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LONDON: 235 MILLION COLLECTED
Far from the £100 million target! London's October tour de force dedicated to Contemporary art grossed (between Christie's, Sotheby's, and Phillips) something like £184,416,675, just under €235 million. If we then factor in the 44 masterpieces from the Essl Collection, sold at Christie's, the total soars to £231.2 million. Contemporary art fever is at its peak. Sotheby's, in addition to a historic Italian Sale (£41.3 million), sold for £28.2 million in its Evening Sale. The top price was the living Informal master Pierre Soulages (2,658,500). At Christie's, Evening set five records for super-emerging artists (Joe Bradley, Rachel Whiteread, Toby Ziegler, Brent Wadden, and Louis Eisner). Fourteen lots sold for over £1 million. Three sold for over £2 million. And three sold for over £4 million. The top price was the fifty-year-old Peter Doig (4,562,500). Second and third place went to Gerhard Richter (4,450,500) and Jean-Michel Basquiat with Love Dub for A (4,338,500). GUN ITALIAN STYLE In the Day Sales, in addition to the minor works by historic Italians (all sold), Michelangelo Pistoletto rose significantly with a 1971 multiple (The Turkish Bath), whose 75/150 example started at 9,000 and stopped at 26,250 pounds. The two Blu paintings by Marcello Lo Giudice, present in the major sales and estimated at 24-36,000, totaled 101,250 pounds. At Phillips (which grossed 20 million with the first two auctions in the new venue at 30 Berkeley Square) the photographic print by Paola Pivi was sold for 17,500 pounds. Now, after the excitement of London, while awaiting the big November auctions in New York, our enthusiasts and collectors can relax with Italian auctions. Between Rome, Genoa, Florence, Prato, and Vercelli, the offerings are rich and varied. Farsetti (www.farsettiarte.it) offers a significant catalog, with a selection of works of historical and artistic interest, in the wake of signs of recovery in the antiques market. HIM AND HER PISTOL On Thursday the 30th and Friday the 31st, the catalog features antique furniture and paintings. Among these are a Flagellation of Christ by Luca Giordano (€20,000-€30,000) and a View of Rome painted in 1855 by Ippolito Caffi (€18,000-€24,000). Saturday will feature paintings and sculptures from the 19th and 20th centuries. Among the works by the Macchiaioli, the large L'Arno alle Cascine by Giovanni Fattori (€280,000-€350,000). In Florence, Pandolfini (www.pandolfini.it) is celebrating its 90th anniversary with a special sale showcasing the best of every department. A significant collection of Renaissance majolica, gathered in a single catalog, has already attracted considerable interest from foreign customers (including museums). Also on the Arno, Bibelot (www.maisonbibelot.com) is offering furnishings and paintings from Villa Pandolfi in Florence on Thursday and Friday. Proceeds will be donated to the Salesian Institute for the Missions in Turin. PHOTOGRAPHS In Genoa, the event is twofold: with modern and contemporary art, photography, and design at Boetto (www.asteboetto.it) and with furniture, old master paintings, and 19th and 20th-century paintings at Cambi (www.cambiaste.com). The auction house, located in Castello Mackenzie, offers four unmissable catalogs with attractive estimates. Michelangelo Pistoletto There are 1,800 lots of furniture and art objects, approximately 360 19th-century and ancient paintings, including a large Venetian Market by Stefano Novo (15,000-20,000) and a portrait attributed to Bernardo Strozzi (35,000-40,000). The eight sessions that Meeting Art (www.meetingart.it) will dedicate to antiques (furniture and paintings) will begin on Saturday, November 1st, and run until the 13th. This Saturday (lots 109 and 110) are offering two large Vertical Landscapes by Vittorio Amedeo Cignaroli, formerly part of prestigious collections and auctioned at Christie's in 2002. Prices start at €16,000 and €25,000. Finally, starting tomorrow, the Roman auction house Babuino (www.astebabuino.it) will offer art and paintings from Roman collections, furnishings, Chinese and Asian art, silver, jewelry, and collectibles. In short, there's something for every taste and budget.
