By Michele Leight
In March 2008 Mark Porter, President of Christie's America, hosted a reception and private viewing of exceptional highlights from Christie's upcoming Spring 2008 sales - entitled "Art Cabinet" - including several post-war and contemporary paintings featured here.
"Imagine this is your ideal collecting world," said Jonathan Reidel, Deputy Chairman of Christie's International, who personally selected each item, among which was "No. 15," a shimmering yellow and red Abstract Expressionist masterpiece by Mark Rothko (1903-1970), (illustrated at the top of the story), one of the highlights of Christie's Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale in New York on May 13 - an absolute stunner, with an estimate in the region of $40 million. It sold for $50,441,000 including the buyer's premium as do all results mentioned in this article. It was the highest price of the auction, which totaled $348,263,600, the second highest total ever at Christie's for Contemporary Art. Of the 57 offered lots, 95 percent sold, a very high percentage. The pre-sale estimate for the sale had been $282 million to $399 million.
Brett Gorvy and Amy Cappellazzo, International Co-Heads and deputy chairpersons, Contemporary Art, Americas, Christie's, spoke at the post-sale press conference, and were justifiably thrilled with the result of the sale. Ms. Cappellazzo observed that the auction house's highest total for a contemporary art sale (Christie's evening sale, November 2007) included one painting - Warhol's incredible "Green Car Crash" - that fetched a staggering $71,720,000 and that sale had many more lots. Therefore, it follows that tonight's sale was pretty spectacular.
Warhol's iconic "Double Marlon" and "Soup Can (Pepper Pot)," Zeng Fanzhi's satirical "Mask Series No. 9," Willem de Kooning's luscious "Untitled," and Francis Bacon's important "Three Studies for Self Portrait," were among the chosen art works gleaned from across the globe, offering a historical context for post war and contemporary art. "Art Cabinet" featured exquisite, world-class art - and art objects - wrought by human hands, spun from innovative imaginations; it was a celebration of the creative process.
Lucian Freud's "Benefits Supervisor Sleeping" is also among the top lots offered, and a wonderful "Hoovers" by Jeff Koons are stand outs, in a sale filled with desirable works of art in the evening sale and the day sale has some amazing offerings at what look like almost affordable prices in the current contemporary art market .
The pre-sale estimate for Christie's evening sale is $282-$399 million dollars, now catching up to the Impressionist and Modern art evening sale. Despite the doom and gloom predictions, and talk of a recession - and a less buoyant atmosphere among bidders at both auction houses - Christie's evening, day and afternoon sales of Impressionist and Modern in May, 2008, art realized a robust $325.5 million combined.
Rothko's beautiful "No. 15," illustrated at the top of the story, and above, invites comparisons with Matisse, an artist he greatly admired, whose ground-breaking "The Red Studio," painted in 1911, was a catalyst for Rothko. It would be an understatement to say that this seminal work influenced an entire generation of young artists, and contemporary art as we know it today. "No 15," a 91 1/4-by-80-inch oil on canvas that was painted in 1952, is exceptionally joyful for Rothko, whose sublime compositions convey "mood" as no other artist can.
In the photo at the top of the story, Lot 21 is a smoldering Abstract Expressionist work by Sam Francis (1923-1994) entitled "Black." An oil on canvas, it measures 74 1/2 by 63 1/2 inches and was painted in 1955. It has an estimate of $4,000,000 to $6,000,000. It sold for $5,193,000, exceeding the artist's previous world auction record of $4,048,000 set at Christie's in New York in November, 2006. It was heartening to see three world class Abstract Expressionists - Rothko, Sam Francis, and Adolph Gottleib - do so well tonight. Three superb examples of their work achieved $62.9 million. World auction records were set tonight for Sam Francis' "Black," (Lot 21, illustrated at the top of the story) which sold for $5,193,000), and Adolph Gottleib's"Cool Blast," Lot 22, a 1960 oil that sold for $6,537,000, shattering the artist's previous auction record of $1,384,000 set at Doyle New York a year ago.
