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The catalogue for Morgan O’Driscoll’s current sale is now online. The sale runs to June 8. It features work by a wide variety of artists from George Russell, Jack B. Yeats, Sean McSweeney and Paul Henry to Pauline Bewick, Dan O’Neill and Mary Feddan.
No less than four works by the Irish landscape artist Cecil Maguire, who died last week, feature in Morgan O’Driscoll’s online Irish art sale this evening. Born in Armagh in 1930 he graduated from Queen’s University, Belfast in 1951, taught at Lurgan College and painted in his spare time. He began exhibiting at the RHA in 1971 and retired from teaching in 1981 to paint full time. He lived and worked for most of the year in Roundstone, Connemara. This painting of Roundstone Harbour dates to 1983 and is estimated at 3,000-5,000.
UPDATE: THE FOUR WORKS BY MAGUIRE ALL SOLD AT HAMMER PRICES OF 7,500, 6,600, 2,900 AND 2,000.
This painting of Cross Street, Galway by Cecil Maguire dates to 1979. It is lot 12 at Morgan O’Driscoll’s online sale of Irish art which runs to May 11. The estimate is 3,000-5,000. There are 197 lots on the catalogue, which is online.
Is the future of the art and antiques market forever changed or is this just a temporary blip? The answer probably lies somewhere between each of these positions. When the pandemic lockdown was implemented it appeared everything would revert once it was lifted. Now it is apparent that this is not so. Covid-19 has not gone away. We will have to live with sensible precautions like social distancing for some time, even as the restrictions are eased.The auction houses of Ireland and everywhere else are in uncharted waters. Social distancing is not possible at busy viewings as we knew them, nor in crowded auction rooms. New ways to keep the business afloat must be found. Technology is an obvious answer but it is not for everyone or everything. Early indications from online sales around the world are that millennials are happier to buy online than the older billionaires who populate the global contemporary art market. Whether auction houses are prepared to sell big ticket items online is as yet far from clear. The number of private sales has been growing in latter years.
Christie’s and Phillips have consolidated their Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary art sales into one 20th century week in New York – to include the London sales – scheduled at this stage for the end of June. Sotheby’s has yet to announce what is to become of its contemporary marquee sale scheduled for May 13 in New York. This sale was to be anchored by Francis Bacon’s Triptych Inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus with an estimate of at least $60 million. Sotheby’s has announced that the week long Spring Hong Kong series will now take place from July 5-11 in Hong Kong. The auctions cover Chinese ceramics and paintings, modern and contemporary art, jewellery, watches and wine.
Meantime the full online sales programme by the biggest auction houses is drawing enthusiastic participation from collectors. These sales have been expanded significantly across numerous categories.
Adapt or perish might well be the mantra for an art and antiques market in a state of flux. Tough times are sending a strong signal to the tough to get going. The future will be different. The pandemic has accelerated the movement towards online sales. Change has come quickly. Locally, nationally and internationally many auctioneers who had previously featured a mix of online and in house sales are adapting fast to a market where the uncertain future is rapidly becoming less short term. Many report that website traffic is busier than ever before. Those auctioneers who took the plunge immediately after the lockdown have been finding significant success. True, many auctions have been postponed. As of now the schedule of upcoming sales in Ireland is a bit thin. In a highly varied market place it is not a case of one size fits all. Some lots lend themselves to online sales better than others. Those that have gone ahead, often in a revised manner, are demonstrating that it can work, in some cases marvellously well. Julien’s achieved spectacular results with their Beatles online only sale. The top lot at an online auction originally to have taken place at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York was Paul McCartney’s handwritten lyrics to “Hey Jude”. This sold for $910,000 over an estimate of $160,000-180,000 in an auction which attracted a global audience of registered bidders.
Contemporary art, the most speculative segment of the market, has taken a hit in the lockdown. This proved true at Morgan O’Driscoll’s sale when three works by Jeff Koons failed to find buyers. Koons is one of the world’s most expensive living artists. Damien Hirst also failed to sell. Perhaps the time has come to put your faith, and investment money, in Old Masters. Morgan O’Driscoll did have a highly successful sale. The top lot, Paul Henry’s Celtic Cross in a West of Ireland landscape made €105,000 at hammer. Other top hammer prices were: George Barret, Landscape with Figures, €36,000; Gerard Dillon,Shawl, €24,000; Daniel O’Neill, Choosing Flowers, €24,000; Paul Henry, Mountain Landscape with lake and road €22,000; Tony O’Malley, Clare Island Greys, €19,000; Louis le Brocquy, William Butler Yeats, €18,000; Hughie O’Donoghue, Medusa Hold €17,000; William Conor, Forty Winks, €14,000; John Shinnors, Roxboro Road bus stop €14,000; Donald Teskey, Longshore IV. €14,000; Norah McGuinness, The Black Swan, €14,000; Spring Bogland, Ballinaboy by Kenneth Webb €12,000; Sir John Lavery, Portrait of William Burton Harris €12,000; Abstract Composition by William Scott €10,500; Patrick O’Reilly, Pegasus, €10,000 and John Behan, Wild Swans at Coole, €9,500.
