Warhol, Self-Portrait (1986)

Coming up for auction tomorrow night at Sotheby's is a large-scale late self-portrait by Andy Warhol estimated to sell between $10,000,000 - 15,000,000. I'm showing the yellow painting that is installed at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburg - the one for sale tomorrow is purple. He executed several series of self-portraits over his career, and in each series revealed a little more of himself. In this last series, of which there are 5 finished paintings, he shows us his entire face in all of its stark reality and brutal honesty. The frontality, the sheer size of the canvas, and the confrontational posturing is hard to escape. Unlike the Abstract Expressionists that came before him (Rothko, Pollock, de Kooning, Kline) Warhol leaves us little room for spiritual interpretation that comes from visually exploring the various permutations and movements of paint and composition. Instead, we are presented with a bold and direct image for our consumption. It is this element - consumption - that defined Warhol's career and aesthetic, which in turn became the driving force in his role as the greatest artist of the 1960s Pop Art movement. Consumption, consumerism, commercialism, mechanical reproduction merging with high art -- all of these qualities were the underpinnings of Warhol's work and the movement in general.

It will be interesting to see the hammer price of this painting, as it's one of his most important pieces and predated his untimely death by just a year. Here is a private video screening of the work, which gives us a nice sense of its enormous scale and visual power it must have for the viewer.

Asian Art Market Continues to Climb

I've been following the Asian art market over the past several years and watching it grow steadily with each season. This past week's Spring sales in Hong Kong were no exception. The Sotheby's April 5 Contemporary Art sale far exceeded expectations, earning HK $130 million over its $94 estimate (see Art+Auction for a great article on the results and analysis). Among the more successful lots were a good example from Zeng Fanzhi's well regarded Mask Series and a work by Yayoi Kusama. Here are secondary pieces by each of them that caught my eye tonight when I viewed the catalogue. The third work is a painting that I fell in love with instantly, and whose hammer price was 4 times the amount of its estimate. So apparently I wasn't the only one to have this response:





Zeng Fanzhi
Couple
Oil on canvas
86 1/2 x 57 in.
Estimate: HK $2,800,000 - 3,500,000
Sold: HK $3,620,000 (USD $466,183.60)

Yayoi Kusama
Infinity Nets
Acrylic on canvas
28 5/8 x 35 7/8 in.
Estimate: HK $250,000 - 350,000
Sold: HK $475,000 (USD $61,242.12)

Jia Aili
On the Field of Hopes
Oil on canvas
64 1/2 x 104 1/4 in.
Estimate: HK $350,000 - 450,000
Sold: HK $1,940,000 (USD $250,125.70)

Sotheby's Contemporary Art Evening Sale, May 12, New York

The Spring auctions are around the corner, and after looking at Sotheby's beautiful new e-catalogue online tonight (check out the "relative scale" feature which completely blew me away), I am thrilled to report that it looks absolutely amazing, especially compared to the tentative and uneasy Fall offerings. What a selection, including a large-scale Jean Michel Basquiat (Lot #23: Red Man One, $3,000,000 - 5,000,000), a wonderful witty Richard Price joke painting (Lot #35: Can You Imagine, $600,000 - 800,000), and a 1986 Warhol camouflage painting (Lot #39: Camouflage, $1,800,000 - 2,500,000) that we rarely see in an evening sale. These late paintings are among my favorite of Warhol's work, because the series also included images of Leonardo Da Vinci's famous painting of the Last Supper, thereby taking a turn into the realm of religious art. They were joyfully documented by one of my thesis advisers and author, Jane Dillenberger, during the time I was studying with her. What an amazing way to discover and learn to appreciate this late period of Warhol's work.

The artworks shown pictured above are spectacular. Jeff Koons' sculpture (Lot #9: Baroque Egg with Bow, $600,000,000 - 800,000,000) is from his Celebration series, which (like Warhol's entire oeuvre) took images from our every-day life and exhalted them to high art. Here, the familiar and nostalgic Easter egg becomes a hyper-realistic, perfectly crafted, intellectually satisfying sculpture. The monumental scale and artistic precision (thanks to a factory of workers, again, like Warhol) make it even more enticing - and best seen in person. Martin Kippenberger's painting (Lot #7: Untitled, $3,500,000 - 4,500,000) is new to me, but I like him immediately. This self-portrait brings to mind the harsh, unforgiving paintings of Lucian Freud. According to the catalogue notes, Kippenberger was a master of self-portraiture, in which nothing was left sacred. In his later paintings, of which this is the best example, his self-mocking depiction of his aging body was offered up to the viewers as a stark contrast to his hero, Picasso, the ultimate master of the self-portrait.

