LORNA FENCER NAPURRURLA

At the time of her death in 2006 Lorna Fencer was represented in the Australian National Gallery and National Gallery of Victoria, in State Galleries and major private collections including the Gantner Myer, Holmes A Court, Margaret Carnegie, Leewin Estate, Laverty and Kerry Stokes collections. She had won the Conrad Jupiter’s Casino, Gold Coast City Art Award and been a finalist in the John McCaughey Memorial Art Prize. A year later she was named in the list of top 50 most collectible artists in Australia in Art Collector magazine. Her major 3 metre paintings were selling in retail galleries for $18,000-$22,00 while smaller 2 metre works attracted prices of $12,000-15,000. Yet her highest price at auction remains the $11,352 paid for Traveling Napurulla and Nakamarra painted for the Warnayaka Art Centre and exhibited originally at Alcaston House Gallery, which sold through Christies in August 2005 (Lot 152).

Sotheby’s have offered only 2 works by Lorna out of the 85 offered for sale compared to Lawson~Menzies 29, since her works first appeared on the secondary market in 1997. Other auction houses that have championed this artist have been Christies, Shapiro and Elder Fine Art. The fact that Sotheby’s have demonstrated such indifference is worthy of note. As with Minnie Pwerle, Paddy Fordham Wainburranga and many others, including Emily Kngwarreye and Rover Thomas who either preferred, or were forced to paint for independent dealers, Sotheby’s have eschewed all but those works created for an official art centre or for those few sources that they have been prepared to link their brand with. Nevertheless buyers and sellers should not be put off by this. In taking this stand Sotheby’s sales have become more and more conservative to the point of being all but musicological thereby creating opportunities for their competitors who have been able to promote their own sales as more eclectic and inclusive.

The earliest sales amongst Lorna’s top10 results were recorded in 2002 and 2004 while 8 of the 10 have sold since 2005. In fact 69% of the total income generated for this artist at auction has been for sales since the beginning of 2005 despite the fact that during that time only 15 of the 44 works on offer have sold.

Only one work has sold at auction for more than $10,000 while 8 have achieved prices between $5,000 and $10,000 and a further 12 have sold for $2,500 to $5,000. This is extremely disappointing in the light of the number of highly esteemed works that have failed to attract buyers. The most highly valued of these was Murkari (Little Bush Plum), 2003 created for Japingka Gallery and sold through Vivien Anderson Gallery in Melbourne. This beautifully coloured virtuoso work measured 144 x 255 cm, and carried a presale estimate of $20,000-24,000 but failed to justify Lawson~Menzies faith in it when offered in their May 2005 sale (Lot 35). Amongst the 58 works that have failed to sell or the 85 offered are a further 10 that carried estimates of between $4,000 and $8,000, and 5 carrying estimates of $9,000 to $15,000. Had even half of these found buyers at auction her success rate would be 10% higher and her standing immeasurably enhanced.

It is possible that in time Lorna Fencer’s work may resonate more closely with prevailing aesthetics and taste and, should that be the case, there are a large number of very fine examples that will be available at far more reasonable prices than say works by Emily Kngwarreye or even Minnie Pwerle. Both spring to mind as equally gestural artists who were renowned as great colourists. That Lorna Fencer’s work should languish by comparison has always seemed to me an utter mystery. All those institutions and major collectors who have added her works to their holdings can’t be wrong. One of her stunning works is the first thing I see each morning as I open my eyes in bed. It is so full of joy, freedom, and energy that I am unable to look at it without recalling the irrepressible spirit of one of the most delightful funny, irreverent and irrepressible Aboriginal women I have ever known.