Contemporary Art at Auction – Page 2

2012 Contemporary Art Auction: Artists Announced

Toovey’s are pleased to announce their sixth Contemporary Art Auction on Saturday 21st July 2012 at 6pm. 50 emerging and established artists have been selected, offering a total of 150 works at the sale. The majority of the entries will be exhibited from 1st June to 7th July at Horsham Museum & Art Gallery in their exhibition Off The Wall. Prior to their auction at their Spring Gardens salerooms near Washington, West Sussex, all works of art will be on view on Friday 20th July from 12noon to 5pm, and on Saturday 21st July from 3pm until the start of the sale at 6pm. The fully-illustrated catalogue will be available soon (£6 at our salerooms, £8 by post) with more information on each artist.

The list of artists represented in this year’s Contemporary Art Auction is as follows:

(Click on an image for full view and again for further magnification)

A Summer of Art at Horsham Museum & Art Gallery

“We saw this at Frankfurt; we never expected to see it at Horsham!” was one such exclamation from a delighted visitor last Saturday after the successful launch of ‘Matisse: Drawing with Scissors’―the new month long exhibition at Horsham Museum & Art Gallery. Thanks to support from Toovey’s auctioneers and in association with Horsham District Arts, the Museum should be hearing further exclamations of delight as this summer sees a showcase of truly great and remarkable art.

From May to mid-September Horsham Museum and Art Gallery has pulled together a fantastic exhibition programme. After a year of discussions and networking, using the connections brought together by Horsham District Arts working with Toovey’s and University of Chichester Bishop Otter Gallery, the public have the chance to see great contemporary art with a focus on British art of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Following on from the riot of colours and shapes that is the Matisse exhibition, the Museum hosts ‘Off The Wall’ where 50 artists and craftspeople display their finest work in a preview show for the best Contemporary Arts Auction to be held in the South East. Using his contacts and a great deal of persuasion Nicholas Toovey has curated an exciting showcase, which Horsham Museum & Art Gallery is delighted to host. With artists of the calibre of Chris Kettle, Christine Tongue, Eve Shepherd and Muju, we know the public will value the opportunity to see, debate and be inspired by this fantastic collection, and perhaps dip their toes in the Contemporary Art market. With 150 works on display it will be an exciting and rewarding time. Some may even decide to bid for a work at the auction on the 21st July and take it ‘Off The Wall’ and home to their own interior.

From July to September the Museum & Art Gallery has engineered a once in a lifetime opportunity to see name-dropping art that for many a year has lain awaiting discovery by art lovers. Works by Henry Moore, Jacob Epstein, Paul Nash, Stanley Spencer, Ivon Hitchens and other great artists will be on show at Horsham Museum. The exhibition ‘A Summer of Great British Art’ is only possible because The University of Chichester Otter Gallery is closing this summer for refurbishment and Toovey’s Auction House has generously helped support this exhibition.

‘Matisse: Drawing with Scissors’ runs from 28 April – 26 May; ‘Off The Wall’ runs from 1 June to 7 July; and ‘A Summer of Great British Art’ runs from 17 July to 15 September.

Invitation to Enter the Selection Process

The Toovey’s Contemporary Art Auction has been announced for Saturday, July 21st 2012.

Artists wishing to participate in this exciting event are invited to enter the selection process. The sale consists solely of work entered by self-representing artists. The final selection will be made by event organiser Nicholas Toovey once the deadline of 30th March has passed.

The Contemporary Art Auction is now in its sixth year and continues to gather momentum, it is now considered to be a major platform for artists to showcase their work in Sussex. The auction this year will be preceded by an exhibition at Horsham Museum & Art Gallery between the 1st June and 7th July.

If you are interested in participating, but would like to know more, please do not hesitate to contact Nicholas (via the email button on the top bar), who will be happy to provide further information and a catalogue from last year’s auction should you require. Click here for testimonials from other artists or click here for testimonials from a few of our buyers. If you think your art has what it takes to be chosen for this year’s auction and would like to enter the selection process you will need to email images of the work you would like to submit (up to a maximum of ten) with sizes and a price list of suggested reserves by 30th March 2012. Images should be supplied in a JPEG format and do not have to be professional photographs – snapshots will suffice. This, along with a CV and any other information you feel would be relevant, will allow Nicholas Toovey to make an informed decision on whom to represent this year.

Below is a selection of works sold in the 2011 auction, as you can see the auction includes sculptures, ceramics and paintings, in addition to hand-created prints, photographs and metalwork.