The price points for the Koons and Kippenberger, as well as the inclusion of several Twombly drawings, a Bill Viola video and a Jeff Wall lightbox, make this particular auction pretty exciting and diverse.

Behind the Scenes at Sotheby's

These "private viewings" from Sotheby's are wonderful - I absolutely love hearing about the artworks from the specialists' point of view. And how delightful to see Koons' Banality sculpture up close, and what a thrill to get a glimpse of Richter's remarkable brushstrokes in Troisdorf. I also loved the description of the Fontana, learning how powerfully his materials (gold leaf, thick swirls of paint) communicate and convey the sensibilities of the world at that time - as well as the geography of Venice - and the rich history of religious painting and architecture of its beautiful churches. Love it all.

Auction Results: Sotheby's Contemporary Art, Evening Sale, February 5, London

The art market is alive and well! The contemporary sale at Sotheby's in London last night was successful, all lots sold just within, or above, their estimate, with the exception of two. Here were my favorites (in GBP):

Zeng Fanzhi
Untitled (Mask Series)
Estimate: 300,000 - 400,000
Sold: 601,250


Gerhard Richter
Abstraktes Bild
Estimate: 500,000 - 700,000
Sold: 541,250


Anish Kapoor
Untitled
Estimate: 500,000 - 700,000
Sold: 982,050


Gerhard Richter
Troisdorf
Estimate: 1,500,000 - 2,000,000
Sold: 2,113,250

Tobias Meyer on the art market

I really enjoyed getting this candid look inside Sotheby's contemporary art department, now a month after the November sales. I absolutely agree with what Tobias Meyer said -- that if the right piece comes up, something that is rare, from a pivotal point in the artist's oeuvre, and with the right provenance and condition -- then the market will respond. And I love that my pick of favorites last night included the Currin, which is shown here.

Sold: From Sotheby's Contemporary Art Evening Sale

Here are a few pieces that did manage to sell - which were among my favorites this Fall - although take a look at the hammer price of the Judd:

Cy Twombly, Untitled, Painting in 2 Parts (Bassano in Teverina)
Estimate: $4,000,000 - 6,000,000
Sold: $4,786,5000














John Currin, Nice 'N Easy
Estimate: $3,500,000 - 4,500,000
Sold: $5,458,500














Donald Judd, Untitled (90-14 Bernstein)
Estimate: $2,000,000 - 3,000,000
Sold: $1,142,500

The Results Are In...

And apparently not great, as reported by ArtInfo. I don't think any of us are surprised, yes?

A Bad Year for Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s and Christie’s

December 5, 2008

NEW YORK/LONDON—Annual sales of contemporary art at Sotheby’s and Christie’s flagship auctions in New York and London have dropped 17 percent in 2008, according to Bloomberg. The significant drop from a total of $2.4 billion last year to just below $2 billion this year comes after two years of more than doubling in sales.

The ongoing international economic crisis hit the two premier auction houses in the last quarter of 2008. In November, Sotheby’s and Christie’s evening contemporary art auctions in New York raised $125.1 million and $113.6 million respectively, with fees, far below their presale lower estimates. Almost a third of lots failed to sell at both houses.

“Next year’s going to be very tricky,” said Philip Hoffman, chief executive of the London-based Fine Art Fund and a former Christie’s employee during the last major art market recession, in the early 1990s. “People aren’t going to put things up for sale. Volumes at auction could be 30 or 40 percent down on this year. It’s going to hit the auction houses badly.”

NY Sales begin tonight

We'll see how these post-war and contemporary NY auctions fare over the next several weeks; in the meantime everyone is on pins & needles waiting to see if the art market can stand on its own, or if it will succumb to the same fate as the rest of the world markets. According to Marc Porter of Christie's, “Prices of all assets have fallen — stocks, gold, oil, real estate — and it would be unrealistic to expect works of art to be immune to the market’s pressures.” For more of Carol Vogel's article recently published in the NY Times about the sales, read here.

Philip Guston, Beggar’s Joys (1954-55)

Vogel writes about the Guston painting:

Minimizing risk is the message of the moment. While Sotheby's has said that it has provided only half the number of guarantees it did a year ago, the company still has outstanding guarantees of $285.5 million. And guarantees are still given for desirable art, such as the Philip Guston.

Prices have soared since 1996 when Donald L. Bryant paid $1.7 million for the painting at Christie’s in New York, then a record price for the artist. Now Sotheby’s has lined the inside of its sale catalog with the image and experts there say that the seminal painting could well bring around $15 million, which is about what Mr. Bryant has received as a guarantee.

Sarah Thornton: Seven Days in the Art World

I was reading one of my go-to blogs, written by Matthew Langley here in Washington, and came across a mention of this forthcoming book about the art world. Can't wait to get a copy!!

