Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

Zwirner Announces Hong Kong Team Launching in January

by

Jennifer Yum, David Zwirner, Leo Xu

David Zwirner Gallery announced today the opening of its Hong Kong gallery on January 27th. The outpost will be led by Leo Xu and Jennifer Yum, two experienced art market veterans with deep roots across Asia.

Here’s the South China Morning Post on their backgrounds:

Xu is founder of Leo Xu Projects, a contemporary art gallery in Shanghai, and he will be closing the six-year-old business to join David Zwirner Gallery in January. Yum, who starts in December this year, is moving over from Christie’s post-war and contemporary art department in New York. Originally from South Korea, she has been head of sales of the category’s evening sales in Shanghai.

Asian art veterans to head David Zwirner’s first Asian gallery, opening in Hong Kong’s H Queen’s in January  (South China Morning Post)

Lévy Gorvy Stages Mayfair Penthouse with Art

by

Lévy Gorvy is getting into the property staging business in London. A recent rental listing in Mayfair boasts the flat is filled with works from the gallery:

Among the artists represented will be Vincenzo Agnetti, Alexander Calder, Enrico Castellani, Kazuo Shiraga, Pat Steir, and Cy Twombly. In an homage to Johns’ important body of portraiture, two works from Agnetti’s Feltri series, comprised of felt painted and engraved with text, are conceptual portraits, one a Ritratto di artista (Portrait of the artist), and the other a Ritratto di amante (Portrait of a lover). Agnetti’s esoteric conceptualism lends a philosophical tone to the group, which is offset by the gestural expressionism of the Shiraga, Twombly, and Steir works. The incident of light and shadow of the house will be pronounced by the shaped canvas of Enrico Castellani, and the slight movements in air currents will be likewise be made visible through the delicately balanced play of forms manifested by Calder’s stabile. At once conceptually rigorous and aesthetically balanced, this selection of works will enhance the building’s harmonious structure while complimenting its rich history of arts and design.

Marc Newson Joins Apple, Jaws Drop

by

i.1.ive-newson-apple-red-auction

He’s the closest thing that art and design has to Dr. Dre. And since his design market was once red hot–and may be yet again–it’s art market news that Marc Newson is joining Apple:

Designer Marc Newson is joining Apple as part of senior vice president of design Jonathan Ive’s team, the company told VF Daily on Friday.

Newson, who will continue to be based in the United Kingdom, will be an employee of Apple, and will be frequently traveling to the company’s Cupertino, California, headquarters. The industrial designer has had his work archived by MoMA, and has been commissioned by Ford, Nike, and Qantas Airways, among others.

Ive and Newson, who have been close friends for years, have been spending time together over the past year. During that time, they have also worked on some designs for Apple.

“Marc is without question one of the most influential designers of this generation,” Ive said in a statement provided to VF Daily. “He is extraordinarily talented. We are particularly excited to formalize our collaboration as we enjoy working together so much and have found our partnership so effective.”

Marc Newson to Join Apple, Jony Ive’s Design Team (Exclusive) (Vanity Fair)

Rodman Primack Explains the Difference Between the Art & Design Markets

by

Rodman-Primack-portrait_dezeen_ss

Dezeen interviewed Rodman Primack, former head of Phillips design department and now the director of Design Miami, the leading design fair, on the differences between the art and design markets. Primack says the credit crisis was a healthy transformation for the design market. Here’s why:

There was this moment when the prices at auction were crazy. I think we’ve moved away from that moment of speculative craziness and now the market has become much more real and much more solid.

It was a very healthy correction because there was a point where people were thinking it was like the contemporary art market and they should go out and buy all these things and put them into storage and be very speculative about it.

Some people lost some money and that’s very unfortunate, but I think the market returned to this place where it’s much more real, where people are looking at objects for their value and their usability. This market is not like the contemporary art market. These objects are different [to art]. We use them in different ways. […]

Problem solving and making objects for people to interact with is inherent in design. It’s a different conversation. It’s not about creating something that people can’t touch; it’s about creating things that people can touch and that gives it a whole different feeling. […] In using them, they lose something and deteriorate; they patina. There’s a whole different way of interacting with design objects and art objects. And there’s so many ways to make people feel confident about art that we don’t really have that in the design world. I think it’s part of our job to figure out how to make people confident about spending money and using [design pieces].

There’s more faith and confidence in the art market because it’s been there for much longer. People have felt more comfortable spending large sums on paintings for their walls because a lot of museums have those paintings, there are many places telling them that that painting has value. There’s fewer voices doing that in the design world. There’s only a handful of museums collecting design and promoting it because it’s this thing about using the objects.

