Wednesday night saw Sotheby’s London bring in $126.6 million (including fees) from a reasonably tame evening sale of modern and contemporary art, including the seventh The Now auction of ultra-contemporary works.
Before fees, the total hammer price was $104.3 million, which leaned toward the presale low estimate of $95.3 (tallied without fees). While the sale was by no means a rip-roaring success, it was also hardly a disaster and was received with bullishness by the auction house. Long-established artists took home the top prices but several relative newcomers, especially women, fueled excitement.
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At close of play, Antonia Gardner, the head of evening auctions, told ARTnews that the lot estimates were “realistic,” suggesting that the current health of the art market—still recovering from 2023’s decline—had tempered presale expectations.
Twelve works by emerging artists including Takako Yamaguchi, Jadé Fadojutimi, and Emma Webster, alongside pieces by artists with developed blue-chip markets such as George Condo, went under the hammer first in The Now, with nine outstripping their high estimates. Only one painting went unsold (Nicole Eisenman’s Biergarten, 2007), while Yamaguchi and Rebecca Warren set artist records. Etel Adnan was the only other artist to witness a record, peaking at $564,159 for her Untitled (c. 1970) later in the sale after four bidders chased the painting, meaning all three of the evening’s record-breakers were women.
On another positive note, 60 percent of works by female artists surpassed their high estimates.
The Now result confirmed the ascendency of Romania’s Victor Man, whose market has seen rapid growth in recent seasons. His paintingThe Chandler (2013) clocked $515,803, five times its high estimate. Iraqi artist Mohammed Sami also had a good night—Electric Column (2021) sold well for $241,783. Sami has been the subject of major solo shows in London and New York, and is set to feature in another solo exhibition at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire in July.
Of the other 58 lots of modern and contemporary art, five sold for more than $6 million (Picasso, Monet, Signac, Bacon, Miró) and five didn’t sell at all. Across both sales, just over half the lots sold topped their high estimates.
The Spring evening auction coincided with the 150th anniversary of the first Impressionist exhibition in Paris in 1874 and the standout works naturally included paintings by Impressionist trailblazers. Claude Monet’s Arbres au bord de l’eau, printemps à Giverny (1885) nudged past its high estimate of $8.9 million to $9.8 million and Glaçons, environs de Bennecourt (1893) sold for just under $4 million, $500,000 shy of its high estimate. Neither had presale guarantees.
In fact, only seven works were guaranteed and only five secured with irrevocable bids, a reasonably low proportion compared to recent auctions like the Christie’s 20th-century art sale last November when half the lots were financially guaranteed. However, this didn’t appear to inject any nitro into the bidding on Wednesday.
Picasso’s Homme à la pipe (1968), described as “swashbuckling” by Sotheby’s and last sold half a century ago, inspired the auction’s only episode of applause. Auctioneer Helena Newman, chairman of Sotheby’s Europe and co-head of Impressionist and Modern art worldwide, brought the gavel down at $17.4 million (compelled by an Asian collector’s underbid), making it the evening’s top lot. Another work by the Spaniard, a rare example from his blue period (1901-04)—Lluís Vilaró (1904)—was unfortunately pulled before the sale.
A handful of lots sent ripples of excitement through the packed auction room. Francis Bacon’s haunting Study of George Dyer (1970) achieved the second-highest price for a single study of Dyer (Bacon’s lover) at auction, fetching $8.7 million (high estimate, $8.9 million). The compact portrait was included in the painter’s major 1971 exhibition in Paris, the first time a living artist had been given a solo show at the French capital’s Grand Palais since Picasso. Lot 19, Frank Auerbach’s Head of E.O.W II (1964) sold for $5.1 million (high estimate, $6.4 million) against the backdrop of the artist’s ongoing and critically acclaimed exhibition of large-scale drawings at the Courtauld Gallery in London. Before the sale, James Sevier, Sotheby’s European head of contemporary art, told ARTnews that the portrait “carries all the hallmarks of Auerbach’s best works.”
A contingent of punters had apparently pinned their hopes on a dramatic bidding war that didn’t materialize over lot 22, Andy Warhol’s simple but poignant Flowers (1964–65). Immediately after it sold for $1.4 million, the room thinned out.
Portrait de Geneviève avec un collier de colombes (1944) by Françoise Gilot from the collection of Arianna Huffington, the founder of the Huffington Post, did incite some serious tension as four phone bidders dueled with one in the room. The painting eventually sold for four times its estimate at $918,774, marking one of the highest prices realized for Gilot at auction.
There was serious public interest leading up to the sale as 7,500 people visited the exhibition over a week, and bidding was global, with participants from 41 countries.
While a Chinese buyer bagged Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Fleurs dan un vase (c. 1878) for $3.1 million, there was otherwise a notable lack of Asian bidders. An upbeat Harry Dalmeny, Sotheby’s UK chairman, told ARTnews that “the timing of evening sales in London isn’t ideal for bidders in China.” James Sevier, the European contemporary art head, said that he was encouraged by the number of online bids coming from elsewhere, saying “it’s never been easier to buy at auction, which is only a good thing for the houses.”
The bidding was described as “slow, measured, and respectable” by Simon Shaw, Sotheby’s vice chairman of global fine arts. He was optimistic about the result, adding that the “froth of 2023 was clearing” and the sale was “positive.”
Sotheby’s is now preparing for its modern and contemporary day auction on March 7, with big names like Henri Matisse, Edgar Degas, and Banksy set to feature.