Christie’s Post-war And Contemporary Evening Achieves £56 Million

RUNNING TOTAL FOR 20^th CENTURY AT CHRISTIE’S
£184,916,135/ $240,003,648/ €218,136,985

 Global participation with bidders from 29 countries across 5 continents

Andy Warhol’s ‘Athletes’ series from the Richard L. Weisman Collection was sold 100%, led by the sale’s top lot, Muhammed Ali (£4,973,250). The ten portraits headlined a group of 13 works by the artist that also included Knives (£2,752,148), Flowers, part of ‘Art for Future: Selected Works from the UniCredit Group’ (£2,111,250) and Brillo Soap Pads Box (£383,250).

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Three works by Jean Dubuffet from the 1950s, 60s and 70s traced the artistic development throughout the artist’s oeuvre: Alentour la maison (1957, £1,271,250), La robe à boutons (1961: £1,571,250) and Panorama (1978, £2,171,250)

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Painting in the 21^st century launched the evening and continued with spirited bidding driving strong prices for Tschabalala Self’s Spare Moment (£212,500), Dana Schutz’s Kissing in the Dump (£695,250) and Cecily Brown’s Girl Trouble (£1,482,307). All three of the artists are included in the Whitechapel Gallery’s survey exhibition ‘Radical Figures’.

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Additional Highlights Include:

• Jordan Casteel set a world auction record with Mom when it realised £515,250
• Günther Förg realised a world auction record for Untitled, which achieved £1,331,250
• Eddie Martinez, Cannibal Eyes (£347,250)
• Sean Scully, Wall of Light Red Bar (£1,031,250)
• Bridget Riley, Gaillard (£2,291,250) 

Cristian Albu, Co-Head, Post-War and Contemporary Art, Europe: “The Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Auction achieved a total of £56,180,434 with sell-through rates of 98% by lot and 99% by value. The evening was launched by Jordan Casteel’s Mom, an intimate portrait of the artist’s mother, which sold for £515,250 against a pre-sale estimate of £180,000, setting a world auction record for the artist. This was followed by strong competition for works by a group of artists currently on view at the Whitechapel Gallery – Dana Schutz, Tschabalala Self and Cecily Brown who are pushing the direction of painting in the 21^st century – redefining figurative painting. Andy Warhol’s ‘Athletes’ series drew competition for the portraits commissioned by Richard L. Weisman including Muhammed Ali (£4,973,250), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (£491,250) and Willie Shoemaker (£431,250). Such exceptional provenance was mirrored by Warhol’s Flowers from ‘Art for Future: Selected Works from the UniCredit Group’, which was last acquired in 1974. Further highlights included a group of paintings by Jean Dubuffet that define the stylistic traits he developed in each of the decades from the 1950s through to the 1970s. We look forward to the Day Auction on 13 February while our online auction remains open for bidding until 18 February.”