newsfromchristies201110

Post-War & Contemporary auctions held in London, this October, by the three main auction houses, has showed that there is significant activity in this segment of the market when works of quality are presented with realistic estimates.

Christie's Post-War & Contemporary Art Evening and Day Sale auction, at King Street, in London, on October 14th and 15th, totaled £47,485,225 (US$71,936,715 - including premium). The evening auctions of Post-War & Contemporary Art Auction and The Italian Sale realised a combined total of £55,630,000 / $87,672,880 / €63,473,83, the second highest total for an October sale in London. Whereas the Post-War & Contemporary Art day auction totaled £9,414,875 / $14,837,843.

With three lots on the top ten prices of the Evening Sale, the German visual artist Gerhard Richter (b. 1932) confirmed another market principle: a good exhibition helps to sell an artist, but a major retrospective helps even further - Tate Modern had opened Gerhard Richter: Panorama the week before (from 6 October 2011 to 8 January 2012). The first two lots with the highest price at the evening auction were Kerze (Candle) (1982, Lot 10) and Abstraktes Bild (1992, Lot 23), both by Richter. The first piece, bought by an anonymous for £10,457,250 (US$16,480,626 / ) (estimate £6,000,000 - 9,000,000) established a world record prices for the artist at auction; the second work achieved £3,625,250 (US$5,713,394 / €4,136,410) (estimate £3,500,000 - 3,500,000); while Abstraktes Bild (1988, Lot 1) went to a private European collector for £1,026,850 (US$1,618,316 / €1,171,636) (estimate £500,000 - 700,000).Angel of the North, a life-size maquette made in 1996 became a world record price for Antony Gormley (b. 1950) at auction: £3,401,250 (US$5,360,370 / €3,880,826) (estimate £1,500,000 - 2,000,000); while Martin Kippenberger's (1953-1997), Untitled (1990), which was bought for £1,329,250 (US$2,094,898 / €1,516,674) (400% higher than the minimum price estimate £250,000), achieved a world auction record for a sculpture by the artist.

On the Day Sale the “auction produced solid results and saw strong prices for a broad and international range of living international artists, as highlighted by the top 10 prices of the sale", said Carolyn Hodler and Edward Tang (Co-Heads of the Sale). If there were anywhere but desert. Thursday, a work by Ugo Rondinone (1963), which the artists executed in 2000, was sold for £505,250 (estimate £250,000 - 350,000).

Christie's London :
Post-War & Contemporary Art (Sale 7990 and 7991), Oct. 14 and 15 2011. Auction Result £65,044,875 (with the Italian Sale)
Post-War & Contemporary Art (Sale 7914 and 7873), Oct. 14 and 15 2010. Auction Result £45,253,137 (with the Italian Sale)
Post-War & Contemporary Art (Sale 7758 and 7756), Oct. 16 and 17 2009. Auction Result £20,523,725 (with the Italian Sale)
Post-War & Contemporary Art (Sale 7617 and 7619), Oct. 19 and 21 2008. Auction Result £49,115,350 (with the Italian Sale)
Post-War & Contemporary Art (Sale 7425 and 7487), Oct. 14 and 16 2007. Auction Result £58,719,475 (with the Italian Sale)