In the same photo is Lot 29, a wonderful bronze sculpture by David Smith (1906-1965) entitled "Widow's Lament." It measures 15 by 20 by 6 3/8 inches and was executed in 1942. It has an estimate of $1,500,000 to $2,000,000. It sold for $2,393,000.
Lot 49, "Mask Series No 9," is an unsparing, satirical "take" on the dislocation and psychological strain imposed on individuals in the wake of China's escalating materialistic values. It is by Zeng Fanzhi (b. 1964). An oil on canvas, it measures 66 1/4 by 56 1/4 inches and was executed in 1996. It has an estimate of $1,200,000 to $1,800,000. It sold for $1,721,000. Extremely arresting, it shows the influence of Max Beckman and Frances Bacon, and the spotted Pug is an inspired touch.
Expectations run high when a painting like 'Green Car Crash" by Andy Warhol sells a year ago for an astonishing $71,720,000. Once you have won gold, no one is going to settle for silver or bronze, so it is not unusual that buyers and media are casting aspersions on some of the consignments - and their high price tags - this season. When the dust settles, and perspective is restored, it may become obvious that "Green Car Crash," and a world-class Rothko consigned by a Rockefeller do not come to auction often. We were blessed to see them at all.
As the sales results this past year show, it is becoming harder to distinguish between the outcome of what has traditionally been the blockbuster event of the art auction season - Impressionist and Modern art - and the apparently insatiable demand for Post-War and Contemporary art, whose meteoric rise, especially in prices, has been phenomenal.
Barely three years ago, pre-sale estimates for the November 2005 Post War and Contemporary Art sale at Christie's were $101.2 million to $145.6 million. That auction was considered hugely successful when it achieved a grand total in excess of its high estimate - $157,441,600. It remains to be seen whether the demand for post-war and contemporary art will plateau, or continue to rise.
"Three Studies for Self-Portrait," an awesome painting by Francis Bacon (1909-1992) recalls the skulls often featured in paintings by the great old masters - especially Rembrandt. Here, Bacon smears barely enough painted flesh on his own likeness to have us believe there is a flicker of life amidst the gruesome decay. Disturbing as he can be, Bacon is hugely important, as much for his link to the great artistic geniuses of the past as for his superb painterly effects. One can spend hours simply contemplating them, and their grim evocations. The painting, which is in three parts, each 14 by 12 inches, was painted in 1976 and has an estimate of $25,000,000 to $35,000,000. It sold for $28,041,000. The painting has sold for $2,900,000 at Christie's in London in 1999 and had been acquired by Richard and Elizabeth Hedreen of Seattle at Sotheby's in 2005 for $5,100,000.
Warhol's "Last Supper," Lot 8, a synthetic polymer and silkscreen inks on canvas, diptych, each 40 inches square, was painted in 1986. It was derived from a mass-produced reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting of the same name, and it was the last "series" of his life, exhibited in Milan a month before his death. "Last Supper" is also a reminder that Warhol sat through many services at the neighborhood Catholic church in his hometown, Pittsburgh, when he was growing up, and remained a devoted Catholic throughout his urban pop celebrity life. Church was the first place Warhol encountered art, and Christie's catalog reveals that his mother hung a reproduction of this painting on a wall in their family home. The lot has an estimate of $6,000,000 to $9,000,000. It sold for $8,777,000.
It was in church that Warhol first saw painted icons of saints, which later influenced his treatment of celebrities - or saintly pop icons - like his "gold" Marilyn" in the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art in New York (See The City Review article "Warhol's by the Millions"). The pomp and ceremony of the Pope's recent visit to New York would have been creative and spiritual fodder for Warhol - undoubtedly inspiring a fabulous "Pope" series.
The eerie pink and black "Self Portrait," Lot 4, painted in 1986, was also one of a series painted a few months before Warhol's untimely death. It is disturbing not for the shock of signature peroxide hair, (a wig), or the catatonic gaze, but because Andy Warhol - the king of youthful pop culture - looks old. It is a reminder that the only thing that cannot be re-produced or manufactured is youth. It has an estimate of $2,500,000 to $3,500,000. It sold for $3,513,000.