Takashi Murakami, in Milan with an eye on Fukushima
The first exhibition of the Japanese "ancient child" in an Italian public space. One of the most paradoxical artists of our time, considered one of the great stars of contemporary art. A selection of recent works, ranging from science fiction references to references to his country's recent past. In the Sala delle Cariatidi at the Palazzo Reale, until September 7th. Huge, colorful canvases teeming with curious characters, many of them resembling holy men and portrayed frontally, large or small, in prayer or contemplation. They are the "Arhats," perfect Buddhist figures on the verge of nirvana, painted with meticulous care and many aids by the most famous Japanese artist, Takashi Murakami, and from today they can be admired in the Hall of the Caryatids at the Palazzo Reale in Milan. On few other occasions has the work of this artist, beloved for the great energy of his pop language, imbued with references to manga, been seen in Italy. He has been hosted in the past by the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin and by Gogasian, his gallery owner, in Rome. Therefore, this is a real opportunity to get to know his precious works up close, which tour the most important museums in the world, and which have recently also occupied a temple of classical art, the Palace of Versailles, which has been literally invaded by his works. In Milan, Murakami presents the Arhat series: in addition to four paintings, up to 10 meters wide, several smaller canvases show self-portraits of the artist, who likes to depict himself in a comical way with round glasses, a goatee, and hair tied in a ponytail, leaning on piles of skulls (absolutely not disturbing) or on masses of gaseous matter. These works were created after the Fukushima disaster, which shook Japan indelibly: "It's a large-scale exhibition mounted in record time that reveals Murakami's transformation, after 2011, into an ancient child," explains curator Francesco Bonami. "It focuses on the theme of disasters in Japan, and is set in a symbolic space that speaks to the inevitability of fate, a place burned during the war and subsequently left in ruins. We Europeans are not accustomed to taking fate too seriously, and this is an exhibition where the protagonists are monks who want to help humanity move forward in adversity." The cycle marks a real shift in Murakami's art, considered by many to be the true heir of Andy Warhol, capable of understanding creativity also in terms of the worlds of industry and finance. Among his relationships with major corporations, the most memorable was the deal with Louis Vuitton, which in 2000, when Marc Jacobs was the artistic director, asked him to reinterpret the brand. Murakami printed it with bright colors, in perfect "Superflat" style, a celebration of surface texture and pop culture. Born in Tokyo in 1962, with a university curriculum including a music degree, he founded the Hiropon Factory, which later became Kaikai Kiki Co., which has studios in Japan and New York and employs hundreds of people. These workshops produce not only paintings and sculptures but also gadgets, merchandising, graphics, and take on complex creative projects. Despite his counterculture roots, he is not averse to brand art, enforcing copyright laws on all his products. In this regard, the Milanese exhibition, open until September 7, will also be accessible through the fashion and design portal yoox.
De Chirico, 160 previously unpublished works published
Surprising paintings such as ''The Poetic Dreamer'' from 1937, acquired by the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Or more traditional works, such as the 1934 Self-Portrait, which emerged from a private collection. A brilliant and prolific artist, active throughout nearly the entire 20th century, the great Giorgio De Chirico never ceases to amaze. So much so that 36 years after his death in 1978, 160 previously unpublished or otherwise unknown works have come to light—along with countless fakes. This is the latest development in a new General Catalog, the first volume of which is currently available in bookstores from Maretti Editore. The catalog aims to complete the cataloging of the master's impressive output while also stemming the phenomenon of forgeries, which has further increased in recent years. Introduced by an essay by Claudio Strinati, the volume—the first in a series of at least four—collects the fruits of years of work by the Giorgio and Isa De Chirico Foundation, whose mission is to "search for and catalog works deemed authentic by the master," in addition to managing the house museum in Piazza di Spagna and preserving a collection of over 550 canvases and drawings. This work, explains Foundation President Paolo Picozza, seeks to bring to a close the vast output of the inventor of Metaphysical Art, 27 years after the publication of the "historic" General Catalogue edited by Claudio Bruno Sakraischik (now out of print), which authenticated 2,600 De Chirico paintings and which was interrupted in 1991 with Sakraischik's death. Collected in this first volume of the Maretti General Catalog are 450 works dating from 1912 to 1976, which were not included in Sakraischik's catalog. Of these, 290 are accompanied by a bibliography (published in the appendix), while another 160 are currently unpublished and virtually unknown to scholars, as Strinati notes, "even though a certain number of paintings appearing in the volume have appeared at auctions or exhibited in exhibitions with related catalogs, some authoritative, others marginal." During his long life, De Chirico—according to President Picozza—produced some 5,000 paintings and drawings. The Foundation's goal, he explains, is to finally bring order to this vast sea of works within a few years, cataloging and publishing the more than two thousand missing works from Sakraischik's oeuvre and establishing a reliable chronological order. Following the recently published volume, a second volume, with another 450 works, is planned for January 2015, followed by a third of equal weight at the end of 2015, and then a fourth "until the collected material is exhausted." All this is to "provide scholars and collectors with an important and comprehensive tool for consultation, comparison, and work." But also, the lawyer emphasizes, "to try to stem the ever-recurring phenomenon of forgeries."
