London's Spring Auctions Will Be a Litmus Test for the Art Market

The first major auctions of the year kick off next week in London, offering up a litmus test for current market conditions.

Special paintings by Freud and Frank Auerbach are on show at both Sotheby's and Christie's, while major works by the established contemporary abstract painter Cecily Brown are up for sale at both houses, providing another opportunity for them to lock horns.

Sotheby's has more interesting contemporary material with Mohammed Sami, Michael Armitage, and Jana Euler making appearances, alongside magnificent large-scale works by Gerhard Richter and Barbara Kruger.

Freud's Scillonian Beachscape (1945–1946) stands out at Christie's—an extraordinary example of the artist's early work, inspired by his trip to the Isles of Scilly with painter John Craxton. The near-childlike landscape depicts a puffin perched on a rock amid a backdrop of deep blue sea and pale azure sky, interrupted by Freud's typically menacing spiky sea holly piercing through the foreground.

The painting perfectly encapsulates the strangely exotic landscape unique to the archipelago off the coast of Cornwall, England, while revealing Freud's forensic approach to painting plants. Previously held in the Simon Sainsbury collection, its estimate of GBP 3,500,000–GBP 5,500,000 reflects its quality.

Sotheby's can claim to have the stronger Auerbach painting. Head of J.Y.M. (1976) reveals the artist as one of his generation's foremost figurative painters. Rapid, thickly rendered brushstrokes in an array of fleshy tones are set against deep purples, outlining the figure resplendent in red clothing.

The provenance includes legendary dealer, Ivor Braka, and with a confident estimate of GBP 1,200,000–GBP 1,800,000, it would be a surprise if this didn't fetch a very good price.

Cecily Brown's fabulously titled Make it Rain (2014) contains all of the earthy greens, fleshy pinks, and red tones that have become synonymous with the artist's early work. The scale of this painting is also impressive and the huge resurgence in Brown's market recently sees this taking centre stage at Christie's.

Coincidentally, Sotheby's consigned a work by Brown from the same year. The Nymphs Have Departed (2014) is a more domestically palatable, scaled painting imbued with dynamism and energy, partially due to the female figure with arms raised on the right side of the canvas. Blues and creams sing in this Rubens-inspired painting and strong results are expected for both works.

Legendary Chinese painter Liu Ye's The Goddess (2018) is another highlight from Christie's. A stylish femme fatale with vivid red lips and porcelain skin smokes nonchalantly against a deep blue backdrop. The artist's treatment of light dancing with smoke is at once playful and intoxicating.

Mohammed Sami is the banker Lot 1 for Sotheby's, demonstrating his newfound status as the new kid on the block, although his wondrous solo exhibition at Camden Art Centre ensures that Sami should not be compared to other, trendier contemporaries who have taken up this position in auctions in recent years. Sami is here to stay.

Similarly, Michael Armitage already feels a lot more established and mature than many figurative painters who have come to the fore. It's rare to see his work coming up at auction, so there is sure to be huge competition for this painting.

Jana Euler's Beer without Glass (2014) and Barbara Kruger's monumental Untitled (Out of your mind) (1989) are a joy to see in the flesh.

Euler emerged from the revered Städelschule art school in Frankfurt and has managed to carve out a distinctive style, albeit one that encompasses a vast array of imagery. Euler is often viewed as one of the most important voices in painting right now. You can't not think of Kippenberger with this magnificent kitsch image.

Kruger's monumental diptych perfectly critiques image consumption and patriarchal dominance in a capitalist society. This major work from her oeuvre is particularly reasonant in our Instagram-driven world.

Both auction houses have secured very strong paintings by Freud and Auerbach that should provide some reassurance for the theory that the market remains strong for top-quality works. Auerbach's market has been gathering pace recently and has certainly become more established internationally.

There is less certainty around some of the younger artists who have been scaling such heady heights in the last few years and we can expect to see some of them struggle a little more based on the evidence of sales at the end of last year. Although, it would be a huge surprise to not see competitive bidding for Mohammed Sami and Michael Armitage, the latter of which is house guaranteed.—[O]