Many years after Bronwyn Oliver's untimely death at the age of 47, collectors, art lovers and the public continue to appreciate and be inspired by her works of sculpture.
The four-metre sculpture Tide, commissioned in 2000, had hung on the wall of Sydney's Quay restaurant and has now been sold to a private collector in Australia.
Geoffery Smith, chairman of auction house Smith and Singer, where the work was sold, said the sale was highest price ever paid at auction for an Australian sculpture, at $1.25million.
Tide, 2000 by Bronwyn Oliver as shown by auction house
In the book published by Piper Press in 2017, Bronwyn Oliver Strange Things: author Hannah Fink describes the influences, forms and remarkable works by Bronwyn, in a career that spanned 27 years.
"I did not choose to do sculpture - there was a computer error when we nominated our subjects and I was put into the sculpture class. I went to have it changed and was surprised to find a very long queue. It was just before lunchtime on an extremely hot day and the lecturer we had to see had a legendary bad temper. I released that by the time it was my turn to see her she would be very hot, very hungry and probably extremely cross so I quickly reconsidered and decided to give sculpture a try. It was Brian O'Dwyer's class and I felt at home from the first day." (Bronwyn Oliver)
Since the fateful beginning of her life as an artist, Bronwyn excelled, both in her early classes and in doing difficult work. The intricacies of her sculptures show the 'world of her creative imagining' in which she was often inspired by nature, organic forms and industrial or everyday materials that were transformed in to ethereal objects, large and small.
Photo: Sonia Payes.
Bronwyn was also prolific during her 27 years as an artist, with works now held in many private collections, national collections and seen in international exhibitions. Bronwyn's work continues to be enjoyed in public places such as Vine, a 16.5-metre-high sculpture in the Sydney Hilton, Magnolia and Palm, in the Sydney Botanical Gardens, the 3 metre high Globe at the University of New South Wales, and Big Feathers in Brisbane's Queen Street Mall.
Sakura, 2006.
