Phillips auctions: The demand is there

As previously Sotheby's also Phillips concluded its New York season with contemporary art successfully. It was obvious that there was "no decline in demand," said Edward Dolman, the CEO of Phillips, after the evening auction "20th Century and Contemporary Art", which was sold to a hundred percent – a "White Glove Sale" so.

The auction was for 25 Lots in the quote, however, quite small. You scored 41,13 million dollars, a turnover close to the targeted upper Gesamttaxe. In the previous year were recorded, with 42 Loose hundreds of millions of dollars. This time, twelve Lots of the sale by guarantees – nine of them was funded by third parties – in advance for sure. The day the auction is a played with 140 (166) sold in the offering, in addition, 10.2 million dollars.

The event in the case of Phillips, as in the case of Sotheby's, in the characters of American, abstract-expressionist painters. The Centerless grinding of the Evening was Joan Mitchell's Painting "Noël" with green, verknäulten brush marks, created at the beginning of the sixties; it went to the lower estimate of 9.5 million dollars to a bidder on the phone. Helen Frank Thaler's "Head of the Meadow" from the year 1967 and was chased by at least six bidders, and increased to $ 2.5 million (estimate 600.000/800.000). Gerhard Richter's "Abstract picture (801-3)" in shades of green rose, with the participation of four bidders to 3.05 million dollars (2/3 million), while Basquiat's "Victor 25448" was a hit in 1987 with the first bid of eight million (8/12 million); it went to the external guarantor.

Young artists with an African Background experience since a few years, an appreciation. Among the current Stars of the Ghana-born, Vienna-based painter Amoako Boafo, who had first debut in the past year at Phillips Auction. His portrait of a young woman in the blue sweater, "Joy in the Purple", increased to $ 540,000 (50.000/70.000). Titus Kaphars-portrait "Untitled (red thread lady)", part of an Installation, which deals with colonial history, rose far above the low estimate of 40,000 to 60,000 to $ 150,000: a record for Kaphar, which is now represented by the Gagosian Gallery. The Canadians Matthew Wong, who suffered from Tourette's syndrome and depression, and in the fall of 2019 at the age of 35 years took his own life, was already a fight at Sotheby's; his image of "Mood Room" from the year 2018 increased now at Phillips on 690.000 dollars (60.000/80.000). Records there were for Ali Banisadr and the Los Angeles-based painter Christina Quarles, whose paintings deal with physicality, sexuality and ethnic identity. Quarles' image "Placed" by 2017 rose to 320,000 dollars (70.000/100.000).