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Gerhard Richter’s Abstraktes Bild (809-4) being sold for a record £21,321,250 at Sotheby’s in London last night.

THERE was a new record for a living artist when Gerhard Richter’s Abstraktes Bild (809-4) made £21,321,250 at Sotheby’s in London.   It was from the collection of Eric Clapton.

Alex Branczik of Sotheby’s said: The combination of outstanding provenance and gold-standard quality in this sublime work by this blue-chip artist made for an historic auction moment. Gerhard Richter’s international appeal as one of the hottest Contemporary artists was once again confirmed this evening. The price of $34.1 million smashed the previous record for Richter by nearly $13 million and brings the highest-ever auction price for a work by a living artist.”

Eric Clapton bought the painting for $3.4 million at Sotheby’s in New York in 2001.

Sotheby’s evening auction of Contemporary Art and 20th Century Italian Art on October 12 made a combined total of £60 million sterling and set a new record for an October series of evening sales during Frieze Week. The Contemporary Art day sale today brought a total of £10,175,075 with sell-through rates of 68.4% by lot and 70.5% by value.

Cheyenne Westphal, Sotheby’s Chairman of Contemporary Art Europe, said: “This October we witnessed auction history being made at Sotheby’s with the new benchmarks we achieved. The depth of participation during this landmark series was truly international – across our evening sales alone, bidding came from 27 countries spanning South America, North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. These results – established during this extremely important week on the international arts calendar – reconfirm London’s position as a major centre for the contemporary art market on the global stage.”

(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for September 13, 2012).

The scene at Christie’s in London as the top lot of the evening was being sold.

There was a new world record for Martin Kippengerger’s Untitled (from the series Hand-Painted Pictures) at Christie’s in London last night. It made £3,117,250.  The October 11 evening auctions of Post War and Contemporary Art and The Italian Sale brought in a combined total of  £41,183,300.  There were nine records, most notably for the two cover lots, Pistoletto’s ‘Metrocubo d’infinito’ and the ‘Self-portrait’ by Kippenberger.

Francis Outred of Christie’s said: “We saw 43 different buyers for 45 works of art in the Post-War and Contemporary Art auction, reflecting the continuing attraction and depth of interest in Post-War & Contemporary Art”.

(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for September 20, 2012)

Sir Peter Blake’s original 1967 collage for the insert for The Beatle’s Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. (Click on image to enlarge).

The original 1967 Sgt. Pepper collage by Sir Peter Blake for The Beatles album will feature at Sotheby’s Post War British Art sale in London on November 13. The image is familar to millions of fans. The Beatle’s legendary Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is one of the best-selling albums of all time and a landmark in musical history.
James Rawlin, Sotheby’s Senior Specialist, Modern British Paintings, commented: “Sir Peter Blake’s collage is a tangible slice of rock history. Sgt Pepper had a huge impact on the cultural landscape. It was the first concept album, when music, story, image and studio expertise all came together. In this work we witness the creation of the eponymous Sgt Pepper himself, with his familiar accoutrements of moustache and sergeant’s stripes, originally intended for fans to cut out and keep.”
Peter Blake worked closely with Paul McCartney and John Lennon to create the image. The cover photograph featured The Beatles surrounded by an elaborately constructed set of cut out figures of famous faces. The inset, created as a collage, depicted the celebrated Sergeant. The work is from the collection of the late architect Colin St. John “Sandy” Wilson (1922-2007). It is estimated at £50,000-80,000.

The Collins painting, entitlted Gezelling, and an image of the actress with Douglas S. Cramer. (Click to enlarge). UPDATE: THIS MADE $2,602,500

AN explicit portrait of Joan Collins by John Currin, whose recent series is inspired by pornographic imagery, features at Christie’s Post War and Contemporary Art sale in New York on November 14. It is part of the collection of Douglas S. Cramer, the television producer renowned for shows such as Love Boat, Wonder Woman, Dynasty and for developing Batman, Peyton Place, and The Odd Couple. The sultry brunette is modeled on a cover image from a 1970s sex magazine showing soap super-star Joan Collins in scanty black lace lingerie. The image of a then 45 year old Collins was taken during her 1978 movie The Stud.  The painting is estimated at $1.2-1.8 million.

Discovered in America ‘Dugort bay, Achill island’ is estimated at £30,000-50,000. (Click on image to enlarge).  UPDATE: THIS MADE £37,250.

Paul Henry’s ’A scene near Achill Sound’ is estimated to sell for £40,000-60,000. (Click on image to enlarge).

Previously unrecorded works by the distinguished Irish artist Paul Henry (1876-1958) discovered in America will feature at Bonhams in London next November 14. Each one is a classical west of Ireland landscape at Achill. The works are believed to have been presented to Clemens J. France, a member of the US Committee of Enquiry on Conditions in Ireland, by the people of Ireland in gratitude for his work on the Constitution of the Irish Free State, circa 1922. A Scene near Achill Sound is estimated at £40,000-60,000 and Dugort Bay, Achill Island is estimated at £30,000-50,000.
Another Henry in the sale – Old Age Pensioners – is from a different private collection. It is figurative and shows two elderly women muffled against the cold. Painted in 1911 it is estimated at £100,000-150,000. The fourth Paul Henry in the sale is The Long Road. Exhibited in Belfast in 1918 it is estimated at £30,000-50,000.

Paul Henry’s Old-Age Pensioners is estimated at £100,000-150,000. (Click on image to enlarge). UPDATE: THIS MADE £109,250.

