Zoomorphic Lounge: A Single Owner Collection
Webb's presents Zoomorphic Lounge, a single owner collection of modern and contemporary art anchored by Bill Hammond's Zoomorphic Lounge III (1999). Foreword by Megan Shaw, PhD, on the bird people, Aotearoa's environment, and the collector who lived with these works for decades.
On Bill Hammond's bird people, the Auckland Islands, and a private owner collection formed over several decades of attention and encounter. Webb's Art Department introduces Zoomorphic Lounge, tracing Hammond's central work and the essays, interviews, and artists gathered around it.
Lot 58. Bill Hammond, Zoomorphic Lounge III, 1999, acrylic on hessian canvas, 1620 x 2145mm.
EST. $1,400,000—$1,800,000.
The term zoomorphic, from the Greek zōon (animal) and morphē (form), describes the attribution of animal characteristics to human figures, objects, or worlds. It signals transformation, a porous boundary between the human and the animal, the familiar and the strange. In art, it often points beyond mere representation, and towards an understanding that identity, environment, and imagination are not easily separated.
Lot 60. Bill Hammond Untitled (Gutless), 2006, lithograph on paper, 98/100, 585 x 430mm.
EST. $5,000—$7,000
Lot 61. Bill Hammond Untitled, 2020, screenprint on paper, edition of 50, 295 x 205mm.
EST. $5,000—$7,000
We are delighted to present Zoomorphic Lounge: A Private Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art. It is a privilege to bring this collection to auction, one shaped not only by discernment and deep engagement, but by a sustained commitment to living with art over time.
Essay In Catalogue
Drummer with a Paintbrush
—by Lucinda Bennett
Before Hammond became obsessed with birds and began painting the signature bird-people that would establish him as a market favourite, Bill Hammond was a melomaniac, a drummer with a paintbrush making punky, fleshy, volatile, dystopian, gritty, repulsive, rock’n’roll paintings. If that seems like a lot of adjectives, it’s because Hammond’s early work is hyperactive, angular, filled with multiple, jarring perspectives, figures morphing into land masses, the alps sprawling across tabletops, snow-capped mountains sprouting veins, theatrical curtains falling from the sky to divide acidic plains, splicing space that could be interior, exterior or both.
As curator Justin Paton points out, Hammond’s interiors came at a time when “the domestic interior had begun to trump landscape as a subject for local painters”; a necessary response to a canon dictated for so long by colonial depictions of the land.
Lot 56. Bill Hammond, Staying Alive, 1981, etching on paper, 100 × 260mm
EST. $1,800—$2,400
All Shook Up (1985) doesn’t just unsettle our perspective, it viscerally wrenches us from kitchen stove to mountaintop, careening around the canvas without pause, interior spaces seemingly fenced by tiny mountains but unable to contain the balloon of a monstrous body, Elvis rising from the kitchen floor, his tiny crotch gyrating against a Formica chair, his yellow torso shaped like an inverted pyramid, a blood-streaked volcano neck sprouting from the base like something from a David Cronenberg film, only recognisable as The King due to that unmistakable quiff of greasy black hair, and perhaps due to the title, shared with one of his most famous songs:
Her lips are like a volcano that’s hot
I’m proud to say that she’s my buttercup
I’m in love, I’m all shook up
Grotesque, lathering musicians of all kinds have appeared regularly in Hammond’s work over the years, such as the exhibition titled Lines from Songs, one of his first showings at Brooke Gifford Gallery in central Christchurch, which included works such as Heading for the Last Roundup and Radio On, both now held in the collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū.
Lot 59. Bill Hammond Bone, 2015, acrylic on canvas, 290 x 240mm.
EST. $30,000—$36,000
This catalogue takes its title from Bill Hammond's Zoomorphic Lounge III (1999), a significant work that holds these relationships in fine balance. Hammond's bird people, central to his practice since the early 1990s, are neither wholly human nor wholly avian. They occupy a liminal space as guardians, mourners, musicians, or witnesses, roles that shift from work to work. Their stillness suggests a condition suspended between life and display as taxidermy specimens while registering a subtle awareness of environmental loss in Aotearoa.
These figures emerge from a specific encounter with place. Hammond's 1989 visit to the Auckland Islands with our contributing writer Lou Sanson (former Director of the Department of Conservation), marked a decisive shift in his practice. In an environment shaped by the near absence of human hierarchy, birdlife dominated the landscape. The idea of "birds in charge" arises from this experience, though in his work it is not rendered as inversion. It becomes a condition, a world in which human presence is provisional and other systems of order persist.
Essay In Catalogue
Birds in Charge
—by Lou Sanson
I was with Bill on the Auckland Islands in 1989 as District Conservator, Invercargill for DOC. I took him on a walk around Enderby Island, where he became mesmerised by a colony of Auckland Island shags at Gargoyle Point.
What fascinated Hammond was that this was a place where the shags were in charge, no predators, no people, a gorgeous subantarctic island with white sand beaches, gnarled rātā trees, and megaherbs (New Zealand’s largest flowering plants).
In the few days we were there, he came up with the idea of “birds in charge”, the supreme beings in this stunning landscape. Russell Beck, the Southland Museum Director (and father of Rocket Lab’s Peter Beck), had put the idea together for our 1990 celebration: to take a group of emerging New Zealand artists to the subantarctic to create something special in a place only scientists could visit due to its Nature Reserve status. Bill Hammond’s iconic bird series was indeed “that something special”, and it started that day 36 years ago. The painting Zoomorphic Lounge III is an iconic work that brings together all the elements of our 1989 visit to the Auckland Islands / Motopuhue. In the painting are the basis of the Auckland Island shags that had such a big impact on him. Looking closer, some appear as penguins, Enderby Island is home to the largest population of the world’s rarest penguin, the hoiho (yellow-eyed penguin).
