TREVOR NICKOLLS

While both Trevor Nickolls and Rover Thomas jointly represented Australia at the 1990 Venice Biennale, it is Thomas, Australia’s second most successful Indigenous artist, who is more widely recognized for this particular distinction. It seems ironic then, that the two highest prices paid for a work by Trevor Nickolls at auction were both for the same painting titled Roving in Thomas Town 1994. This 152 x 212 cm canvas was the first of his paintings to be highlighted in an auction with a catalogue essay. It sold for $53,525 at Deutscher-Menzies in June 2000 and three years later, when it re-sold at Lawson-Menzies in July 2003 auction, its value dropped very slightly to $49,350.22 of Nickolls' works were sold by Sotheby’s throughout the 1990s and, not one was illustrated in the sales catalogues. This would account in large measure for their poor sale rate with 34, or 47% remaining unsold during that period.

Sotheby’s first illustrated his work in 2001 and by 2004 showed his paintings across two pages illustrating four works, one of which had a long description plus the mention that he had been chosen for the Venice Biennale in 1990. This 91 x 76 cm canvas, Machinetime Head 1989, sold for $13,200, the artist’s third highest recorded result at the time and nearly twice the sale price of the other three, even though all of these these were small.Though his sale rate is unimpressive at 56%, the majority of works that have failed to sell have been minor pieces, including pen and ink drawings, offered during the 1990s. Of the 23 works on paper that have been offered only six have sold for an average price of approximately $870.

His paintings on canvas and board, however, have experienced a success rate of over 60 % and the prices achieved for Trevor Nickoll's works have been on the rise since his first major result in 2000. The appearance of Aboriginal art on the secondary market is still a quite recent phenomenon and, Hermannsburg paintings aside, sales records generally do not go back more than 20 years. The vast majority of work is ‘traditional’ or ethnographic and the audience for urban art is smaller, even if well informed.

Trevor Nickoll’s work first appeared for sale at auction in 1990 and, by 1993, of ten offered only two had sold. Between 1994 and 2001 his statistics were turned on their head with 24 sold and only six unsold.Trevor Nickolls painted complex ideas within multi-layered imagery, expressive of the black/white dilemma and the machine age conflict with nature. Amongst them are works that are crudely rendered - tough subjects that can be too ‘in your face’ for the average collector. However, just as often, if not more so, the paintings are not only aesthetically pleasing but also unforgettable, perhaps because the image has captured the spirit of our times.

The best works by this artist have yet to appear at auction. Having played a prime role in the development of urban Aboriginal art, he is extremely well represented in the literature and museum collections, therefore greater recognition is certain when his best works are offered for sale. The prices of works by this artist are still low enough for those with an eye for ‘tough subjects’ to invest in paintings that could easily, given current environmental and human concerns, become emblematic and increase in value markedly over the coming decade. Collectors should however carefully consider those images which verge on ‘new age kitsch’, or ones in which there is little interest beyond what appears to be a ‘dotted’ landscape. His major works in this genre may well become masterpieces but many of the smaller versions fail to excite.