Gallery pays $130,000 to keep work in N.Z.

Press, 3 July 1985, Page 7

Gallery pays $130,000 to keep work in N.Z.

PA Auckland The National Art Gallery does not have the space to hang the Colin McCahon painting for which it has paid a record $130,000. The gallery’s director, Mr Luit Bieringa, said the 10panel painting, 8.6 m long by 2m high, was rolled and in storage because display space is not available. However the painting, “Practical Religion,” might be displayed in August or September, when one of the present exhibitions ended, said Mr Bieringa. The McCahon painting was bought in April, but although the price was public information he did not make a press release then “because I didn’t want to shock the troops.” “Getting into the price game means people forget to look at the painting and just see dollar signs.”

Mr Bieringa said the price was not “out of line” considering overseas prices, the scarcity of McCahon’s available works, and his international reputation. The record $130,000 was paid by the gallery to ensure that the work of a leading New Zealand artist was not lost to interests overseas. It is the first time a sixfigure sum has been paid for a work by an artist living in New Zealand. “Colin McCahon’s international reputation has grown as a result of successful exhibitions of his held last year in Sydney and Edinburgh,” said Mr Bieringa. The National Art Gallery is the biggest public collector of art in New Zealand and has an annual spending budget of $200,000. It is financed from the proceeds

of lotteries and by bequests.

An Auckland art dealer, Mr John Gow, was “immensely pleased” to learn the painting would stay in New Zealand. He said it showed that New Zealanders were prepared to pay competitive prices for the best of local art. “Compare our prices with those in Australia. Paintings there regularly change hands for $lOO,OOO. A sale of $250,000 is not unusual and they have even had a million-dollar painting.” Among top-selling New Zealand artists are: Charles Blomfield, $65,000, “The Mountain’s Crown,” 1985; Frances Hodgkins, $54,000, “The Still Life,” 1984; McCahon, $51,000, “Kauri,” 1985; Frances Hodgkins, $47,000, “Girl With a Guitar,” 1985. Mr McCahon would not comment on the sale.