KITTY KANTILLA

While Kitty Kantilla may not have achieved the highest results of all Tiwi artists she has received by far the greatest recognition, due principally to the fact that she was the only Tiwi artist of her generation to have been properly represented by an exhibiting gallery.

Her early works were mainly paintings on bark and sculptures decorated in traditional ochre designs. It is hard to identify a distinct trend in market value of these, her more ethnographic pieces, due to small numbers. Yet, despite vast differences in size, 6 of the 7 sculptures that have come up for auction have sold for an average of $11,663 an a 30 x 92 cm. bark created in 1989 doubled its top estimate selling for $10,800 at Lawson Menzies in May 2005 (Lot 9). Other than that no others have come on the market. Their scarcity has enhanced their value and in time they are likely to become as coveted as her rare and delicate late career paintings.

Unfortunately Kitty only had access to arches paper and stretched canvases toward the end of her life and, being such a tiny fragile elderly person who took great care with her artwork, she was unable to produce a large number of paintings. 13 of the 22 works on paper that have come to auction have sold at an average price of $6,943 with the highest prices for her works on paper achieved for her later works. A lovely work Untitled 1999 on a quarter sheet of arches paper sold for $13,200 at Shapiro’s July 2004 auction (Lot 4) exceeding its high estimate of $10,000. During the following year Sotheby’s sold a similar sized 1998 untitled work on paper for $12,000 in their July 2005 sale (Lot 202)

The highest average prices for paintings by Kitty Kantilla have been for works that were created during the last four yeas of her life. The four 1999 paintings that have sold achieved an average price of $36,712, while her average price for works on canvas produced between 1995 and 1997 has been closer to $18,000. Her highest price was achieved for a work measuring 93 x 82 cm and created in 2001 which sold at Sotheby’s in July 2003 (Lot 87) for $67,475 while an equally large work created in 1998 offered in June 2002 at Sotheby’s (Lot 30) sold for $54,550.

Kantilla works on canvas consistently exceeded their estimates until 2004, when the auction houses reappraised the values collectors were prepared to offer for her best quality works. The most graphic indication of this is exemplified by the resale of an untitled work created in 1997. Sold for a mere $3 220 in 1999 to achieved $31,050 in 2004.

However, despite the fact that Kitty Kantilla’s works have been rising both over the years painted and sold, it is surprising that a very interesting 2002 canvas measuring 77 x 96 cm. failed to sell with an extremely reasonable estimate of only $25-35,000 (Lot 127) in Sotheby’s July 2006 auction. And Kurlama (Yam) Ceremony in Rain, 1999 achieved just $33,600 when sold at Lawson~Menzies in March 2008 (Lot 246) despite having first been purchased from the same auction house three years earlier for $40,800. The work had spent the intervening years touring regional galleries in the Masterworks from the LawsonMenzies Collection exhibition and one would have expected that the additional provenance conferred would have seen this work sell for a premium. It was painted on a black ground and aesthetically it seems, the darker the overall effect of her artwork the less favourably it is received. Conversely the lighter the background and the finer the line work the higher the value collectors have been prepared to place on the work. Perhaps the overly dark reproduction of this very painting in Sotheby’s July 2004 catalogue (Lot 50) deterred buyers when it first failed to sell with a $40,000-60,000 estimate yet with a better enhanced illustration the following year it sold for $40,800 in the 2005 Lawson-Menzies May sale.

2008 was a good year for this artist. Of the 8 works offered 4 achieved prices that well exceeded her career average and this lifted her Art Market Index by a very healthy 10%.Overall it is worth noting that Kitty Kantilla’s best works have yet to reach the secondary market. Anyone fortunate enough to have bought one of her later canvases with very fine line and tiny dots on a white background may not wish to part with it unless increasing prices prove just too tempting. Her finest works, of exquisite beauty, subtlety and intricacy will always find an eager audience. Their beauty holds broad appeal, for “the freely drawn geometric patterns and planes, have an instinctive rightness that both invites and defies analysis,” (McDonald 2003: 395).

Almost universally works on paper attract far less value in the market than similar works in size and aesthetics on canvas or linen. Yet many of Kitty Kantilla’s very finest works were produced in this less lucrative medium where the vivaciousness and vitality of her art appears enlivened upon the paper’s surface. Collectors would be well advised to seek these out. Kantilla’s works on paper present a fortunate opportunity to own an inexpensive, yet beautiful masterpiece rather than settle for a, more expensive, lesser work on canvas.

© Adrian Newstead