Next up at Christies. Post War and Contemporary and The Impressionist and Modern Evening Sale
After a warm up sale where Christies blew away Sothebys yet again with $491 million sold, next up is the Tuesday Post War and Contemporary Evening Sale and then after a Wednesday Evening off, Christies has the final sale of the week on Thursday, the Impressionist and Modern Evening Sale
Tuesday Lot 1b. Alexander Calder, estimate $500,000 to $700,000, Price Realized $2,405,000
Lot 3b. David Smith, estimate $2.5 to $3.5 million, Price Realized $5,765,000
Lot 5b. Alexander Calder, estimate $2 to $3 million, Price Realized $4,645,000
Lot 7b. Alexander Calder, estimate $1.8 to $2.5 million, Price Realized $8,005,000
Lot 8b. David Smith, estimate $2 to $3 million, Price Realized $4,869,000
Lot 8B is curious because the sculpture is painted. It turns out this is an exceedingly rare example for appearing painted as Smith produced them. The story of why these are rare is complicated and cast a pall on one of the 20th century's formerly admired art critics.
Smith was in a car accident between Lake George and Bennington Vermont, he had been headed over to an art opening of friend Kenneth Noland at Bennington College, but had an accident where his motorbike came right into the cab of his truck on a sudden stop. Barely alive, Smith was taken in an ambulance to Albany Medical Center where he died. Later the David Smith estate was administered by the art critic Clement Greenberg who abhored the painted state of Smiths sculptures. According to photographer Dan Budnik, (whose copyrighted images appear in the Christies catalog), Greenberg intentionally left many sculptures out in the winter to erode the paint of the works, and when that didn't happen, he was known to get them sandblasted back to raw metal state. In a further act of artistic vandalism Greenberg arranged to have a gloss varnish put on them, Budnik likens it to "chocolate syrup." When asked about this work Budnik stated that this one was totally original, that Smith liked painting sculpture, that he used similar colors to Calder, and while he made some mistakes, at least if it flaked off in the future and they had better paint, they would know how it should look. Because of the poor actions by Greenberg, that may not be the case, especially for the chocolate syrup works, this one however is so fine for its rare painted state.
Lot 12b. Roy Lichtenstein, estimate $7 to $10 million, Price Realized $6,661,000
Lot 17b. Cy Twombly, estimate upon request, Price Realized $17,525,000
Lot 20b. Andy Warhols, estimate upon request, Price Realized $36,005,000
Lot 23b. Andy Warhol, estimate $8 to $10 million, passed
Lot 44b. Jeff Koons, estimate $15 to $25 million, Price Realized $14,725,000
Impressionist and Modern Evening Sale, Thursday November 12, 2015
Thursday Lot 5c. Camille Pissaro, estimate $2.5 to $3.5 million, sold for $2,965,000
Thursday Lot 7c. Paul Cezanne, estimate $7 to $10 million, sold for $9,125,000
Thursday Lot 9c. Pablo Picasso, estimate $1.5 to $2 million, sold for $3,077,000
Thursday Lot 22c. Rene Magritte, estimate $3 to $5 million, sold for $6,661,000
Thursday Lot 26c. Pablo Picasso, estimate $1.8 to $2.5 million, sold for $2,165,000
Thursday Lot 29c. Alberto Giacometti, estimate $1.5 to $2 million, sold for $2,285,000
Thursday Lot 30c. Joan Miro, estimate $4 to $6 million, sold for $7,109,000
Thursday 31c. Pablo Picasso, estimate $6 to $9 million, passed
Thursday Lot 33c. Pablo Picasso, estimate $3 to $5 million, passed
Thursday Lot 37c. Camille Pissaro, estimate $3 to $5 million, sold for $2,965,000
Thursday Lot 42c. Berthe Morisot, estimate $1.4 to $1.8 million, passed
Thursday Lot 50c. Pablo Picasso, estimate $2.8 to $3.5 million, passed
Thursday Lot 54c. Jean Helion, estimate $600,000 to $800,000, sold for $3,413,000
Thursday Lot 58c. Rene Magritte, estimate $700,000 to $1 million, sold for $1,205,000
