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Gerhard Richter – Abstraktes Bild

Gerhard Richter’s monumental Abstraktes Bild from 1987 led Sotheby’s Contemporary Art evening sale in New York last night. It made $32 million in an auction which totalled $362.2 million.  This was up 17% on November 2017.  With 97% of lots sold it was Sotheby’s fourth consecutive art evening auction in New York with a sell through rate of over 95%.  Sales from the collection of David Teiger have now crossed $100 million and more auctions from his collection will be held in 2019.

Grégoire Billaut, Head of Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Department in New York, said: “Tonight’s results were among the best we have ever achieved, and reinforced the strong and consistent market we have experienced throughout the fall. From a record Contemporary Curated sale in September to our best online sale to-date and a 100%-sold Day Auction in Hong Kong, the market continues to grow across price levels. We saw a depth of bidding throughout the sale from buyers around the globe, and achieved great records for some very deserving names. Our goal is always to deliver for our consignors, and we did just that with an exceptional sell-through rate.”

David Hockney Montcalm Interior with 2 Dogs sold for $12.7 million

Jean-Michel Basquiat Untitled (Pollo Frito) sold for $25.7 million

HERE are four works by Gerhard Richter an artist to love who seems to be cropping up everywhere right now.  A major retrospective, Panorama, is at Tate Modern in London until January 8 to coincide  with his 80th birthday.

The images here are from Abstraction-Figuration: A Private Collection at Sotheby’s in New York on on November 9. It features one of the most important groups of works by the German artist ever to appear at auction.  The sale will also include works from the collection by Francis Bacon, Sigmar Polke, and Lee Krasner. The Impressionist and Modern art auction on November 2 will feature a group of eight paintings by Max Ernst including The Endless Night from 1940, an acute meditation on Europe in the early years of World War II ($2.8/4 million). Overall the collection is estimated to bring $40/56  million with works to be offered in five different sales.

(All images are copyright Sotheby’s and you can click on any of them to enlarge).

UPDATE:  THE sale  brought an outstanding total of $315,837,000, well above the $192/270.8 million pre-sale estimate and nearly 85% sold-by-lot. The total is the highest for a Contemporary Art Evening sale at Sotheby’s since May 2008 and the company’s third highest ever.

The sale was led by four masterworks by Clyfford Still which sold for a combined total of $114.1 million.

The other major highlight of the sale was the Abstraction Figuration Collection – a remarkable offering of paintings that thrive in the fertile space between abstraction and figuration by artists such as Gerhard Richter, Lee Krasner and Sigmar Polke.  All the works found buyers and were led by the superb group of Richter abstract paintings which brought a combined total of $74,280,000, over twice the pre-sale high estimate (group est. $27/36.7 million). Furthermore, an auction record for the artist was set when Abstraktes Bild from 1997 sold for $20,802,500 after a contest involving four bidders (est. $9/12 million).

Gerhard Richter - Abstraktes Bild (849-3) ($9,000,000 – 12,000,000)

Gerhard Richter - Gudrun ($5,500,000 – 7,500,000)

Gerhard Richter - Abstraktes Bild (769–2) ($5,500,000 – 7,500,000)

Gerhard Richter - Rain (676-2) ($700,000-900,000)