Art market continuing recovery

The Post-War & Contemporary Art sale held last Wednesday, September 14th, by London Christie's, in South Kensington, achieve a final figure of £2,882,100 ($4,524,897/€3,317,297) for 176 lots (264 lots were on sale). "A considerable increase on the equivalent sale in September 2010, resulting in a record year for the category at Christie’s South Kensington saleroom - £6,221,400 for the two annual sales combined", said Darren Leak, Christie's Specialist and Head of Sale. Cildo Meireles (b. 1948), Jogo de Velha Serie C 8A (Tic-Tac-Toe Serie C 8A), 1997 (estimate £60,000-£80,000), achieved the second highest price for the artist at an auction. The installation composed by yellow wooden rulers arranged into nine squares on masonite went for £181,250 ($284,563/€208,619), for a South American private. Meireles' painted four X's in black and five O's in an identical yellow on each square. Like so many other pieces this is a political work, it «visually engages the viewer through the visual tension between the daubed markings and the details of the rulers ... The X's almost appear like targets and themes from his earlier political works are discernable. With the rulers one cannot help seeing the oppressive force in the need to measure and corral.» Jan Fabre (b. 1958), The Battle in the Hour Blue, 1989 (estimate £12,000-£18,000), was bought by an European trader for £169,250 ($265,723/€194,807), also the second highest price for the artist at an auction. The sales to be held during Frieze Art Fair, in London, next month, and the upcoming season in New York, in November, would clearly indicate if the art market for Post-War and Contemporary art is in a continuation of the recovery, since the 2009 crisis, or, instead, owners may hold off selling, with obvious impacts on auctions results and on the market liquid capacity.

On the previous day, at the Rockefeller Plaza (New York), Christie's held an auction dedicated to South Asian Modern & Contemporary Art , which was flooded by works by the recently deceased Maqbool Fida Husain (b. 1915, died in London on June 9). Twelve paintings and one watercolour by the Picasso of India counted for almost 60% ($4,222,750) of the final sales ($7,375,775), from over more than one hundred lots on sale. The artist dead clearly influenced the developments in, and the
competitiveness of, the art market towards his work.

newsfromchristies201102

Andy Warhol (1929-1987)
Self-Portrait, painted in 1967
with the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board, Inc., stamp and numbered 'A102.103' (on the overlap)
Acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas (182.9x182.9cm)

Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium £10,793,250 _ $17,441,892 _ €12,854,761 (Christie's London, February 16th 2011, Lot 11)
Estimate £3,000,000-£5,000,000
Lot sold to Anonymous

«'The Self-Portrait series of 1967, originally made for the American Pavilion (a huge geodesic dome designed by Buckminster Fuller) at Expo '67 in Montreal, constitutes the images by which Warhol is best known to the public. They came at the point in his career when he had the confidence to accept his status as star and celebrity, as their large, six-foot-by-six-foot scale confirms. They are Warhol's most archetypal projection - as iconic now as his portraits of Marilyn. Yet Warhol still insisted, for himself, on a certain obscurity. Posed with his fingers against the mouth (long a received symbol of contemplation), his face half hidden in shadow, it is Warhol as-observer par excellence: he sees us more clearly than we see him. The mottled paint accentuates the notion of the picture as an impenetrable surface. In their detachment, these 1967 self-portraits avoid direct, self-confident confrontation with the viewer' (K. McShine, 'Introduction', pp. 13-23, McShine (ed.), Andy Warhol: A Retrospective, exh. cat., New York, 1989, pp. 20-21) [...]

Provenance:
_ Property from an American Estate (acquired from the previous owner by the present owner in 1974).
_ Leo Castelli Gallery, New York.

newsfromchristies201011

Christie's New York evening sale of Post-War and Contemporary Art sets 5 new artist records, and realizes US$272,873,000 / £169,181,260 / €199,197,290

Roy LICHTENSTEIN (1923-1997)

Ohhh...Alright..., signed and dated 'rf Lichtenstein '64' (on the reverse)
Oil and magna on canvas, 90.2x96.5cm

Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium US$42,642,500 (£26,438,350) (€31,129,025) (Christie's NY, November 10th 2010, Lot 5)
Lot Sold Anonymous

***WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR ARTIST***

Painted in 1964, Roy Lichtenstein's Ohhh...Alright illustrates the brash comic styling of his most celebrated period of artistic production. As with all his greatest images, Ohhh...Alright...is at once striking and subtle, humorous and highly serious. Lichtenstein lifted the stunning blue-eyed, flame-haired beauty that fills the frame from the pages of a romance comic and rendered it larger-than-life. She forms part of the much admired cast of dreamgirls painted between 1961 and 1965 that saw Lichtenstein attain international prominence as one of America's most exciting and controversial artists. Created in conjunction with his explosive war paintings, these images of love-struck women reflect the artist's formal interest in a generic style of representation, while simultaneously addressing the cultural dichotomy between male and female stereotypes.

