London Frieze Week evening sales bring in $210.5 million – ARTnews.com

Last week, when the Frieze London Art Gallery in Regents Park was underway, Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips held mid-season evening sales of modern and contemporary art. Together, the combined auctions brought in $210.5 million with a premium.

All three sales came in just above the combined lower estimate of £136.1 million ($154 million), representing a solid performance despite looming economic challenges.

The sale of Christie’s white gloves is reassuring

Tranquility reigned in the middle market at Christie’s sales hall on a Thursday afternoon, when sales of 20th and 21st century artworks saw buyers sell 47 pieces after three pieces were pulled. The sale brought in a total of 72.5 million pounds ($82.2 million), including buyer’s premium, topping its high estimate of 55.8 million pounds.

According to the auction house’s aftermarket statement, about 60 percent of bids came from Europe, the Middle East and Africa, while another 23 percent came from bidders based in the Asia Pacific region. The afternoon sale was set up to accommodate Hong Kong auctioneers in the evening and US collectors in the early morning hours.

Christie’s sale tops David Hockney’s serene seascape Early morning Saint-Maxime (1968-1969). Attracting multiple bidders, the pink and blue sunset scene came in at £18m (£20.8m with fees), topping its high estimate of £10m ($11.4m). The work, which was last seen at auction in 1988 when it sold at Christie’s for $352,000, went to a telephone bidder with Hong Kong-based Christie’s specialist Christian Albo.

A new work by Tracy Emin sent by the artist for her newly established art school in Margate was among the highlights of the sale. Painting titled Like a cloud of blood (2022), for £2.3 million ($2.57 million), which is just below the current auction record and just above the low estimate of £500,000. The sale sparked a round of applause from the room’s audience.

Scott Kahn’s 1992 painting croquet A quiet scene depicting a waterside estate next to a grass croquet court attracted 12 presenters to phone shows. The painting sold for more than six times its low estimate, amounting to £630,000. ($715,000). The mysterious 76-year-old American artist has been the subject of a comeback after a recent solo show at Almine Rech. Despite the hype among the bidders, the price failed to surpass the artist’s auction record of $1.4 million during Christie’s sale in Hong Kong in May 2022.

The second part of the afternoon was a sale dedicated to works from the Robert Devereux Collection. Of the 73 works that reached the auction arena, eight new records were set by artists including Hybrids, aliens and ghosts (2013), Transfer work in ink, enamel and dye on paper invoking the existence of an extraterrestrial planet, by Ruby Oninishi Amanzi, sold for £17,000 (£21,420 with fee), for an estimate of £5,000 ($5,700).

Exiting MoMA, Francis Bacon tops Sotheby’s Sale

At Sotheby’s the next day, two consecutive London sales dedicated to contemporary art brought in £96.1 million ($107.4 million). After the pieces were pulled, the sale exceeded a revised low pre-sale estimate of 80.8 million pounds ($89 million) and achieved the highest total for an Evening Frieze sale since 2015.

The sale was a main painting of Francis Bacon triptych Three studies of the portrait of Henrietta Moraes (1963) which came from the collection of late New York media magnate William Paley AMD has been on long-term loan to the Museum of Modern Art for three decades since Paley’s death. The Bali Foundation sold the work for the museum and the other charitable causes it had historically funded. The work amounted to a $23 million bid, which went to a client by phone with New York Contemporary Art Chairman Gregoire Bellault.

Among the bestsellers of the night that came to the auction arena with institutional allure was Gerhard Richter 192 farbin (1966), one of his early ‘colour-graphic’ abstract paintings which was on long-term loan to Hamburger Art Hall from 1997 to 2022. Backed by a third-party financial guarantee, the work went to a final price of £18.3 million (20.5 million pounds). million) after attracting three bidders. It outperformed its estimate of £13m by a solid margin.

After the first part of the night was the sale of “Now,” a segment dedicated to showcasing the work of in-demand emerging talent. The canvas of the rising painter Flora Yuknovich nobody puts Baby in the corner It sold for 1.6 million pounds ($1.8 million) for a high estimate of 700,000 pounds ($784,000).

A record in the main sale was set by Frank Auerbach, whose portrait of a woman, Head JYM (1984-1985), sold for 5.64 million pounds ($6.3 million), beating the previous artist’s record of 4 million pounds ($5 million) set in June at Sotheby’s. Austrian painter Kiki Kujlnick also saw a new price difference, when her 1964 abstract and figurative paintings Semper Power Tuo It sold for £207,900 (US$230,873) to bidder in the room. The artist is the subject of a prospective retrospective opening in Vienna next year.

Other records were set for Julian Nguyen, Charlene von Hill and Caroline Walker.

Emerging name records located in Phillips

Phillips made £18.7 million ($20.9 million) during the week of the 20th Century Frieze and Contemporary Art Evening Sale in London on Friday, a direct result within pre-sale forecasts of £14.8 million to £21 million ($16.5 million to 23.5 million). million) and with a sales rate of 94 percent.

The record was set by Michaela Yearwood Dunn, Robert Nava, Caroline Walker and Doron Langberg as the house continued to promote its reputation for bringing new talent into general sales.

It was the upper part of the evening for Alberto Puri Sako i Russo (1956), which sold for £3 million ($3.4 million). Banksy ranked second in terms of sales Sorry, the lifestyle you requested is not currently available (2012), which grossed £1.8 million ($2 million).

Records are set by artists such as British painter Michaela Yearwood Dunn. her abstract canvas Cooperation Mechanisms (2021) sold for £239,400 ($267.400) to a buyer based in Japan. The result was more than five times the previous record set at Philips in London last June and eight times the amount of 30,000 pounds ($33,500).

A noir outdoor scene in 2017 of the apartment home of Scottish-born painter Caroline Walker, known primarily for her paintings of women in private, sparked a bidding war during the Phillips sale. night scenes It sold for 516,600 pounds ($577,000), five times its low estimate. The score was quickly surpassed at Sotheby’s in the following hours when another Palm Springs-inspired painting by Walker from 2015 titled Indoor and Outdoor It sold for 529,200 pounds ($587,677), beating a low estimate of 60,000 pounds ($68,000).

A graphic painting of two men in a home scene by Israeli-born artist Doron Langberg entitled Nir and Zack (2018) set a new artist record when it sold for £378,000 ($422,200). The result was more than triple the previous record of 163,800 pounds ($186,000) set earlier this year.