Phillips de Pury saleroom photo by ArtObserved

On Thursday night, boutique auction house Phillips de Pury & Co. hosted the final Contemporary Art Evening Sale in a blockbuster week for the art market. Tallying $79.9 million against its projected estimate of $73 to $110 million, Phillips de Pury’s Chief Executive Officer, Michael McGinnis, stated “we’re happy with the competition and prices,” especially after the third consecutive night of Contemporary Art sales. McGinnis reflected on the evening saying ” it was a small and deliberate sale, with works specifically chosen to compliment the week.”

Andy Warhol Mao courtesy Phillips de Pury & Co.

Despite achieving just over its low estimates for the sale, Phillips de Pury had a sell by value of 98% and a sell by lot of 83%. With a very carefully selected 35 lots offered, only six artworks failed to find a buyer. However, all of the lots had third party guarantees, of which there were five guarantors.

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Sotheby’s saleroom with Rothko, No 1 (Royal Red and Blue) photo by ArtObserved

Last night Sotheby’s held its highest grossing auction ever. The Contemporary Art Evening Sale totaled over $375 million, just over the projected high estimate of $374 million. Auctioneer Tobias Meyer rejoiced stating “I can hardly express how thrilled we are.” According to Sotheby’s, it has experienced a record-breaking year in 2012, with Contemporary Art sales totaling over $1 billion.

Rothko, No 1 (Royal Red and Blue) Courtesy Sotheby’s
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Last week, a Gerhard Richter from the collection of Eric Clapton set a record as being the most expensive work by a living artist to be sold at auction. Now, Sotheby’s, who sold that painting, is offering another 1990s Richter, also called “Abstract Painting,” in its November 13th New York sale. The presale estimate is $16 million, according to the WSJ. There are 65 paintings from this series that are 6 feet or higher, with 1/3 of these large pieces in museum collections. The auction will also offer major Abstract Expressionist works, such as  Mark Rothko‘s No. 1 (Royal Red and Blue) from 1954 and a 1951 Jackson Pollock drip painting.

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Image: Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes Bild, 1994 via Sotheby’s
Estimate: £9,000,000 – 12,000,000
Sold for: £21,321,250

Sotheby’s just concluded its evening Postwar & Contemporary sale in London on October 12th with a sale total of £44,146,350 ($70,793,087),  the highest total of the three auction houses this week.

Gerhard Richter’s Abstraktes Bild, 1994 from the collection of Eric Clapton set a record price at £21,321,250 ($34,297,363). Alongside this work, the second cover lot of the sale was Yves Klein’s RE 9-I from the artist’s most sought-after series: the Relief éponge, which sold for  £3,737,250 with premium.

Image: Yves Klein, RE 9-I, 1961 via Sotheby’s
Estimate: £2,000,000 – 3,000,000
Sold for: £3,737,250

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Gerhard Richter (b. 1932), 5 Türen II (5 Doors II) via Christie’s
Sold for: £2,169,250 ($3,466,462)
Estimate: £1,500,000 – £2,000,000 ($2,397,000 – $3,196,000)

Postwar & Contemporary Evening Sale
Christie’s Post-War & Contemporary Art Evening Auction on October 11th realized a sale total, including buyer’s premium, of  £23,177,900 ($37,158,809) with 47 of 64 lots sold. The Evening Auction featured three artists whose work has not previously been included in an evening sale: Idris Khan, Rebecca Warren and Jonathan Wateridge.  It also included a group of important self-portraits by Martin Kippenberger that include his seminal work on canvas Untitled (from the series Hand-Painted Pictures), twelve self-portraits on paper and his sculpture Immer an der Wand Beißen bei Susan.  Also notable was Gerhard Richter’s 5 Türen II (above), a masterwork from 1967 which has never been at auction or offered privately. 5 Türen II is related in theme to 5 Türen I (1967), which is at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne.  The auction also highlighted figurative sculpture from the early 80s onward.