Hung, Drawn & Displayed at Horsham Museum

If you want your visual senses to be numbed by the quality, revived by the beauty and then ripped apart by the drama of some of the images, then you don’t want to miss Hung, Drawn and Displayed at Horsham Museum & Art Gallery. If that wasn’t enough you can have the adrenalin rush of the auction process as you can enjoy the chase of buying your favourite piece on May 28th at Toovey’s Spring Gardens salerooms. In an exhibition featuring the work of sixty artists, including some of the regions most talented contemporary names, the visitor can, in the relaxed atmosphere of Horsham museum, enjoy seeing the contrast of 21st Century art in the relaxed atmosphere of the Causeway’s medieval timber-framed building.

Horsham Museum’s new Art Gallery was launched last year with Artventure, a preview exhibition of Toovey’s Contemporary Art Auction. It proved to be a great success, not only in showcasing work, but also in revealing that there was a desire in Horsham District for such an opportunity. The success of the show was such that Horsham Museum and Art Gallery were delighted to be able to repeat the opportunity. An opportunity where the public can enjoy spending hours looking at the works hung, drawn and displayed.

The exhibition and sale has been organised by Nicholas Toovey, sourcing emerging and established artists and craftsmen from across the region with an emphasis on the local scene. Nicholas has managed to pull together some amazing works by renowned artists including Chris Kettle whose painting Natura Sola Magistra, will be a talking point for visitors. Along with paintings are various craftsmen, some exhibiting for the first time, each merging the boundary between art and craft. No doubt tying people in to knots over the meaning of art, will be Horsham-based ceramicist Deborah Timperly, whose work Knotted and Hung will cause some debate.

Chris Kettle's oil on canvas 'Natura Sola Magistra' — 'Natura Sola Magistra' by Chris Kettle

Deborah Timperley bone china 'Knotted and Hung' — 'Knotted and Hung' by Deborah Timperley

The free exhibition Hung, Drawn and Displayed opens on Friday 8April and runs till 11 May at Horsham Museum & Art Gallery. Two weeks later on 28 May all works displayed will be auctioned at Toovey’s, Washington. A fully-illustrated catalogue with more information on every artist is available from the museum, helping raise funds to enable it to buy contemporary art, preserving the present for the future.

An Introduction to Toovey’s Contemporary Art Auction 2011

Contemporary Sculpture by Eve Shepherd, 'Masquerade' — Eve Shepherd's 'Masquerade'

We at TOOVEY’S Antique & Fine Art Auctioneers & Valuers are pleased to announce our fifth sale of Contemporary Art at Auction, this year in association with Horsham Museum.

The ethos of these sales has always been to promote the arts in Sussex by creating a refreshingly different way for artists to showcase their work in this county. We are delighted that Horsham Museum & Art Gallery share this same outlook, deciding to exhibit many of the artworks in this catalogue in the ‘Hung, Drawn and Displayed’ exhibition. The medieval timber-framed building in Horsham’s picturesque Causeway provides a contrasting backdrop for this diverse selection of 21st century art.

We hope that the auction will reciprocate this support by acting as a stimulus for people to visit the museum and preview some of the works in the sale. Horsham Museum features a stunning collection of local and national importance and is free to enter.

Toovey’s support of the arts is not limited to these auctions. In addition to our on-going support of Horsham Museum & Art Gallery and Worthing Museum & Art Gallery, this May we are sponsoring the HOUSE festival in Brighton and the Brighton Open. The Brighton Open is a fascinating fridge magnet exhibition on the seafront of Brighton on the 7th May, where you can rearrange the artworks and even take your favourite image home with you for free.

In addition, I have been approached by Sussex Life magazine to write a regular feature on contemporary Sussex artists. The first two articles were published in the March and April issues.

For collectors and patrons, the auction offers an exciting platform for the acquisition of art by established and emerging names. Drawing on 15 years of experience in the resale art market, I have selected all the artists on their individual merits, creating a diverse and eclectic fusion of styles. Many of the artists have featured in our previous auctions, but the list of names always changes and we are delighted with the fantastic selection offered in this year’s sale.

We look forward to welcoming you at our Spring Gardens rooms for the auction on May 28th. If you are unable to attend the sale, but still wish to bid on any lots, we will be pleased to execute absentee bids on your behalf. For more information on bidding and buying at our auctions, please visit www.tooveys.com or call our offices on 01903 891955. Nicholas Toovey FRSA, BA (Hons)