Hammond, who died earlier this year, is one of the great New Zealand painters, and his work is known and cherished by many; the iconic bird figures he created are the stuff of legends.
Possibly because of the covid pandemic, works are often selling for twice their estimates. The market is hot and there is big demand.
Also included in the pop up exhibition, of some of the auction lots in Wellington this weekend, are works by Grahame Sydney, leading photographer Fiona Pardington and Colin McCahon.
McCahon, who died in 1987, is widely seen as New Zealand's most influential modernist artist. His painting Canoe Tainui broke the record for New Zealand's most expensive artwork in 2016, selling for NZ$1.35 million. One of McCahon's paintings at the March 29 auction is estimated to sell for between $300,000 and half a million dollars.
Other famous artists’ paintings to go under the hammer include Peter McIntyre, Doris Lusk, Ralph Hotere, Michael Smither, Michael Parekowhai, Karl Maughan, Dick Frizzell and Shane Cotton.
Lisa was born in Auckland at the start of the 1970s, living in a small campsite community on the North Shore called Browns Bay. She spent a significant part of her life with her grandparents, often hanging out at the beaches. Lisa has many happy memories from those days at Browns Bay beach, where fish were plentiful on the point and the ocean was rich in seaweed. She played in the water for hours, going home totally “sun-kissed.” “An adorable time to grow up,” Lisa tells me.
Lisa enjoyed many sports; she was a keen tennis player and netballer, playing in the top teams for her age right up until the family moved to Wellington. Lisa was fifteen years old, which unfortunately marked the end of her sporting career. Local teams were well established in Wellington, and her attention was drawn elsewhere.