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Image: Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes Bild, 1977
oil on canvas, 78 3/4 x 118 1/8 in
ESTIMATE £2,500,000 – 3,500,000
SOLD AT £2,449,250

Phillips de Pury & Co. realized £12,223,600 ($19,565,094) in its Contemporary Evening sale in London on October 10th, with 24 of 37 lots sold. Notable sales were a Basquiat entitled Big Joy from 1984, sold just above its low estimate at £2,617,250 including premium ($4,189,170), and a Gerhard Richter Abstraktes Bild from 1977, which sold for £2,449,250 ($3,920,269), with a presale estimate of £2,500,000-3,500,000 ($4,001,500 – $5,602,100). (more…)

The Wall Street Journal provides a comprehensive outlook on the state of the art market, from Old Masters to Contemporary as dealers head into Frieze and auction week in London. There is a certain polarization with multi-million dollar pieces in high demand and emerging work less so. The article discusses how the most speculative sector of the art market is work from 1945-onward, which saw a 66% drop during the recession but has rebounded, especially in the case of artists like Gerhard Richter. (more…)

Image: Installation view, Gerhard Richter, PAINTING 2012, Marian Goodman Gallery. All photos by Maya Steward unless otherwise noted.

“The status of painting in [Richter’s] new works is figured as exceptionally fragile, yet it is powerfully formulated in its assimilation to its technological challenges, as though painting was once again on the wane under the impact of technological innovations,” writes Benjamin H.D. Buchloch of Gerhard Richter’s new works on view in the exhibition PAINTING 2012 at Marian Goodman Gallery. Working within the realm of digital imaging, Richter redefines the concept of painting once again, challenging the traditional application and boldly ascertaining both its methods and practice.

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Image: Warhol’s Cow Wallpaper and Silver Pillows, The New York Times

“Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years” is a group show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that juxtaposes fifty Warhol works with one hundred of those by his peers and successors. The show attempts to capture the scope and breadth of Warhol’s impact on contemporary art history. Presented 25 years after his death at the age of 58 in 1987, the exhibition showcases the works of both artists who have risen to fame after Warhol’s death as well that of his contemporaries. Some of the artists included are Maurizio Cattelan, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, Robert Gober, Takashi Murakami, Cindy Sherman, Ed Ruscha, Alex Katz, Anselm Kiefer and Gerhard Richter.

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Eric Clapton consigns a Gerhard Richter Abstraktes Bild to Sotheby’s for £9-12 M, ($14MM – $18 MM). The work is a large scale piece from 1994, one of a series of four (number 809-4 in the catalogue raisonné). The auction takes place on October 12th at Sotheby’s London.

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An image of Gerhard Richter‘s “Ema”, part of an exhibition currently at the Pompidou Center, was censored by Facebook, sparking a debate on art and internet filters.  The image has since been re-posted.

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Yves Klein,  Le Rose du bleu (1960) which sold for £23.5 million (£3.5 million over its high estimate)

Last night in London, Christie’s Post-War & Contemporary Art Evening Auction experienced a stellar sale. Totaling £132.8 million against an expected excess of  £120 million, it was the highest grossing contemporary art sale in Europe. Achieving sales with an 87% sell-through rate and 98% sold by value – Christie’s sold all but 9 on it’s 71 lots – save for the 2 withdrawn. Four of the lots sold above £10 million, and five lots boosted over $10 million. Christie’s Head of Post-War & Contemporary Art, Europe, Francis Outred, was quoted in a post-sale press release: “Following the record result achieved at Christie’s New York in May, we are delighted with tonight results which established a new record for an auction of Post-War & Contemporary Art in Europe… Overall we brought together consignments from four continents, reached buyers on four continents and benefitted from a depth and strength of bidding from across the room and on the phone.”

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Shot of the Contemporary Art Evening Auction. Image courtesy of Sotheby’s.

Last night in London, Sotheby’s demonstrated a sound Contemporary Art Evening Sale, with sales totaling £69 million, against an estimate of £57-82 million. They possessed a good sell-through rate at 87.3% by lot and 93.4% by value. In a press release, Cheyenne Westphal, Sotheby’s Chairman of Contemporary Art Europe, was quoted: “The auction this evening was led by blue-chip artists, such as Bacon, Basquiat, Richter and Lichtenstein… With buyers from 15 different countries, the global demand for this area of the market continues to be underlined.” Despite the overall formidable sales of last night, Sotheby’s did not receive quite the same reception as it did in its evening auction in New York in the Spring.

