Artists of color and women soar at Christie’s ’21st Century’ sale

As the usual suspects continue to command the highest prices at auction – as evidenced by the $195 million sale of Warhol’s ‘Marilyn’ on Monday night – the art market also continues to seize the next potential hot thing.

On Tuesday, Christie’s turned its attention to some of those prospects during its 21st Century Contemporary Evening Sale – which totaled $103 million, off a high estimate of $106 million. The auction of 31 works brought high prices for works by black artists like Amoako Boafo, Reggie Burrows Hodges and Ouattara Watts.

Women also do well, including Shara Hughes, Ewa Juszkiewicz, Elizabeth Peyton and Lisa Yuskavage, as well as unknowns such as 27-year-old painter Anna Weyant, whom mega dealer Larry Gagosian recently began portraying (and frequent). And Refik Anadol, a Turkish-American data artist, offered the only NFT of the evening.

“We are defining what will be the next great generation of artists,” said Christie’s specialist Ana Maria Celis. “Ultimately the market will decide that.”

The supply of top-notch works around the world is limited, and collectors – as well as auction houses – remain hungry for inventory. Due to this demand, the usually long journey of artists to the world stages of a Christie’s or a Sotheby’s has accelerated more and more.

Last year, for example, Hodges, a figurative painter, had his first solo exhibition in New York at Karma Gallery on the Lower East Side and only eight months later set an auction record when one of his paintings, estimated between $40,000 and $70,000, sold for over $600,000. At Christie’s on Tuesday, his “Intersection of Color: Experience,” which features a host of figurines, sold for $706,000, after being estimated between $200,000 and $300,000. His work of three figures watching a sporting event returns for the same estimate at Phillips next week.

According to market experts, part of this has to do with collectors’ attention to artists of color in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement. “Everything changed in 2020,” said artistic advisor Mashonda Tifrere. “Since December 2021, I have sold over 60 works by emerging black and brown artists.”

“Now you’re discovering artists who should have been in conversation,” said Gardy St. Fleur, an artistic advisor. “They are finally getting their due.”

Works by artists of color exceeded their estimates. Boafo’s “yellow dress” sold for $819,000 on an estimate of $250,000 to $350,000; a work by Pakistani-born artist Salman Toor, ‘Girl and Boy With Driver’, sold for $882,000, after being estimated between $150,000 and $200,000. A dark Glenn Ligon from the artist’s “Stranger” series sold for $1.6 million, on an estimated $600,000-800,000.

A wide range of female artists also did well. Weyant’s work, “Summertime” – featuring a prone young woman with bare skin – opened the evening at Christie’s Rockefeller Center showroom, selling to an unidentified buyer by telephone in Hong Kong for the staggering sum of $1.5 million on an estimate of $200,000 to $300,000 after eight minutes of competition between 11 bidders. “What a way to start the sale,” said auctioneer Georgina Hilton.

A fantasy landscape by Hughes, which was exhibited last year at the Museum of Contemporary Art in St. Louis, sold for $2.9 million on an estimate of $500,000 to $700,000. And Juszkiewicz’s “Portrait of a Lady (After Louis Leopold Boilly)”, which explores gender and class in European painting, fetched $1.6 million, having been estimated between $200,000 and $300,000.

Nearly a third of all Tuesday night lots were works by women, who together achieved more than three times their combined low estimates. (As of Monday night, Ann Craven’s 2003 canvas of three birds, “I Wasn’t Sorry,” sold for $680,400, more than 20 times its high estimate of $30,000.)

Giovanna Bertazzoni, vice-president of the 20th and 21st century art departments at Christie’s, pointed out that the strong presence of female artists in the auction echoed the emphasis on women in the current Biennale of Venice, curated by Cecilia Alemani.

“Christie’s is consciously trying to move in the same direction,” Bertazzoni said, noting that the growing number of women in leadership roles at Christie’s might have something to do with it. (All of its regional offices are now headed by women.) “There is a female perspective in both, and I celebrate that.”

Likewise, at next week’s auctions, Sotheby’s and Phillips start with Weyant, as does Christie’s. In Sotheby’s Now Evening Auction next week, 14 of the 24 lots are by female artists, including Simone Leigh and Christina Quarles, both featured at the Venice Biennale. And at Phillips’ upcoming 20th Century and Contemporary Art Evening Sale, 14 of the 37 artists in the sale are women, including Amy Sherald, Issy Wood and Robin F. Williams.

On Tuesday night, sales for some of the more established artists were less buoyant. A dark red Gerhard Richter, the most expensive lot at auction, sold for $36.5 million, just above the estimate of over $35 million; Sigmar Polke soared to $819,000, below the low estimate of $1.2 million.

Attesting to the mercurial nature of the art market – how an artist’s fortune can sag – an abstract by Adrian Ghenie, recently trending at auction, sold for $2.2 million, in below the low estimate of $2.5 million.

Two Basquiats, delivered by the same owner, were withdrawn from sale — typically. an indication that the reserve price would not be met. “It’s never an easy decision,” said Guillaume Cerutti, chief executive of Christie. “We don’t want to sell at any price. We want to sell at a relevant price for the work and at a price that the customer wants. »

Anadol’s dynamic NFT, inspired by the facade of Antoni Gaudí’s Casa Batlló in Barcelona, ​​sold for $1.4 million, after being estimated between $1 and $2 million. (The NFT, based on climate data, was installed outside Christie’s headquarters before the sale.)

Despite the scum that seemed to surround some artists at Christie’s, art-world watchers say it’s encouraging to see artists of color playing in the major auction leagues, commanding big prizes.

“The auction is a way to solidify the contributions of artists of color to the canon,” said Phyllis Hollis, host of the Cerebral Women Art Talks podcast. “People are recognizing the talent of underrepresented artists, and that’s promising.”