Aidan Foley was pleased with two days of online sales at Sixmilebridge and plans more on the May Bank Holiday weekend. Among his main lots were Spring Evening by Arthur Maderson which made €2,100 at hammer and The Stars Serenade by Annie Robinson which made €1,350.At Matthews 437 lot online sale, which lasted from 6.30 pm until nearly midnight on Tuesday, a Zambian emerald ring made €17,200 at hammer and a sapphire and diamond target ring made €10,000. All of which goes to suggest that those auctioneers who are adapting to the new realities are not perishing.
Seas, Sherkin Island by Majella O’Neill Collins is among the lots at Morgan O’Driscoll’s online auction of affordable Irish art which runs until 6.30 pm on April 20. There is much to choose from in this sale with works by Nano Reid, Arthur Maderson, John Kingerlee, John Butler Yeats, William Crozier, Cecil King, Ciaran Lennon, Gladys McCabe, Barbara Warren and many more. The catalogue is online.
Morgan O’Driscoll, Aidan Foley and Damien Matthews will all hold online auctions today. The biggest of the sales is the Irish and International Art auction by Morgan O’Driscoll, who has some big ticket items on offer including Celtic Cross in a west of Ireland landscape by Paul Henry (€150,000-250,000), Whik Wood by Ivon Hitchens (€60,000-90,000), Landscape with Figures by George Barret (€60,000-90,000), Altar by Damien Hirst (€17,500-25,000), Roxboro Road Bus Stop V by John Shinnors (€15,000-20,000), Spring Bogland, Ballinaboy by Kenneth Webb (€10,000-15,000); Abstract Composition by William Scott (€6,000-9,000) and three pieces by Jeff Koons, one of the most expensive living artists in the world. They are Balloon Rabbit (Red), Balloon Monkey (Blue) and Balloon Swan (Yellow). All date to 2017. They are all from numbered editions of 999 in porcelain painted with chrome and published by Bernaudaud, Limoges, France.
Day two of Aidan Foley’s sale at Sixmilebridge today will include Persian rugs, art, antique furniture and collectibles. Matthews of Oldcastle, Co. Meath will have an online sale with 390 lots of jewellery, gold, silver, watches and Oriental lots at 6.30 pm. Estimates range from €20-20,000.
This painting by Paul Henry which comes up at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish and International online art auction on April 14, is all about an Ireland that is out of reach to most of us over this lockdown Easter Weekend. The scene for the c1929 work titled Celtic Cross in a West of Ireland Landscape is imagined, the cross is not. It is based on the Cross of Muiredach at Monasterboice in Co. Louth. The catalogue is online, this work is estimated at €150,000-250,000.
Jeff Koons is one of the world’s most expensive living artists. His work deals with popular culture. Led by Rabbit which made $91.1 million in New York last May his balloon animals in stainless steel with mirror image surfaces have sold for vast sums. Three limited edition works by Koons feature at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish and International online auction on April 14. The sale was originally scheduled to take place at the RDS in Dublin later this month, after viewings in London and New York, but was brought forward and moved online only.
Among the 159 lots are Koons’ Balloon Rabbit (Red), Balloon Monkey (Blue) and Balloon Swan (Yellow). All date to 2017. They are all from numbered editions of 999 in porcelain painted with chrome and published by Bernaudaud, Limoges, France with signature, title and date on the underside. Each one is estimated at 15,000-20,000.
Creating images of Ireland that are both memorable and iconic, Paul Henry’s depictions of landscapes have served for generations to remind people of the natural beauty of the West of Ireland, art historian and curator Peter Murray writes in the catalogue note to Mountain Landscape with lake and road. It comes up at Morgan O’Driscoll’s Irish and International online art auction on April 14. The auction would normally take place at the RDS in Dublin with viewings in both London and New York. It has gone online instead at a time of pandemic.
Henry…. “delighted in capturing the colours and textures of distant mountains, turf ricks, quiet lakes and winding roads; elements of landscape that are everyday sights in rural Galway, Mayo, Donegal and Kerry” Murray writes. “Henry wove these into deceptively simple works of art that combine a sense of abstraction and painterly skill, qualities that brought him fame as one of Ireland’s leading artists of the twentieth century. Irrespective of whether their ancestry was Irish, collectors in America were often drawn to Henry’s work. This small painting was evidently exhibited in New York, probably in the 1940’s. Although now re-framed, the original light frame bore on the back a stamp, ‘Gramercy Book Shop Inc., 122 East 19th Street’. Founded in 1940 by Robert and Lorraine Wilbur, this well-known bookshop, specialising in European writers and also publishing prints by artists, later moved to Union Square.” This small work is estimated at €15,000-25,000.