Bourgeois and Basquiat at Christie's NY sale

Okay, my few yet loyal readers, the rant portion of my blog is done (well, at least for now!!) and it's time to move on to the major Fall auctions being held in New York at Christie's and Sotheby's next month, which I think will be the true test of how the art market is faring in context of our current financial meltdown. Just yesterday the Christie's Post-War and Contemporary Art catalogue arrived in the mail, and I'm so excited to start reading through the material. Browsing through these hefty books and studying the exceptionally written essays ("lot notes") is absolutely my favorite moment of the Fall season. So here are a few highlights, with more to come in the weeks ahead:

Louise Bourgeois
Spider V, 1999
Bronze and steel
21 x 38 x 44 in.
No.2/6 (edition of 6 with one AP)
Estimate: $1,500,000 - 2,000,000:

Jean-Michel Basquiat
Untitled (Boxer), 1982
Acrylic and oil paintstick on linen
76 x 94 in.
Estimate not provided:

Auction Results - Phillips de Pury & Company, Contemporary Art, Evening Sale, London, October 18

My favorite lots didn't sell this weekend - withdrawn at auction - which is not unusual by itself, as many sellers (either private collectors or galleries) will place a minimum "reserve" amount during consignment, and if that amount isn't reached during live bidding, the piece is "bought in" or withdrawn and then returned to the seller. However, I was a bit surprised to see that most of these works didn't go:

Takashi Murakami, Tongan-kun
Estimate: 3,500,000 - 4,500,000 GBP
Withdrawn












Richard Prince, Untitled
Estimate: 100,000 - 150,000
Sold: 133, 250








Zhang Xiaogang, Bloodline Series: A Boy
Estimate: 200,000 - 300,000
Withdrawn










Joan Mitchell, La Grande Vallee XIII
Estimate: 2,000,000 - 3,000,000 GBP
Withdrawn












Donald Judd, Untitled, 1988
Estimate: 550,000 - 750,000
Withdrawn

London Contemporary Sales -- Precursor to NY

Update 10/25: Sold for $9,400,000

It seems my curiosity about the NY sales are right on track - as reported below by Judd Tully for ArtInfo on October 15 (which also includes a wonderful photo gallery of some of the pieces auctioned this week in London). Sales results to follow:

LONDON—Given the chaotically gloomy status of the global economy, it seems almost foolhardy to assess relative value in the art market right now. That said, the world’s top auction houses made their bets early this past summer on what contemporary property would fetch in October during Frieze week in London. The acid test begins Friday evening, October 17, at Sotheby’s and continues over the weekend with further sales, including at Phillips and Christie’s.

While there are no safe bets — not even blue-chip works — in this incendiary climate, the one thing we know is that no matter what unfolds, the London sales will set the psychological tone for the much larger New York sales taking place in November.

Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon (Christie's Post-War and Contemporary Sale, London, October 19, Estimate 5,000,000 - 7,000,000 GBP)

Auction Results -- Sotheby's Contemporary Art Evening Sale, London, October 17

Just a few lots below, from the 69 that went up at Sotheby's on Friday, most of which fell slightly short of the estimate or sold within the lower part of the range. I'm very curious to see how the NY sales fare next month, in light of these results and our largely growing economic crisis:

Lucian Freud, Strawberries
Estimate: 250,000 - 350,00 GBP
Sold: 229,250






Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes Bild (R07)
Estimate: 3,000,000 - 4,000,000 GBP
Sold: 2,841,250







Rachel Whiteread, Pressed
Estimate: 120,000 - 180,000 GBP
Sold: 109,250







Damien Hirst, Beautiful Jaggy Snake Charity Painting
Estimate: 100,000 - 150,000 GBP
Sold: 115,250

Market Update - Sluggish Sales at Chelsea galleries

As reported by Katya Kazakina for Bloomberg today, as the Dow Jones fell 777 points, the single largest point drop ever:

Joel Sternfeld's panoramic photos of Manhattan's High Line railway and Yellowstone National Park have been acquired by Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank AG and ING Belgium SA. His new large-scale color prints capturing the seasonal changes of a field in central Massachusetts are having a tougher time finding buyers. The turmoil in the financial markets appears to be keeping clients from doling out $50,000 for Sternfeld's 5-foot-by-7-foot (1.5-by-2.1-meter) works exhibited at Luhring Augustine gallery in Chelsea, New York's hub for contemporary art.

``The response has been slow,'' says Natalia Sacasa, the gallery's senior director. Six out of 13 works have sold since the show opened on Sept. 6. ``There isn't the frenzy we all have become accustomed to.''

In Chelsea, sales are more sluggish and art buyers increasingly cautious as the financial sector reels from losses. While dealers say it's too early to tell whether the art bubble has burst, there are signs that the market is becoming more attractive for buyers and less favorable to sellers.

