After four days of consecutive auctions, the Contemporary evening auction tipped Sotheby’s weeklong series over one billion US dollars. The $210.5 million Contemporary evening auction in New York last night was powered by towering figures of contemporary art, with Francis Bacon’s triumphant finale to his Pope paintings realising $46.3 million. Also leading the sale were: Cy Twombly’s Untitled ($38 million), Andy Warhol’s Elvis ($21.6 million), Ed Ruscha’s Cold Beer Beautiful Girls ($18.8 million) and Georg Baselitz’s Women of Dresden – Visit from Prague ($11.2 million, a new artist record). The evening’s final lot, Sean Scully’s Song ($2 million), earned the artist a new auction record.
The Now evening auction realised $72.9 million. Work by women artists achieved $28 million (nearly double the $10.3–14.4 million estimate) and work by artists of colour realised $35.1 million (above the $15.9–22.9 estimate) or nearly half of the auction’s total sale value. In one energetic hour, nine out of 23 lots set records: Adrian Ghenie’s Degenerate Art ($9.3 million), Matthew Wong’s The Night Watcher($5.9 million), Avery Singer’s Happening ($5.3 million), Christina Quarles’s Night Fell Upon Us Up On Us ($4.5 million), Jennifer Packer’s Fire Next Time ($2.3 million), Simone Leigh’s Birmingham($2.2 million), Anna Weyant’s Falling Woman($1.6 million), Lucy Ball’s Special Guest ($907K, in her auction debut), and Virgil Abhloh’s Unique” Efforescence” Desk ($151K for a dedicated work of art).
Wall Plena (2021) by Sean Scully at Kerlin Gallery in Dublin
The squares of Sean Scully are legendary. They grace major museums and have enhanced exhibitions right around the world. The artist regarded as among the most important proponents of abstraction has paid enormous attention to this particular structure. Square at Kerlin Gallery in Dublin from May 14 to June 25 will bring together over 50 years of oil paintings, watercolours, drawings, sculpture, writings and prints from 1968 by Sean Scully.
There are measured grid paintings from the 1970’s, his Wall of Light series and the recent Dark Window series made during lockdown. Square will include a new series of prints and drawings made with the artist’s finger on an iPhone screen. These playful drawings teem with life and energy. The creative potential of the screen is driving major artists more and more, among them David Hockney, who has produced a fascinating series of screen artworks.
Sean Scully – Untitled (1993). UPDATE: THIS MADE £37,800
Untitled (1993) by Sean Scully comes up at Sotheby’s online auction of Irish art which opens today and runs until November 23. The watercolour and pencil on paper is estimated at £25,000-£35,000. The sale features a selection of works by contemporary artists in Ireland across paintings, sculpture, ceramics and pottery.
Yellow Red (1994), an etching 18/30 by Sean Scully at Whyte’s. UPDATE: THIS MADE 7,000 AT HAMMER
Encompassing everything from genre paintings, still life, abstract art, landscapes and Saint Gobnait to an original copy of the Irish Proclamation and a large bronze plaque made for An Tostal in 1953 the art sales at Whyte’s on Monday and Adams next Wednesday are brimful of interest. Given that collectors have adjusted remarkably well to the online model it seems safe to predict that there will be no shortage of competitive bidding for the 160 works on offer at Whyte’s and the 149 at Adams. In a welcome move towards normality the easing of Covid restrictions allows viewing for these sales by appointment. Online or in person there is much to see and appreciate. Whyte’s kicks off online on May 31 at 6 pm. Sean Keating painted his friend Harry Clarke thinking about St. Gobnait on the Aran Islands while working on a commission for his series of eleven windows at the Honan Chapel in Cork. The acclaimed windows were installed in 1916. Gobnait is traditionally associated with Ballyvourney in Co. Cork and with the Aran Islands. The resultant oil painting by Keating – exhibited at the RHA in 1918 – is lot 45 at Whyte’s, with an estimate of €50,000-€70,000.Along with Yeats and Keating, Whyte’s has work by artists including Cedil Maguire, Nathaniel Hone, Walter Osborne, Charlotte MacCausland, Harry Kernoff, Patrick Leonard, William Leech, Mary Swanzy, Maurice MacGonigal, Dan O’Neill, Tony O’Malley, Louis le Brocquy, Sean Scully, Donald Teskey and many others. A bronze An Tostal commemorative plaque celebrating Irish life by the sculptor Gabriel Hayes (1909-1978) is estimated at €3,000-€4,000 and there are prints by Bob Dylan and David Bowie with estimates from €1,200 to €3,000.
