“AFFORDABLE” IS the new buzzword in the Irish art market and Dolan’s, the Galway-based art auction house, was keen to emphasise value ahead of its sale at the Rochestown Park Hotel in Cork last Sunday. Some 234 lots went under the hammer and auctioneer Niall Dolan said 85 per cent sold.
The highest prices were achieved for paintings by Arthur Maderson, including September Afternoon, Tallow Horse Fair,€4,500 (€3,500-€5,500), and Stepping Out, €4,500 (€3,000-€4,000).
A selection of 18 paintings from the studio of artist Thelma Mansfield all sold, including Poppy Fields, which fetched €950 (€600-€800). A black-and-white photograph of Countess Markievicz holding a pistol made €500 (€600-€800).
Meanwhile, Skibbereen-based art auctioneer Morgan O’Driscoll will hold his first auction of 2011 on Monday, February 7th in the Radisson Blu Hotel at Little Island, Cork. He said that “prices are very much back down to realistic levels and it’s a buyers’ market”.
The catalogue, now online at morganodriscoll.com, features 284 lots, including paintings by Mark O'Neill, Ivan Sutton, Markey Robinson, Diana Copperwhite, Norman Teeling, Kenneth Webb and Arthur Maderson. Also look out for Street Scene with Newspaper Vendors and Boys Playing a Game of Spinnerby William Gibbs MacKenzie (estimate €10,000-€15,000).