Lot 57. Bill Hammond, All Shook Up, 1985, acrylic on canvas, 1700 x 1700mm
EST. $85,000—$100,000
Some appear as tītī (sooty shearwater), and in the distance are the tails of whales. Port Ross, adjacent to Enderby Island, has one of the greatest concentrations of southern right whales during calving. Others resemble the New Zealand sea lion found on Enderby.
At the heart of the image, though, is what he saw on Enderby Island: a place where birds are in charge and have seen humans come and go, shipwrecked sailors killed in the surfor dying from starvation. A separate colony to New Zealand was established there in 1850, Hardwicke, only to collapse three years later as the elements proved too harsh.
The whole time, the birds thrived, and today they still occupy pride of place on Enderby. In Zoomorphic Lounge III, this moment of encounter is transformed into one of the defining ideas of Hammond’s practice. The birds are no longer simply observed; they assume a quiet authority, occupying a world in which human presence is fleeting and contingent. The painting holds that inversion, of power, scale, and time, and extends it into a broader meditation on survival, memory, and the endurance of the natural world.
Held in the artist’s own collection, the work carries a particular significance. It stands no only as a record of that formative experience, but as a touchstone within Hammond’s oeuvre, where the conceptual and visual language that would define his career first coheres with clarity and conviction.
The essays gathered in this catalogue extend these mythologies, histories and building of worlds. They move between close observation and lived experience, critical reflection and personal memory. Contributions explore the work of Chris Charteris, Shane Cotton, Ayesha Green, Bill Hammond, Andrew McLeod, Fiona Pardington, Peter Robinson, and Robin White.
Featured Auction Highlights
Lot 4. Ayesha Green, Mother, 2021, acrylic on canvas, 1270 x 1700mm.
EST. $15,000—$20,000
Lot 50. Shane Cotton, Ahi, 1996, oil on canvas, 2800 x 1800mm.
EST. $140,000—$180,000
Lot 28. Liz Maw, Palammino, 2020, oil on board, 2340 x 1250mm.
EST. $75,000—$90,000
Megan Shaw, Manager, Art
Two interviews offer the opportunity to look closely and think more deeply. I was pleased to meet with artist Liz Maw to discuss the physical reality of painting, her vast references and the enduring presence of the artist's hand. Likewise, it was an honour to interview the private collector behind Zoomorphic Lounge, tracing the formation of this collection; shaped over time through meticulous attention and encounter. Taken collectively, these texts offer multiple points of entry into practices that remain deliberately open.
Zoomorphic Lounge is presented as a single owner collection, formed over several decades. Such collections reflect a sustained way of seeing, shaped over time through attention and experience. Across Webb's programme this year, similar projects have emerged, from the works at Sir Miles Warren's Ōhinetahi to Roger Ward's Important Collection of Historic New Zealand Photography, and across departments, including the Auckland Wine Club Cellar. Together, they point to a renewed focus on the collection as both structure and expression.
Within this context, Hammond's Zoomorphic Lounge III serves as anchor and axis for this collection. Around it, other works gather, extending and shifting its concerns and stories of place; land, memory, spirituality, mythology and a changing environment.
Christchurch, and in particular Lyttelton, remains central to Bill Hammond's story. It is here that he is most often remembered, not only as an artist, but as a presence, observant, dryly humorous, and closely attuned to the world around him.
This catalogue is the result of a collective effort across Webb's teams in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch. It brings together the work of specialists, writers, and artists, alongside contributions from those who knew Hammond personally. These voices extend the frame of the artworks, situating them within a wider field of experience and memory.
What emerges is not a single narrative but a set of relationships, between human and animal, figure and ground, artist and community. Zoomorphic Lounge III holds these in balance. It resists closure, maintaining a quiet tension, and continues to unfold, inviting us to look, and to remain within that act a little longer.
Installation view– Christchurch
Webb's is pleased to announce Zoomorphic Lounge, a single owner collection of modern and contemporary art coming to auction this July. At its centre is Bill Hammond's Zoomorphic Lounge III (1999), formerly held in the artist's personal collection and exhibited in the landmark Jingle Jangle Morning exhibition. Around it, the catalogue gathers significant works by Shane Cotton, Jacqueline Fraser, Ayesha Green, Max Gimblett, Liz Maw, Peter Robinson, and Ans Westra, among others, each extending the collection's concerns with land, memory, and a changing environment.
Formed over several decades, Zoomorphic Lounge reflects a sustained and discerning way of collecting. Highlights will tour Christchurch and Wellington ahead of a full exhibition at Webb's Mount Eden Gallery, before the live auction on 28 July.
Single Owner Live Auction | 28.07.26
Zoomorphic Lounge: A Private Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art
Nationwide Tour
Christchurch
Launch | Thurs 9 July
Viewing | 7—9 July
249 Moorhouse Ave, Sydenham
Wellington
Launch | Wed 15 July
Viewing | 15—18 July
23 Marion Street, Te Aro
Auckland
Launch | Tues 21 July
Viewing | 21—28 July
Live Auction | Tues 28 July, 6.30pm
33a Normanby Road, Mount Eden