Worthwhile after all, Olsen celebrates record sale
The Sydney Morning Herald, Page 3, News and Features 30 June 2000
Cynthia Banham
"I felt like the horse that won the Melbourne Cup," the artist John Olsen declared yesterday.
He was describing how he felt when his painting, Salute to Cerberus, fetched the highest price paid for an Olsen $486,500 at a Christies auction on Wednesday night. It went to a private buyer.
"It's the same bag of oats," Olsen said from his celebratory breakfast table in Broome where he feasted on pawpaw and prawns. "People think I'm worthwhile, after all."
But Olsen was pragmatic about it. "It's a great thing in one respect, but it doesn't really alter much when I pick up the brush," he said. "Life goes on the same and painting a good picture is just as hard." Salute to Cerberus , which Olsen painted 27 years ago, formed part of a private collection of Australian art owned by United States businessman Harold Mertz, which also included works by Sidney Nolan, Russell Drysdale, Fred Williams, and Lloyd Rees.
The record price has seen the value of Olsen's works rise instantly. His son, Tim Olsen, who owns a Paddington gallery, said the recognition of his father's work was "well overdue".
On the basis of the auction result, Tim Olsen said he could bump up the price of Olsen works in his gallery by 40 per cent. He had already had offers of half a million dollars from five different people for another of his father's paintings, The Sydney Sun.
Gene and Brian Sherman, of Sherman Galleries in Paddington, bought Olsen's sombre painting Donde Voy in 1993 for $65,000. Mrs Sherman concedes she paid only a fraction of what the painting, which she described as one of Olsen's key works, would be worth today.
"I always felt Olsen was one of the great Australian artists," she said. "It's proved to be the case in a shorter time than I expected."