Each auction season brings out another iconic portrait by Andy Warhol: this time it is a male - Marlon Brando - in "Double Marlon," Lot 10, a silkscreen ink on unprimed linen that measures 84 by 95 1/4 inches and was painted in 1966. It is hard to think of a more American male, who was well known for his fierce individualism on and off screen. Warhol lifted this image from the controversial 1953 movie "The Wild One," which offered movie-goers full-bore Brando as a motorcycle gang leader, all decked out in slithery leather. It also featured a fleet of gleaming motorcycles whose biker boys - gang members - terrorized a town for an entire night. While that might not seem much like a plot, it doesn't really seem to matter when Brando was the star.
The reviews for the movie, cited in Christie's catalog, included selling points like "open throttle hoodlum brutality" and "long on suspense, unmitigated brutality and rampant sadism" or, slightly less judgmental: "Marlon Brando contributes another hard-faced hero who never knew love as a boy and is now plainly in need of psychoanalysis."
A build up like that is guaranteed to generate queues around the block. Like Warhol's other iconic portraits of the fragile and famous - Liz, Jackie and especially Marilyn Monroe - "Double Marlon," Lot 12, exudes vulnerability. While Brando remains a cult movie icon across the globe, and one of the brightest stars ever to imprint himself on celluloid, his massive weight gain and family problems in later life were a symptom that even silver screen idols are human - which did not escape Warhol. They do not make stars like Brando any more, and as if he was not enough "machismo" and testosterone for one movie, Lee Marvin was one of his co-stars. Lot 12 had an estimate on request and it sold for $32,521,000.
On a lighter note is a signature, circa 1962, "Soup Can", a subject that is now so familiar it might as well be called an "Andy Can." The fine execution of "Soup Can" reveals what a wonderful draughtsman and painter Warhol was, before he began his silk-screening. The casein and graphite on linen work measures 20 by 16 inches and has an estimate of $6,000,000 to $8,000,000. It sold for $7,097,000.
Tom Wesselmann's Lot 11, "Smoker #9," is a fabulous and sensuous work by Tom Wesselman (1931-2004). Painted in 1973, it is a nostalgic throw back to pre-politically correct times when we really did not know smoking was hazardous to our health. One gets the distinct feeling that this lady, with her brightly painted red nails and sensuous red lips, would not have given a damn even if she did know - she would simply exhale, ŕ la Lauren Bacall. The oil and liquitex gesso on linen work measures 83 by 89 1/2 inches and has an estimate of $4,000,000 to $6,000,000. It sold for $6,761,000, easily surpassing the artist's previous world auction record of $5,864,000 set at Sotheby's a year ago.
Wesselman's surreal, usually nude, "American Women" on the beach and in the bedroom - and his disembodied components of women, like his wonderful mouth and hand - are not as iconic as Warhol's legendary silver screen goddesses, but edgy, modern "femme fatales" that do not hesitate to come down off their pedestals and have some fun. "American Women" and "Smokers" were Wesselman's most successful themes.
Lot 15, "Abstraktes Bild (625)" by Gerhard Richter is one of the largest, most intensely saturated, lusciously pigmented and textured of his well-known abstract oil paintings. The magnificent effect is achieved with a humble squeegee and traditional artist's brushes, a reminder that this definitively contemporary and forward looking artist was classically trained within the repressive confines of the Social Realist style favored by Nazism and Socialism in East Germany during his youth. None of this had any effect in suffocating his genius.
For an artist that is famous for his copies of Polaroid photographs of banal subject matter like toilet rolls, flickering candles, or murdered nurses gleaned from newspaper clippings - an artist who questioned the very act of "painting" in the modern world - it does not come more "painterly than "Abstraktes Bild (625)."
The laborious "layering" of Richter's abstracts hark back to the Guilds of the Renaissance, when teams of artists applied dozens of coats of gesso, and multiple layers of pigments to achieve their astonishing masterpieces, and enduring colors, that still glow, centuries later. The difference is that Richter exposes the layers. The estimate for this gorgeous painting is $7,000,000 to $10,000,000. It sold for $14,601,000, an appreciative bow to one of Richter most beautiful abstracts. Like the superb Rothko that did so well tonight, this is the kind of painting you just want to own. (See The City Review article on Gerhard Richter exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art.)
