Christie’s and Sotheby’s jumpstarted the fall auction season from September 25–27 with lively sales of contemporary art — known as “midseason” sales — that are increasingly becoming a barometer of the health of the market and reflecting the robust activity at relatively lower five- and six-figure price points.
Christie’s “First Open” sale, aimed primarily at newer buyers, offers key pieces by emerging artists and lesser-known works by established 20th-century names. The sale took in $13.7 million. Of the 399 lots offered, 281, or 70 percent, found buyers. By value, the auction realized 84 percent.
The top lot was Andreas Gursky’s photo diptych, “Pyongyang II” 2007, showing two scenes from North Korea’s annual Arirang Festival. It was followed by Tauba Auerbach’s acrylic on canvas, “Untitled FOLD XVIII,” 2010, which sold for $495,750, making it the second-highest price of the sale, and exceeding the $350,000 high estimate. A new auction record was set for Alfred Jensen when the diptych “Heaven: Per I and II,” 1971, soared to $477,750 on an estimate of $100,000 to $150,000. A bronze sculpture by Alexander Calder, “Starfish,” 1944, netted $459,750, also far above its $150,000 estimate.
One expected highlight that failed to find a buyer was Mark Rothko’s atypical but beautiful untitled work on paper, dating to 1944-45 and showing the influence of Surrealism. It carried an asking price of $200,000 to $300,000 but failed to sell. Meanwhile Howard Hodgkin’s vibrant, green “Down in the Valley,” 1985-88, cruised to $363,750, bypassing the high estimate of $300,000.
Elsewhere, Sotheby’s first-ever “Contemporary Curated” sale on September 25, featured a wide range of picks from influential art world figures Jason Rubell, Adam Fields (vice president of artists and institutions for Artspace), fashion wunderkind Tamara Mellon, and somewhat surprisingly, disgraced author-turned-art world personality and artist pal, James Frey.
The sale drew some stellar prices and pulled in a total of $13.8 million, which specialist and head of the sale Courtney Kremers said was the highest ever for a midseason contemporary sale at Sotheby’s. However, the buy-in rate of just over 40 percent — with 152 of 374 lots failing to sell — was on the high side, indicating that buyers were selective, even where blue-chip artist names were concerned. By value the sale realized a more solid 68 percent, reflecting strong prices paid for individual lots.
The highlight was one of Fields’s picks, Mark Bradford’s dazzling, “Curtis”, 2007, mixed media on canvas comprised of acrylic, felt-tip pen, silver coated paper, and printed paper collage. It soared past its $500,000-to-$700,000 estimate to sell for an artist auction record of $2.3 million, snapped up by pharmaceutical billionaire Stewart Rahr, who ranks number 374 on the latest Forbes’ list.
Other top sellers included Joan Mitchell’s untitled abstract painting, circa 1953, which notched $725,000, hurdling the high estimate, and Alice Neel’s “Portrait of the Judge as a Young Activist,” 1963, which sold for $437,000, more than doubling the high $150,000 estimate. The latter work had been owned by the same collector since the time it was painted, having been acquired directly from Neel.
Kenneth Noland’s “Color Pane,” 1967, also outperformed expectations, taking $341,000, well above the $200,000 high estimate. And Eric Fischl’s “Mussel Eaters,” 1992, fell midway between expectations when it scored $305,000 against an estimate of $250,000 to $350,000,
Did collectors trust Frey’s art picks more than his ability to tell the truth about his own life? Apparently so. Among his selections listed on Sotheby’s site, all five works sold, including Dan Colen’s piece consisting of chewing gum and wrappers on canvas, “I Can Go Steady With Any Girl I Please,” 2007-08, which topped its $80,000 estimate to sell for $93,750. Of Colen’s gum paintings, Frey says: “It’s hard to look at them and not smile, not have the wrappers bring back some happy childhood memory.” Frey says he is a big fan of Colen’s work but notes that the large scale versions of these pictures have gotten “incredibly expensive. If 600,000 to 800,000 dollars is beyond you, buy this picture. The reaction you’ll get from it is exactly the same.”
Other Frey picks that found willing buyers included Jenny Holzer’s verde antique marble bench, “When There Is No Safe Place to Sleep,” 1997, which sold for $43,750 (est. $40–60,000), and Adam McEwen’s pencil on graph paper in a graphite frame “Untitled Text Msg (Steve),” 2009, which includes the text: “Gotcha. At my apt banging the intern.” It sold for $22,500, just clearing the high $22,000 estimate.
Frey also picked a small Koons balloon dog — a 10 1/2-by 101/2-by-5-inch red porcelain one, dated 1995 (from an edition of 2,300) — which almost doubled the high $7,000 estimate when it sold for $13,750. Frey said a similar one he had received from his wife as a gift ranks among his all time favorites: “I love the large scale Balloon Dogs, and I joked that I should get one of these because there was no version of the future that would allow me to ever own one of them. For my next birthday, she got it for me. My wife is cool. I’m lucky. Woohoo!”