Hammond work fetches $190,000

By BERNARD ORSMAN

Lyttelton artist Bill Hammond continued his hot run in contemporary circles last night when one of his paintings sold for $190,000.

The 1998 oil, All Along the Heaphy Highway, was sold at auction by Peter Webb Galleries in Epsom to a New Zealander.

Webbs head of fine art, Sophie Coupland, said it was the most important Hammond work offered at auction and had those qualities collectors sought - the characteristic birdman figures, a cavalcade of personality types and a haunting and sumptuous green landscape setting.

Estimates had been set between $190,000 and $230,000 for the 1070mm by 1455mm painting.

The highest price for a Hammond work is $200,250 for another 1998 oil, Containers, sold by Dunbar Sloane in May last year to a Sydney dealership.

The highest price for the work of a living New Zealand artist was $305,937 paid for Black Window by Ralph Hotere at Peter Webb Galleries in July. The highest price for a New Zealand painting is nearly $3 million paid in 2001 for a work by the late Colin McCahon.

Hammond is best known for an idiosyncratic vision that looks back into New Zealand's environmental history, drawing inspiration from the work of the 19th century ornithologist Sir Walter Buller.

Shane Cotton's Whenua Rangi, sold for a record $110,000.

Webbs general manager Hamish Coney said the 2000 oil on canvas sold for more than $70,000 over Cotton's last auction sale.

The 1800mm by 1600m painting was estimated to sell between $85,000 and $100,000.