By KELLY CROW
After a summer marked by uneven sales, Sotheby's in New York plans to anchor its major November auctions with a pair of brand-name stalwarts: Mark Rothko and Pablo Picasso.
In a season of art-market uncertainty, Sotheby's plans to anchor its big fall auction series in New York this November with a pair of brand-name stalwarts: Mark Rothko and Pablo Picasso. Kelly Crow has details on Lunch Break.
John Marion, a former Sotheby's president, and his wife, Anne, a Texas oil heiress and major collector of modern art, have enlisted the auction house to help them sell Mark Rothko's "No. 1 (Royal Red and Blue)," a 1954 abstract that depicts a trio of fuzzy-edged red, pink and blue rectangles stacked atop a rose background.
Sotheby's
Rothko's 'No. 1' will kick off Sotheby's November auctions in New York
Sotheby's didn't name the sellers but dealers say the work is widely known to belong to the Marions. The house expects to sell it Nov. 13 for $35 million to $50 million.
Rothko is a master of Abstract Expressionism, and his midcentury meditations on color and modernism have sold well in good times and bad: At the market's last peak in 2007, one of his 1950 abstracts sold at Sotheby's for $72.8 million. Four months ago, Christie's in New York topped that record-setting price by getting $86.8 million for a 1961 Rothko, "Orange, Red, Yellow." That work was only priced to sell for up to $45 million.
Rothko created more than 800 paintings before he died in 1970. Today, the size and color of these pieces play a big role in his asking prices—the bigger and more sunset-colored the painting, the better, dealers say. The example Sotheby's is offering stands 9½ feet tall, eclipsing the current record holder by nearly 2 feet. The jewel-toned hues in "No. 1" are also saturated rather than pale. From a distance, it evokes a distilled seascape.
Sotheby's
Picasso's 'Woman at the Window (Marie-Thérèse)'
In a realm where museum appearances can also alter a work's value, "No. 1" can claim to be one of eight pieces created for "Recent Paintings by Mark Rothko," a major solo show at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1954. Other examples from that same exhibit have since changed hands at auction for as much as $17.3 million apiece. Several more now belong to museums, such as the Phillips Collection in Washington and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.
Abstract Expressionists like Rothko and Clyfford Still are seeing higher prices now in part because of renewed bidding from U.S. collectors, said Sotheby's specialist Tobias Meyer. Before the recession, Mr. Meyer said, these collectors mostly sat on the sidelines, unable to compete with bidders from Russia and the Middle East. But in the past year, Americans have returned. "The sticker shock is gone," he said.
Sotheby's said a highlight of its Nov. 5 sale of Impressionist and modern art will be Picasso's rainbow-hued portrait of the artist's mistress, "Woman at the Window (Marie-Thérèse)." The 1936 work, which is priced to sell for $15 million to $20 million, remained with the artist until his death in 1973. Its current seller, who remains anonymous, has owned it for the past three decades, Sotheby's said.
Write to Kelly Crow at kelly.crow@wsj.com
A version of this article appeared September 21, 2012, on page D5 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Looking Out for 'No. 1'.
via online.wsj.com