Auction activity at the major New York houses has historically been extremely quiet during July and August; once the fireworks of the major spring auctions and headline grabbing seven- and eight-figure prices have subsided, the art world typically goes on hiatus until fall. But that trend appears to be changing as the increasingly global art market and fast-growing demand for modern and contemporary art ensures an ever-proliferating roster of art fairs, biennials, and sales.
Christie’s has obviously been finding rising opportunities amid the traditional summer lull. This week, after announcing record first-half worldwide sales of £2.4 billion ($3.7 billion), up nine percent on year-ago levels — not to mention plans to expand its auctions to Shanghai and Mumbai later this year — the house launched two new sales of lower-priced modern, postwar, and contemporary art that underscored the continued hunger for quality works by top artists at all price points.
The house’s regular First Open sale, first launched in 2005 and held in New York each March and September is aimed at newer buyers of contemporary art. On July 17, Christie’s debuted a new summer edition, with a relatively modest overall estimate of $2.5 million to $3.5 million (the past March First Open sale scored $12.4 million by comparison), and works starting at $400 to $600. The summer edition, organized by Christie’s powerhouse postwar and contemporary department was focused even more sharply on “new collectors and clients wishing to expand existing collections in new directions.” By mid-afternoon results had already blown past the low-end estimate and eventually landed at $5.8 million. Of 232 lots offered, 201, or 87 percent, found buyers. By value the auction was 95 percent sold.
Headlining the sale was a colorful 1965 abstract painting by Jack Bush, “Red Side Right (Right Side Red),” which soared past its high $50,000 estimate to sell for a record $603,750. The provenance undoubtedly had added cachet for buyers, having come from the collection of singing legend Andy Williams, who acquired it directly from London’s Waddington Galleries. Several of Williams' works were offered here (major works from his collection were sold in the house's May auctions) and led the sale including the second highest lot, Willem de Kooning’s bronze, “Head #3” (1973), number 11 from an edition of 12, which sold for $423,750 (est. $220–280,000). Three other colorful Bush paintings from Williams’s collection landed in the top ten, all with six-figure price tags that far-exceeded their five-figure estimates.
"Across the board, the success of this sale was due to the extraordinary range of work on offer, with a particular focus on strong examples by artists underrepresented in the secondary market," said Saara Pritchard, head of the First Open sale. "Another driving factor in the sale was exceptional provenance."
In addition to Williams, the wide-range of offerings — paintings, sculpture, works on paper, photographs, and video art spanning the 1940s to the present — also included consignments from private, but high-profile collections, including those of Douglas Cramer and Donald Young. A trippy, untitled Arshile Gorky drawing, dated 1944, captured $315,750, well above its estimate of $80,000 to $120,000, and a large Mark di Suvero steel sculpture “Ira’s Piece” (2002) from the estate of the late Ira Lowe, a prominent Washington, D.C. attorney and collector who acquired it directly from the artist, fetched $219,750, within the $200,000 to $300,000 estimate.
On the previous day (July 15), Christie’s debuted another new sale, “First Impressions,” this one focusing on prints and multiples, and offering more than 450 lots by over 100 artists, including examples of work from museum collections such as the Brooklyn Museum, SFMOMA, and LACMA. In all, the sale netted $1.9 million (est. $1.2–1.9 million) with 405, or 88 percent of the lots sold. By value the auction realized a robust 93 percent.
Perhaps not surprisingly, iconic works by Andy Warhol— “Marilyns” and “Flowers” — dominated the high end of the sale, accounting for the three highest lots, including a 1967 colored “Marilyn” single print that sold for $87,500 to an American dealer, surpassing the high $60,000 estimate.
Elsewhere the top end of the sale sported an eclectic mix of well-known names including Frank Stella, Edward Hopper, Marc Chagall, and Rene Magritte, all of whose works performed well. James Rosenquist’s eye-catching lithographic collage “Time Door Time D’Or” (1989), from his “Welcome to the Water Planet” series, doubled the high $10,000 estimate to take $20,000.
Christie’s junior specialists in the prints department, Conner Williams and Lindsay Griffith were pleased with the sale, noting the strength of the contemporary and modern works and saying the results demonstrated “the market’s continued appetite for high-quality pieces across all price points.”
Howard Norton Cook’s black-and-white aquatint etching, “Harbor Skyline” (1930), sailed to $21,250, triple the high $7,000 estimate. And the same price was realized for Hopper’s 1915-18 etching, “Don Quixote” (1915-18), albeit on higher expectations of $10,000 to $15,000.
Eight works by Bruce Naumann found buyers, at prices ranging from $1,000 up to $10,625 for his witty, 1975 block letter screenprint “AH HA,” which served as the sale’s cover lot. And indeed, as the title would indicate, the print must have been a revelation to the buyer who took it for well above its $6,000 high estimate.