Art sales: a billion dollar bonanza for post-war and contemporary art
A series of post-war and contemporary art auctions featuring work by Jackson
Pollock and Mark Rothko fetched over one billion dollars in New York last
week, writes Colin Gleadell.
A series of post-war and contemporary art auctions featuring work by Jackson
Pollock and Mark Rothko fetched over one billion dollars in New York last
week, writes Colin Gleadell.
Roy Lichtenstein’s 'Nude with Red Shirt’ fetched $28.1m.
History was made in New York last week when, against a gloomy economic
backdrop, a series of post-war and contemporary art auctions fetched over
one billion dollars ($1.079 billion or £680 million to be precise) for the
first time. Who would have guessed that, when the equivalent sales in the
spring of 2009 plunged to $213 million, such a peak would have been reached
within three and a half years? As the economist Clare McAndrew told The
Daily Telegraph, the world’s super-rich may have decided to put their excess
cash into art because they have nowhere else to invest it. But this doesn’t
explain last week on its own.
With prices for the world’s top living artist, Gerhard Richter, finally
levelling out, it was the earlier generations of post-war American artists
that were in the driving seat. Abstract Expressionist and Pop have always
been the rock on which the New York contemporary sales are based, but this
time there was a greater supply than usual – much straight from collections
that had been formed 40 or 50 years ago.
This could be described as the generation factor, as collectors with foresight
reach a certain age and decide to sell. A small drip painting by Jackson
Pollock, which sold for a record $40.4 million, was part of a collection of
works by Abstract Expressionist artists that were bought in the early
Seventies by Sidney and Dorothy Kohl, American collectors who are now in
their eighties. The collection realised more than $100 million bringing
further records for Hans Hoffman ($4.6 million) and Arshile Gorky ($6.8
million).
Over the long term, works by major post-war artists have seen huge increases
in value – the enticement-to-sell factor. Mark Rothko’s No1 (Royal Red and
Blue) had reportedly been bought for less than $500,000 in 1982 and sold
last week for $75 million. A small wire sculpture of a policeman, made in
1928 by Alexander Calder, had been bought in 1995 for $107,000 and sold for
$4.2 million.
As prices have gone up for some artists, others have followed in their
slipstream. Until last week, the black-and-white, gestural calligraphic
paintings by the Abstract Expressionist Franz Kline had lagged behind his
peers with a top price of $6.4 million. But that benchmark has now been
surpassed twice, reaching $40.4 million for a sprawling 10ft canvas.
Although there were fewer record prices for Pop art, the Warhol market was in
rude health. His somewhat morbid photographic silkscreen, Suicide, which had
been acquired 20 years ago when considered of marginal importance for
$132,000, set a record for a Warhol work on paper by selling for $16.3
million.
And then there was the sheer unexpected. Paintings by Roy Lichtenstein after
his classic Sixties period had never sold for more than $11 million before,
but one buyer defied all logic by paying $28.1 million for a 1995 painting,
Nude with Red Shirt.
Time and again, the auctioneers fielded multiple bids on lots. They came from
Europe, South America, Asia and the Middle East, say the auctioneers, to
illustrate global involvement, but the market was driven by American demand.
“Here, there has been a new shift in taste,” says Sotheby’s head of
contemporary art, Tobias Meyer. “Wealthy American collectors who used to buy
more traditional American painting have moved into post-war American art. In
addition, the old contemporary art buyers have been priced out and replaced
by new money. It has come in over the last four years unhampered by the
memory of old price structures and wishing to be associated with cultural
genius.”
And it’s the proven genius of yesterday that is proving the main attraction.
Of the 45 artists’ records set last week, the majority were for American
artists who are no longer alive. “There was less hunger for the younger
generation,” says Meyer.
Notwithstanding, there was a string of record prices for living artists – Jeff
Koons, Mark Grotjahn, and Wade Guyton among them – all, with one or two
exceptions, like the Brazilian, Beatriz Milhazes, North American.
But the show belonged ultimately to the post-war Americans, seen not, as
McAndrew suggests, as “the Old Masters of the future” (as this might imply a
far more selective market in waiting for them) but as contemporary art, now.
Roy Lichtenstein’s 'Nude with Red Shirt’ fetched $28.1m.
History was made in New York last week when, against a gloomy economic
backdrop, a series of post-war and contemporary art auctions fetched over
one billion dollars ($1.079 billion or £680 million to be precise) for the
first time. Who would have guessed that, when the equivalent sales in the
spring of 2009 plunged to $213 million, such a peak would have been reached
within three and a half years? As the economist Clare McAndrew told The
Daily Telegraph, the world’s super-rich may have decided to put their excess
cash into art because they have nowhere else to invest it. But this doesn’t
explain last week on its own.
