Rothko and Johns Paintings Are Stars of a Sluggish Auction for Sotheby’s
The week of big-money contemporary art auctions
got off to a sluggish start on Tuesday evening at Sotheby’s, where
collectors could not be bullied by high estimates and tastes veered
toward abstract rather than figurative paintings.
Compared with Sotheby’s victory on Monday,
when a group of 43 masterworks from the estate of Rachel Lambert
Mellon, better known as Bunny, soared well above expectations, the sale
on Tuesday often saw thin or controlled bidding. Almost half of the
works were guaranteed, meaning Sotheby’s or an outside party had
promised the seller an undisclosed sum regardless of the sale’s outcome,
and many dealers said afterward that they guessed the gambles did not
always pay off.
Compared
with what Christie’s has coming up on Wednesday night at Rockefeller
Center, Sotheby’s auction seemed modest. Still, there were some high
prices paid for works by Mark Rothko, Jasper Johns and Gerhard Richter.
“On the best things there was lots of competition,” Alexander Rotter,
co-head of Sotheby’s contemporary art department worldwide, said after
the sale.
Mr.
Rotter was talking about the success of Rothko’s abstract canvases. Two
of them were the stars of the Mellon sale on Monday, and on Tuesday,
the most expensive painting of the evening was the artist’s “No. 21
(Red, Brown, Black and Orange).” Executed in 1951, it sold to a
telephone bidder for $45 million. Its provenance was pristine, having
come from the collection of the Houston oil billionaire Pierre
Schlumberger and his wife, São, though the canvas failed to reach its
high estimate of $50 million.
Of
the 78 works in the auction, 11 failed to sell. The auction totaled
$343.6 million, just squeaking above its low $323.1 million estimate,
but far short of its $418.6 million high.
(Final
prices include the buyer’s premium: 25 percent of the first $100,000;
20 percent from $100,000 to $2 million; and 12 percent of the rest.
Estimates do not reflect commissions.)
There
will always be competition for classic examples by masters like Mr.
Johns, and Sotheby’s sale featured one of his seminal “Flag” paintings,
from 1983. Mark Lancaster, the British artist who had worked for Mr.
Johns, was the seller. Although it was small (just shy of 12 inches by
18 inches), its rough encaustic surface — created from pigment suspended
in wax — gave it a tactile quality that appealed to collectors. Four
bidders went for the “Flag,” which ended up selling for $36 million, way
above its high $20 million estimate.
As
soon as the gavel fell, rumors started circulating about who the buyer
could be. Although Sotheby’s declined to comment, some dealers said it
was bought by Alice L. Walton, the Walmart heiress who founded the
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark.
It
is a big week for Andy Warhol, with Elvis Presley and Marlon Brando
starring at Christie’s on Wednesday. Sotheby’s had less than top-flight
examples, and the results were mixed. The best was a depiction of
Elizabeth Taylor on a mint green background, “Liz #3 (Early Colored
Liz),” which dealers said was being sold by Kemal Has Cingillioglu, a
Turkish collector. It brought $31.5 million, about what Sotheby’s
expected. Only one bidder went for “Self-Portrait (Fright Wig)” from
1986, estimated at $12 million to $18 million; it went for $11.3
million, not bad considering that it sold at Sotheby’s in London two
years ago for $8.5 million.
For
the past several seasons, the German artist Gerhard Richter has been a
major presence at auction, with mixed results. At Sotheby’s, however,
“Abstraktes Bild,” a vibrant red 1991 painting estimated at $15 million
to $20 million, sold to an unidentified collector for $21.4 million.
Another
abstract work, one of Cy Twombly’s blackboard drawing from 1967 —
filled with the artist’s signature graphic loops, that was being sold by
John Pappajohn, the collector and venture capitalist — was expected to
bring $3 million to $4 million. It sold for $5.2 million.
After
the big Jeff Koons retrospective closed at the Whitney Museum of
American Art last month, many said the market had had enough of his
giant sculptures. But “Bear and Policeman,” a 1988 work, found a single
bidder who paid the low $7 million estimate ($8 million including fees).
But there were no takers for the artist’s “Moon (Yellow)” — a giant
round stainless steel sculpture that belonged to the British artist
Damien Hirst.
After
the auction Lucy Mitchell-Innes, a Manhattan dealer, called the sale
“respectable,” adding that buyers were holding on to their money because
“the material just wasn’t that compelling, and these days there are so
many opportunities. If you don’t get something tonight, there’s always
tomorrow night or any number of art fairs.”
