Art Market
Arun Kakar
The modern evening auction at Sotheby’s New York on May 15, 2024. Courtesy of Sotheby’s.
Another May auction season in New York has concluded. Nearly $1.4 billion worth of art was sold in a week that followed a blockbuster fortnight of art fairs in the Big Apple, with Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Phillips all holding marquee sales.
Despite anxieties over a tepid art market as well as a cyberattack on the website of Christie’s, the sales yielded a mixed—but not wholly negative—picture. While the total sum was lower than the $1.8 billion achieved in May 2023, sales landed broadly within their estimates, with works by several blue-chip names such as Andy Warhol, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Claude Monet demonstrating solidity under the hammer. Still, a handful of notable lots sold for below their estimates or were withdrawn altogether. Brice Marden’s Event (2004–07), for instance, was tipped to break the artist’s auction record, but was removed from Christie’s 20th- and 21st-century art evening sale at the last minute.
As is typical, the May season saw the setting of several major auction records. Here, we select 10 of the notable new auction benchmarks set during the week. All prices include fees.
Sold for $28.5 million (Estimate: $12 million–$18 million)
Sotheby’s
Leonora Carrington, Les Distractions de Dagobert, 1945. Courtesy of Sotheby’s.
The standout lot from this auction season, Leonora Carrington’s Les Distractions de Dagobert (1945) became the most expensive work ever sold by a British-born woman artist when it sold for $28.5 million at Sotheby’s modern art evening sale. The price with fees was $10 million more than the work’s high estimate of $18 million and far exceeds the artist’s previous auction record of $3.26 million, set at Sotheby’s in 2022 for The Garden of Paracelsus (1957).
Hailed by Sotheby’s as “the definitive masterpiece” of Carrington’s career, the work depicts scenes inspired by the titular Dragobert, a 7th-century Merovingian king, and was painted in Mexico, where Carrington spent most of her adult life. The buyer is the Argentine collector Eduardo F. Costantini, founder of Malba, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, who told the auction house that the painting “is one the most admired works in the history of Surrealism and an unparalleled masterpiece of Latin American art.”
The sale comes off the back of steady acclaim in recent years for Carrington’s work, both commercially and critically, as well as the work of her contemporaries, such as Leonor Fini and Frida Kahlo, both of whom set new benchmarks in 2021.
Sold for $13.64 million (Estimate: $8 million–$12 million)
Christie’s
Felix Gonazales-Torres, Untitled (America #3), 1992. Courtesy of Christie’s Images Limited, 2024.
Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s Untitled (America #3) (1992) was the most expensive lot from Christie’s sale of works from the Rosa de la Cruz Collection. It sold for $13.64 million, tipping over its high estimate of $12 million.
The work—constructed from an electrical cord of 42 light bulbs and porcelain light sockets—is a trademark example of the late American artist’s approach to minimalist installation and innovative use of everyday materials.
The price far exceeds Gonzalez-Torres’s previous auction record of $7.67 million, which was set at Christie’s in 2015 for the sculpture Untitled (LA) (1991).
Sold for $5.1 million (Estimate: $1.5 million–$2 million)
Christie’s
Alexander Archipenko, Woman Combing Her Hair, 1915. Courtesy of Christie’s Images Limited 2024.
Exemplifying the artist’s distinctive approach to Cubist sculpture, Alexander Archipenko’s bronze cast Woman Combing Her Hair (1915) sold for $5.1 million at Christie’s 20th-century art sale.
The late Ukrainian avant-garde artist moved to Paris in 1908 and was a contemporary of the likes of Kasimir Malevich, Georges Braque, and Pablo Picasso. He was one of the first to apply Cubist influences to architecture and sculpture, and the bronze cast Woman Combing Her Hair stands as a fine example of the artist’s geometric and concaving forms.
The price achieved for the work almost doubled the artist’s previous auction record of £1.46 million ($2.67 million), which was set in 2005 by Woman (1918) at Christie’s London.
Sold for $1.81 million (Estimate: $500,000–$700,000)
Sotheby’s
Lucy Bull, 16:10, 2020. Courtesy of Sotheby’s.
Lucy Bull’s 16:10 (2020) became the most expensive auction record achieved by an ultra-contemporary artist last week when it sold for $1.81 million at Sotheby’s “The Now” evening sale. The monumental eight-foot-tall work exemplifies the American artist’s surrealistic, psychedelic style of abstraction, and was the subject of a three-and-a-half-minute bidding battle.
Doubling its high estimate, 16:10 just exceeds Bull’s previous auction record of HK$13.76 million (US$1.76 million) set last October at Sotheby’s Hong Kong. The artist, who is represented by David Kordansky Gallery, is among the most in-demand ultra-contemporary names working today, having breached the seven-figure mark at auction seven times since 2022.
Martin Wong, Portrait of Mikey Piñero at Ridge Street and Stanton, 1985
Sold for $1.6 million (Estimate: $1 million–$2 million)
Christie’s
Martin Wong, Portrait of Mikey Piñero at Ridge Street and Stanton, 1985. Courtesy of Christie’s Images Limited 2024.
Executed during the artistic peak of the late Chinese American artist Martin Wong’s career, Portrait of Mikey Piñero at Ridge Street and Stanton (1985) sold for $1.6 million at Christie’s 21st-century evening sale.
The price caps off a remarkable rise in recognition for the artist, whose estate is represented by P.P.O.W. The work was featured in the recent traveling European retrospective of Wong, which included stops at museums such as Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum and London’s Camden Art Centre.