Glenn Brown, The Tragic Conversion of Salvador Dalí (After John Martin) (1998), which sold for £5.2 million with an estimate of £2.2-2.8 million

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Yves Klein, Le Rose du bleu (RE 22) (1960)

This week in London, the focus will shift towards Contemporary Art, for the second consecutive week of  summer auctions. According to the Telegraph, these contemporary sales hold the highest pre-sale estimates ever offered by the London houses. Total sales expected from Sotheby’s range from £57.51 – 82.48 million, while Christie’s are in excess of £120 million. Last week’s Impressionist and Modern Sales were more subdued than the record breaking auctions held in New York this past May. Based upon these record pre-sale estimates, there may be similar hopes for this week’s round of sales.

Yves Klein, Rélief éponge bleu (RE 51) (1959)

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A Gerhard Richter piece sold for $20-25 million, so far leading the sales at Art Basel. 1986 “A.B. Courbet” was purchased by an unidentified collector.

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Sotheby’s staff preparing for the sale. Photos on site for Art Observed by Aubrey Roemer unless otherwise noted.

After Tuesday night’s multi-record breaking sale at Christie’s, last night’s Contemporary Evening Sale at Sotheby’s seemed to hold a somewhat lower energy, possibly a result of the second consecutive week of auctions and fairs wearing on the collectors. Yet the sale totaled $266 million—within Sotheby’s pre-sale estimate of $215–300 million—a number considerably higher than last May’s Contemporary Evening Sale total of $128 million. Seven of the artworks sold at more than $10 million, and there was an overall sell-through rate of 80.7%. In a post-sale press conference, Sotheby’s Head of Contemporary Art, Alex Rotter, commented “the market is very healthy with active bidding.”

Tobias Meyer giving a press talk about the sale. (more…)

Andy Warhol,  Double Elvis [Feris Type] (1963)

On the heels of a tireless and groundbreaking week in the New York art world, the fervor continues with the major auction houses hosting their Contemporary Art Sales—beginning tonight at Christie’s. Last week’s Impressionist and Modern Art Sales saw unforeseen prices and several world records set, namely the near $120 million paid for Edvard Munch‘s The Scream. In tandem with both the Frieze Art Fair and NADA Art Fairs’ inaugural New York editions—both held this past weekend—the Contemporary Sales possess an auspicious platform this season. The strength of last week’s sales proves the collectors’ attention to the trophy market, with many big ticket and highly recognizable works on the block this week.

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‪‬Six works by Gerhard Richter from 1968–93 to be auctioned at Christie’s Post-War and Contemporary Sale on May 8 in New York, “With an aggregate low estimate of almost $40 million, the six works are primed to be a landmark event in the Richter market.”

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Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes Bild at Galerie Sho Booth, Pier 92

On the third and final day of the Armory Show 2012 both spirits and sales were high amongst the 228 exhibitors. Besides the notable success of David Zwirner’s solo booth by Michael Riedel, which sold out entirely in the first 30 minutes of the fair, many of the other galleries also benefited from the sales of their high-ticket items throughout the three-day exhibition. Art Observed spoke with representatives from various exhibitors including the Susan Sheehan Gallery, Spanierman Modern, Meredith Ward Fine Art, Art in General, Sprüth Magers, and the Gary Snyder Gallery. (more…)

‪‬Gerhard Richter’s auction sales reached $200 million last year, while the artist remains humble, says Robert Storr, dean of the Yale School of Art, “Richter doesn’t want to be the next king, but he has taken painting farther than just about anyone else” [AO Newslink]

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‪Gerhard Richter Painting trailer is released: “To talk about painting is not only difficult but perhaps pointless too, because you can only express in words what words are capable of expressing.” [AO Newslink]

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‪‬Gerhard Richter retrospective walk-through at Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie canceled due paparazzi mob, one day after the artist’s 80th birthday [AO Newslink]

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