Auction result in a down market
This just in from one of our early interviewees Hazel Dooney. A great result!
Dooney Painting Exceeds High Estimate At Deutscher-Menzies Contemporary Art Auction
Hazel Dooney’s ten-year-old enamel painting, Drowned Ophelia, was sold last night in Sydney, at Deutscher-Menzies’ high profile auction of contemporary art, for over $A13,000. It was an astonishing result during a deep economic downturn that has impacted heavily on the global art market. With buyers premium and taxes added, this far exceeds Deutscher-Menzies’ ambitious pre-sale estimate of $A10,000 to $A14,000 and represents a strong argument for the enduring investment value of Dooney’s work as one of Australia’s top young female artists. The painting was first sold for around $A1,200.
Of the 300 works by local and international artists that went under the hammer at Deutscher-Menzies, last night, 70 per cent found buyers. The Dooney work was offered for sale by a prominent Sydney collector.
“I have to admit, I was really nervous before the sale,” Dooney said. “There’s been very little good news coming out of auctions overseas, with work by modern masters being passed in or sold at prices well below what they might have been a year ago. I figured my work would also be revalued sharply downwards but as it turned out, this value has demonstrated remarkable robustness.”
The result is even more remarkable when it is considered that Dooney abandoned the traditional gallery system two years ago, quitting major galleries representing her work in Sydney and Melbourne, Instead, she took on the challenge of marketing and selling her work worldwide herself, as well as promoting her own art events, mainly using the web. She is widely acknowledged as the first Australian artist to manage her own career in this way and she has established a wide collector base in Australia, Asia, the USA and the UK.
The next test of Dooney’s success will be at Christie’s auction rooms in London, in less than a week, when her large (2.10m x 1.6m) enamel on board painting, Dangerous Career Babe: The Aviatrix, (below), is included in the sale of Modern And Contemporary Australian Art And South African Art on 16th December, 2008. The renowned auction house’s pre-sale estimate for what is the first of Dooney’s most recent paintings to be offered in the open market is between $A32,000 and $A37,500!
STOP PRES!!!
This just in… 17/12/08
“The Aviatrix Sets New Record At Auction For Hazel Dooney’s Work
Hazel Dooney’s large enamel on board painting, Dangerous Career Babe: The Aviatrix, commissioned earlier this year by a major Australian collector, was sold last night for $A32,701 at Christie’s sale of Modern And Contemporary Australian And South African Art in London. This exceeded the low-end of Christie’s pre-sale estimate and represents a new record for Dooney’s work at auction – an extraordinary achievement during a global economic downturn, especially for a 30-year-old artist who has yet to exhibit in Europe.
Last December, at another Christie’s sale in London, two of Dooney’s early enamel Sports Career Babes, set a new high for her work of over $A23,000.
This is Dooney’s second remarkable auction result in less than a week, this time in one of the world’s most important art market. However, it is an increasingly volatile market, in which the biggest names in Australian and international art are suffering significant revaluations downwards and many works are not selling at all.”
Great result!
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