Portrait of Mikey Piñero at Ridge Street and Stanton contains several of Wong’s recurring motifs, such as brickwork and beer cans, and also features the artist’s lover, the playwright and actor Mickey Piñero, whose poem borders the piece. The artist’s previous record at auction was set in 2022 for Quong Yuen Shing & Co. (1992), which sold for $1.26 million at Bonhams.
Faith Ringgold, Dinner at Gertrude Stein’s: The French Collection Part II, #10, 1991
Sold for $1.57 million (Estimate: $700,000–$1 million)
Sotheby’s
Faith Ringgold, Dinner at Gertrude Stein’s: The French Collection Part II, #10, 1991. Courtesy of Sothebys.
Faith Ringgold, one of the most influential artists of her generation, passed away last month at the age of 93, leaving behind a storied legacy of activism and advocacy. Spanning almost seven feet in both directions, the quilted work Dinner at Gertrude Stein’s: The French Collection Part II, #10 (1991) sold for $1.57 million with fees at Sotheby’s contemporary evening auction, comfortably exceeding its $1 million high estimate.
Hailed by the auction house as one of Ringgold’s “most important works,” Dinner at Gertrude Stein’s: The French Collection Part II, #10 is one of 12 quilts from the artist’s “French Collection” series. This work portrays Stein at a dinner party, sitting underneath her iconic portrait painted by Picasso, and surrounded by figures including James Baldwin and Ernest Hemingway. The price achieved for the work more than quadrupled the artist’s previous auction record of $375,000, set by LISTEN TO THE TREES (1997) in 2018 at Sotheby’s.
Justin Caguiat, The saint is never busy, 2019
Sold for $1.1 million (Estimate: $200,000–$300,000)
Sotheby’s
Justin Caguiat, The saint is never busy, 2019. Courtesy of Sothebys.
Just the third work to be auctioned at a major house by Justin Caguiat, The saint is never busy (2019) became the Japanese ultra-contemporary artist’s first seven-figure total when it sold for $1.1 million with fees at Sotheby’s “The Now” evening sale.
The work was featured as part of Caguiat’s 2020 solo show “Permutation City 1999” at Modern Art in London, and showcases the artist’s deft exploration of tonality, texture, and abstraction. It also touches on topics of imagination, memory, and dreams, which have formed a significant part of the fast-rising artist’s oeuvre.
The price achieved for The saint is never busy far surpasses the artist’s previous auction record of $787,400 for To the approach of beauty its body is fungible (2020), which was sold at Sotheby’s in New York during last year’s May auctions.
Sold for $882,000 (Estimate: $600,000–$800,000)
Christie’s
Reggie Burrows Hodges, In the Service of Others, 2019. Courtesy of Christie’s Images Limited 2024.
Reggie Burrows Hodges’s In the Service of Others (2019) surpassed its $800,000 high estimate at Christie’s 21st-century evening sale when it sold for $882,000, marking the American artist’s fourth six-figure sale at auction in the past 12 months.
The work contains several of the artist’s trademarks, including two faceless Black subjects—one holding an umbrella for another—as well as the use of dense, expressive brushstrokes and ambiguous narratives. Represented by Karma, Burrows Hodges is currently the subject of a solo show entitled “Incline” at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
The $882,000 achieved for In the Service of Others is a significant rise on the artist’s previous auction record, set last November for Intersection of Color: Loge (2019), which sold for $730,800 at Christie’s.
Ana Mendieta, Untitled (Serie mujer de arena / Sandwoman Series), 1983–84
Sold for $567,025 (Estimate: $300,000–$500,000)
Christie’s
Ana Mendieta, Untitled (Serie mujer de arena / Sandwoman Series), 1983–84. Courtesy of Christie’s Images Limited 2024.
The late American artist Ana Mendieta set a new auction record twice within Christie’s Rosa de la Cruz Collection evening sale. First, the opening lot, Silueta Works in Mexico (1973–77), sold for $277,200, well above its $50,000–$70,000 estimate. Then, four lots later, Untitled (Serie mujer de arena / Sandwoman Series) sold for $567,025, surpassing its $500,000 high estimate.
The latter work, constructed from sand and binder on plastic foam, is typical of Mendieta’s engagement with the body and the natural world. The piece is part of the “Sandwoman” series that the artist made while living in Rome. Known for her feminist approaches to land art and earthworks in the 1970s and ’80s, Medieta’s multifaceted oeuvre encompasses mediums such as performance, photography, film, and sculpture. The Barbie actor America Ferrara is set to play Mendieta in a new TV series, Naked by the Window, later this year.
Aside from the two records set last week, the artist’s previous benchmark at auction was set in 2008 for Untitled (From the Fetish Series) (1977), which sold for £102,500 ($203,510) at Phillips de Pury & Company.
Sold for $381,000 (Estimate: $300,000–$500,000)
Phillips
Kent Monkman, The Storm, 2020. Courtesy of Phillips.
A member of the Fisher River Cree Nation in Treaty 5 Territory, Indigenous Canadian artist Kent Monkman is known for his paintings that investigate the destructive impact of colonialism, often referencing Western art historical stylings.
The Storm (2020), sold as part of Phillips’s modern and contemporary art sale, subverts the historical stereotype of the Canadian Mountie, who is here ensnared in the gossamer sash of Monkman’s alter ego, Miss Chief Eagle Testickle. The $381,000 achieved for the work marks the first six-figure auction sale for a work by Monkman, beating the artist’s previous auction record of C$87,750 (US$86,922), set in 2008 for Charged particles in motion (2007) at the Canadian auction house Heffel.
Arun Kakar
Arun Kakar is Artsy’s Art Market Editor.