With prices for the world’s top living artist, Gerhard Richter, finally
levelling out, it was the earlier generations of post-war American artists
that were in the driving seat. Abstract Expressionist and Pop have always
been the rock on which the New York contemporary sales are based, but this
time there was a greater supply than usual – much straight from collections
that had been formed 40 or 50 years ago.
This could be described as the generation factor, as collectors with foresight
reach a certain age and decide to sell. A small drip painting by Jackson
Pollock, which sold for a record $40.4 million, was part of a collection of
works by Abstract Expressionist artists that were bought in the early
Seventies by Sidney and Dorothy Kohl, American collectors who are now in
their eighties. The collection realised more than $100 million bringing
further records for Hans Hoffman ($4.6 million) and Arshile Gorky ($6.8
million).
Over the long term, works by major post-war artists have seen huge increases
in value – the enticement-to-sell factor. Mark Rothko’s No1 (Royal Red and
Blue) had reportedly been bought for less than $500,000 in 1982 and sold
last week for $75 million. A small wire sculpture of a policeman, made in
1928 by Alexander Calder, had been bought in 1995 for $107,000 and sold for
$4.2 million.
As prices have gone up for some artists, others have followed in their
slipstream. Until last week, the black-and-white, gestural calligraphic
paintings by the Abstract Expressionist Franz Kline had lagged behind his
peers with a top price of $6.4 million. But that benchmark has now been
surpassed twice, reaching $40.4 million for a sprawling 10ft canvas.
Although there were fewer record prices for Pop art, the Warhol market was in
rude health. His somewhat morbid photographic silkscreen, Suicide, which had
been acquired 20 years ago when considered of marginal importance for
$132,000, set a record for a Warhol work on paper by selling for $16.3
million.
And then there was the sheer unexpected. Paintings by Roy Lichtenstein after his classic Sixties period had never sold for more than $11 million before, but one buyer defied all logic by paying $28.1 million for a 1995 painting, Nude with Red Shirt.
Time and again, the auctioneers fielded multiple bids on lots. They came from Europe, South America, Asia and the Middle East, say the auctioneers, to illustrate global involvement, but the market was driven by American demand. “Here, there has been a new shift in taste,” says Sotheby’s head of contemporary art, Tobias Meyer. “Wealthy American collectors who used to buy more traditional American painting have moved into post-war American art. In addition, the old contemporary art buyers have been priced out and replaced by new money. It has come in over the last four years unhampered by the memory of old price structures and wishing to be associated with cultural genius.”
And it’s the proven genius of yesterday that is proving the main attraction. Of the 45 artists’ records set last week, the majority were for American artists who are no longer alive. “There was less hunger for the younger generation,” says Meyer.
Notwithstanding, there was a string of record prices for living artists – Jeff Koons, Mark Grotjahn, and Wade Guyton among them – all, with one or two exceptions, like the Brazilian, Beatriz Milhazes, North American.
But the show belonged ultimately to the post-war Americans, seen not, as McAndrew suggests, as “the Old Masters of the future” (as this might imply a far more selective market in waiting for them) but as contemporary art, now.
And then there was the sheer unexpected. Paintings by Roy Lichtenstein after his classic Sixties period had never sold for more than $11 million before, but one buyer defied all logic by paying $28.1 million for a 1995 painting, Nude with Red Shirt.
Time and again, the auctioneers fielded multiple bids on lots. They came from Europe, South America, Asia and the Middle East, say the auctioneers, to illustrate global involvement, but the market was driven by American demand. “Here, there has been a new shift in taste,” says Sotheby’s head of contemporary art, Tobias Meyer. “Wealthy American collectors who used to buy more traditional American painting have moved into post-war American art. In addition, the old contemporary art buyers have been priced out and replaced by new money. It has come in over the last four years unhampered by the memory of old price structures and wishing to be associated with cultural genius.”
And it’s the proven genius of yesterday that is proving the main attraction. Of the 45 artists’ records set last week, the majority were for American artists who are no longer alive. “There was less hunger for the younger generation,” says Meyer.
Notwithstanding, there was a string of record prices for living artists – Jeff Koons, Mark Grotjahn, and Wade Guyton among them – all, with one or two exceptions, like the Brazilian, Beatriz Milhazes, North American.
But the show belonged ultimately to the post-war Americans, seen not, as McAndrew suggests, as “the Old Masters of the future” (as this might imply a far more selective market in waiting for them) but as contemporary art, now.
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