Christie’s and Phillips Close Out London’s June Auction Season

We’re in the thick of a slimmed-down summer season.

After wiping its June evening sale in London off the calendar, Christie’s was hoping bidders would be hungry for the white-hot artists propping up its Post-War to Present day sale on Thursday. Or at least hungrier than they were for Sotheby’s evening and day auctions on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively, which failed to ignite, the former netting a ho-hum total of $105 million.

It turns out there’s room in collectors’ bellies for artists born in the eighties and nineties. The auction’s 133 lots (six were withdrawn before bidding started) totaled $13.1 million, shy of its $16.6 million high estimate, and 92.7 percent of lots sold by value.

Katharine Arnold, Christie’s head of post-war and contemporary art, told ARTnews after the auction that she was “very happy” with the result and that it justified the house’s move to scrap its evening sale. “We all said after the pandemic, let’s do everything with more purpose, let’s be more strategic, let’s not have as many fairs and auctions, and now we’re actually trying to do that with purpose and this week’s results tell me we’re right,” she said.

Arnold was alluding to Sotheby’s middling evening auction on Tuesday. When I said that Sotheby’s chairman of Europe and co-head of impressionist and modern art worldwide Helena Newman told ARTnews she was “pleased” with the sale, Arnold added wryly, “Pleased it was over.”

Post-War to Present got off to an electric start with the first three lots blowing their estimates out of the water. Daisy Parris’ (b.1993) Pink At Night realized over $40,000 (high estimate $10,000), Alia Ahmad’s (b.1996) Windflower hammered just south of $60,000 (high estimate $20,000), and Icon by Clementine Keith-Roach (b.1984) sold for more than double its high estimate at $36,500. Things were looking up. When Lot 6, Ben Sledsens’ (b.1991) Girl in a Tree, went for $290,000 (high estimate $150,000), the art market correction narrative’s grip loosened, just a little.

“Some of the contemporary pictures did extremely well today,” Arnold said. “[The sale included] several contemporary artists who have huge followings, and usually it’s the combination of really good estimates and something exciting happening in each artist’s market, like a show or new dealership, that propels bidding.”

The pace faded somewhat after that, but Lot 18 – I Rest Through Your Peace by Sophia Loeb’s (b.1997) – sold for ten-times its high estimate, sending a ripple of excitement through the room.

During the action, Isaac Simon, the founder and director of South Parade gallery in central London, which deals in emerging artists, told ARTnews via WhatsApp that he’s “seen a continued hunger from the market to engage with early and emerging artists.” 

There was no question on Thursday that the younger artists showed up the more seasoned names. Antony Gormley (SMALL VISE III) hammered for $415,000, a David Hockney iPad drawing sold well for $200,000 (The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire), and an untitled Yoshitomo Nara went for almost $320,000. All three artworks flew past their estimates, while Gerard Richter, Philip Guston, and Christo were all pretty quiet.

Faring less well was Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, whose 5am, Cadiz (2009) netted a shade under its low estimate at $716,000 at Christie’s. At Phillips, her 2022 work Minotaur to Matador sold for $1.2 million, a bit above its 1.14 million low estimate.

“The auction performed incredibly strongly,” Christie’s head of impressionist and modern art Keith Gill told ARTnews after the gavel came down for the final time. When asked about the reasoning for erasing the house’s evening sale, he replied, “We now see June as a moment in the calendar that is uniquely British and has crossover appeal. The Vivienne Westwood auction on Tuesday was an extremely strong result and we just closed our Marc Chagall sale, which achieved quadruple its estimate, so it shows we are thinking about June in the right way. Post-War to Present definitely benefited from the Westwood footfall.”

I put the same question to Gill as I did Sotheby’s senior specialist of contemporary art, Tom Eddison, on Tuesday night – does he think London’s power status is at risk as the big three houses look increasingly towards Asia? 

“It’s fear-mongering and it’s a very easy narrative,” he said. “People have been trying to think about London negatively since Brexit, to be frank, but the reality is that we have had stronger European buying and bidding than ever before recently, and we feel that what we’re doing will actually make the London sales appear even stronger globally. By changing the emphasis to two very strong seasons with very good quality, it will deliver the right understanding and perception of London’s place in the global art market. We are investing in Hong Kong, but this is not at the expense of London, it is complimenting London.”

A ten-minute walk across Mayfair towards Grosvenor Square, Phillips was hosting its modern and contemporary art day and evening sale. Before proceedings kicked off, the house’s head of 20th century and contemporary art, Europe, Olivia Thornton, told ARTnews, “We made a strategic decision to align with Hong Kong and New York and hold two marquee sales a year in London, in March and October. However, June is still very much an important time in the cultural calendar and we are pleased to hold a new format sale.”

Was she concerned given Sotheby’s tepid evening result going into Thursday? “We are experiencing a considered market that is becoming more selective in its acquisitions,” she said. “Yet the appetite for exceptional quality and exciting contemporary artists remains as strong as ever.”

A “considered market” is rhetoric for more frugal collectors and this was evident at close of play when the sale crossed the line at $16.5 million, which was near its low estimate of $14.5 million (high estimate $21.5 million). Ninety-four of 132 lots sold. George Condo’s Green and Purple Head Composition hammered for $1,284,122 (just south of its high estimate) and Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup edged past $1 million (high estimate $820,000).

At close of play, Thornton said, “The enthusiasm we have seen over the past few weeks in London carried into the saleroom today, which included participation from nearly 50 countries spanning four continents.”