Olivier Camu, Director and Head of Impressionist and Modern Art, Christie’s London and Thomas Seydoux, International co-head of Impressionist and Modern Art at Christie’s: “This evening’s auction realised the highest total for any art auction ever held in Europe, and illustrates the continuing strength and confidence of the art market. We saw particularly strong bidding for works of the highest quality which were fresh to the market. The leading lot of the auction was ‘Le bassin aux nymphéas’, a masterpiece painting by Claude Monet which witnessed a bidding battle involving many international collectors, before selling to a client in the saleroom for £41 million, a new world record price for the artist at auction. A further highlight was ‘Danseuse a la barre’, an extremely rare early masterpiece in pastel by Edgar Degas, which also drew bidding from a number of international clients and far exceeded its pre-sale estimate, selling for £13.5 million, the second highest price for the artist at auction.”

The top 5 prices of the evening were:

– Le bassin aux nymphéas, a masterpiece painting by Claude Monet which was offered from the Estate of J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller and which realised £40,921,250 / $80,451,178 / €51,683,539, a world record price for the artist at auction.

– Danseuse a la barre, an extremely rare early masterpiece in pastel by Edgar Degas (1834-1917) which realised £13,481,250 / $26,504,138 / €17,026,819 far exceeding its pre-sale estimate of £4,000,000 to £6,000,000.

– Les Fleurs, circa 1912, a rare and powerful work by Natalia Goncharova (1881-1962) which sold for £5,529,250 / $10,870,506 / €6,983,443, a world record price for the artist at auction, and a world record price for a work by a female artist at auction.

– Draped Reclining Woman by Henry Moore (1898-1986) which was also offered from the Estate of J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller and which realised £4,297,250 / $8,448,394 / €5,427,427, a world record price for the artist at auction.

– The Portrait of Yanaihara by Alberto Giacometti (1906-1966) which was painted in 1958 and which sold for £4,297,250 / $8,448,394 / €5,427,427.

Property from the Estate of J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller

The auction was led by a selection of seventeen works from the Estate of J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller. J. Irwin Miller, an industrialist from Columbus, Indiana, and his wife Xenia Simons Miller, who were major philanthropists and patrons of the arts and who were instrumental in turning the American city of Columbus, Indiana, into a showcase for modern architecture. The seventeen Impressionist and Modern works together realised £67,540,050 / $132,783,738 / €85,303,083, and was led by Claude Monet’s Le bassin aux nymphéas which realised £40,921,250 / $80,451,178 / €51,683,539, a world record price for the artist at auction.

Works from the Collection of the late Simon Sainsbury

A selection of 7 works from the collection of Simon Sainsbury were sold this evening for a total of £10,424,750 / $20,495,059 / €13,166,459, led by Collioure. Les Balancelles, 1887, an early Pointillist picture by Paul Signac (1836-1935) which sold for £2,953,250 / $5,806,090 / €3,729,955. One of Britain’s most generous philanthropists and discerning collectors, the late Simon Sainsbury assembled throughout his lifetime one of the finest private British collections of the 20th century, from which a selection of furniture, ceramics and art was sold at a landmark auction on 18 June 2008 at Christie’s in London for £16,512,025 / $32,214,961 / €20,772,127, bringing the total to £26,936,775 / $52,710,020 / €33,938,586. Proceeds from the sale of the collection as a whole will benefit the charity established by Simon Sainsbury in 1965, The Monument Trust.

Works from a Distinguished European Collection

A selection of 11 works from a Distinguished European Collection assembled nearly half a century ago realised £9,494,550 / $18,666,285 / €11,991,616, and was led by Les Sapins, Varengeville, a luminous coastal landscape by Claude Monet (1840-1926) which was painted in the Summer of 1882, when the artist was staying at Pourville on the Norman coast in France and which sold for £3,177,250 / $6,246,474 / €4,012,867.

The Hoh Collection

The auction sold 7 works from the impressive collection of 20th century avant-garde works assembled by Alfred and Elisabeth Hoh, which toured various German institutions between 1998 and 2000 as the ‘Languages of Art’ exhibition and which realised £12,816,750 / $25,197,730 / €16,187,555. Leading the selection was Les Fleurs, circa 1912, a rare and powerful work by Natalia Goncharova (1881-1962) which sold for £5,529,250 / $10,870,506 / €6,983,443, a world record price for the artist at auction, and a world record price for a work by a female artist at auction.

ARTIST RECORDS:

Claude Monet (1840-1926), Le bassin aux nymphéas, 1919

Sold: £40,921,250 / $80,451,178 / € 51,683,539

WORLD RECORD PRICE FOR THE ARTIST AT AUCTION

HIGHEST PRICE PAID FOR A WORK OF ART SOLD BY CHRISTIE’S IN EUROPE

Natalia Goncharova (Russian, 1881-1962), Les Fleurs

Sold: £5,529,250 / $10,870,506 / €6,983,443

WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR ARTIST

WORLD RECORD PRICE FOR A WORK BY A FEMALE ARTIST AT AUCTION

Henry Moore (1898-1986), Draped Reclining Woman, 1957-1958

Sold: £4,297,250 / $8,448,394 / €5,427,427

WORLD RECORD PRICE FOR THE ARTIST AT AUCTION

Vladimir Baranoff-Rossiné (Russian, 1888-1944), The Rhythm (Adam and Eve), 1910

Sold: £2.729.250 / $5.365.706 / €3.447.143

WORLD RECORD PRICE FOR THE ARTIST AT AUCTION

Vera Rockline (Russian, 1986-1934), The Card Player

Sold: £2,057,050 / $4,044,554 / €2,598,307

WORLD RECORD PRICE FOR THE ARTIST AT AUCTION

Oscar Dominguez (1906-1957), Machine à coudre électro-sexuelle

Sold: £1,497,250 / $2,943,594 / €1,891,027

WORLD RECORD PRICE FOR THE ARTIST AT AUCTION

Leo Gestel (1881-1941), Gladiolen

Sold: £505,250 / $993,322 / €638,131

WORLD RECORD PRICE FOR THE ARTIST AT AUCTION

Frits Van Den Berghe (Belgian, 1883-1939), Bloemen over de stad (Fleurs sur la ville)

