Art gallery hoping to net over $500k from auction

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A selection of work from the WAG-Qaumajuq’s collection will once again be heading to the auction block next month.

This is the third of three sales hosted by Cowley Abbott Fine Art, a Toronto auction house, with the goal of raising funds to diversify the gallery’s permanent collection.

So far, 18 pieces have been sent to auction, bringing in $1.5 million in endowments reserved for the purchase of artwork by First Nations, Métis, Inuit, racialized and contemporary Canadian artists. The goal is to raise $2 million to support the mandate.

“I’m very confident that we will hit that goal with this final auction,” says Stephen Borys, WAG director and chief executive officer.

The upcoming auction takes place live in Toronto — with absentee, telephone and online bidding — on Nov. 27 at 6 p.m. as part of Cowley Abbott’s fall sale of important Canadian and international art.

Nineteen works by Canadian artists spanning nearly a century will be up for grabs. The lot — which includes five paintings from the Group of Seven, two watercolours by David Milne and four pieces by Manitoba’s Ivan Eyre — is expected to fetch between $540,000 and $740,000.

The selected sale artwork was chosen by committee with priority given to artists who are already well- or over-represented in the gallery’s collection.

“It really was trying to find a suite of works that represented quality to the marketplace, but also where the collection was already rich,” says Rob Cowley, president at Cowley Abbott, who describes the WAG’s holdings as among the deepest in the country in terms of historical and postwar Canadian art.

An oil and graphite painting by Canadian modernist James Wilson Morrice, entitled Paysage, Algérie (Oran), is poised to be the highest-selling piece, with an estimated value of between $175,000 and $225,000. The painting depicts an Algerian countryside and is believed to be the artist’s final work on canvas ever created.

While Morrice’s paintings of Canadian subjects tend to spark bidding wars and have netted more than $1 million in past auctions, the rarity of the piece and the artist’s current popularity all contribute to price estimates, Cowley says.

“Mainly, you’re looking at the last five to 10 years of the artist’s auction market,” he says, adding the national art market has remained strong over the last five years.

“You’re trying to come up with an estimate that not only reflects that, but is also inviting to the market.”

The previous WAG auctions have piqued the attention of art collectors from Canada and around the world. Last spring, the sale of four colour silkscreens of Queen Elizabeth by Andy Warhol brought in more than $900,000 and garnered international bidders.

“We’ve had a lot of anticipation from collectors through this process. In terms of all the works we’ve offered on behalf of the Winnipeg Art Gallery, I think two-thirds have exceeded the high end of expectation during auction,” Cowley says.

Borys is looking forward to acquiring new work through the endowment fund, income from which will become accessible within the next year.

“A collection is a kind of living thing. It changes and museums go through deaccession so they can actually keep a collection relevant and current. It’s a process that allows us to look forward and say, ‘Here are the gaps in our collection.’ We have such limited acquisition funds, these new endowments will allow us to fulfil some of our commitments in terms of Indigenization,” Borys says.

“It’s also allowing us to support living artists in Winnipeg, Manitoba and Canada of all backgrounds.”

A preview of 30 paintings, prints and sculptures heading to auction this fall — including a selection of work from the WAG collection — takes place at Mayberry Fine Art (212 McDermot Ave.) Thursday through Saturday. Visit cowleyabbott.ca for more information on the upcoming sale.

eva.wasney@winnipegfreepress.com

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