JACK BRITTEN

While Jack Britten’s work was included in a number of important institutional exhibitions prior to 1990 and several commercial group shows from 1989 onward, his career was marked by a lack of good representation and individual promotion. He lived and painted principally at Frog Hollow and only visited Warmun to paint during the short tenure of Maxine Taylor as the first unfunded art coordinator in Turkey Creek. After Taylor left the community, Jack continued to paint for her exclusively, aside from a very brief period just prior to his death in 2002. Earlier works were painted for Waringarri Arts and Ochre Gallery in Kununurra and, until its closure, Goolarabooloo Arts in Broome. However Jack did not like to travel far beyond the confines of his small community and relied, for most of his career, on others visiting him there. An important body of work was produced in this way for Vivien Anderson in the early 1990s.

Although he was active from the early 1980s, when Rover Thomas had only just begun painting, Jack Britten is appreciated, by and large, on his own terms, and for a distinct and altogether different sensibility. His early works were not, for instance, derived from the Krill Krill boards associated with the origins of the East Kimberley style as were the work of Thomas, Jaminji and others.

His early Purnulu-Bungle Bungles 1984 fetched an astounding $35,125 when offered at Deutscher~Menzies with a presale estimate of just $15,000-18,000 in 2000. Still his sixth highest result, it was not exceeded as his record price until Sotheby achieved $49,850 for a work with the same theme and estimate four years later.

Such a high price at the time, doubling the previous record of $17,250, paid for Untitled (Ord River) 1990 two years earlier, is even more noteworthy in light of its year of auction, 2000. The day before Sotheby’s had just eclipsed the record paid for Texas Downs Country 1984 by Rover Thomas, which stood at $108,100 when they sold Kulmadja (Elgee Cliff) 1987 for $141,00 (now Rover's 34th best result). The following year Rover's record was set at $778,750 (and this remains his best sale to this day), while Jack Britten’s highest result is the $82,750 achieved by Sotheby’s for a 1989 depiction of Purnululu, which carried an estimate of just $60,000-80,000 in 2005.

The preference amongst collectors of works by major East Kimberley artists, other than Paddy Bedford and those who began painting much later, is clearly for works created prior to the early 1990s. In Britten’s case, all of his best ten results were for paintings created before 1994 until a significant 1998 triptych with each panel measuring 160 x 60 cm achieved his second highest result when sold at Mossgreen in April 2008 for $51,735 against a presale estimate of $50,000-70,000 (Lot 118). This later work was characterized by a stricter geometry and starker colouration. Britten's following highest result for work produced after 1993 was Purnululu 2001, a work measuring 110 x 114 cm. which sold at Lawson~Menzies for $21,600 in 2005 (Lot 197). However, these later works also form a large majority of his lesser sales and a considerable amount of his unsold works. The number of works at auction steadily increased during the late 1990s and peaked in 2004 when 26 were offered for sale of which 21 sold for a total value of $216,410. Despite fewer works being up for sale, 2005 was the peak year for Britten’s work with 15 paintings selling for more than $276,000. Only 26 works have sold for more than $10,000 with just three selling above $50,000 indicating a distinct reserve on the part of buyers for all but the very best of his works. Jack Britten produced many very fine paintings in the last five years of his life, but Tier I auction houses have shown an indifference to the provenance of his late career painting even though it was Jack himself who refused to paint for the Warmun art centre once Maxine Taylor no longer acted as art coordinator there. His works created for her company, Narangunny Art Traders, were produced with great integrity employing the finest materials and would seem to be greatly undervalued in the current market.

While his images of the Bungle Bungle ranges are by far his most familiar, Jack Britten produced many other images throughout a painting career which spanned several decades. Many of these may currently be considered lesser works; however, they are extremely accomplished, quirky and visually challenging. A perfect example is the delightful Eagles 1993 which sold for a mere $8,400 at Sotheby’s in July in 2005 (Lot 192) despite its considerable size and beauty. The two eagles seem to court each other endearingly. This work, like all of Jack Britten’s best, can be appreciated for its charm, doubtless born by the love and longing this great old man felt for the country of his birth. He was an artist of the highest importance, and his paintings are relatively inexpensive alongside those of many of his contemporaries. They represent fantastic value for collectors who can still pick up great paintings at very reasonable prices indeed.

In the last few years, it has become increasingly difficult to sell Britten's work at auction, with clearance rates dropping steadily (2017 showed a rate of only 29%), and estimates reflecting his waning popularity. We have yet to see if Britten's popularity will experience an upswing in the coming years. The one thing that is certain is that for an artist of Jack Britten's importance, collectors have the opportunity to snatch up lovely works at incredibly reasonable prices.