The crash was “healthy” for collectible design, says Rodman Primack.

Wright Spring Modern Design = $2m

by

Harry Bertoia, Untitled (Cloud) ($30-40k) $88.9kWright held its Modern Design auction last week and sold $2m worth of Charles and Ray Eames, George Nakashima, Paul Evans and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe works with 85% of the lots finding buyers. An untitled sculpture (Cloud) by Harry Bertoia doubled its high estimate by selling for $88,900. A Spacelander bicycle designed by Benjamin Bowden (Lot 259) achieved $35,000, five times its high estimate. Other well-sold designs include:

  • Lot 109 – Philip Johnson and Richard Kelly, floor lamp from the Pavilion House, Bristol. Estimate: $10,000-15,000. Result: $42,500
  • Lot 147 – Florence Knoll, Executive Office cabinet. Estimate: $3,000-5,000. Result: $17,500.
  • Lot 150 – Marianne Richter, Josegin carpet. Estimate: $5,000-7,000. Result: $20,000.
  • Lot 151 – Martin Olsen, lounge chair. Estimate: $5,000-7,000. Result: $32,500.
  • Lot 254 – Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Barcelona chair blueprint. Estimate: $2,000-3,000. Result: $10,000.
  • Lot 256 – Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Barcelona daybed. Estimate: $3,000-5,000. Result: $27,500.
  •  Lot 258: James Waring Carpenter, Bullet magazine rack. Estimate: $1,500-2,000. Result: $13,750.

More can be seen at www.wright20.com.

 

Deco Doesn't Dance in Paris

by

The collection of 20th Century furniture assembled over a ten-year period by Laurent Negro was sold at a loss for the market-minded collector. One reason offered by observers is that Negro had become the top end of the market during that period leaving no one to sell on to in a large sale such as this:

The Christie’s International three-day sale in Paris of the contents of the Chateau de Gourdon museum accumulated by Laurent Negro raised 42.4 million euros ($60 million) with fees. Demand was selective. The total at hammer prices was lower than the estimated 40 million euros to 60 million euros […]

Negro lost money on a number of pieces. He paid $386,500 for Jan and Joel Martel’s 1931 aluminum Art Deco sculpture of an express train, “Locomotive en marche,” at Sotheby’s (BID),New York, in 2008. It sold for a hammer price of 200,000 euros. A 1927 Gustave Miklos bronze sculpture, “Jeune Fille,” fetched 1.15 million euros without fees. This had been bought at a French auction in June 2005 for 1.6 million euros. The purchase price of the design collection had been higher than the low estimate, Jonathan Rendell, Christie’s New York- based deputy chairman, said in an interview before the event.

‘World’s Best’ Modern Design Sale Fetches $60 Million in Paris (Bloomberg)

 

 

LA Modern Palevsky Sale = $2.25m

by

Los Angeles Modern Auctions pulled in its highest gross on Sunday, March 6 when auction sales totalled $2,256,323.

Peter Loughrey, Director, said “Once again, our results prove that you do not have to send Modern Art to New York or London to get the top price.”

Items consigned by Max Palevsky’s estate brought $333,813. An Ettore Sottsass a marble console (Lot 55 est. $10,000 – 15,000) $75,000; a sevres porcelain vase (Lot 70 est. $1,000 – 1,500) brought $31,250; and a pair of marble end tables (Lot 84 and 85 est. $2,400 – 3,000) together sold for $25,000.

A sculpture by Reg Butler (Lot 92 est. $20,000 – 30,000) sold for $125,000, setting a record for the artist.

The Collection of James Byrnes, the first curator of Modern Art at LACMA in the mid 1940s, had 50 lots bringing $171,313.  Highlights included a rare Harry Bertoia brooch (Lot 220 est. $5,000 – 7,000) that sold for $22,000; an original Calder work on paper (Lot 25 est. $15,000 – 20,000) which made $25,000; and an Ynez Johnston (Lot 332 est. $2,000 – 3,000) hammered down at $10,938. Nearly all of the works were acquired directly from the artists, which created desirable provenance.

Palevsky Estate Propels LAMA to Record Sales (LAMA)

Sotheby's Asks What Is Modern?

by

Sotheby’s latest video series follows a 20th Century Design sale through the auction house process. This video spends some time looking at how the catalogue is conceived, planned and photographed. Catalogue? Isn’t that retro?

twitterfacebooksoundcloud
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
Advertise on Art Market Monitor