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Propped – Jenny Saville

There was a new auction record for a living female artist when Propped by Jenny Saville sold for £9.5 million at Sotheby’s in London tonight. The self-portrait that shatters canonised representations of female beauty propelled a young Jenny Saville to renown.  Eight bidders vied for the the remarkable painting in a bidding battle lasting more than 10 minutes.

It is from the collection of visionary collector, patron and museum trustee, the late David Teiger. Proceeds will benefit Teiger Foundation – soon to be one of the world’s largest and most significant contemporary art foundations.

Painted in 1992, Propped compelled collector Charles Saatchi to acquire every work by the artist that he possibly could, and subsequently included it in the pivotal 1997 exhibition, Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Gallery at the Royal Academy of Art. Sensation truly introduced Saville to the British public and the provocative nature of the exhibition sparked record queues and a media frenzy.

The auction debut of Saville’s Propped follows the successful sale of the artist’s monumental Shift in June 2016 (est. £1.5-2 million), which tripled the auction record for the artist when it sold for £6.8 million to The Long Museum, Shanghai.

Jenny Saville – Shift

Financial markets may be fluctuating in the wake of the Brexit vote, but the art market showed its durability at Sotheby’s June 28  Contemporary Art Evening sale. Two artist records led the auction – Jenny Saville’s monumental Shift brought £6.8 million and Keith Haring’s The Last Rainforest realised £4.2 million. Bidding was strong and competitive from the sale’s opening lots, notably Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Nets (£677,000) and a buoyant Alexander Calder mobile (£1.7 million). A trio of works by Jean Dubuffet and two canvases by the sought-after painter Adrian Ghenie also contributed to the £52.2 million total.

Last exhibited at the epoch-defining exhibition “Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection”, Shift merits its revered place in art history as the standout work of Saville’s prodigious career. Offered at auction for the first time the painting tripled the artist’s previous auction record of £2.1m set in 2014.