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CHRISTIE’S has released videos about specific artworks in the Contemporary art sales in London on February 14.  Here are videos on Francis Bacon, Louise Bourgeois and Mark Rothko, and also featuring works by Lucio Fontana, Piero Manzoni, Yves Klein, Jeff Wall, Lucian Freud, Gerhard Richter and Nicolas de Staël:

UPDATE:  The Bacon sold for £21.3 million and was the top lot, the piece by Louise Bourgeois did not sell and the Rothko was withdrawn. Gerhard Richter”s Abstraktes Bild made £9,897,250 and Agrigente by Nicolas de Staël made £5.3 million. A Piero Manzoni sold for £2.7 million and Lucio Fontana made two million.  Freud’s Boat Connemara made £657,250. A work by Yves Klein sold for £1.7 million.  The work by Jeff Wall sold for £301,250 on February 15. (See posts on antiquesandartireland.com for January 20 and January 30, 2012.)

Claude Monet's L’Entreé de Giverny en Hiver made a record for a snowscape by the artist.

Klimt's Lakeshore with Birches failed to get a bid and sold privately immediately after the auction for £5.6million.

There was an auction record for a Monet snowscape at Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern sale in London on February 8. But over ambitious estimates were blamed for the failure of a Klimt and a Dali to sell.

Instead the top lot at a sale which brought in £78.8 million was for an 1885 snow scene at Giverny by Claude Monet.  “L’Entree de Giverny en hiver” sold for £7.3 million over an estimate of £4.5-5.5 million.

There was disappointment that Gustav Klimt’s recently rediscovered 1901 “Lakeshore with Birches” failed to attract a single bid.  It was estimated at £6-8 million.  The work was quickly sold afterwards for £5.6 million. Dali’s 1946 “Oasis” had a top estimate of £6 million and failed to sell.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s Das Boskett, Albertplatz in Dresden made £7,321,250:  George Braque’s L’Oliveraie made £5,081,250 and Fernand Leger’s La Jeune Fille a l’echelle made £3,961,250.  Works by Edouard Vuillard, Henry Moore and Alexej von Jawlensky made £3,401,250, £3,289,250 and £3,065,250 respectively.  Die Elektrische by Otto Dix made £2,953,250, almost three times its estimate.

A group of 14 Surrealist works achieved a combined total of £16,083,000.  Giorgio de Chirico’s Ettore e Andromaca made £2,841,250 and Yves Tanguy’s Deux fois du noir made £2, 505,250.  The auction was was 76.9% sold by lot and 76% sold by value (41 of 53 lots were sold).  (See post on antiquesandartireland.com for January 10, 2012.)

When Sotheby’s day sale concluded on February 9 with sales of £17.1 million it brought the cumulative total for Sotheby’s February sales of Impressionist & Modern Art to £96,087,750.

Henry Moore (1898-1986) Reclining Figure: Festival made a world record price of £19,081,250 at Christie's. Image courtesty Christie's Images Ltd., 2012.

There was a world record price for the English sculpture and artist Henry Moore at Christie’s in London on February 7.  His Reclining Figure, Festival – bronze with dark brown patina – sold for £19,081,250.  Conceived in 1951 and cast in an edition of five plus one artist’s proof it measures 96¼ inches in length. From a private New York collection it had been estimated at £3.5-5.5 million.  It was bought in the room by Cologne  dealer Alex Lachmann.

Another world record price was established for the Spanish artist Joan Miro when his painting poem was knocked down for £16,841,250.

A van Gogh previously owned by Elizabeth Taylor – Vue de l’Asile et de la Chapelle de Saint-Remy” –  made £10.1 million over an estimate of £5-7 million. When the late actresses art was sold in London this week it brought the final tally for her complete collection including jewellery and couture to £117.2 million. (See post on antiquesandartireland.com for January 17, 2012.)

The Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale and the auction of Art of the Surreal at Christie’s and realised £134,999,400, selling 86% by lot and 93% by value. The pre-sale estimate was £86.2-127.1 million. Buyer’s were from 21 countries in four continents. Three lots sold for over £10 million and 28 lots made over £1 million.

Giovanna Bertazzoni, International Head of Impressionist and Modern Art, Christie’s said: “These strong results illustrate that the art market continues to attract significant levels of spending, particularly for the rarest and most exceptional works of art. It is an extremely intelligent market where pricing is key – and where collectors react with the greatest determination to the rarest works of art, and particularly to those which are fresh to the market. We are particularly pleased to have established record prices for two great artists of the 20th century: Henry Moore and Joan Miró. In both cases, we offered works of art that were among the greatest produced by the artists, and their quality drew the most determined of bidding”.

Picasso, Notre Dame de Paris. (Click on image to enlarge).

Modigliani, Jeune fille aux cheveux noirs. (Click on image to enlarge).

Paintings by Picasso, Modigliani, Renoir and Chagall were among the top lots at Bonhams on February 7. A 1954 landscape ‘Notre Dame de Paris’ by Picasso made £864,450.  It shows the influence of earlier experiments with Cubism.  When it was completed the artist was falling in love with a woman who would later become his wife – Jacqueline Roque. His happiness is evident.

Modigliani’s `Jeune fille aux cheveux noirs’ made £825,250. Renoir’s Femme en rouge lisant, painted in 1895 made £97,250 and La musique au village by Marc Chagall (1887-1995) made £73,250. Bonhams Impressionist & Modern Art auction brought in £2,657,700, drew interest from around the world and was 81 per cent sold by value.

David Hockney (b. 1937) Lithograph of Water made of thick and thin Lines and two light blue Washes (Pool #1E) lithograph in colours, 1980. (£25,000-30,000). Click on image to enlarge. Photo courtesy Christie's Images Ltd., 2012. UPDATE: THIS MADE £43,250.

David Hockney (b. 1937) Self-portrait lithograph in colours, 1954. (£15,000-20,000). Click on image to enlarge. Photo courtesty Christie's Images Ltd., 2012. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £22,500.

A total of 147 works on paper by David Hockey are to be auctioned at Christie’s, South Kensington, London on February 17.  They include etchings, lithographs, drawings and photography.  The sale spans over forty years of the artist’s career and includes works which reflect Hockney’s various incarnations: the precocious student, the young émigré in California, the Hollywood pool-sider and chronicler of gay life, the portraitist, the fax-artist, the collagist photographer, the set designer and the camera obscura provocateur.

The sale neatly coincides with Hockney’s blockbuster show A Bigger Picture at the Royal Academy.  Demand for tickets is heavy in a show that has proved to be exceptionally popular and places Hockey in the best loved category of British artists.

UPDATE: The Hockney on Paper sale realized a total of £1,399,400,

Roy Lichtenstein: I Can See the Whole Room!...and There's Nobody in it!, from 1961, was the most expensive artwork sold by Christie's in 2011. It made $43,202,500 in New York.

Led by contemporary art global sales were up nine per cent at Christie’s in 2011.  The overall sales total was £3.6 billion/$5.7 billion. This includes private sales of  £502 million/$808.6 million, up 44% on 2010. Auction sales of  £735.7 million/$1.2 billion in post war and contemporary art amounted to an increase of 22 per cent over 2010. Asian art was the second strongest category, up 13 per cent to £552.9 million/$890.1 million.

The top ten art prices of 2010 at Christie’s were led by Roy Lichtenstein‘s (1923-1997), I Can See the Whole Room!…and There’s Nobody in it!, from 1961, which sold for $43,202,500 in New York on November 8. Andy Warhol‘s Self Portrait 1963-64 made $38,442,500, George Stubbs Gimcrack on Newmarket Heath made  $35,906,000, Mark Rothko‘s Untitled No. 17 made $33,682,50, Pablo Picasso‘s Femme assise, robe bleue made  $29,133,148, Francis Bacon‘s Study for a Portrait, 1953 made $28,666,155, Andy Warhol‘s Self-Portrait, 1986 made $27,522,500, Francis Bacon Three Studies for Self-Portrait, 1974 made $25,282,500, Claude Monet‘s Les Peupliers, 1891 made  $22,482,500 and Maurice de Vlaminck’s Paysage de banlieue, 1905 made $22,482,500.

In 2011, Christies sold 719 works at auction for over $1 million compared to 607 in 2010. “This is a very encouraging set of results”, said Steven P. Murphy, Chief Executive Officer, Christie’s. “While we are seeing more investors collecting, there are many more collectors who are increasing their investment in their collections as the explosion of interest in art, fuelled by globalization, facilitated by the technology that increases access to information and images, meets the art that is coming to the market.”

Results also illustrate solid demand at every price level, not just for the most expensive works, with the highest selling rate for works sold between £250,000 and £1 million at 87%. Sales of impressionist and modern pieces declined by 28% to £548.6 million pounds, behind Asian art. Christie’s website had  77% more unique visitors than the previous year. In total 29% of Christies bidders transacted online (not including the online-only auction of the Elizabeth Taylor Collection which achieved more than 57,000 on-line bids).

“As we approach the sales over the next fortnight in London, we are optimistic about the market in 2012” Mr. Murphy said. “We also remain committed to our role as cultural stewards through our auctions, private sales and exhibitions”.

Lucian Freud (1922-2011) Boat, Connemara. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £657,250

AN Irish Freud, a Sicilian de Stael and a Rothko are among the masterworks to be offered at Christies Post War and Contemporary Art evening sale in London on February 14. Boat, Connemara is a meticulous and emotional drawing executed in 1948 by Lucian Freud.  It is one of two works the artist produced while in Ireland for three weeks in August 1948. The young artist employed a masterly technique of calligraphic patterns, hatching and cross-hatching, reminiscent of old masters’ etchings, with just a hint of colour which contributes to highlight the main subject of his attention. Fresh to the market and unseen for 50 years Christie’s say that this exceptional rediscovery will attract the interest of  discerning collectors.  It is estimated at £200,000-300,000.

An untitled work Mark Rothko is the first major canvas by the artist at auction in London for a decade. Rendered in a palette of brilliant red vermillion, burnt ochre and white, Untitled comprises two rectangular forms floating within the canvas. Painted in 1955 it is estimated at £9-12 million. An abstract landscape which forms part of the “Agrigente” paintings by Russian born Nicolas de Staël was realised in Provence in August 1953 on his return from a visit to Agrigento, Sicily. It is one of the largest paintings in the series. The thick impasto is applied with a palette knife in a technique honed down by the artist, fully emphasising the large juxtaposed strips of vivid colour. De Staël unusually signed, titled and dated the piece on its reverse, revealing its particular importance. This work is estimated to realise £3.5 million to £5 million.

(Images credit Christie’s Images Ltd., 2012, click on any to enlarge).

Nicolas de Staël (1914-1955) Agrigente. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £5,305,250

Mark Rothko (1903-1970) Untitled. UPDATE: THIS WAS WITHDRAWN PRIOR TO AUCTION.