Philips closes London auction week on a high note
The Phillips sale on July 2nd concluded London's Contemporary Art auction week: 27 lots in the catalogue generated £9.9 million, with high sales rates of 95% by value and 85% by lot. Young artists such as Wade Guyton, Tauba Auerbach, and Lucien Smith particularly triumphed, with David Ostrowski also setting a record. The artist, born in 1981, was featured in the catalogue with a 2012 canvas titled F (gee Voucher), which sold for £170,500 against an estimate of £30,000-50,000. The only work to surpass the million-pound mark was Andy Warhol's Self-portrait, which sold for £2.8 million. Rudolf Stingel followed with a 2012 work sold for £842,500, and in fourth place was a joke painting by Richard Prince, My Life as a Weapon from 2007, which sold for £680,500. Among the opening lots, Auerbach took eighth place in the evening's top ten with a 2012 work, Untitled (Fold), fetching £386,500 above its high estimate. Lucien Smith also blew past estimates, selling for £115,500 with Boys Don't Cry. A large-scale work by Wade Guyton from 2007 found a buyer for £602,500, while Mark Flood's abstraction, Mineral, from 2003, surpassed expectations, selling for £86,500. Among the sculptures, Anish Kapoor's Untitled (2008) reached its high estimate at £812,500; and Anthony Gormley's Domain XI (Freefall) from 2000 also performed well, selling for £182,500.
Milan. An exhibition on Mimmo Rotella at the Palazzo Reale.
"Mimmo Rotella. Décollages e retro d'affiches" is the title of the exhibition dedicated to one of the most iconic and influential figures in Italian art of the last century, currently on display at Milan's Palazzo Reale. Curated by Germano Celant, promoted and produced by the Municipality of Milan – Culture, Palazzo Reale, the Mimmo Rotella Institute and the Mimmo Rotella Foundation, it will be open to visitors until August 31st.
Christie's New York grosses $745 million: the highest ever in its history.
Christie's New York grosses $745 million: the highest ever in its history. Yesterday's contemporary art evening sale broke the record for an art auction. The Bacon triptych (€80 million) is headed to Asia. New York. May 13, 2014, is a memorable date for the art market: Christie's Evening Sale of Postwar and Contemporary Art grossed $744.9 million (€543.7 million), the highest total ever recorded for an auction in the history of the art market. The previous sale was $691.6 million, also recorded at Christie's last November. Of the 72 lots offered, 68 have changed hands. The sales rate is 94% by number of lots and 98% by value. Among the ten highest prices, it is striking at first glance that the top four are above $50 million and the top nine are above $25 million. Finally, of the ten most expensive lots, five were purchased by clients who spoke by phone with Christie's specialist Xin Li, vice president of Christie's Asia. The highest price of the evening was achieved by Barnett Newman, who doubled his own record at $84.16 million (€61.4 million). The work in question ("Black Fire I," an oil on canvas from 1961, 289.5 x 213.3 cm), here with an estimate on request, was purchased by the current seller in 1975 from the Mayor Gallery in London and had a substantial bibliography and exhibition history in its catalogue. In second place was Francis Bacon's triptych "Three Studies for a Portrait of John Edwards," 1984, an oil on three canvases measuring 198.3 x 148 cm, sold to an Asian buyer for $80.8 million (approximately €59 million), roughly the same as its unpublished estimate. Moving down the price list, an untitled work by Mark Rothko fetched $66.2 million (€48.3 million), while "Race Riot," a four-part acrylic and silkscreen on canvas by Andy Warhol from 1964, was purchased for $62.88 million (€45.9 million) by Larry Gagosian, who also bought "If You," an aluminum enamel painting by Christopher Wool from 1992, for $23.68 million (€17.3 million). According to Christie's press releases, 10 auction records were broken. In addition to Gagosian, the event was attended by collector Eli Broad, fashion designer Marc Jacobs, high-risk fund manager Andrew Saul, and real estate investor Mark Fisch. The day before yesterday, May 12th, Christie's held its first contemporary art sale, assembled by a young curator, 33-year-old Loïc Gouzer. The auction was titled "If I Live I'll See You Tuesday," taken from a work by Richard Prince. The 34 lots sold (out of 35 total) generated $134.6 million (or €98.2 million) and achieved a 97% sales rate by number of lots and 99.5% by price. The top lot of the sale, at $18.6 million (or €13.6 million, against an estimate of $9-12 million), was an untitled 1988 oil on canvas by Martin Kippenberger, which broke its own record. In addition to Kippenberger, 13 other artists achieved their highest ever price.
