Stories

Christie’s fifth Art & Tech Summit held this week at the auction house’s New York headquarters featured crypto-luminaries like ConsenSys CEO Joe Lubin and Galaxy Digital’s Mike Novogratz, a sponsor of the conference.

While “generative art” has come to be associated with the world of web3, the term dates back to a 1965 exhibition of work by Georg Nees, an academic, and Frieder Nake, a mathematician. Phillips’ online sale Ex-Machina: A History of Generative Art, spans beyond the existence of the phrase. The sale runs through July 20th, 2022.

Through personal objects and spaces, Buckwalter explores universal questions of identity, sexuality, and taboo.

There is one story in the history of Outsider art that is now so familiar and well covered that we often overlook its significance. Although it took as much as a century to unfold, the discovery and elevation of the quilters of Gee’s Bend, Alabama to the level of Modern art now recognized and enshrined in museums is one of the undeniable success stories in the recognition of Outsider art.

Phillips released its mid-year sales figures today along with the announcement that it would be opening a Los Angeles location in West Hollywood. For the first half of 2022, Phillips had total sales of $746 million. According to the firm, that’s a 37% increase over the previous record year.  Auction sales rose to $590

Christie’s released its first half of 2022 results today. There were total sales of £3.3 billion or $4.1 billion in sales.

The Contemporary art world has been on a long-term collision course with the world of Outsider artists for decades. A fascination with artists who lack formal training may be a product of the art world’s interest in representation and authenticity.

If you want to see the power of a global gallery to establish demand and build stronger prices, even for an artist with a twenty-year track record, look no further than Katherine Bernhardt.

If you thought the Ernie Barnes wave had run its course, last week gave you a big surprise. During Christie's London sale, Main Street Pool Hall from 1978 made $1.8 million against an estimate under $100,000. That was the third highest price paid for a Barnes painting after the $15 million record Sugar Shack from 1976 and the $2.34 million paid for Storm Dance from 1977. Both of those sales took place in early May.

This week’s Old Masters sales offer the potential to set a number of new records for old names. The auctions begin on Tuesday, July 5th at 7 am EDT. Christie’s Old Master and British Works on Paper: Drawings, Watercolours and Prints 1500-1900 will take place live in London.

Young artists with persistent markets helped the house close the season with a £17.5 million sale. Phillips London Evening Sale totaled £17.5 million ($21.28 million) with 31 of the 33 lots offered finding buyers. That’s a 94% sell-through rate, helped along by the withdrawal of two lots—a Baselitz and a Grotjahn—before the sale.

Combined sales make $181 million from Bacon, Monet, Warhol, Richter and a range of women artists young and old.