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More than 300 lots of affordable art are on offer at Morgan O’Driscoll’s current “Off the Wall” on line art auction.  It will run until February 23.  The catalogue is on-line and bidding is underway.  Here is a small selection:

Louis le Brocquy – Swords Man (1,750-2,500  UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,800

Dan O’Neill – Two Figures in a Seascape (1,000-1,500) UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,800

William Crozier – West Cork Landscape (3,000-5,000)  UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,800

Gerard Dillon – Connemara Moon (400-600)  UPDATE: THIS MADE 380

Elizabeth Brophy – Flower Market (400-600)  UPDATE: THIS MADE 700

Colin Middleton – Abstract (1,000-1,500).  UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,400

Around 350 lots from the full spectrum of Post War and Contemporary art will come under the hammer at Christie’s First Open Sale in New York on March 6.  The sale will present works by an array of artists featured in the November auctions, but with price points that are accessible to a wide range of collectors. There is a choice of works by artists such as Jean Dubuffet, Jeff Koons, Yayoi Kusama, Robert Rauschenberg, Ed Ruscha, Theaster Gates, Thomas Houseago, Parker Ito, Rashid Johnson, Oscar Murillo, David Ostrowski, Seth Price, Christian Rosa, Sterling Ruby, Analia Saban, and Kelley Walker. The sale will begin with 24 works from the collection of Ruth Horwich, featuring an extensive collection of jewelry by Alexander Calder and works by John Chamberlain, Llyn Foulkes, Jim Nutt, Ed Paschke, and Andy Warhol amongst others.

First Open will give both new and seasoned buyers an opportunity to diversify their collections. Estimates vary from $8,000 up to $750,000.  All works will be exhibited at Christie’s Rockefeller Center Galleries from February 28 to March 3.

GERHARD RICHTER (B.1932)
Mustangs ($250,000=350,000) CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LTD. 2015

Jewelry by ALEXANDER CALDER (1898-1976) from the Collection of Ruth Horwich CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LTD. 2015

ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987)
Triple Dollar Sign ($750,000-950,000). Courtesy CHRISTIE’S IMAGES LTD. 2015

Francis Bacon’s Study for a Head (Pope Pius XII) made £10,050,500.

Untilted (New York City) by Cy Twombly (1928-2011) made £19,682,500.

Untitled, New York City by Cy Twombly was the top lot at Christie’s Post War and Contemporary art auction in London tonight. It made £19,682,500 in a sale that brought in £117,542,500.  This follows the record-breaking sale of one of Cy Twombly’s blackboards which sold for $69.6 million at Christie’s New York last November.

Gerhard Richter’s photorealist painting Vierwaldstatter See (Lake Lucerne) sold for £15,762,500 and Francis Bacon’s Study for  Head (Pope Pius XII) sold for £10,050,500. Richter’s Karmin (Carmine) sold for £9,682,500, Twombly’s Death of Pompey (Rome) sold for £4,338,500 and  Three Delegates by Jean Michel Basquiat sold for £4,394,500.

Artist records were set for Paolo Scheggi  (£1,178,500), Howard Hodgkin (£1,202,500) and Theaster Gates (£242,500).  Wall of Light, Reef by Sean Scully sold for £554,400.

Francis Outred, International Director and Head of Post-War & Contemporary Art, Christie’s Europe said: “The interest in contemporary art has grown enormously, but at a rate that is sustainable. No bubble produces bidders from 40 countries and six continents for such a diverse range of works.  I am particularly proud that in the week of Richter’s 83rd birthday, one of his greatest paintings – of Lake Lucerne – a place so close to his heart, was so sought after”.

Last sold at auction in in 1993 for £353,000 Francis Bacon’s seminal self-portrait from 1977 made £14.7 million.

The £123.5 million brought in tonight was the highest ever total for a Sotheby’s sale of Contemporary Art in Europe. Gerhard Richter and Francis Bacon, dominated the evening, with Richter’s vibrant Abstraktes Bild from 1986 selling for £30.4 million, establishing a new record for any living European artist. It is one of his largest abstract paintings and one of his favourite works.

Gerhard Richter’s Abstraktes Bild sold for £30.4 million.

A powerful self-portrait diptych by Francis Bacon made £14.7 million, more than 41 times the price it achieved when last at auction, at Sotheby’s in 1993. The work is an extremely rare example from a series of profoundly introspective self-portraits Bacon conducted following the suicide of his lover George Dyer in 1971.  A previously unseen masterpiece by Lucio Fontana from a Swedish private collection sold for £8.4 million, a landmark for any of his slash paintings.

Alex Branczik, Sotheby’s Head of Contemporary Art, London said: “The enormous global appetite for Contemporary masterpieces played out tonight as bidding shot up in leaps of £2 million for Richter’s landmark abstract.  It is emblematic of the depth of the market that new benchmarks were set not only for rising star Jonas Wood, but also for the greats: Richter, Fontana, Bacon. This evening’s record-breaking sale sets the scene for a stellar season of Contemporary art at Sotheby’s”.

UPDATE:  The combined total of the evening and day sales was £140.4 million.