MAGGIE WATSON NAPANGARDI

Maggie Napanagardi Watson’s work first appeared at auction in 1996. By 2000 nine works had been offered with eight sold at an average price of $18,295. While her sales during the last decade have exceeded $2 million her works have only appeared at public auction 79 times with a 66% success rate and these have ranged in price from as little as $3,035 for a small 45 x 60 cm work at Shapiro auctioneers in 2003 to $348,000 for Mina Mina Dreaming 1995 which, broke the artists record in 2008 against a backdrop of overall market decline. This sale relegated Digging Stick Dreaming 1995 into second place. Both were commissioned works purchased through Peter van Groessen and originally sold through Kimberley art in Melbourne.

While Maggie Watson's status as an artist of supreme interest is undisputed, her sales results have been seriously compromised by the repeated appearance Digging Stick Dreaming 1995, which has been described her Magnum Opus. When originally sold at Lawson~Menzies in November 2005 it sold to a Rod Menzies consortium for $216,000 including buyer's premium, her highest recorded price at the time. It sold again two years later for her current second highest recorded price, $336,000 but has appeared several times since. In fact it has been sold and resold 5 times and this one work set her second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth highest recorded prices at public auction.

Maggie's reputation as one of the most important female artists of the Central Desert was essentially established by non-art-centre provenanced works, by the galleries that originally sold them, and by the institutions that have included these works in thematic exhibitions. The value of her paintings have increased dramatically since 2000 when large canvases, produced during the mid 1990s based on her Bush Mushroom stories, sold for roughly $20,000. In March 2014, for example, a major rendition of Mushroom Dreaming 1995 with art centre provenance sold for $66,000 at Deutscher and Hackett's sale of the Ainsworth Collection (Lot 86). Though listed as her 14th highest result, it was the highest price recorded for a work created for Warlurkurlangu Artists, her community art centre.

Maggie Watson had an excellent success rate of 68% without ever seeing a dip in the appreciation of her works at auction until 2012, when only four works were offered and not one sold. In 2013 only two sold of four offered. 2007 was her best year with seven of eight works selling for a total value of $556,200. In that year, the only object that appeared was a lovely painted coolamon which achieved $14,400 in Lawson Menzies November sale (Lot 42). However 2008 saw her record topple. While only three of the six works offered were successful at sale (with her success rate falling by 3%), her total sales topped $2 million for the first time. She was the sixth best performing artist in 2009 and eighth in 2010. Her stocks have been on the slide since 2012, yet she remains second only to Emily Kngwarreye amongst female Aboriginal artists, an altogether remarkable fact given the sheer number of female artists who have emerged since the eary 1990s. This fact alone should have all those interested in ‘investment’ sit up and take note.

Watson’s major works will continue to command premium prices over works by other female artists of the region and period. Given their rarity, they could continue to set auction records at each subsequent offering. Her medium sized works are most definitely undervalued in the current market and, due to their relative scarcity, should be seriously considered by anyone intent on putting together an important collection. Her presence would not only significantly enhance the representation of female desert artists, but would also address any overabundance of works by the more prolific Eastern Anmatjerre and Alyawerre artists from Utopia and the surrounding regions as well as the burgeoning Pintupi and Pitjantjatjara women’s art emanating from the Western Desert and beyond.

© Adrian Newstead