News-Antique.com - Nov 19,2012 - On Thursday 15 November, a painting derived from Hazel Dooney's 2001 Lake Eyre series set a new Australian benchmark for the price of her work at auction. Painted in 2005, Shooting Blanks, 100cm x 150cm, in high-gloss enamel on canvas, was sold at Lawson Menzies' Quarterly Fine Art Sale in Sydney for $20,000.
This greatly exceeded the pre-sale estimate of $A12,000 to $A16,000 – and reinforced the record price paid for one of her smaller works at auction late last year, when a 40cm x 60cm high gloss enamel on canvas painting, Career Babe: Tennis (Resized For Popular Consumption) was sold by Lawson Menzies for $7,000, again exceeding the pre-sale estimate.
In 2007, the 100cm x 150cm Career Babe: Tennis, in high gloss enamel on timber board, was sold at Christie's in London for just over $US20,000. The following year, Christie's disposed of a larger painting, Dangerous Career Babe: The Aviatrix for $A32,000 (at then current exchange rates).
These prices – which are double those paid in 2005 for works by Dooney of similar size and 10 times what was paid a decade and a half ago – have been achieved despite the fact that she has chosen not to exhibit in a commercial gallery since 2006 and have focussed her efforts instead on connecting directly with collectors via the web.
