New York: Steve Martin believes Indigenous Australian art is finally reaching an important milestone in the United States – the price tag is catching up with its quality.
“The paintings are getting valuable enough to make it profitable for a dealer – and that’s what you need,” the American actor tells this masthead.
Martin is standing in front of a work from his own extensive collection of Aboriginal art – a 1996 linen painting by Ronnie Tjampitjinpa. It is one of several which Martin has loaned to the Manhattan residence of Australia’s consul-general in New York, Heather Ridout, for the duration of her term.
It was at that same apartment – when it was occupied by former NSW premier Nick Greiner and his partner Carolyn Fletcher – that Martin first bonded over Indigenous art with fellow collectors John Wilkerson, a venture capitalist, and his wife Barbara.
On Monday evening, all three reconvened there to launch a new website that, for the first time, brings their significant collections into full public view. Two Collections showcases the artworks alongside news and essays by prominent figures in the Aboriginal art world, Rirratjingu traditional owner Mayatili Marika and New York University’s Fred Myers.
The decision to publicise the extent of their private collections is unusual in the art world. “This is a first-time experiment, I think,” says art critic Deborah Solomon. “Most collectors won’t let you even take a picture of the paintings in their homes.”
The Wilkersons own a renowned collection of early Western Desert board paintings; Martin and his wife, Anne Stringfield, are avid collectors of more contemporary works, including by the late star Emily Kam Kngwarray.
They met through Fletcher’s endeavour to hang Indigenous artworks on the walls of the consul-general’s home. What began in this apartment overlooking the East River became an enduring partnership as the two men joined forces to “get the word out” about an artistic form that had mostly gone unnoticed in the United States, save for a handful of collectors.
“We were both enchanted by it,” says Martin. “We thought: let’s make it a little goal to present this art to a wider public.”
In 2023, Martin and Wilkerson displayed a selection of their works at UOVO, an art facility in Long Island City, Queens. Since then, a number of prominent shows have boosted the profile of Aboriginal art globally, including last year’s Emily Kam Kngwarray exhibition at London’s Tate Modern, and the National Gallery of Victoria’s The Stars We Do Not See, which just closed at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, and is beginning a North American tour.
In New York, the Grey Art Museum is currently exhibiting paintings from Papunya Tula Artists, while an Emily Kam Kngwarray show is bound for the Pace Gallery. In many ways, “our mission has been done”, Martin says.
The actor says the moment Aboriginal art is having could be fleeting. But with enough dedicated collectors and dealers, the interest will be self-sustaining.
“All you’re trying to do is create five collectors in New York who are interested in the paintings and support the community. You don’t need 100,” Martin says.
He still has reservations about how widely to promote his new website. “I’m not posting [it] on Instagram. We want it to reach the art community, not necessarily the public community.”
The Wilkersons, meanwhile, have been collecting Indigenous artwork for more than 30 years – an interest that was piqued during a trip to Australia to visit their son while he was on exchange.
“We had three children, and we said to them that they had to spend their junior year of college abroad,” says Barbara Wilkerson. “I rented out their rooms – there was no question, they had to go. One of them picked Nicaragua, one of them picked France, and one of them picked the University of Sydney.”
The couple was wowed by what they saw when they visited the Museum and Gallery of the Northern Territory in Darwin. “We got hooked, and that’s it,” says Barbara
John Wilkerson just returned from the European Fine Art Fair in Maastricht, in the Netherlands, where leading Aboriginal art dealer D’Lan Contemporary showed 13 pieces and reported at least six sales, with some priced above $US100,000 ($141,000).
“These are not inexpensive paintings,” says John. The growth in value reflects a broader growth in people’s appreciation. “When we first started collecting 30, 40 years ago, I would talk about it and I almost had to explain where Australia was. It’s really remarkable.”
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Michael Koziol is the North America correspondent for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Sydney editor, Sun-Herald deputy editor and a federal political reporter in Canberra.Connect via X or email.