Bloomberg’s James Tarmy gets the last word on sales with his report that a much-photographed Hirst pill cabinet sold for £4m:
White Cube fetched 4 million pounds ($6.3 million) for one of Damien Hirst’s giant mirrored medicine cabinets
Skarstedt Gallery George Condo’s “The Clown,” a bright pastel work of a semi-surreal face and polka-dotted body, sold for $400,000
“I try not to be reassured by anything,” said Marc Glimcher, president of Pace Gallery. “But if you need reassurance in the art business right now, you have serious trust issues because it’s going pretty well.”
Bloomberg also seems to be investing heavily in turning Jim Chanos into an art market sage:
“Some of the prices for living artists are too expensive,” Chanos, an art collector, said at a cocktail reception Dec. 5 at his South Beach home filled with art including works by Theaster Gates and Daniel Arsham that he purchased last week in Miami. “If you are paying that much, you need to be rethinking things.”
Chanos Among Art Buyers in Miami as Car Scraps Fetch $3 Million (Bloomberg)
Georgina Adam went to Miami for the International New York Times’s luxury conference but got some sales on the side:
Galerie Lelong: sold Ursula von Rydingsvard’s towering wooden sculpture “Kryta” (2014) for a price in the low six figures.
Kasmin: Ivan Navarro’s “BOMB” mirrored cylinder for $125,000, going to a US client.
Sean Kelly: sold both of his Kehinde Wiley paintings ($125,000).
The art market: the glitter-arty take Miami (FT.com)
Kelly Crow adds a few more sales:
Tornabuoni Art: Francesca Pasquali ’s $30,000 “Light Yellow Straws,”
Ameringer McEnery Yohe: Markus Linnenbrink ’s “Arms of Mine (Blue Melody),” a $45,000
Klaus Webelholz: sold Martin Kippenberger ’s see-through resin lamp from 1991, “Kippenblinky,” for $175,000.
Anthony Meier: sold Michael DeLucia carved images of three lamp for $15,000 apiece.
Stevenson: Wim Botha ’s heads carved from charred wood for between $22,000 and $35,000
Art Basel Miami Beach Continues Season’s Fast Pace (WSJ)
The Master, Judd Tully, weighs in from Miami:
Van de Weghe: Keith Haring, “Self-Portrait” from 1987, depicting the artist in large-framed glasses, sold for around $550,000.
Regen Projects: Glenn Ligon’s text dense “Come Out Study #15” from 2014 sold to an American collector for $200,000
Galerie Gmurzynska: Pablo Picasso fresco from 1918, “Venus Et Amour,” formerly in the collection of Warhol business manager Frederick Hughes, sold for around $1 million to an American collection; two large-scale Robert Indiana paintings in oil on homasote from 1959, “Golden Orbs with Chevrons” and “Golden Circles,” at the identical asking price of $1.7 million.
Mary Boone Gallery: Barbara Kruger digital print on vinyl, “Untitled (Blind Idealism is Deadly)” from 2013, sold for around $250,000; Liu Xiaodong, “My Hometown” from 2014, for a price of $125,000, and Will Cotton’s frothy “Elle with Cupcakes,” at an asking price of $85,000.
Michael Rosenfeld Gallery: Harry Bertoia’s “Untitled (Cloud)” in bronze coated wire from circa 1955, sold in the low six figures; Alma Thomas’s color-charged “Lunar Rendezvous-Circle of Flowers” from 1960 sold to an otherwise unidentified institution in the high six figures.Paula Cooper: Christian Marclay’s “Actions: Floppp Silurp Spaloosh Whoomph (No.5)” from 2013, a 62 by 103 inch screenprint and acrylic on canvas in the $400,000 range.
Mnuchin: sold Mark Bradford’s stunning and large-scale collage “White Girl,” from 2002, for approximately $1.8 million
Dominique Levy Gallery: David Hammons, “Untitled” from 1989-90 sold in the region of $1.5 million; Kazuo Shiraga abstraction, “Composition Werk BB109” from 1964, for “north of two million,” according to director Lock Kresler.
Art Basel Miami Beach: A Fatigued Market Soldiers On (BLOUIN ARTINFO)
Artnet’s news service declares its report definitive:
Mnuchin: John Chamberlain, Miss Remember Ford (1964), which came with a $5 million price tag.
Galeria Fortes Vilaça: a work by Beatriz Milhazes sold for $100,000.
Galeria OMR: a James Turrell work for $900,000.
Sean Kelly: Kehinde Wiley at $125,000 each and by Hugo McCloud at $25,000 eachLehmann Maupin: Adriana Varejão’sPolvo Portraits IV (Seascape Series) (2014), a triptych priced around $400,000 and Teresita Fernández’s Golden (Obsidian Double) (2014) priced around $250–350,000.
Art Basel in Miami Beach: The Definitive Sales Report (artnet News)
The Art Newspaper looks at the popularity of works on paper:
Dominique Lévy gallery: An untitled enamel work on paper by Christopher Wool from 1994 sold for more than $1.5m
Skarstedt Gallery: sold Sigmar Polke’s vibrant acrylic on paper, Ich will den Stall ausmisten, 1999-2000, for $1m.
Franklin Parrasch Gallery: Ed Ruscha’s We’re This and We’re That, 1982, sold for $425,000.
Sikkema Jenkins: sold a billboard-sized cut paper work by Kara Walker (Confectionary, 2014) for $300,000.