``My clients are sitting tight and they want to see what happens in the next six to eight months,'' says Cristina Delgado, a New York-based art adviser. ``The prices for young and emerging artists have to come down to adjust to a new economic reality.''

Joel Sternfeld, East Meadows, Northampton, Massachussetts, 2006

And the verdict is...

A huge success for Hirst and Sotheby's - on the same two days in which we witnessed the horrifying plummet of the US financial markets and collapse of some of our largest investment institutions, the world's highest paid living artist broke auction records for the sale of his work, as reported in Artinfo.com, a net of $200 million dollars. Unbelievable!! And what a precedent he has set, for himself, his gallery, and other single-artist auction sales to follow, as well as a reassurance to all that the art market is still strong and standing.

Now, our eyes turn to the major New York sales coming up later this Fall:

November 11, Contemporary evening sale, Sotheby's
November 12, Contemporary day sale, Sotheby's

November 12, Post-War & Contemporary evening sale, Christie's
November 13, Post-War & Contemporary morning and afternoon sales, Christie's

Stay tuned...

Damien Hirst, Psalm 31: In Te, Domine, Speravi, 2008

In other news

Philippe Vergne started work today as the new director of the Dia Art Foundation. His first order of business, according to an interview he gave ARTnews this month, will be to find a permanent exhibition site within Manhattan, after its Chelsea galleries shut down in 2004. Vergne is the successor to Michael Govan, who left Dia in 2006 in order to head up LACMA and revitalize their contemporary collection. All eyes will be on him to see if he can fulfill the foundation's longstanding wish to have a permanent presence in NYC in addition to its world-renowned contemporary art space in Beacon. His biggest challenge may be funding, as Dia's largest benefactor and board chairman (who donated the $30 million necessary to purchase the Nabisco warehouse in Beacon) has also recently departed. Hopefully other patrons will rally around this remarkable foundation to assist in its reestablishment in NYC, after the gift of Beacon to those of us in the art world who have never seen contemporary art installed so perfectly - in the context of immense space, tranquility, and minimalism - the way it should be viewed. Best wishes and good luck!!

More buzz about the Hirst auction

The sale is expected to net $120 million, but will anything short of that amount signal a larger decline in the art market? And what does it mean that Hirst is auctioning off new works, made within the last 2 years, as opposed to selling them through a gallery? I wonder how White Cube feels about it.

Market Boom

Life is ironic. Business had been slow for almost a year at the art advising company at which I worked in San Francisco, following the tragic death of one of our busiest and most beloved clients. But yet we carried on, eagerly anticipating the next major painting to be offered our remaining clients by a dealer, and wrapping up the installation of our largest corporate contemporary art collection. Paintings and other artworks came to our attention in bits and spurts, and when they did, we were elated and quickly became busy with the art (and minutiae) of making the deal; and when they didn't, we returned to reorganizing our library and assembling private collection catalogues. Then in 2005, when I reluctantly left the company in order to begin the cross-country move with my husband, the art world witnessed the biggest market boom in recent history - the Chinese art explosion. And I missed it, entirely.

So for the past several years I've been reading, watching, and keeping an eye on the evolution of the art world in China, and in Barbara Pollack's current article in this month's ARTnews she gives a good synopsis of the major developments. Following are some of the artists whom she references as being the most successful at auction, along with an example of their work:

Yue Minjun:


Zhang Xiaogang:


Liu Ziodong:


Liu Ye:


And finally Zeng Fanzhi, the most successful at auction, with Mask Series No. 6 (1996) selling at Christie's Hong Kong this past May for $9.6 million, the highest price ever paid for a Chinese contemporary work:


Hard to believe that Fanzhi's paintings - a mere 5 years ago - sold for under $50,000. Talk about a boom indeed.

The conversation about price speculation and the ensuing role of the 1,600 auction houses on mainland China, the tidal wave of artists in mass becoming elevated without critical review and selection, and the anticipated next steps of buyers in China beginning to look overseas for contemporary artwork continues to fascinate me.

First Up

Love him or hate him (I'm still not sure) the work of Damien Hirst is first up for auction this month. Titled "Beautiful Inside my Head Forever", the sale will be held at Sotheby's in London, with evening sale scheduled for September 15. A recent article by Time Magazine art blogger Richard Lacayo includes an interview with Hirst where the artist talks about his infamous and terrifying glass tank works and influence of Francis Bacon.

Hirst is one of the most sought-after artists in the current art market and his works are among the most lucrative for today's auction houses. The sale should be note-worthy especially because some of these pieces we've never seen before, including several original paintings and butterfly collages that appear to be a progression of his assistant-produced spin paintings. Stay tuned.