Juan Gris. “Livre, pipe et verres” (Book, Pipe and Glasses). Oil on canvas, 1915.Carol Vogel covers the art world for the New York Times. A quick glance at the headlines of her stories from the past week remind us that the upper reaches of the art world are not immune to the economic meltdown that is upon us.
November 2 – Tapped Out? : With the market easing, the big auction houses brace for the fall sales.
Nov. 4 – Auction Season Opens With Little Enthusiasm : During an auction at Sotheby’s, the results were spotty, a relief to those who thought the appetite for art was all but dead, but hardly the success story of seasons past.
Nov. 6 – Bleak Night at Christie’s, in Both Sales and Prices : Works by artists from Renoir to Rothko failed to sell, and many went for far less than was likely a year ago.
Nov. 7 – Gris Sets Record in Slow Christie’s Auction – A Cubist painting by Juan Gris brought a record price of $20 million, but many works remained unsold at Christie’s auction of Impressionist and Modern art on Thursday.
Overall not a pretty picture but I was delighted and encouraged to see that the 2 highest grossing items from the Nov. 6 Christie’s auction of Impressionist and Modern art contained book imagery.
The $20 million paid for“Book, Pipe and Glasses” by Juan Gris set a new world auction record for the artist and was the most expensive item of the auction.
Pablo Picasso. Deux personnages : Marie-Thérèse et sa soeur lisant (Two People : Marie Thérèse Walter and Her Sister Reading).” Oil on canvas, 1934.
Right behind it at number 2 was Pablo Picasso’s, “Two People (Marie Thérèse Walter and Her Sister Reading),” which fetched $16 million.
Merely a coincidence? Perhaps but; nonetheless, very encouraging.