Kamel Mennour: Camille Henrot works sold for $20,000 and $35,000
Paper is a cut above (The Art Newspaper)
ArtNews weighs in with a big swath of sales:
Van de Weghe: Reak (1985-86), Jean-Michel Basquiat, $5.6 million
Mitchell-Innes & Nash
Keltie Ferris — four pieces ranging from $7,500 to $50,000
Gonzalo Fonseca: $150,000
Karl Haendel: $21,000
Leigh Ledare: $15,000
William Pope. L: $18,000
Jessica Stackholder: one for $18,000 another for $10,000
Brent Wadden: one piece, $40,000Lehmann Maupin
Breaking Waves (2014), Robin Rhode, $60,000 – $90,000
I fell in Love here (2014), Tracey Emin, (two versions of neon, different colors), $60,000 – $75,000Hernan Bas — $100,000 – $150,000
Klara Kristalova — $25,000 – $45,000Paula Cooper
Red, Yellow, Blue Mirrors: 1-3, Suite VII (2014), Sherrie Levine, $400,000
Actions: Flopppp Sllurp Spaloosh Whoomph (No 5) (2013), Christian Marcclay, $400,000 (screenprint and acrylic on canvas)
Slice/Wave Fulgurite II.II (2014), Tauba Auerbach, $75,000 (sand sculpture)
Prism Scan I (2012), Tauba Auerbach, $30,000 (set of 13 c-prints)
Screen to Screen 40 x 54_01 (2014), Kelley Walker, $150,000
Pizza Box Tower (2014), Matias Faldbakken, $40,000Regen Projects
Abraham Cruzvillegas: $45,000
Gary Simmons: two pieces, $60,000 each
Elliot Hundley: one piece, $100,00
Liz Larner: one piece, $80,000White Cube
Damien Hirst: several new works for £800,000 each
Tracey Emin: a number of works ranging from £100,000 to £650,000
Theaster Gates: a new work for $200,000Lisson Gallery
Anish Kapoor: works ranging £600,000 to £800,000
Pedro Reyes: works ranging $30,000 to $50,000
Tony Oursler: a single work for between $70,000 and $90,000
Price Check: Art Basel Miami Beach (ARTnews)
James Tarmy chimes in with his ABMB sales:
Van de Weghe gallery sold a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting for $5.5 million
Mnuchin Gallery sold a “Mao” portrait by Andy Warhol for $4.5 million
David Zwirner said paintings by Oscar Murillo and Jordan Wolfson sold within the first 10 minutes of the fair’s opening. The Murillo sold for $180,000, and the Wolfson fetched $90,000.
Zwirner’s booth sold over 25 artworks including a stripe painting by Bridget Riley for $1.2 million, a black and white work on paper by Richard Serra for $250,000 and seven works by the painter Lisa Yuskavage ranging from $80,000 to $500,000.
Hauser & Wirth: a neon sculpture by Bruce Nauman sold in the range of $500,000 and a work by Diana Thater sold for $200,000.
Skarstedt Gallery sold a painting by Sigmar Polke and a resin and mirror by Juan Munoz, both for $1 million each.
DiCaprio Buys Stella as Billionaires, Collectors Mingle in Miami (Bloomberg)
The sales reporting begins with Blouin Artinfo:
Tornabuoni Art: “We’ve sold two works by Paolo Scheggi, one of which sold for more than the previous world record (608,000 Euros) set by the Dorotheum Galerie, Vienna in May 2014, (Zone riflesse, 1965),” said gallery founder Michele Casamonti in an e-mail. A large painting by Agostino Bonalumi titled “Blu,” 1972
Tornabuoni Art Breaks Sales Record Hours Into Basel (ARTINFO.com)
Eileen Kinsella is also in Miami:
Mnuchin Gallery: Robert Ryman’s Page (1998)—they were asking $1.5 million—and an untitled work from 1969 by David Hammons for approximately $300,000.
Freedman Fitzpatrick: Lucie Stahl, Critic’s Pick (2014) for $10,500.
Art Basel in Miami Beach Blasts Out of the Gate (artnet News)
Brian Boucher files for Art in America:
“Leonardo di Caprio just came by and bought a 1973 Frank Stella painting,” Ricky Manne of Marianne Boesky New York reported. “It was priced at slightly under a million dollars.”
“I can’t say exactly how much of the booth we’ve sold,” Dominique Lévy Gallery New York director Begum Yasar told A.i.A. a few hours into the preview. “But I can say we’re killing it.” The gallery’s booth features a group show including 16 artists, from Alberto Burri to Christopher Wool. Opening day sales included two 1980s Barbara Krugers, along with works by Wool, Richard Serra, Kazuo Shiraga and David Hammons. Prices for works in the booth were as high as $2.2 million.
Gavin Brown’s enterprise (New York) was already rotating out all of the sold paintings by Bjarne Melgaard and hanging new ones. A mix of Abstract Expressionist-style flung paint and faux-primitive figuration, the acrylic paintings measure about 6 feet on a side and go for $45,000 each.
Di Caprio Shopping, Dealers “Killing It” at Art Basel Miami Beach (Art in America)
The Observer is tweeting some impressionistic sales reports:
You get a Kehinde! You get a Kehinde! You get a Kehinde! @SeanKellyNY gallery brags all their Kehinde Wiley’s sold Day 1 at #ABMB2014
— Observer Arts (@ObserverArts) December 4, 2014
What’s selling at #ABMB2014? Amish Kapoor, apparently, and lots of ’em, at the Lisson Gallery booth. — Observer Arts (@ObserverArts) December 4, 2014
The Art Newspaper is gathering sales
Team Gallery (G8), Ryan McGinley’s photograph of naked hipsters romping in the grass, Crush, 2014 (edition of three), sold to a US collector for $21,000 within an hour of the fair’s opening.
Upwardly mobile (The Art Newspaper)
