Artists of color and women soar at Christie's Contemporary sale
The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Thursday, December 12, 2024


Artists of color and women soar at Christie's Contemporary sale
Reggie Burrows Hodges (B. 1965), Intersection of Color: Experience Estimate: USD 200,000 – USD 300,000. Price realised USD 705,600. © Christie's Images Ltd 2022.



NEW YORK, NY.- While the usual suspects continue to command the highest prices at auction — as evidenced by Monday night’s $195 million sale of Warhol’s “Marilyn” — the art market also continues to seize on the potential next hot thing.

On Tuesday, Christie’s turned its attention to some of those prospects at its 21st century contemporary evening sale — which totaled $103 million, just shy of a high estimate of $106 million. The auction of 31 works brought strong prices for works by Black artists like Amoako Boafo, Reggie Burrows Hodges and Ouattara Watts.

Also faring well were women — including Shara Hughes, Ewa Juszkiewicz, Elizabeth Peyton and Lisa Yuskavage — along with relative unknowns like 27-year-old painter Anna Weyant, whom the megadealer Larry Gagosian recently started representing (and dating). And Refik Anadol, a Turkish-American data artist, offered the evening’s only NFT.

“We are defining what will be the next great generation of artists,” said Ana Maria Celis, a Christie’s specialist. “Ultimately the market will decide that.”

There is a limited supply of blue chip works in the world and collectors — as well as auction houses — remain hungry for inventory. Because of that demand, artists’ typically long journey to the world stages of a Christie’s or Sotheby’s has increasingly been accelerated.

Just last year, for example, Hodges, a figurative painter, had his first New York solo show at the Karma gallery on the Lower East Side and only eight months later set an auction record when one of his paintings, estimated at about $40,000 to $70,000, sold for more than $600,000. At Christie’s on Tuesday, his “Intersection of Color: Experience,” which depicts a crowd of figures, sold for $706,000, having been estimated at $200,000 to $300,000.

In part, art experts say, this has to do with collectors’ attention to artists of color in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement. “Everything shifted in 2020,” said Mashonda Tifrere, an art adviser. “Since December 2021, I’ve sold over maybe 60 works of emerging artists from Black and brown people to white collectors.”

Ouattara Watts, an artist from Ivory Coast, whose painting, “Afro Beat,” sold for $781,000 on an estimate of $100,000 to $150,000, has been around for some time — he had a solo at Gagosian in 1995 — and now has a show at Karma Gallery.

“Now you’re discovering artists that should have been in conversation,” said Gardy St. Fleur, an art adviser. “They’re finally getting their due.”




Works by artists of color soared over their estimates. Boafo’s “Yellow Dress” sold for $819,000 on an estimate at $250,000 to $350,000; a work by Pakistan-born artist Salman Toor, “Girl and Boy With Driver,” sold for $882,000, having been estimated at $150,000 to $200,000. A somber Glenn Ligon from the artist’s “Stranger” series sold for $1.6 million, over an estimate of $600,000 to $800,000.

A wide range of female artists also fared well. Weyant’s work, “Summertime” — featuring a prone young woman with bare skin — kicked off the evening at Christie’s Rockefeller Center showroom, selling to an unidentified buyer on the phone in Hong Kong for a staggering $1.5 million on an estimate of $200,000 to $300,000 after eight minutes of competition among 11 bidders. “What a way to start the sale,” said auctioneer Georgina Hilton.

A fantastical landscape by Hughes, who last year had a show at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, sold for $2.9 million on an estimate of $500,000 to $700,000. And “Portrait of a Lady (After Louis Leopold Boilly)” by Juszkiewicz, who explores gender and class in European painting, went for $1.6 million, having been estimated at $200,000 to $300,000.

Sales of some of the more established artists were less buoyant. A deep red Gerhard Richter, the highest priced lot in the sale, sold for $36.5 million, just over the estimate of more than $35 million; Sigmar Polke tanked at $819,000, below the low estimate of $1.2 million.

Attesting to the mercurial nature of the art market — how an artist’s fortunes can droop — an abstract by Adrian Ghenie, recently all the rage at auction, sold for $2.2 million, below the low estimate of $2.5 million.

Two Basquiats, consigned by the same owner, were withdrawn from the sale — typically an indication that the reserve price would not be met. “It’s never an easy decision,” said Guillaume Cerutti, Christie’s chief executive. “We don’t want to sell at any price. We want to sell at a price that is relevant for the artwork and a price that the client wants.”

Anadol’s dynamic NFT, inspired by the facade of Antoni Gaudí’s Casa Batlló in Barcelona, sold for $1.4 million, having been estimated at $1 million to $2 million. (The artist installed his “living NFT” outside the Christie’s headquarters in advance of the sale.)

Despite the froth that seemed to surround some artists in Christie’s sale, art world observers say it is heartening to see artists of color in the auction major leagues, commanding big prices.

“It’s great that a lot of these artists are being brought to light,” said Phyllis Hollis, the host of the podcast Cerebral Women Art Talks. “Auction is a way of solidifying the contributions of artists of color to the canon. People are recognizing the talent of underrepresented artists, and that’s promising.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.










Today's News

May 12, 2022

Lucy Lacoste Gallery opens 'Three Sculptors: Warashina, Currier and Lyon'

Artists of color and women soar at Christie's Contemporary sale

Phillips' New York Evening Sale poised to become most successful auction in company history

Guggenheim removes Sackler name over ties to opioid crisis

4.8 million euros for a rediscovered Titian at Dorotheum

ARKEN opens the first major Else Alfelt exhibition in more than 20 years

Christie's Magnificent Jewels totals $ 69,668,694 led by two 200 carat diamonds

Can art help save the insect world?

Janet Borden, Inc. opens a new exhibition of vintage color still lifes by Jan Groover

Architecture exhibition explores futuristic housing visions

£660,000 world record for RAF Victoria Cross

Phillips announces highlights from New York Day Sale of 20th Century & Contemporary Art

Childhood memories persuade collector to donate 1976 Jaguar to aid Ukrainian humanitarian appeal

"Images of Atheism: The Soviet Assault on Religion" opens at Museum of Russian Icons

Photographic visionary Chuck Kelton opens exhibition at The SPACE Art Gallery

Gregory E. Deavens elected to the Barnes Foundation Board of Trustees

Brunnier Art Museum extends exhibition showcasing intricate sculptures made from discarded glass

Exhibition of new paintings by Jane Allen Nodine on view in Charlotte, NC

A new record for Maurice Sendak's 'Wild Things' raises a rumpus in Heritage's $6 million American Art Auction

Nye & Company to hold Two-Day, Three-Session Auction May 25-26

Gloria Parker, maestra of the musical glasses, dies at 100

Route 32 Auctions announces Country Store & More Auction May 20-21

A sci-fi writer returns to Earth: 'The real story is the one facing us.'

'The Vagrant Trilogy' review: Palestinians in exile, yearning for home

Perks of Using a Weather API

The Best Art Museums in New York

Discover the Art of Mural Advertising

Best online casino: how to find slots and slot machines using rating?

Top Ways to Decrease Stress from Studying

Why Is It So Hard to Study? The Dangers

How to Avoid Depression During Exams: Tips and Strategies for Prevention

Painted Essay: What Is It & Why You May Need It

How to Write a TEXAS Format Essay

The Controversial History of the Slot Machines

The Most Popular Casino Games in The World

Tips to Choosing an Online Casino




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez
Writer: Ofelia Zurbia Betancourt

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful