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When King Charles was a young student prince, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip sent him to Cheam preparatory school, his father’s alma mater.
During three years at boarding school, the future king of England came under the watch of Stella Jack, who had a stern reputation as the school’s head matron.
In his first year in 1957, Charles gifted Matron Jack a crayon drawing of a sailing boat, believed to have been drawn from memory of his time sailing in Bluebottle, his father’s Dragon Class boat.
King Charles aged 9, in 1958, and his drawing gifted to head matron Stella Jack.Credit: Archives/Supplied
The work bearing the prince’s signature, P. Charles signed in the lower right-hand corner, has resurfaced in the hands of gallerist Justin Miller who is bringing it to Sydney Contemporary art fair opening Thursday, along with an Andy Warhol, a Brett Whiteley, and a painting by French impressionist Paul Signac.
A King Charles original is rare thing to come up on the secondary market, much less in Australia. As for the works of Winston Churchill, David Bowie and Barry Humphries, it’s the fame of the artist that is its selling or curiosity point.
On Stella Jack’s death in 2010 Charles sent matron’s family his deepest sympathy, recounting a time when matron had looked after him during a bad case of chicken pox or measles.
“I think it’s actually a delightful drawing,” Miller says. “It’s got a lovely naive quality to it, but it’s beautifully drawn. He, of course, refers to himself as an enthusiastic amateur painter, but he’s quite an accomplished painter, and it’s unusual to see such a piece like this in Australia by the King of England.”
Sydney Contemporary has become an annual fixture in the Australian art world calendar, this year drawing 116 exhibitors from Australia, New Zealand and overseas, and promising to showcase more than 1000 new works by some 500 contemporary artists including Vincent Namatjira, Julia Ciccarone, Hugo Blomley and Abdul Abdullah, the 2025 Packing Room Prize winner.
This year it debuts a photography section. Increasingly artists and galleries are holding back work for the fair stands while running parallel exhibitions.
Nanda & Hobbs director, Ralph Hobbs, is a fan of the art fair for its ability to bring seasoned collectors, increasingly from overseas, institutional curators and young buyers and the mere curious together in a festive atmosphere.
“Art fairs are like a non-virtual internet for art,” he says. “Instead of going online and seeing these things, you can meet artists and galleries and sometimes there is a little criticism art fairs, but I think it’s fantastic, like a carnival.”
For its booth, Nanda & Hobbs has handpicked five altar pieces by Loribelle Spirovski, this year’s winner of the Archibald People’s Choice award, bold gestural works by James Drinkwater, as well as gothic inspired hand-painted ceramic urns by Peter Gardiner and Nicki McCann.
The latter are a “true collaboration, bizarre and most beautiful, like straight out of Miss Havisham’s dinner table, so dark and brooding,” he says. “Much of what Peter Gardiner is about is the gothic. It’s one of the most wonderful collaborations I’ve seen in a long time. Nightjar 2 looks like a utilitarian vase, but it won’t hold water, it’s beautifully useless.
“In my 40 years of involvement in the art world I don’t think I’ve seen a bigger moment in ceramics, both from sculptural point of view and inclusion in everyday life.”
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To this end, the Michael Lett gallery is presenting a solo exhibition by Mike Hewson, who is soon to convert the Art Gallery of NSW’s Tank into a public playground. For the art fair, Hewson has created small sculptures called GeoPets, made from vitrified construction bricks with crystals, rare gems and homewares.
The Michael Lett booth will operate like a cash and carry store, with GeoPets priced by weight at $299 per kg, not per object, all packaged in a custom designed-for-life bag.
Maintaining the gothic theme, Jonathan Smart Gallery and Emily Gardener Projects are presenting an immersive installation by New Zealand artist Julia Morison who has designed a full set of 78 tarot cards, with readings on offer to onsite visitors.
From one Prince of Wales to another, D’Lan Contemporary is presenting the work of Midpul, a Larrakia song man from Darwin. Midpul’s father was known as Imabul (Ichungarrabilluk) and given the name King George by early settlers in Darwin.
Midpul received the namesake title Prince of Wales, under which notable state galleries hold his works. His signature staccato-effect of dots and intermittent bars, has been compared by curator Hetti Perkins to sheet music for an improvised symphony.
The works of Midpul will be presented next to those of the late Nyapanyapa Yunupingu, perhaps the most influential artist working at Yirrkala Art Centre, now subject of an Art Gallery of NSW survey.
Sydney Contemporary runs from September 11 to 14.
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