The visage of this 1960s sweetheart represents a single panel from a graphic love story that Lichtenstein dilated to the scale of a 36" x 38" easel painting. He presents this image without context, the narrative flow frustratingly incomplete. The solitary, emblematic figure leaves us guessing as to why she looks so crestfallen, as she mutters into the phone clutched at her ear. It captures the Pop master's innate gift for editing, capturing the telling gesture of an emotive moment. In his hands, the subject's corny theatricality has become an image of mystery, where the past and future events of the storyboard can only be surmised. It disrupts our desire to engage with the scenario and forces the viewer to analyse the image on its own terms. The work owes its vivid monumentality to the careful scrutiny and distillation of a pre-existing image selected from thousands of random possibilities. Lichtenstein then adapts his source, removing distracting details, lines, figures, or words to present his compositions with the ultimate clarity. [...]

Andy WARHOL (1928-1987)

Big Campbell's Soup Can with Can Opener (Vegetable), signed and dated 'Andy Warhol 62' (on the stretcher); signed again 'Andy Warhol 62' (on the reverse)
Casein and graphite on linen, 182.9x132.1cm

Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium US$23,882,500 (£14,807,150) (€17,434,225) (Christie's NY, November 10th 2010, Lot 8)
Estimate US$30,000,000-50,000,000
Lot Sold Anonymous

Big Campbell's Soup Can with Can Opener, from the renowned collection of Barney A. Ebsworth, is a highly important and rare early painting by Andy Warhol showing the great icon which quite literally changed the course of Post-War Art: the Campbell's soup can. This large picture dates from early 1962 - it was acquired by Emily and Burton Tremaine, the great collectors, in May of that year, and in July was exhibited at the Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford, becoming the first picture by Warhol to be shown in a museum. There are only ten large scale Campbell soup cans and the majority are in museum collections including the Menil Collection, Houston, the Kunsthaus, Zurich, the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dsseldorf, and two in The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh.

In May 1962, Warhol had been featured in an article alongside three other perceived protagonists of Pop, Roy Lichtenstein, James Rosenquist and Wayne Thiebaud, in an article in Time magazine entitled "The Slice-of-Cake School". In that article, Warhol was shown in his Lexington Avenue studio, eating soup out of a can of Campbell's Scotch Broth, standing next to a group of paintings including Big Campbell's Soup Can with Can Opener. 'I just paint things I always thought were beautiful, things you use every day and never think about. I'm working on soups, and I've been doing some paintings of money. I just do it because I like it' (A. Warhol, quoted in "The Slice-of-Cake School", Time, May 11, 1962, p. 52). It comes as no surprise that, when he was asked in 1977 by Glenn O'Brien what his favorite work was, he said, 'I guess the soup can' (G. O'Brien, 'Interview: Andy Warhol", High Times, August 1977, in K. Goldsmith, ed., I'll Be Your Mirror: The Selected Andy Warhol Interviews: 1962-1987, New York, 2004, p. 242). [...]

Provenance from the renowned collection of the Seattle collector Barney A. Ebsworth, who has owned it since 1987

Jeff KOONS (b. 1955)

Balloon Flower (Blue), executed in 1995-2000
High chromium stainless steel with transparent color coating, 340x285x260cm This work is one of five unique versions (Blue, Magenta, Yellow, Orange and Red).

Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium US$16,882,500 (£10,467,150) (€12,324,225) (Christie's NY, November 10th 2010, Lot 23)
Estimate US$12,000,000-16,000,000
Lot Sold L & M Arts LLC

Balloon Flower (Blue) is a distinctly Koonsian creation, a monumental paean to pleasures of all kinds - sentimental, playful, erotic - which mingles both irony and pure earnestness in equal measure. Based on the type of a balloon toy that would be concocted by a clown or performer to entertain children, Koons transforms this humble source into an immense sculpture that is both formally sophisticated and technically dazzling in its construction. Towering over the viewer, it captivates one's gaze, which is impelled to move ceaselessly across the rhythmically undulating curves of its impossibly glossy metallic surface. Indeed, the polished blue surface captures one's own reflection, so that the viewer and the surrounding environment become an integral part of the work itself. Perpetually inflated and seemingly buoyant thanks to its stainless steel incarnation, the balloon seems to transcend any limitations of time and gravity-as well as taste, in its almost miraculous transformation of a lowly toy into an aesthetically sophisticated sculptural entity. The effect is nothing short of sublime.

This sculpture belongs to Koons's renowned Celebration series begun in the 1990s, comprised of paintings and sculptures dedicated to the trappings of holidays, birthdays and other special occasions, which Koons rendered in glitzy and colorful ways, suggesting a perpetual cycle of happiness and optimism. He was inspired to focus on such subject matter following the birth of his son Ludwig. The innocent, joyous imagery of the Celebration series became especially important to him when he was separated from his son, for he used it as a way to express his love and convey that he was thinking of him. Balloon Flower, for Koons, specifically commemorates the springtime when blossoms begin to grow, and the optimism that accompanies that moment of the year. Alongside other large-scale sculptures in the Celebration series, such as the hanging hearts, diamonds, and balloon dogs, Balloon Flower is distinguished as arguably the most abstract of the entire series. One of five unique colors in this series, the blue Balloon Flower echoes both the common blue shade of balloons, but also the spiritual and ethereal dimensions of the color blue that artists such as Yves Klein famously evoked in their work. Images of flowers have played an especially important role in Koons's work over the course of his career. [...]

Provenance from the Daimler Art Collection

Os objectos do quotidiano contemporâneo

O sapato Marilyn, como metáfora da feminilidade.

Uma metáfora das expectativas e inclinações da feminilidade contemporânea: eis o sapato Marilyn. Esta e outras peças formadas por tachos e tampas em aço inox, às quais são atribuídos nomes de mulheres importantes na cultura popular. Carmen Miranda, por exemplo, é um dos nomes escolhidos por Joana Vasconcelos. As diferentes denominações contribuem para a multiplicidade de significados que as suas obras geram.

Ao explorar assuntos da esfera privada e pública, Joana Vasconcelos debate o papel tradicionalmente reservado à mulher. Conforme questiona, «as panelas são etnografia portuguesa? Não! Os talheres de plástico? Também não! São produtos culturais de uso corrente, são as formas conscientemente ignoradas do nosso quotidiano». E complementa ao afirmar que as suas peças «funcionam como uma ignição para questionar as nossas decisões e afirmações quotidianas.»

No universo artístico, uma das questões é o que a utilização de objectos do quotidiano pode dizer sobre o nosso tempo. Normalmente, esses objectos são usados para análise e estudo, quer pelos arqueólogos, sobre a história humana e através da análise de artefactos, quer pelos sociólogos, sobre o desenvolvimento, estrutura e funcionamento da sociedade humana.

Mas outra das questões é como avaliar quantitativamente uma peça de arte com menos de um ano de existência, quando ainda não teve o tempo necessário para ser inscrita no circuito de validação de obras de arte!

Concebido á menos de um ano, o sapato Marilyn, que está estimado entre 110 mil e 170 mil euros (£100 000-£150 000), é um dos 52 lotes à venda no leilão de arte contemporânea promovido pela casa Christie’s, de Londres, no dia 11 de Fevereiro.

Em Junho de 2009, a peça Coração Independente Dourado (2004) foi vendida em leilão também da Christie’s, por 129 mil euros.

Published at NS'213/IN#109, Mercado da Arte (68), (Diário de Notícias N.º 51439 e Jornal de Notícias N.º 250/122), 6 de Fevereiro de 2010. Portugal Joana Vasconcelos, Marilyn, 2009. Courtesy Christie's 2010