28 30th June 2012 art market Ireland’s art of economic


■ Buyers back in rooms as fresh private consignments come onto the market


Ella Stone reports £1 = €1.18


DESPITE Ireland’s pressing economic problems and the wider turmoil, prospects at Dublin’s summer Irish art sales were not as bleak as might have been expected.


There have been a few more


encouraging signs coming out of Ireland over the year and the May series benefited from some pretty solid consignments. First up was Whyte’s (16.26% buyer’s


premium) sale at the Royal Dublin Society on May 21. Compared to the equivalent auction last year, it held more value with the bulk of lots coming from private estates, including that of the late Irish barrister Jim O’Driscoll, a portion of whose collection Whyte’s sold in May 2010. There was also a series of consignments


following two corporate liquidations – a sign of the times perhaps. Overall, 80% of the 211 lots sold on


the night for a hammer total of €1.1m (£932,205). Auctioneer Ian Whyte said he was “very happy” with the outcome even if some of the top works sold slightly below estimates. The top lot was a much-anticipated


set of 20 tapestries by the late Irish artist Louis Le Brocquy (1916-2012). Entitled The Tain Collection (1969), they ranged from large-scale epic scenes of charging chariots to more intimate images such as the sensual Pillow Talk (shown above). Le Brocquy was commissioned in the 1960s to produce the images for Thomas


Left:


one of the set of 20 tapestries by Louis le Brocquy entitled The Tain Collection – €245,000 (£207,630 at Whyte’s.


Right:


Interior of a Café by William


John Leech – €200,000 (£169,490) at Adam’s.


Kinsella’s new translation of Ireland’s oldest saga, The Tain (‘the Irish Iliad’). The iconic lithographs were later reproduced in tapestry form by French atelier René Duché in an edition of nine complete sets. Made from textured cottons and wools with black and white marks, the largest tapestry (The Tain, Army Massing) measured 6ft ½in x 9ft 2in (1.84 x 2.79m). This set, bought by the vendor’s family


from London gallery Agnew’s in 2001, was thought to be the last complete set in private hands. Against an estimate of €250,000-230,000, it was knocked down at €245,000 (£207,630) to a Dublin collector. Also going a shade under its €50,000-


70,000 estimate, but again making an important contribution to the bottom line, was a small but striking Jack Butler Yeats (1871-1957) painting which sold to an Irish collector at €49,000 (£41,525).


Entitled The Pontoon (1947), the


9 x 14in (23 x 36cm) oil on board depicted two figures standing on a pontoon at the edge of a quayside and was fairly typical of the artist’s trademark style. Prices for Yeats have held up better than other Irish artists during the economic crisis but have not been totally immune to it. This same painting took a premium-inclusive £72,000 at Sotheby’s in May 2006. However, one picture at Whyte’s did


make a very profitable return for an Irish vendor. This was Sean Keating’s (1889- 1977) 1928 work Past Definite, Future Perfect which had been purchased at West Sussex auctioneers Bellmans for £13,000 in March this year. It was in superb condition and in its


original frame. It also benefited from one bidder’s particular interest. It was illustrated in The Irish Times in the run-up to the sale and Dublin solicitor Julian Deale


recognised the young woman having her cards read at the table as his mother. Mr Deale bid for the work but was beaten to it by another Dublin collector who won it at €42,000 (£35,595), comfortably over the €25,000-35,000 estimate. Works from the Jim O’Driscoll collection


met with mixed results. One of the main works, a Tony O’Malley (1913-2003) oil on board from 1994 entitled Pond Reverie I went unsold against a €25,000-35,000 estimate, but a striking Francis Bacon (1909-92) print from 1989, Study for Portrait of Pope Innocent X, pitched at €6000-8000, brought plenty of bidding in the room and online before being knocked down at €25,000 (£21,190). Mr Whyte said of the O’Malley picture


that buyers were looking more towards traditional art in the current climate, and that some modern abstract painters are suffering as a result.


Piper looks backwards and forwards to contemporary scene


Anna Brady reports


Above: Broken Vessel (2012) by Edward Allington, ink and emulsion on ledger paper, 19in x 2ft (48 x 60cm) – £1750 from The Piper Gallery.


IT’S not every day that you hear about a 27 year old opening a gallery in central London. But, after leaving her job at art handlers Momart last year, Megan Piper is about to do just that as she launches The Piper Gallery at 18 Newman Street in the burgeoning contemporary arts hub of Fitzrovia at the end of this month. As Vaughan Grylls has said: “I’m no YBA. I’m an EVOBA – an Emerging Very


Old British Artist!”, and Megan’s unusual concept for the gallery is to show only work of established contemporary artists whose careers have spanned 40 years or more. The gallery currently represents ten


artists, and the enterprise was made possible through Piper’s partnership with Andrew Morris, whose other business interests include the organisers Upper Street Events who run the London Art Fair in Islington. The gallery’s opening show is titled


Then and Now, featuring the works of sculptor and draughtsman Edward


Allington (b.1951) and sculptor and photographer Vaughan Grylls (b.1943), from June 29 to August 11. “The concept of Then and Now relates


directly to the concept of The Piper Gallery itself – looking back, while also looking forward,” says Piper. The shows includes some 20


photographs, sculptures and drawings dating from the artists’ early careers in the 1960s and ‘70s to new works commissioned by the gallery. Prices range from £1500 to £12,000. www.thepipergallery.com


galleries@antiquestradegazette.com


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