Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

  • AMMpro
  • AMM Fantasy Collecting Game
  • Podcast
  • Contact Us

The Bernard Buffet Resurgence: Where Are The Clowns?

November 14, 2016 by Marion Maneker

Send in the clowns. @christiesinc bringing a lot of Bernard Buffet to market. Grand Palais career retrospective and Nicholas Foulkes biography clearly having an effect.

A photo posted by Art Market Monitor (@artmarketmonitor) on Nov 8, 2016 at 10:26am PST


Three weeks ago the New York Times got on board with the Bernard Buffet boomlet. This week, the follow through has been strong with a number of Buffet’s works on offer at both houses.

The surge of early works, nary a clown painting in site, is also noteworthy.There are 13 Bernard Buffet works on offer this week: 2 at Sotheby’s and 11 at Christie’s. There’s only one clown painting.

There have a been a handful of surprisingly strong sales in the last year; a new biography of the painter was published in part to explore whether Buffet’s reputation as the definition of bad taste was truly deserved; and there was on view in Paris, for the first time, a retrospective of Buffet’s work.

Here’s the Times on the trend:

Fabrice Hergott, director of the Musée d’Art Moderne, decided to put on the Buffet exhibition. Through about 100 paintings — a small sampling of the 8,000 or more this prolific painter and illustrator produced[.…]
Mr. Hergott now sees in Buffet, who killed himself after he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and could no longer work, a rare mastery of technique, an inventive approach to subject matter and the striking intensity of his paintings that can, he said, eclipse any other art in the room. “Buffet has painted hundreds of masterpieces,” he said. “His œuvre is one of the greatest of the 20th century.”

That last comment is the eye-opener. It’s a long way from Buffet’s reputation to travel. But that opinion isn’t only held by academics. The market too has begun to have high hopes for Buffet:

“There has been a change of taste, and the new generation of buyers is not looking at Buffet with the same disdain,” said Bruno Jaubert, director of Impressionist and Modern Art at Artcurial[…]

Buffet: A Life of Success, Rejection and Now a Celebration (The New York Times)

More from Art Market Monitor

  • Artelligence Podcast: Adam Lindemann on Bernard Buffet: Paintings from 1956 to 1999Artelligence Podcast: Adam Lindemann on Bernard Buffet: Paintings from 1956 to 1999
  • February Tests Bernard Buffet’s Market MomentumFebruary Tests Bernard Buffet’s Market Momentum
  • There Ought To Be Clowns: The Current Bernard Buffet MarketThere Ought To Be Clowns: The Current Bernard Buffet Market
  • Pulling Teeth at Sotheby’s Pulling Teeth at Sotheby’s 
  • Rudin DeWoody PB Art HouseRudin DeWoody PB Art House
  • Yayoi Kusama’s Market Prowess Beats Hirst, Koons and RichterYayoi Kusama’s Market Prowess Beats Hirst, Koons and Richter

Filed Under: Artists, General Tagged With: Bernard Buffet

About Marion Maneker

Want to get Art Market Monitor‘s posts sent to you in our email? Sign up below by clicking on the Subscribe button.

Top Posts

  • Rare Photo Album by Dutch Street Photographer Bought at Auction by Rijksmuseum
  • Keith Haring’s 1989 Retrospect Comes to Sotheby’s London Prints Sale
  • Norman Rockwell's Not Gay. But Is He a Great Artist?
  • The Brandeis-Madoff Connection
  • Four of Picasso's Women Valued at $28m Come to Christie's from Rose-Walters Collection
  • David Hockney's $20m Pacific Coast Highway & Santa Monica
  • Christie's Announces $70m Picasso Self Portrait
  • Tony Podesta's Secret Art Buying
  • Roy Lichtenstein’s Top Ten Auction Prices
  • Phillips Includes $2.5m Norman Rockwell Painting in November Evening Sale
  • About Us/ Contact
  • Podcast
  • AMMpro
  • Newsletter
  • FAQ

twitterfacebooksoundcloud
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
California Privacy Rights
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Advertise on Art Market Monitor