Also in the luscious category are Lot 28, "1946 (PH-182)," a red and earth toned gem by Clifford Still (1904-1980), so contemporary it is staggering to think that it was painted a year after the end of World War II. A 60 1/2-by-43 3/4-inch oil on canvas, it has an estimate of $8,000,000 to $12,000,000. This absolutely beautiful painting sold for $14,401,000.
Another sumptuous work is Lot 27, "Untitled IV," by Willem de Kooning (1904-1997). The deliciously impassioned, swirling oil on canvas measures 70 1/4 by 80 inches and was painted in 1975. It has an estimate of $10,000,000 to $15,000,000. It sold for $12,081,000.
Lot 53, "Self Portrait in the Wilderness," originally from The Allan Stone Gallery, New York, is another beauty by de Kooning. An oil and charcoal on board, it measures 20 1/4 by 22 1/4 inches and was painted in 1947. It has an estimate of $2,000,000 to $3,000,000. It failed to sell and was passed at $1,400,000. It is hard to understand, because it is a gem - every sale has its head scratchers.
Although it is a Pop Art work, Roy Lichtenstein's "Reflections on the Prom," Lot 40, offers the same "lift," a pulsating jolt of color that tingles like the after effects of a double espresso. An oil and magna on canvas, it measures 74 by 90 inches and was executed in 1990. It has an estimate of $3,000,000 to $5,000,000.
It sold for $8,777,000, and was featured at the post-sale press conference, where Brett Gorvy and Amy Cappellazo spoke about the outstanding results overall tonight, and for this painting in particular. This superb painting has been somewhat eclipsed by another Lichtenstein offering, Lot 35, "Ball of Twine," shown below, a circa 1963 graphic masterpiece conceived at the dawn of the Pop Art era, with a correspondingly high price tag of $14,000,000 to $18,000,000. It failed to sell and was passed at $12,000,000. Mr. Gorvy forthrightly said that "intellectual works have a way to go," adding that collectors are going for works of the highest quality. Ms. Cappelazo added that the sale was kept "very tight" with an emphasis on quality and that was reflected in a very high percentange of lots sold. A magna on canvas, it measures 40 by 36 inches. The catalogue entry maintains that "As a Pop provocateur, Lichtenstein [1923-1997] audaciously challenged painting's very foundations through such works, with their crude subject and seeming lack of expression. With its distinctive benday dots and graphic contours, Lichtenstein pays ironic homage to his source's mechanical roots, while also reworking the found image with a linear fluidity and formal rigor that rivals abstract painting's best." The Stella had been consigned by Peter Brandt who had acquired it at Sotheby's in 2001 for $4 million.
Richard Prince's "Untitled" (Cowboy Saddling a Horse)," Lot 19, evokes rugged individualism, self-reliance, the great outdoors, the magnificence and harshness of nature, and the pioneering spirit of America that has become a symbol of freedom. There is no more renegade figure than the cowboy - epitomized by Clint Eastwood in Sergio Leone's "spaghetti westerns," and John Wayne galloping around Monument Valley in John Ford's spectacular epics.
However, Christie's catalog reveals that this is a Marlboro ad cowboy that has fallen out of favor because of the damage we know cigarettes cause. Prince cut away the famous Marlboro caption and re-photographed it - plagiarizing his own image. By doing this, he released the cowboy from his original role as a cigarette salesman. This version has more to do with the original, mythical "movie star" cowboy - a moving paradox. Like Health Ledger in "Brokeback Mountain," and Christian Bale in "3.10 to Yuma," there are chinks in the armor of the re-invented western hero, an endangered species in a world that has become increasingly reliant on technology - not self-reliant - which Prince exposes in great images like this. The work is a color coupler photograph, number two from an edition of two and it measures 30 by 46 inches. It was executed between 1980 and 1983 and has an estimate of $700,000 to $1,000,000. It sold for $802,600.
Lot 13, "Man-Crazy Nurse #2," by Richard Prince sold for $7,433,000, nicely over the artist's previous auction record for a painting of $6,089,000 set at Christie's New York last November.
