CHRISTIE'S | POST-WAR & CONTEMPORARY

JEFF KOONS
Cracked Egg (Magenta), Executed in 1994-2006
Estimate: £10 million to £15 million

From 6 to 14 February in London, Christie’s will present an outstanding season of exhibitions and auctions dedicated to Post-War & Contemporary Art, representing the most important artists and movements of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Francis Outred, Christie’s Head of Post-War & Contemporary Art, Europe: “’Following on from the success of New York in November, when new records for any auction globally, any work of art at auction and any work by a living artist were achieved, Christie’s is delighted to present another exceptional series of Post War and Contemporary art auctions in London this February. The ground-breaking Italian spirit of Arte Povera emanates from the special collection of ‘Eyes Wide Open’ where major works by Pascali, Pistoletto and Fabro mix with their forebears Fontana, Burri and Manzoni and their international heirs in Schutte, Eliasson, Kapoor and Trockel to name but a few. We are also celebrating a British odyssey starting with Francis Bacon’s stunning ‘George Dyer Talking’ from the same period, 1966, Bridget Riley’s ‘Chant 2’ which won the Golden Lion in Venice in 1968 and ending with the group of works from the key exhibition of contemporary art from the last couple of decades, ‘Sensation’. The generation of Hirst, Hume, Ofili and Saville often quote Arte Povera as a profound influence so to be able to bring these works together in February is particularly resonant. Following Koons’ record-breaking sale in New York the appearance of his celebrated ‘Cracked Egg’ for the first time at auction should create tremendous excitement, and the Gerhard Richter ‘Abstraktes Bild’ is the finest abstract painting I have ever worked with. This should be a season to remember.”

This exceptional week of sales begins with Eyes Wide Open: An Italian Vision, a single-owner auction and exhibition featuring the largest and most important private collection of Arte Povera ever to be shown in the UK. The exhibition will open on 5 February and will be displayed across all three floors of Christie’s Mayfair Gallery in New Bond Street (until 14 February). The stand-alone auction will take place on 11 February at Christie’s King Street.

The February season is led by the Post-War & Contemporary Art Evening Auction on 13 February 2014, which will offer 49 works representing each decade of the past 60 years and reflecting watershed moments in contemporary art. The evening auction is led by masterpieces by Francis Bacon, Gerhard Richter and Jeff Koons and is expected to realize £87 million to £107.5 million, the second highest pre-sale estimate for a London auction in the category at Christie’s, and the highest for the February season. The Evening auction will also showcase the evolution of British art from the 1960s to the present day, with outstanding examples by Francis Bacon, Bridget Riley, Gerald Laing, Jenny Saville, Damien Hirst, Chris Ofili, Gary Hume and Peter Doig.

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LONDON ART AUCTION RESULT

Gerhard Richter, Kerze (Candle), 1982 (est. $9.3-13.9 million, realized $16.5 million). All photos on site for Art Observed by Caroline Claisse.
Christie’s Post War and Contemporary Art sale on Friday evening in London ended the week’s auction blitz with a bang. The sale followed Phillips and Sotheby’s auctions in the same category that both failed to beat low presale estimates. The Christie’s sale was comprised of 47 lots that brought in $60 million, just shy of the $62 million high estimate. Top honors went to the evening’s cover lot- Gerhard Richter‘s Kerze – which was expected to bring in as much as $13.9 million. The artistmade headlines earlier this month when he characterized the art market as “impossible to understand” and “daft” during the press launch of his retrospective currently on view at Tate Modern. If anything, his comments seemed to have whet the already healthy appetite for his work, as Kerze sold for $16.5 million and set a record for the artist at auction. The candle paintings, in which the artist depicts lighted candles in his signature photorealistic style, are the most sought after works in the painter’s oeuvre.

Christie’s Jussi Pylkkanen at the rostrum.
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Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes Bild, 1992 (est. $3.8-5.3 million, realized $5.7 million), via Christies.com
Richter also secured the second highest earning lot of the evening with Abstraktes Bild, which sold for $5.7 million against a high estimate of $5.3 million. The painting last sold at Christie’s New York in 2002 for $1.05 million.



Antony Gormley, Angel of the North (Life-Size Maquette), 1996 (est. $2.3- 3 million, realized $5.7 million)
Six other artist records were set. Bidders chased after Antony Gormley‘s life size maquette of Angel of the North, one of England’s most recognizable pieces of public art. The work is number five in an edition of five. The third maquette in the series sold at Sotheby’s London in July 2008 for $4.6 million.



Martin Kippenberger, Untitled, 1990 (est. $380,000-530,000, realized $2.1 million), via Christies.com



Damien Hirst, Judas Iscariot (The Twelve Disciples), 1994 (est. $760,000-1.1 million, realized $1.6 million)
Sculpture fared well at the evening sale. Martin Kippenberger‘s squiggly lamp post carried a high estimate of $530,000 and was knocked down at $2.1 million, reportedly to former head of Christie’s Contemporary art department Philippe Segalot. The piece was acquired directly from the artist by the selling party. A bull’s head in formaldehyde by Damien Hirst  sold for $1.6 million against a high estimate of $1.1 million. Ron Mueck‘s hyper-real sculpture of a crouched man holding a sweater over his head sold for $947,000 against a high estimate of $900,000. The work carried a third party guarantee.



Ron Mueck, Man Under Cardigan, 1998 (est. $610,000-900,000, realized $947,000)



Ahmed Alsoudani, Baghdad I, 2008 ( est. $385,000-540,000, realized $1.1 million), via Christies.com
The artist record was also set for Iraqi-born Ahmed Alsoudani, whose work is currently on view in his homeland’s pavillion at the Venice Biennale. The painting on offer Friday evening was executed the year after Alsoudani graduated from Yale’s MFA program and carried a high estimate of $540,000. It fetched nearly twice that sum when it was hammered down at $1.1 million (with fees).
The results of the Christie’s sale proved that there is still energy in the market, despite fever-pitched concerns about the economy on both sides of the pond. All eyes are now on the next round of auctions next month in New York. Check back for a preview of the upcoming sales.
-J. Mizrachi
Related Links:
Christie’s Results [Christie's]
Christie’s Once Again Defies the Market, Pulling Off a $60 Million Triumph in Its London Contemporary Art Sale [Artinfo]
Richter $16.6 Million Record Leads Auction Boost to Art Market [Bloomberg]
Richter, Gormley records fall at Christie’s art sale [Reuters]
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