Marquee Week: art’s spring season starts in style

Final week marked Marquee Week in London, historically kicking off the artwork market’s spring season. And what higher technique to begin than with a set of spring-themed prints that David Hockney created on his iPad in 2011? The 16 digital drawings within the ‘Spring Arrives’ sale offered for a complete of £4.5 million at Sotheby’s final Thursday. Furthermore, all of them offered for costs that far exceeded our highest pre-sale expectations.

Hockney created his spring landscapes in Waldgate, East Yorkshire. The costliest items seize the seasonal rush of lush flora, with timber forming the backdrop. The successful bid was £486,400, together with purchaser’s premium, considerably exceeding the excessive estimate of £120,000.

Sotheby’s realized a complete of £154.1m throughout 4 main gross sales. Works by Alberto Giacometti, Constantin Brancusi, Anselm Kiefer, Wilhelm Hammershoi, Lucian Freud, and Andy Warhol have been all rejected, however the best-selling work was Francis Bacon’s 1972 self-portrait.

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To not be outdone, Christie’s complete for the week was £245.2m, a 58% improve on final yr’s gross sales. The public sale home additionally claimed bragging rights for promoting the week’s costliest artwork object, the King and Queen, a seated statue of the royal couple solid by Henry Moore in 1952-1953. Moore drew inspiration from limestone carvings of historic Egyptian rulers and their wives within the British Museum. “It is a unusual and hypnotic work, with its distorted head evoking historic symbols of royalty corresponding to beaks, birds and crowns,” says Christies.

Lots of the similar names that appeared in Sotheby’s Marquee Week catalog appeared at Christie’s, together with Giacometti, Freud, and Warhol. And the third place on this week’s prime 5 best-selling works (behind The King and Queen and Bacon’s Self-Portrait) was additionally offered by Christie’s. Wassily Kandinsky’s ‘Le rond rouge’ (1939) offered for simply over £12.5 million, whereas René Magritte’s ‘Les grâces Naturelles’ (c. 1961) and Pablo Picasso’s ‘Le peintre et son modèle’ (1964) each offered for £8.5 million. They have been all offered at Christie’s 20/21 night sale, which introduced in £197.4 million.

Does a robust Marquee Week imply the artwork market is recovering?

The third of the ‘massive three’ public sale homes, Phillips, got here in second place, taking in a complete of £20.7 million at a day and evening sale of recent and modern artwork in London. Hammershoi’s “Inside of a Lady with Branches in a Vase on a Desk” (1900) and Warhol’s “The True King” (1973) each offered for £1.6 million, each barely beneath their higher estimate. Banksy’s Joyful Choppers (2006) offered for £1.5 million, making it the third-highest worth on the night sale. Nonetheless, Phillips remained upbeat. Bidders got here from 30 nations.”[demonstrated] “There’s continued resilience available in the market for excellent works of recent, post-war and modern artwork.”

This text first appeared in MoneyWeek journal. With a MoneyWeek subscription, you get pleasure from unique early entry to information, opinion and evaluation from our crew of monetary specialists.