Sold: £241,250 / $474,298 / €304,699

WORLD RECORD PRICE FOR THE ARTIST AT AUCTION

About Christie’s

Christie’s is the world’s leading art business with global auction sales in 2007 that totaled £3.1 billion/$6.3 billion. This marks the highest total in company and in art auction history. Christie’s is a name and place that speaks of extraordinary art, unparalleled service and expertise, as well as international glamour. Founded in 1766 by James Christie, Christie’s conducted the greatest auctions of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, and today remains a popular showcase for the unique and the beautiful. Christie’s offers over 600 sales annually in over 80 categories, including all areas of fine and decorative arts, jewellery, photographs, collectibles, wine, and more. Prices range from $200 to over $80 million. Christie’s has 85 offices in 43 countries and 14 salerooms around the world including in London, New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Geneva, Milan, Amsterdam, Tel Aviv, Dubai and Hong Kong. Most recently, Christie’s has led the market with expanded initiatives in emerging and new markets such as Russia, China, India and the United Arab Emirates, with successful sales and exhibitions in Beijing, Mumbai and Dubai.

The post CHRISTIE’S AUCTION OF IMPRESSIONIST AND MODERN ART REALISES £144 MILLION / $284 MILLION / €182 MILLION first appeared on Indian Art News.

Sunday, 6 July 2008

Laurie Lewis
Bridget Riley, with her painting Cataract

Women artists face prejudice and discrimination, with their works selling for a fraction of the price of their male counterparts, one of the world’s leading art dealers claimed yesterday.

Iwan Wirth, who represents the French-American artist Louise Bourgeois, whose giant spider, Maman, became a landmark outside Tate Modern in London last year, said the huge gap in prices between the likes of Lucian Freud and Bourgeois was “a constant source of disappointment”.

Sales in London last week generated a fresh round of head-spinning prices: a Freud for £11.8m and a Jeff Koons sculpture for £13m. By comparison, the South African-born artist Marlene Dumas became the most expensive living woman artist at auction on Tuesday when her work The Visitor sold for £3.2m at Sotheby’s.

“It’s a constant source of disappointment to see the discrepancy in prices between outstanding female artists and their male counterparts,” Mr Wirth said.

“An artist’s gender should have nothing to do with their market value. I see this happen with the major artists we represent, such as Bourgeois, Joan Mitchell and Eva Hesse, who are exceptionally high-ranking artists.”

This week saw a new record price for the female British artist Bridget Riley, who sold for £2.5m at Sotheby’s. Bourgeois herself set the record for a living female artist in May this year when one of her spiders sold in Paris for £2.3m.

The Russian avant-garde artist Natalia Goncharova, who died in 1962, holds the record for the most expensive female artist sold at auction, with her Les Fleurs selling for £5.5m at Christie’s in June. Yet this pales in comparison with the £43m made by Bacon’s Triptych, 1976 in May – the most expensive piece of contemporary art sold at auction.

Mr Wirth complained that, while even the best-known female artists sell for around £2m-3m, lesser male artists make more money at auction: “Surely the art market, of all places, should be free of such prejudices. I was delighted to see an important painting by Dumas sell at Sotheby’s for £3.2m. However, one has to compare this with works from the same sale, which included a Bacon that sold for £13.7m, a [Jean-Michel] Basquiat for £5m and a Richard Prince for £4.2 m. Female artists are the bargain in today’s markets.”

The writer and sociologist Sarah Thornton, whose book on the art market will be published later this year, said that only 30 per cent of works in museums and galleries are by women, while the top 100 artists at auction in 2007 includes only four women, with the highest at No 49.

“You cannot equate the monetary value of art with the aesthetic worth of the artist,” she said. “One would expect the art world to be more egalitarian. It was only in 2004 that a living woman, Marlene Dumas, broke through the $1m barrier. At the top end of the market, the people who can afford to spend a lot are entrepreneurial men. And they buy entrepreneurial artists – Warhol, Hirst, Koons – artists they perhaps identify with.

“Second, it’s about volume. Women don’t tend to have factories of assistants churning out work. If you want to boost an artist’s price you need to bring their work to auction again and again. Women don’t usually work in that way.”

But the art critic Brian Sewell pointed out that, historically, women have done better in the art world than elsewhere. Throughout the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, women artists were praised by male contemporaries. The likes of Artemisia Gentileschi, born in 1593, and her contemporary Fede Galizia were considered great painters of their day.

“The art market is not sexist,” Mr Sewell said. “The likes of Bridget Riley and Louise Bourgeois are of the second and third rank. There has never been a first-rank woman artist.

“Only men are capable of aesthetic greatness. Women make up 50 per cent or more of classes at art school. Yet they fade away in their late 20s or 30s. Maybe it’s something to do with bearing children.”

Mr Wirth, however, believes things could change. “The problem has been that female artists have been historically excluded from museums,” he told The Art Newspaper. “Now there are more female curators and a new generation of male curators rewriting art history.”

Pilar Ordovas, the head of contemporary art at Christie’s, also rejected claims the market is sexist. “There are many male artists who sell for the same as women,” she said. “It is too simplistic to suggest that gender or age determines price.”

The post There’s never been a great woman artist first appeared on Indian Art News.