The Long Road, which was exhibited in Belfast in 1918, is estimated at £30,000-50,000. UPDATE: THIS MADE £37,250.

The catalogue for de Veres auction of Irish art in Dublin on October 9 lists 176 lots.  Estimates are realistic and it offers opportunities for collectors at all levels of the market. The catalogue is on-line. Here is a small selection.  UPDATE: THE auction realised 222,000, with around 65 per cent of lots sold.  The top lot was an oil by Grace Henry entitled Fishing Boats which made 9,500.

Daniel O’Neill 1920-1974 – An early memory (6,000-9,000)  UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD.

John Noel Smith – Spiral (1,400-1,800)  UPDATE: THIS MADE 1,500.

Liam Belton RHA – Pewter flagon with drawing (2,000-4,000)  UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,600.

Imogen Stuart RHA – Heart speaks onto heart (3,000-5,000).  UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,000.

Conor Fallon RHA 1939-2007 – Bird (4,000-5,000) UPDATE: THIS MADE 6,200.

Patrick O’Reilly – Two horses (3,000-4,000)  UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD.

Felim Egan – Untitled (2,000-3,000) UPDATE: THIS MADE 2,200

Nathaniel Hone RHA 1831-1917 – Tree in a landscape (2,000-3,000). UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD.

THERE is plenty to choose from among the 251 lots due to come under the hammer at Whyte’s Irish and British art sale in Dublin on October 1.   The venue for the sale is Clyde Hall at the RDS.  Here is a cross section from the appetising selection on offer.  You can click on any image to enlarge it:

Leo Whelan RHA (1892-1956) THE MIRROR, 1912 (15,000-20,000). UPDATE: THIS MADE 24,000

Roderic O’Conor (1860-1940) – COASTAL SCENE, EVENING or TURBULENT SEA , BRITTANY, c.1898-1899 (15,000-20,000).  UPDATE: THIS MADE 17,000

Charles Tyrrell (b1950) – Plunge (1988) (6,000-8,000). UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD.

Jack Butler Yeats RHA (1871-1957) – CROSSING THE CITY, 1929 (100,000-150,000).  UPDATE: THIS MADE 98,000

Harry Kernoff RHA (1900-1974) – DAVY BYRNE’S PUB, DUKE STREET, FROM THE BAILEY, DUBLIN, 1941 (30,000-50,000). UPDATE: THIS MADE 29,000.

Henry Moore OM CH FBA(1898-1986) – SISTERS WITH CHILDREN, 1979 (700-900).  UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD.

William Scott CBE RA (1913-1989) – BOTTLE AND BOWL, BLUES ON GREEN, 1970 (1,500-2,000).  UPDATE: THIS MADE 3,400

Edward Delaney RHA (1930-2009), Hunter Series (600-800).  UPDATE: THIS MADE 900

Patrick Scott HRHA (b.1921) – MP 15, 2006 (5,000-7,000).  UPDATE: THIS MADE 5,000.

Untitled (Pope) by Francis Bacon at Sotheby’s. (Click on image to enlarge).  UPDATE: IT MADE $29.7 MILLION.

A Screaming Pope by Francis Bacon painted in 1954 will feature at Sotheby’s contemporary art evening sale in New York on November 13. The vision of screaming Popes emerged from the desolate shadows of the Second World War as humanity tried to make sense of the horrors that had been committed during those years. This version is closely related to the artist’s Study after Velázquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X, the seminal masterpiece now housed in the Des Moines Art Center in Iowa. It has been in the same private collection since 1975.
The Papal imagery and its inspiration first started to appear in Bacon’s work in the late 1940’s. This version is more closely allied to a cycle of eight Study for Portraits from 1953 created for an exhibition at Durlacher Brothers in New York. The series is based upon the 1649 state portrait of Pope Innocent X by Diego Velázquez, court painter to King Phillip IV of Spain. Velázquez dutifully portrays Innocent as the most powerful man in the world surrounded by the luxurious trappings of his office, yet also as a fallible mortal who must face the burdens and pitfalls of his position. In Untitled (Pope) Bacon removes the idiosyncrasies of the grand state portrait. They are replaced by a more intimate depiction of pain and suffering inspired by the screaming nurse figure in Sergei Eisenstein’s 1925 movie The Battleship Potemkin and the clenched fist from Edweard Muybridge’s photograph Striking a Blow with the Right Hand. It had been thought that Bacon had not seen the Velázquez original when he painted this circa 1954 work. New research suggests that he could have been familiar with another version of the Innocent X painting. A smaller rendering belonged to the Duke of Wellington and was housed at Apsley House in London, just a short walk from Bacon’s studio at the Royal College of Art.
Untitled (Pope) is estimated to fetch $18/25 million.  UPDATE: IT MADE $29.7 MILLION.

le Brocquy’s Procession with Lilies made 320,000 at James Adam. (Click on image to enlarge).

The sale of  Procession with Lilies for an above estimate 320,000 at James Adam last night demonstrates that even in a deep recession a good, big Louis le Brocquy is cherished by the market.  This one was large and it had all the wow factor that major works by the Irish artist who died last April possess.

No less than three bidders chased the work, which had elicited an enthusiastic response from viewers at the auction, beyond the high estimate of 250,000. One was from the UK, another was a Dublin collector and the third and eventual winner was an Irish collector who is not based in the capital.  It was the top lot in a sale where more than 75% of the paintings on offer found buyers.  Procession with Lilies was the most important piece of the art in the corporate collection of Independent News and Media which was sold.

(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for August 21, 2012).