Contemporary art in New York

[18 Jul 2013]

 

Friday is Top day! Every other Friday, Artprice publishes a theme-based auction ranking. This week: the top 10 auction sales of contemporary art in New York.

The triumvirate: Basquiat – Koons – Doig
Between the “primitive” painting of Jean-Michel BASQUIAT, the sparkling kitsch of Jeff KOONS and the dream-like universe of Peter DOIG, this Top 10 of contemporary art in New York (July 2012-June 2013) mirrors the wide diversity of tastes when it comes to contemporary art.
Above all, it reflects a race for new records where estimates are often merely a weak indication of a work’s final price. The market is getting carried away with its chosen few and prices are scaling new heights. 7 of the last 10 sales have broken the $10 million barrier, with these 10 hammer prices totalling $183.1 million. Top of the list is Jean-Michel Basquiat, who has smashed his previous record by several million dollars.

Top 10 : the top 10 auction sales of contemporary art in New York.

Rank Artist Hammer Price Artwork Sale
1 Jean-Michel BASQUIAT $43500000 “Dustheads” (1982) 05/15/2013 (Christie’s NEW YORK NY)
2 Jeff KOONS $30000000 Tulips (1995-2004) 11/14/2012 (Christie’s NEW YORK NY)
3 Jean-Michel BASQUIAT $25707980 Untitled (1982) 06/25/2013 (Christie’s LONDON)
4 Jean-Michel BASQUIAT $23500000 Untitled (1981) 11/14/2012 (Christie’s NEW YORK NY)
5 Jean-Michel BASQUIAT $12981200 Museum Security (Broadway Meltdown) (1983) 02/13/2013 (Christie’s LONDON)
6 Peter DOIG $10635200 “The Architect’s Home in the Ravine” (1991) 02/13/2013 (Christie’s LONDON)
7 Peter DOIG $10006100 Jetty (1994) 06/25/2013 (Christie’s LONDON)
8 Jean-Michel BASQUIAT $9523305 Untitled (Pecho/Oreja) (1982/83) 02/12/2013 (Sotheby’s LONDON)
9 Jean-Michel BASQUIAT $9000000 “Humidity” (1982) 11/15/2012 (Phillips de Pury & Company NEW YORK NY)
10 Jeff KOONS $8250000 The New Jeff Koons (1980) 05/14/2013 (Sotheby’s NEW YORK NY)

 

 

Jean-Michel Basquiat
Since 2012, the high-end Basquiat market has turned into a real multi-million-dollar orgy.
He holds 6 places on the list, with hammer prices ranging from $9 million to $43.5 million. This last record buried Christie’s high estimate of $8.5 million. Certainly this canvas, entitled Dustheads and dating from 1982, combined all the attributes required for a new record in terms of date, quality and size (182.8 cm x 213.3 cm) and sold for $20 million more than Basquiat’s previous record set just 6 months earlier ($23.5 million for Untitled, 1981, Christie’s, 14 November 2012). In the end, Dustheads sold for $48.8 million (including buyer’s premium), a price that is only rarely achieved even by artists such as Pablo Picasso (who has recorded 10 sales in excess of $40 million). It seems the market is looking to elevate Basquiat to the same level as his collaborator, Andy Warhol, who has only twice broken the $40 million barrier. His highest price of $64 million was for Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car I), 16 May 2007, Christie’s New York.

Jeff Koons
Despite working for 10 years on Wall Street as a commodities broker, Jeff Koons was already active as an artist in 1980 with his reproductions of everyday objects. His real inauguration into the art world began with The New, a first series of objects exhibited in the window of the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York. It was made up of well-known brands of vacuum cleaners, banal objects illuminated by harsh neon lights. Koons quickly became the uncontested master of kitsch and really took off at auction in 1999, when American businessman and collector Peter Brant acquired the ceramic sculpture Pink Panther for $1.65 million, easily outstripping its low estimate of $1 million ($1.8 million including buyer’s premium, Christie’s, 16 November). Since then, the price of Pink Panther has soared to $15 million at Sotheby’s ($16.88 million including buyer’s premium, 10 May 2011).
More recently, Koons broke a new record at auction, recording $30 million for his monumental sculpture Tulips, and giving him second place in this ranking (over $33.68 million including buyer’s premium, Christie’s, New York, 14 November 2012).

Peter Doig
Peter Doig has enthralled collectors since an exhibition in 2005 entitled The Triumph of Painting that was organised by the Saatchi Gallery at City Hall in London (26 January – 30 October 2005). Here, visitors discovered a romantic and mysterious style of painting where the ill-defined contours of objects and figures were reminiscent of the visions encountered in dreams. A few months after this exhibition, the triumph continued at Sotheby’s, where Doig broke the million-dollar barrier (Iron Hill, oil on canvas, 230 cm x 275 cm, sold for £1 million or $1.84 million, London, 21 June 2006). 25 more million-dollar sales were to follow (2006 – June 2013), with 6th place on our list and a new record being set by The Architect’s Home in the Ravine, sold for £6.8 million – £800,000 more than Christie’s high estimate ($10.6 million or almost $12 million including buyer’s premium, oil on canvas, 1991, 200 cm x 250 cm, sold on 13 February 2013).

Basquiat, Koons and Doig have all set new records at auction over the last few months, a sign of the frenetic nature of today’s high-end contemporary art market.