In a single week, Christie’s has sold over $1 billion in art, a daunting feat that signals a new level for the global market perhaps never seen before.  “It’s a spectacle of excess at the highest level,” says Abigail Asher of Guggenheim Asher Associates Inc. “The last few years have been building up to this moment. A new class of buyer has entered the market and they’re prepared to pay staggering sums for trophy pictures.”   (more…)

“Born in the Bronx”, Installation View. All photos Anna Corrigan for Art Observed.

Now through August 1, Gavin Brown’s Enterprise is presenting a trio of diverse works by Oliver Payne & Nick Relph, a video piece by the gallerist himself, and an exhibit of Afrika Bambaataa’s record collection surveying of the roots of hip-hop in the Bronx.  The exhibits speak to the process of emptying shelves and opening closets, placing the material details that one collects over a lifetime on view. In equal measure, the works illustrate a history, at once intimately personal and indicative of the larger movement of time and material legacy.

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Bloomberg examines the record sale of Tracey Emin’s My Bed at Christie’s this past month, and notes its success as part of a growing trend towards higher prices for female artists on the secondary market. “Historical corrections are in vogue,” says  former Christie’s exec Amy Cappellazzo. “There are more women artists who are getting their due.” (more…)

Camille Pissarro, Le Boulevard Montmartre, Matinée De Printemps (1897), via Sotheby’s

With the closing hammer at Sotheby’s last night, another set of impressive evening sales for Impressionist and Modernist Art, with a number of longstanding auction records falling in a flurry of bids.  The continued strength of the market could be felt across the board, but the week was particularly auspicious for Christie’s, which secured an astounding $288.13 million sale for its 48 lots, the highest sale for an auction ever in London, while Sotheby’s achieved $104.4 million for its 90 lot offering.   (more…)

Artnet’s Katherine Markley is reporting on the continued growth of the art market for contemporary female artists, focusing in particular on the work of Yayoi Kusama.  Analyzing sales figures for the last several years, Markley points out that Kusama has vastly exceeded the current sales figures for both Damien Hirst and Jeff Koons since 2007, and reframes the question of female artists’ presence in terms of comparison to direct market competitors, in favor of the 100 highest selling works list often cited in news articles and auction reports. (more…)