The virtual art gallery works
One of the brightest young stars in the art world today is Lucien Smith. His canvas Two Sides of the Same Coin sold for $369,123 at Sotheby's latest auction in London, nearly four times its high estimate. Smith is only 24 years old and now lives and works in New York's Tribeca neighborhood, but he trained and got his start with The Still House Group, "an artist-run organization" — as it describes itself on its website www.enterstillhouse.com — that is revolutionizing the art market with its new creative and business model. It began in 2007 as a simple online platform to showcase the work of complete strangers, 10- to 20-year-olds, some of whom hadn't even attended art school. Now it's become a sort of "home" where eight permanent artists and guest artists work in shifts, exhibit their work, and arrange to take it to exhibitions and sell it. Starting from nothing, the members of this group now generate annual revenues of $3 to $5 million, according to estimates by critic Michael Miller of the New York Observer: as much as a mid-level gallery needs to sell to stay open in Manhattan. The Still House Group isn't in Soho or Chelsea, New York's most famous gallery districts. It's in Brooklyn, but not in Williamsburg, its hippest neighborhood. Instead, you'll have to find it in Red Hook, the former industrial area now home to hypermarkets like Ikea and Fairway Market. At the end of Van Brunt Street, the warehouse is divided into a dozen or so open-plan spaces, all connected according to the collaborative philosophy shared by the group. One serves as an informal gallery, one is for the guest artist, and eight are for the permanent members: Isaac Brest, 28, and Alex Perweiler, 27, who founded the organization in 2007; Zachary Susskind, Jack Greer, Brendan Lynch, Louis Eisner, Nick Darmstaedter, and Dylan Lynch, all between 26 and 29. Brest also handles the practical management of the "house" and sales. The traditional model of relationships between galleries and artists involves a 50-50 split of sales proceeds: the dealer takes 50% in exchange for support for the artists, which, in addition to exhibition space, includes promotion and sometimes the provision of materials and assistance in various forms. A young artist typically begins by being represented by a small gallery and then, as their price tag increases, moves to more renowned galleries according to a clearly defined hierarchy in this world. The members of the Still House Group, on the other hand, are self-managed and when they sell directly from their house in Red Hook, they keep 60% of the proceeds, while 10% goes to those who helped close the deal and 30% goes to a common fund that covers the expenses of managing the space. Before setting up shop in Brooklyn, the group had worked for eight months in 2010 in an office building in Tribeca, occupying an unused floor: from there, they began direct sales to the public. The following year, with the profits made, Brest and his companions – who emphasize that they are not a "collective" – rented the warehouse in Red Hook. Sometimes they also bring their works to "normal" galleries like Nahmad Contemporary on Manhattan's Upper East Side, where from February to the end of March Lynch, Perweiler, and Sutherland exhibited alongside Arte Povera exponents like Alberto Burri: an exhibition that highlighted how the emphasis on the artistic community, the driving force of the Italian movement, is also the strength of the Still House Group.
American, 25 years old. For 100 euros he can take home a Picasso.
PARIS - Buy a €100 lottery ticket and take home an authentic Picasso. Despite those who say modern art isn't affordable for everyone, a young American is the winner of an unprecedented Parisian raffle that offered, for €100, an original drawing by the Spanish painter, estimated to be worth €1 million. Oliver Picasso, the painter's grandson, with the work up for grabs in the lottery. (AFP/Timothy Clary) THE WINNER - His name is Jeffrey Gonano, 25, and he's originally from Pennsylvania. The drawing took place yesterday in Paris, at Sotheby's auction house, and was organized by the International Association for the Preservation of Tyre (AIST), a Lebanese city classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, an archaeological jewel dating back to the Phoenicians. The painter's grandson, Oliver Picasso, was thrilled with the bid, saying, "My grandfather would have been happy." A Picasso for €100: A 25-Year-Old Wins the Lottery ALL ONLINE - Fifty thousand tickets were put on sale for €100 on a specially created website (www.1picasso100euro.com). The proceeds will be donated to charity and will be used, among other things, to fund the Association's projects, including the creation of an institute of Phoenician and Punic studies in Beirut. Meanwhile, Jeffrey, a project manager for a fire protection systems company, has decided to keep the work at home. "Why did I participate? I wanted a painting to decorate my home, so I thought I'd try my luck."