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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.

Lowry's Industrial Scene at auction in Cork estimated at 60,000-100,000. (Click on image to enlarge). UPDATE: THIS FAILED TO SELL.

A classical Lowry entitled Industrial Scene features at a 900 lot auction in Cork on January 30.  The painting, which has a nine centimeter tear on the lower left hand side, is from a collection in Co. Limerick. It is in a white frame and signed and dated 1959. It measures 52 x 65 cms and is estimated at 60,000-100,000.

It will be sold, presumably subject to authentication, at the first ever auction by the newly established Cork Auction Rooms.  The company is a new venture by Tom O’Connell of Kerry Auction Rooms, Moyderwell, Tralee and Michael Watson of Lissardagh Antiques in Cork. They intend to hold monthly auctions in Cork, selling everything from antiques and collectibles to household contents.

The works by artist Laurence Stephen Lowry, born of Irish parents near Manchester in 1887, are enduringly popular.  His values have continued to soar, even in the current economic quagmire. The Football Match by Lowry made a new world record for £5.6 million at Christie’s in London last May. Bonhams set a record for a work on paper by Lowry in November when Swinbury Station sold for   £121,250.

UPDATE:  This work aroused considerable interest but failed to sell in the absence of back up authentication paperwork.

Major artists including Richter, Basquiat, Bacon, Freud and Bridget Riley will feature at Sotheby’s Contemporary art evening auction in London on February 15.  The sale is expected to realise more than £35.5 million at hammer.

Sotheby’s, which achieved a global sales total of  $1.17 billion for contemporary art in 2011, leads the market in this field said Cheyenne Westphal, the company’s chairman for contemporary art, Europe. “Attesting to last year’s successes  the evening auction we have been able to assemble this winter will be led by numerous desireable and fresh to market artworks by internationally collected blue-chip artists”.  Here are some to whet the appetite:

Gerhard Richter (b1932). Eis (Ice), signed and dated 1981. The work, based on a photograph taken on a solo retreat in Greenland in 1972, captures Richter's struggle with his marriage and the exodus from his troubled life in Dusseldorf to a Polar haven. (£2-3 million). Click to enlarge. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £5,147,674.

Gerhard Richter (b.1932) Abstraktes Bild (Rot) signed and dated 1991. For this work the artist employed a squeegee as his primary tool. (£2.5-3.5 million). Click to enlarge. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £4,073,250.

Bridget Riley (b.1931) Tabriz, signed and dated 1984. (£250,000 - 350,0000. Click to enlarge. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £457,250.

Jean Michael Basquiat (1960-1988) Orange Sports Figure from 1982 (£3-4 million). UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £4,073,250