BILLY STOCKMAN TJAPALTJARRI

At the time Sotheby’s set Billy Stockman’s record price of $201,500 for the 54.5 x 46 cm 1971 board Wild Potato (Yala) Dreaming in 1998 this was second only to Johnny Warangkula’s Water Dreaming at Kalipinypa 1972 sold the previous year for $206,000 in the annuls of Aboriginal art sales. It was still the 4th highest ever result by the end of 2001, the 19th highest at the end of 2004 and the 34th by the end of 2006. Few artist’s record prices have lasted as long, yet his next highest result is just $36,000 for a 1991 work entitled Travels of the Spider Ancestors which was sold by Lawson Menzies in June 2008, Lot 262. It was a good result for a late career work by one of the early Papunya artists and justified the confidence Lawson Menzies specialists had in it evidenced by the presale estimate of $35,000-45,000. Brave of them, as all of the artists top 10 results at the time were for 1971-1973 boards and apart from this spectacular exception nothing painted after 1978 appears in the artists 15 highest results or has generated more than $8,000 for its seller. In fact this very prolific artist, who created work for more than 30 years and has had no less than 238 works offered for sale since his first paintings appeared at auction in 1988 has a career average of just $5,304 despite a respectable clearance rate of 62%. While 1998 was by far his best year at sale with 16 of 17 works sold including his record price, 17 of 19 painting sold in 2005. This however was the last time Billy Stockman’s fortunes were on the ascendant. Since then only 22 of the 43 works on offer have found buyers and these have sold at an average price of just $7,217 despite including a number of very nice early boards. Only 11 paintings in total have sold for more than $10,000 and it is this low average price that has prevented Billy Stockman from attaining a highest place in the annuls of Aboriginal art.

When, in 2005 Sotheby’s offered a rare carved sculpture of a Carpet Snake carved by the artist in 1972 it created quite a sensation. Estimated at just $1,000-1,500 (Lot 269) this rather spectacular object measuring just 69 cm in length sold for $22,800. It is by far and away his best result for a work in any medium other than painting. Sotheby’s have in fact made up most of the running on Billy Stockman’s works having sold 47 for a total value of $411,572 with their closest competition coming from the 22 sold by Lawson Menzies for $165,925. Yet no less than 17 auction houses are recorded as having sold his works over the years making him one of the most durable and recognised artists amongst collectors.

Amongst his most notable failures at sale have been the large work Totemic Snakes 1985 that had been purchased from Deutscher~Menzies in June 1999 (Lot 17) for $8,050 when estimated at $8,000-10,000. Offered again at Lawson Menzies in May 2007 (Lot 120) it simply could not justify its presale estimate of $18,000-22,000. And the beautifully rendered and extremely attractive board entitled Kangaroo Dreaming, Papunya should have fully justified Mossgreen’s confidence in placing a presale estimate of $20,000-22,000 (Lot 190) yet was passed in at their August 2008 sale. Yet, further reinforcing the price sensitivity of Billy Stockman’s works, Frog Corroborree a nice large early 1973 board failed to sell at Deutscher Menzies in June 2000 (Lot 144) when offered at $25,000-35,000 but sold at Sotheby’s in 2002 (Lot 335) for just $8,400 with a lowered expectation of $7,000-10,000. And on a more positive note a board entitled Women’s Bush Tucker Story 1972 measuring 61 x 69 cm. and bearing a Stuart Art Centre code number from the 11th consignment originally failed to sell when offered at Lawson Menzies in May 2004 carrying an estimate of $35,000-50,000 yet sold for $30,000 at the same auction house 3 years later for $30,000, the artist’s 3rd highest record at sale to date.

It would seem that, for the time being at least, those interested in works by the most seminal artists of the movement should be able to include Billy Stockman in their collections for what will come to be considered a bargain price. His early boards are wonderful buying at anything under $30,000 and there are any numbers of 1980’s and 1990’s paintings to be had for a song. Billy is very old and can no longer paint. He is included in the list of living artists despite his painting career having ended. It is unfortunate but likely that collectors will need to learn that he has passed away before they reassess this wonderful old man’s work.