Lot 37 is a large oil on canvas by Lucian Freud (b. 1922) of a not thin "Benefits Supervisor Sleeping" naked on a couch on a wooden floor. It was executed in 1995 and measures 59 5/8 by 86 1/4 inches. It has an enormous estimate of $25,000,000 to $35,000,000. It sold for $33,641,000, far above the artist's previous world auction record of $19,361,000 set at Christie's in New York last November. The woman is more "voluptuous" than Rubens's women but not quite as attractive. The catalogue entry remarks that this work "is a bold and imposing example of the stark power of Lucian Freud's realism and his extraordinary ability to capture the startling actuality of life in all its awkwardness, discomfort and artless wonder." It is impressively painterly but perhaps just "artless."
Lot 24 is a large and stunning oil on canvas by Hans Hofmann (1880-1966). Entitled "Studio No. 11 in Blue," it measures 48 by 84 inches and was painted in 1954. It has a modest estimate of $900,000 to $1,200,000. It sold for $1,889,000.
The poetic, turquoise butterfly painting by Damien Hirst featured above, Lot 43, "I'm in Love for the First Time," was executed in 1999. The work has butterflies and household paint on a circular canvas 96 inches in diameter. It has an estimate of $1,200,000 to $1,600,000. It sold for $1,273,000. (See The City Review article on and the Ashraya-New York article on the February 18, 2008 RED auction that was organized by Hirst and Bono.)
Not illustrated but imposing in the galleries is Lot 16, "New Hoover Convertibles, New Shelton," executed in 1981-1986 by Jeff Koons (b.1955):
"They were very virginal and very frightening....I was showing them for their anthropomorphic quality, their sexual androgyny. They are breathing machines. They are breathing machines. But, when they do function, they suck up dirt. The newness is gone. If one of my works was to be turned on, it would be destroyed." Jeff Koons, courtesy of Christie's catalog.
And we thought Jeff Koons, creator of leafy "Puppy," suspended hearts and gigantic blue diamonds, was all fun and games. Lot 16 had an "estimate on request" and it sold for $11,801,000.
Lot 18, "Dream Game," by Peter Halley sold for $457,000, well above the artist's previous auction record of $277,000 set at Sotheby's in New York last November.
Lot 31, "Untitled," a 1969 work by Barnett Newman, sold for $5,193,000, a world auction price for the artist.
Lot 34, "USA 666, The 6th American Dream," by Robert Indiana, sold for $1,833,000, a new world auction price for the artist.
The auction also included the Kaufman House designed by Richard Neutra in Palm Springs, California, which sold for $16,800,000.
In May, 2007, Warhol's "Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car)," sold for $71,720,000. The price was only slightly lower than the record price for a work of Contemporary art set the night before at Sotheby's with the sale of Mark Rothko's "White Center, (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose)," for $72,840,000. Both were iconic works of art, the auction equivalent of Olympic gold that set the bar high. Both paintings were worth it. Whatever the prices achieved for "Double Marlon" and "No 15," they are great works of art.
There is no shortage of money to invest in great art, which has always lured the super wealthy, and that is fine. However, perhaps it is time for the little guys to get back in the game as well, with additional focus on day sales, as Christie's has done this season, without undermining the fabulous, big-ticket items featured in the evening.
It becomes an issue with buyers, collectors and lovers of art if gold price tags are assigned to silver or bronze artworks, which may be the reason for some of the carping and criticism this season.
Some of the fantastic day sale gems on offer at Christie's are a reminder of those happy days when post-war and contemporary art was within reach of those collectors who really loved art, but did not have limitless funds.
Christie's Contemporary Art catalogs - for all three sales - are superb, packed with fascinating anecdotes that breathe life into works by artists that are, sadly, no longer with us, while celebrating the ones that still are.
For those that cannot afford to take home a painting or sculpture, a catalog is a great consolation prize. It is hard to conceive of the knowledge, hard work - and deep commitment to art - that goes into compiling them.
See The City Review article on the Christie's, May 20, 1999 Contemporary Art Part 2 auction