Sometimes the art market is best gauged not by the action in the evening sales but by the more modest results achieved in the day sales. In the case of Christie’s postwar and contemporary art day sale on Thursday, which totaled £12.2 million ($16.4 million), the results indicated a picky market with both low points and high points. More than 80 percent of the works in the auction sold, with a full 90 percent of those going for within or above their presale estimates.
Numerous artworks sold for more than double their high estimates.
The 2020 painting Disjunctive (Wig) by Somaya Critchlow, an artist in her early thirties, brought in £57,150 ($76,800) (est. £15,000–£20,000). A small 2018 painting, Jardins 10 by the late Etel Adnan, estimated at just £30,000–£50,000, went for £107,950 ($145,100).
The 8-inch-tall bronze sculpture Maske (Mask) by Danish sculptor Sonja Ferlov Mancoba, who died in 1984, sold for £25,400 ($34,100) (est. £5,000–£7,000). Number one from an edition of six, it came from the Ole Faarup collection, selections from which sold in Christie’s evening sale on Wednesday. Another sculpture from the Faarup collection, Kiki Smith’s small bronze Verge—a depiction of two birds and a unique sculpture rather than one from an edition—went for £20,300 ($27,300) (est. £6,000–£8,000).
The 2020 painting Disjunctive (Wig) by Somaya Critchlow, an artist in her early thirties, brought in £57,150 ($76,809) (est. £15,000 – £20,000). A small 2018 painting, Jardins 10 by the late Etel Adnan, estimated at just £30,000 – £50,000, went for £107,950 ($145,084).
A handful of works from the Tiqui Atencio and Ago Demirdjian collection also saw strong results. An untitled 2002 drawing by Julie Mehretu went for £57,150 ($76,800) (est. £22,000–£28,000). A 2005 sculpture by Sarah Lucas, God Is Dad, made from her signature materials of nylon tights, small lightbulbs, and wire, brought £101,600 ($136,550) (est. £30,000–£50,000). A 1995 Gary Hume painting, Funny Girl, made £82,550 ($110,950) (est. £15,000–£20,000). The most dramatic result from the Atencio and Demirdjian collection was a 2011 mirror piece by Michelangelo Pistoletto, which went for £234,950 ($315,800)—seven times its estimate.
A notable failure was a 2018 Toyin Ojih Odutola painting, Distinguished Relation at Ejogu Gardens (Amara Palace), which sold to its consignor for HK$4.8 million (around $618,000) at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in 2022. At Christie’s it carried an estimate of £300,000–£500,000 ($403,000–$672,000) and didn’t sell.
And there was just as little interest in Gerhard Richter’s 1974 series of gray paintings in this day sale as there was in Christie’s evening sale on Wednesday, despite a retrospective of the artist that just opened at Paris’s Louis Vuitton Foundation. When a large one came up from the Crex Collection in the evening sale, estimated at £600,000–£800,000 ($806,000–$1 million), it failed to sell. The same fate befell a smaller one in the day sale, from an unidentified Swiss collection, estimated at £120,000–£180,000 ($161,000–$241,000). These are far more challenging pieces than Richter’s colorful abstracts or enticing figurative paintings, which likely accounts for buyers’ hesitancy.
