What Stood Out at Phillips’ Contemporary Art Auction in New York?
A Cy Twombly fetched the highest price, but it was an artist from Colombia who shattered estimates.
Cy Twombly, Untitled (2005). Courtesy Phillips.
Phillips Evening Sale of 20th Century & Contemporary Art generated strong if unspectacular sales on 15 November, with 98% of lots finding a buyer.
'At US $138.9 million, tonight's auction marks the third highest sale total in Phillips' history,' said Jean-Paul Engelen, Phillips' co-head of 20th Century & Contemporary Art.
'This is a particularly remarkable feat as our top three most successful sales were all set within the past year, making it all the more clear that Phillips is in the midst of an incomparable period of growth,' he said.
The top ten results all fell well within Phillips' estimate ranges, however.
Cy Twombly's red loop painting Untitled (2005) was the top lot, fetching US $41.6 million, near the middle of its estimate range of US $35–45 million.
Other top ten works likewise performed serviceably, with Marc Chagall's Le Père (1911) hammering for US $7.4 million (estimate: $6–8 million), and Mark Bradford's He Barked Just Like a Watchdog (2011) for 4.9 million (estimate: US $4–6 million).
The work that most exceeded expectations was María Berrío's He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not (2015), which sold for US $1.6 million, more than three times the low estimate and a new record for the artist at auction.
Born in Bogota, Colombia, in 1982, Berrío is now based in Brooklyn. Her works are created from layers of Japanese paper and typically depict women.
'They are embodied ideals of femininity,' Berrío said in an interview with The Georgia Review. 'The ghostly pallor of their skin suggests an otherworldliness; they appear to be more spirit than flesh.'
'These are the women I want to be: strong, vulnerable, compassionate, courageous, and in harmony with themselves and nature,' she said.
Female artists have performed strongly at auction over the past year as the market acknowledged many have been overlooked.
The International Art Exhibition of this year's Venice Biennale, turned the spotlight on many such artists. Golden Lions went to Cecilia Vicuña, Katharina Fritsch, Simone Leigh, and Sonia Boyce. —[O]
