New Art Drives $1 Billion Fall Auctions in @wsj by @kellycrowWSJ #ContemporaryArt #Art

  • NOVEMBER 12, 2011

By KELLY CROW

The art market may be entering another Blue Period—as in blue chips. The major fall art auctions that concluded Thursday in New York fell slightly in terms of total sales from a year ago, but collectors and investors looking to store their cash in art found plenty of useful trophies this time around.

New York's chief auction houses, Sotheby's and Christie's International, brought in about $1 billion combined from their semiannual sales of Impressionist, modern and contemporary art, a total short of last fall's $1.1 billion mark but nearly double the tally two years ago. While stocks have been volatile—peaking in April and then experiencing ups and downs amid worries about recession and European debt default—the art market has held relatively steady.

[ICONS auctions]Sotheby's

Gerhard Richter's '92 'Abstract Painting' sold for $14.1 million, over its $7.5 million high estimate, at Sotheby's.

Sotheby's handily won this round by selling $599.8 million, besting Christie's $496.3 million total. Sotheby's secret lay mainly in newer art: On Wednesday, Sotheby's $315.8 million evening sale of contemporary art eclipsed the house's entire two-day sale of older artists like Pablo Picasso held the week before.

Dealers said that with so many Impressionist masterpieces in museums now, collectors seeking marquee pieces must scour 20th-century offerings instead.

With so much demand for contemporary art, here are a few lessons learned:

THE RARER, THE BETTER

Clyfford Still, an Abstract Expressionist known for covering his canvases in serrated strips of color, rarely turns up at auction. That partly explains why collectors lined up to pay Sotheby's $114 million for a quartet of his paintings sold by the city of Denver to raise funds for the artist's new namesake museum there.

The priciest of the Still paintings, "1949-A-No. 1," sold to a telephone bidder for $61.7 million—besting its $35 million high estimate and setting a record for the artist. A phone bidder paid $31.4 million for Still's "1947-Y-No. 2."

A rare, early comic-style painting by Roy Lichtenstein—the 1961 "I Can See the Whole Room … and There's Nobody in It!" sold at Christie's to private dealer Guy Bennett for a record $43.2 million, over its $35 million high estimate.

ArtAuctionjpg

RICHTER RISING

German painter Gerhard Richter has also emerged as a market force to be reckoned with alongside Picasso, Willem de Kooning and Andy Warhol. Mr. Richter is best known for his quiet, photorealistic depictions of candles, but prices are ticking up now for his "Abstract Painting" series, in which he uses a squeegee to scrape over layers of colorful paint.

On Wednesday, Sotheby's tested his global appeal by offering seven of these abstracts—and sold them back to back. Mr. Richter's fuschia-blue "Abstract Painting," a wall-sized work from 1997, sold for a record $20.8 million, over its $12 million high estimate. His neon-hued "Abstract Painting" from 1992 sold for $14.1 million, over its $7.5 million high estimate. The total haul: $74 million, way over the $16 million the house got for seven Warhols in this sale.

To be sure, Warhol's prices in any sale hinge on rarity and quality, and Christie's got $16.3 million alone for his 1963 "Silver Liz" on Tuesday.

RECORD APPEAL

Besides Mr. Richter, collectors also reset the high bar for at least 22 other artists this time around, including Louise Bourgeois, whose 1996 "Spider" bronze sold at Christie's for a record $10.7 million, and Joan Mitchell, whose untitled abstract sold for a record $9.3 million at Sotheby's. Andreas Gursky's serene river view, "Rhein II," also became the world's priciest photograph when Christie's sold it for $4.3 million, taking over a title long held by Cindy Sherman.

 

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an example of selective appropriate "prunning" of collection for the greater good

Denver Museum
The work was one of four Stills consigned by the City of Denver that raised a total of $114.1 million for the endowment of the Clyfford Still Museum, which opens in Denver next week. The reclusive artist died in 1980.
Three of the works were completed in the 1940s and one in 1976. The top lot, in deep reds and velvety blacks, more than doubled its presale low estimate of $25 million.
During his life, Still sold very little and frequently rejected exhibition opportunities. His will stipulated that the estate be given in its entirety to a U.S. city willing to establish a permanent museum housing his work alone.Denver Museum
The work was one of four Stills consigned by the City of Denver that raised a total of $114.1 million for the endowment of the Clyfford Still Museum, which opens in Denver next week. The reclusive artist died in 1980.
Three of the works were completed in the 1940s and one in 1976. The top lot, in deep reds and velvety blacks, more than doubled its presale low estimate of $25 million.
During his life, Still sold very little and frequently rejected exhibition opportunities. His will stipulated that the estate be given in its entirety to a U.S. city willing to establish a permanent museum housing his work alone.