Gerhard Richter

Ai Weiwei's Sunflower Seeds Sell Above Estimate

This week's Sotheby's Contemporary Art Evening sale in London started off with a bang when the first lot, Ai Weiwei's sunflower seeds, came up for sale. The Chinese artist generated headlines around the world when he installed 100 million ceramic sunflowers seeds in the Tate Modern in London and art watchers were curious to see how the art would sell. The first 100-kilogram pile of seeds was estimated to bring in £80,000 to £120,000 but sold for sold for £349,250 ($559,394) or around £3.50 per seed.

Each porcelain sunflower seed was individually hand made and painted by specialists working in small-scale workshops in the Chinese city of Jingdezhen. The Sotheby's listing suggests that the piece can be installed either in a mound as shown above or smoothed out into a carpet-like experience. There will be a total of ten lots sold from this work.

Tags: ai weiwei, andy warhol, Gerhard Richter

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$50 Million Warhol Stars in Christie's Contemporary Art Sale

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions, Art

A rare early Andy Warhol painting expected to fetch up to $50 million, the first picture by Warhol ever to be shown in a museum, headlines Christie's incredible Contemporary Art sale in New York on Nov. 10. The artist's Big Campbell's Soup Can with Can Opener (Vegetable), dated 1962 (above), is one of several multimillion-dollar Warhols on offer in the eye-popping sale. The next most expensive artwork is Roy Lichtenstein's Ohhh...Alright..., dated 1964, expected to fetch in the region of $40 million and one of a number of Lichtensteins on offer, again with several carrying multimillion-dollar estimates. Both seminal paintings "literally changed the course of art history," Christie's notes. In third place price-wise is Gerhard Richter's 1982 oil on canvas Zwei Kerzen, estimated at $12 million – $16 million, followed by Jeff Koons' steel sculpture Balloon Flower (Blue), 1995 - 2000, also estimated at $12 million – $16 million. Following that in the $9 million – $15 million range are two works by Mark Rothko, Untitled (Black on Gray) and No 18 (Brown and Black on Plum). Oligarchs and oil sheikhs, prepare your paddles.

Gallery: Christie's Contemporary Art 11/10

Tags: Andy Warhol, art, auction, Contemporary Art, Gerhard Richter, Jeff Koons, Mark Rothko, museum, New York, painting, Roy Lichtenstein

$11 Million Warhol & More in Christie's Sale

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions, Art

An important Andy Warhol portrait of Liz Taylor painted in 1963 is expected to fetch up to $11 million at Christie's' landmark Post-War & Contemporary Art sale in London on June 30. The iconic Silver Liz (above), painted for Warhol's now famous show at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles in October 1963, could easily go for much more considering last month's world record sale of a Warhol self portrait and the eye-popping results of the Michael Crichton collection. Also on offer in the stunning sale: Jeff Koons' 1999 oil on canvas Loopy, estimated at about $3.5 million - $5 million; Jean-Michel Basquiat's Untitled, painted in in 1982, estimated at about $2.5 million - $3.5 million; Roy Lichtenstein's Woman Reading, painted in 1980, estimated at about $3 million - $4.5 million; Cy Twombly's Untitled (Gaeta), painted in 2004, estimated at $3 million - $4 million; and Gerhard Richter's Abstraktes Bild, painted in 1986, estimated at $2.2 million - $3.5 million.

Gallery: Christie's Contemporary Art June 2010

Tags: Andy Warhol, art market, Contemporary Art, Cy Twombly, Gerhard Richter, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jeff Koons, Liz Taylor, London, Los Angeles, Roy Lichtenstein

Rare Lucian Freud Self-Portrait Set for $6.5 Million Sale

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions, Art

British painter Lucian Freud's Self-Portrait with a Black Eye, painted in 1978, headlines an impressive collection of work on offer during Sotheby's Contemporary Art auction in London on Feb.10. The brilliant artist's extremely rare self-portrait, never previously exhibited in public, is expected to fetch up to $6.5 million and is one of five Freud paintings crossing the block during this event. Also on offer are Willem de Kooning's key late work Untitled XIV, painted in 1983 and estimated at $3.25 million - $4.29 million; the monumental Abstraktes Bild from 1988 by Gerhard Richter, estimated at $3.25 million - $4.8 million; and Andy Warhol's Jackie from 1964, one of the artist's best known portraits of the famed first lady, estimated at $1.3 million - $2 million.

Tags: Andy Warhol, AndyWarhol, contemporary art, ContemporaryArt, Gerhard Richter, GerhardRichter, London, Lucian Freud, LucianFreud, Sothebys, UK, willem de kooning, WillemDeKooning

Blame Andy Warhol for Drop in Auction Sales

by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Art

It's no surprise that last year's art market looked nothing like that of 2007. Last year, the top 10 artists by sales racked up $1.7 billion and accounted for 20 percent of the global art market on 1.5 percent of transactions. This slip in the big revenue number is a lot different from 2007, in which the top 10 brought in $1.8 billion, a year-over-year gain of 50 percent, according to ArtPrice.

Andy Warhol was the problem last year.

The top artist of 2007 fell substantially last year. In 2008, only $236.7 million in Warhol sales occurred – compared to $420 million the year before. As a result, Warhol slid from the #1 spot to #3, and Picasso regained the apex. Francis Bacon moved from #3 to #2 on sales of $256 million. Unbelievable growth of 514 percent in his work from January 2005 to January 2008 turned abruptly, and the artist finished last year down 48 percent ... not that he'd give a tinker's damn about it.

Despite the economic challenges, the price of admission grew. Last year, sales in a particular artist at auction had to reach $91.8 million to hit the big time, up from $87 million in 2007, $59.6 million in 2006 and a comparatively paltry $33.7 million in 2005.

Take a look at the scorecard after the jump.

Source

Tags: andy warhol, AndyWarhol, bacon, claude monet, ClaudeMonet, damien hirst, DamienHirst, degas, francis bacon, FrancisBacon, gerhard richter, GerhardRichter, hirst, pablo picasso, PabloPicasso, picasso, warhol