Merry Christmas

Hamish, James, Ben, Leigh and Giulia wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year. We look forward to seeing you in 2011. We will close on the 23rd and return on the 17th of January.

A+O Catalogues

From May 2007 to December 2010 in the bookcase.

A+O's Christmas Card

André Kertész American, 1926 Gelatin silver print


Subscribers will recieve a little Christmas cheer from us again this year in the form of a card adorned by Andre Kertesz's Satiric Dancer, from the wonderful upcoming collection of expatriate New Zealand wine maker, cinematographer and international photography collector, Michael Seresin. Like other photographers from this period who took dance as a subject, André Kertész appreciated the ability of the camera to capture "people in motion . . . the moment when something changes into something else." This image was made in the Paris studio of fellow Hungarian emigré, the sculptor István Beöthy. The subject is the Hungarian dancer and cabaret performer Magda Förstner. In a playful response to Beöthy's sculpture on the left, she strikes a pose on the couch. André Kertész bought his first camera and made his first photograph while working as a clerk at the Budapest stock exchange in 1912. After years of amateur snapshot photography in his native Hungary, he moved to Paris in 1925 and began a career as a freelance photographer. There the young transplant, speaking little French, took to the streets, wandering, observing, and developing his intimate approach to imagemaking. He also met and began to photograph other artists, including Brassaï, who also features in the Seresin Collection. From 1933 to 1936 Kertész published three books of his own photographs. Immigrating to the United States in 1936, he settled in New York, where he earned his living photographing architecture and interiors for magazines such as House and Garden. It was not until he retired from commercial work at age sixty-eight that Kertész was free to focus again on the more personal subjects that had delighted him as an amateur.

Home Page

The following three images feature on the homepage:

Fiona Pardington, Portrait of a Female Huia (gold toned gelatin silver print, edition of 3) Realized $22 812, July 29 2010

Karl Maughan, Wollaton Hall (oil on canvas) Realized $38 780, March 25, 2010

Gordon Walters, Untitled (PVA and acrylic on canvas) Realized $273 000, March 25, 2010

Brian Brake Auction

ART+OBJECT finished the year with a bang last night holding one of their most successful ever auctions. Top lot of the night unsurprisingly was the Picasso suite which sold for $43 968. Briefly, other notable sales included the beautiful Buddha Hand image ($8207), the Portrait of Sir Edmund Hillary ($11 842), the iconic Monsoon Girl ($9230) and Offerings to the Unknown Dead ($12 604). Total sales by value were $209 000 under the hammer. A full list of prices realised will be published shortly.

The Estate of Gregory Flint (1952 - 2010)

Marie Shannon, In the Gregory Flint Gallery(1992)

In late February as a component of the New Collectors' art auction, we will be offering the library and art collection of Gregory Flint who sadly passed away earlier this year. Greg was one of the central figures in the development of the dealer gallery scene in the 1990s and was responsible for firstly exhibiting many now-key bodies of 1990s work including seminal shows by Bill Hammond, Ronnie van Hout, Michael Parekowhai and many more. Included in the collection are works by many of the artists that he showed along with others whose work he admired including: Bill Hammond, Bill Hammond and Gavin Chilcott (collaborative), Tony Lane, Marie Shannon, Ronnie van Hout, Peter Peryer, Chris Heaphy, Merilyn Tweedie, Peter Gibson-Smith and others.

Radio Live Interview

Last night Ben Plumbly was interviewed about the upcoming Brian Brake auction on Radio Live by Damien Christie and Russell Brown on their excellent Public Address Show. You can listen to the podcast here:

http://publicaddress.net/system/topic/2839

The Brian Brake House (1976)

Last Saturday ART+OBJECT made the most of a wonderfully generous invite from the owners of the Brian Brake House in Titirangi to reunite the artist's photographs with the iconic residence designed by Ron Sang for Brian Brake and completed in 1976. Since Brian Brake and his partner sold the house it has subsequently changed hands twice yet remained almost totally original. Still completely in tact is the artist's darkroom downstairs and his vintage home cinema system. We invited a small number of friends, chartered a bus and an outstanding time was had by all. Architect Ron Sang gave a wonderful talk about the conception and realization of the house and his relationship with Brian Brake. Special thanks go out to him and to the owners of the house.

The Estate of Brian Brake

ART+OBJECT open the viewing for Selected Vintage Photographs from the Estate of Brian Brake this evening. Please join us for a glass of Invivo between 6:00pm and 8:00pm tonight. The exhibition will be on view up until the auction next Thursday the 9th of December including Saturday and Sunday between 11:00 and 4:00pm.