Rather than perennial auction favourites Fred Williams, Jeffrey Smart and Brett Whiteley, it was a group of 10 paintings and drawings by British abstractionist Bridget Riley that stunned punters with an extraordinary hammer result of $AUD1.85 million (inc. buyers premium).
The star of the night was Lot 2, Off (1963), smashing its $60-80,000 estimate ten-fold. While this black and white optical painting cased in Perspex had all the characteristic Riley hallmarks, and was drawn from a desired early chapter of Riley’s career, at just 24.5 x 29cm the enormity of its hammer price of $984,000 remains astounding.