Over the Estuary by John Shinnors at James Adam. UPDATE: THIS MADE 30,000 AT HAMMER
Original copies of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic are always much sought after. The one at Adams next Wednesday evening, signed by the printer Christopher Brady and obtained in Sackville St. on Easter Monday, 1916, has an estimate of €150,000. The sky and sea are made of blues, blacks and purples in William Croziers’ structural landscape The Inlet which Adams estimate at €20,000-€30,000. There is a more traditional approach in Cottages in Achill by Paul Henry (€140,000-€160,000) while the acclaimed Limerick artist John Shinnors took inspiration from the River Shannon for his magnificent and dynamic oil on canvas diptych Over the Estuary (€30,000-€50,000). Camille Souters’ Cycling to Chioggia, a little town south of Venice, is a memory painting from 1961 that was once in the collection of Sir Basil Goulding. It is estimated at €15,000-€25,000. Another memory jogger is an Elkington and Co. bronze of Oliver Goldsmith after John Henry Foley RA RHA (1818-1874). The estimate here is €3,000-€4,000. In a Dublin Waxworks by Jack B Yeats (€60,000-€100,000) once in the collection of the late Garech Browne at Luggala, recalls a popular attraction in the capital until it was burnt down during the 1916 Rising.
From Sean Scully and John Behan to Pauline Bewick and Mainie Jellett the selection available at Morgan O’Driscoll’s online Irish art auction which runs to March 8 is comprehensive. Untitled 1996, a unique watercolour, No. 47 from a series of 50, by Sean Scully is estimated at 6,000-9,000. Abstract Composition in gouache by Mainie Jellett is estimated at 4,000-6,000. There is interest in Cat in Winter in the Glass House by Pauline Bewick (5,000-7,000) and John Behan’s Famine Tree (10,000-15,000) and many of the other works. The catalogue is online.
Untitled (1996) by Sean Scully. UPDATE: THIS MADE 17,000 AT HAMMER
TOP lots at de Veres sale of outstanding Irish Art and Sculpture online in Dublin this evening included the following hammer prices: The Street Performer by Jack B. Yeats (184,000); Achill Cottage, Lough Corrib by Pau Henry (116,000); Life Study by Louis le Brocquy (114,000); Head of Francis Bacon by le Brocquy (90,000) and Peonies and Iris in a vase and a bowl of fruit by Roderic O’Conor (78,000). The most expensively estimated lot in the auction, Double Window by Sean Scully (600,000-900,000) failed to sell.
The auction totalled 1.25 million and 85% of lots were sold.
Paul Henry RHA, 1877-1958 ACHILL COTTAGE, LOUGH CORRIB
A 1998 work by Sean Scully with a top estimate of €900,000 leads de Veres online sale of outstanding Irish Art and Sculpture in Dublin on July 23. An oil on linen, Double Window is signed and dated and measures 54″ x 48 1/8″. In a catalogue note Dr. Frances Ruane comments: “Although his work is geometric and totally abstract, his starting point comes from what he’s looking at or what he’s feeling rather than in solving academic visual problems. In the process of painting he does construct abstract dialogues that are purely visual, but this isn’t the driving force behind the work. Although the colour is bold, ‘Double Window’ shows how, with Scully, it is carefully nuanced, with underpainting coming through the top layer of paint. This is a particularly theatrical composition, a visual story of opposing forces, the artist struggling to make the double insets live with that powerful background, and to have them live with each other. Scully’s success is that while the struggle is evident, he manages to make it work.”
Sean Scully RA, b.1945 DOUBLE WINDOW (1998) (€600,000 – €900,000). UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
While in some ways the June sales at Sotheby’s in New York mark the return to business as usual they have been completely re–imagined. Significant offerings of high value material will be brought to the market in flagship live sales conducted remotely by Oliver Barker in London. The New York Impressionist & Modern and Contemporary evening sales will be live-streamed to the world. Bidders will be able to take part either via the phones or online in the usual way. This truly global experience will usher in a new era of marquee auctions that marry the best of the established live auction format with the latest technology, and the modifications for safety that current circumstances require.
IF by Sean Scully at the Contemporary Art evening auctions ($700,000-900,000). UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $1,280,000
Contemporary Irish artists Conor Harrington and Sean Scully feature at Bonhams sales. A large oil painting by Conor Harrington (Irish, born 1980) ‘L’Amour et La Violence’ executed in 2013, and a Sean Scully (Irish, born 1945) watercolour and graphite on paper, ‘Mirror’ from 2008 are on offer in Post War and Contemporary Art private treaty sales. This service provides clients with a bespoke approach to buying and selling, outside of the auction calendar. Interested parties are advised to contact the auctioneers directly for prices.
The Contemporary Art day sale at Sotheby’s in London on February 12 will feature two works by Sean Scully, Pink Three (£200,000-300,000) and 8.20.89 (£50,000-70,000). UPDATE: PINK THREE WAS UNSOLD, 8.20.89 MADE £62,500.
