a tale of
two cities:
new york 
contemporary sales
by Judd Tully

The evening contemporary sales in New York 
this week resembled a tale of two cities. 
Sotheby's so-so $11.2 million performance 
on Nov. 19 exited with a 29 percent buy-in 
rate and was similar to a number of less-
than-stellar evening sales since the market 
downturn in late 1990. In fact, it was the 
lowest tally of the '90s. That's not a big 
surprise since the property, aside from a 
handful of significant exceptions, was 
nothing to write home about. Still, 32 of 
the 42 lots that found buyers fell within 
or exceeded their pre-sale estimates. 
Given those somewhat plain parameters, the 
sale came close to matching its $13.7 
million pre-sale low estimate. It would 
have looked much stronger if the evening's 
most expensive lot, Francis Bacon's twisted 
Seated Figure on a Couch(1962) (est. $2 
million-$2.5 million) had sold. But it 
bombed at $1.78 million, apparently one bid 
shy of its secret reserve. Considering the 
picture had been shopped around and was 
owned by a well-known European dealer, its 
spurning was a surprisingly close call. 



The top lot turned out to be Forest Scene, 
Roy Lichtenstein's German Expressionist re-
do of Franz Marc's 1911 Blue Horses. The 
billboard-sized painting made $2.09 million 
(est. $1.8 million-$2.2 million) and sold 
to an anonymous telephone bidder. West 
Coast collector Eli Broad was--in 
uncharacteristic fashion--the underbidder 
at $1.85 million. The passion just wasn't 
there. In any case, the landscape became 
the fifth highest price for a Lichtenstein 
at auction. 



Great prices were achieved for Alexander 
Calder and Andy Warhol. And there were 
plenty to go round as Crag with Flat Top, 
Calder's standing mobile from 1974, made 
$332,500 (est. $200,000-$250,000) and Four-
Foot Flowers, Warhol's hothouse silkscreen 
from the recently assembled collection of 
Californian Donald J. Christal, realized 
$519,500 (est. $350,000-450,000). Nine 
Multicolored Marilyns (Reversal Series),
hailing from another consignor, hit 
$376,500 (est. $350,000-$450,000). It last 
sold at auction in May 1995 at Christie's 
New York for $585,500. Hey, everything is 
relative.



In the eye-brow raising category, Poppies, 
Richard Diebenkorn's large-scale still life 
from 1963, sold for a fragrant $497,500 
(est. $200,000-250,000) to San Francisco 
dealer John Berggruen. 



It was an evening of contrasts. Richard 
Artschwager batted zero as two of his 
building paintings from the mid-'60s 
crashed at $38,000 each. Eva Hesse's superb 
ink wash with charcoal drawing from 1966 
made a record $118,000, $5,500 more than 
Lichtenstein's circa 1965 drawing, The 
Memory Haunts My Reverie.



Cindy Sherman made an auspicious evening 
sale debut with her hitchhiking Untitled      
Film Still, #48 selling for a record 
$66,300 to SoHo dealer Jack Tilton. It was 
deaccessioned by the Museum of Modern Art 
as a duplicate image, stemming from MoMA's 
giant acquisition of Sherman's entire 
series early this year. 



Twenty-four hours later, Christie's rang up 
a remarkable $33.9 million sale and shook 
off the stubborn shadow of the recession. 
In less than 90 minutes, the contemporary 
market came up-to-par with the steadier 
gains made in the Impressionist and modern 
arena.



Willem de Kooning's Woman was the 
standout star of the evening. The painterly 
icon of the Post-War Abstract Expressionist 
epoch fetched a whopping $15.6 million and 
was the first time since November 1989 that 
a contemporary picture shattered the $10 
million mark. The painting is the most 
expensive work of art to sell in any 
category at auction in 1996. It surpassed 
last week's highs set at Christie's for two 
Monets,The Artist's Garden in Vetheuil and 
Nympheas which brought identical $13.2 
million prices.



The price is second only to the record 
$20.68 million set in Nov. 1989 for 
Interchange, de Kooning's 1955 masterpiece. 
(Only Jasper Johns' False Start, which sold 
at Sotheby's New York in Nov. 1988 for 
$17.05 million, exceeds Woman.) 
Until Wednesday evening, there hadn't been 
such a high-profile property to test the 
market's strength. It was a stunning and 
instant reversal for the laggardly rake's 
progress of the contemporary market.



The 1949 canvas of a flaming orange-haired 
Madonna figure, admiring her curvy profile 
in a misty mirror, was first acquired by 
direct marketing mogul Boris Leavitt in 
1955 from the Sidney Janis Gallery in New 
York for $2,500. Mr. Leavitt, who died last 
June in West Palm Beach Florida at age 91, 
had the painting and 32 others on long-term 
loan to Washington's National Gallery of 
Art. Last August when the estate closed 
it's deal with Christie's to sell his 
trove, the art works were removed from the 
museum. (Given the recent deaccession by 
the Shelburne Museum in Vermont of five 
masterworks, it hasn't been a jolly season 
for museums). The 13 Leavitt works realized 
$18.8 million, $6.2 million over its high 
estimate.




Woman soared over the unpublished $8 
million-$10 million pre-sale estimate and 
sold to an anonymous telephone bidder, 
beating out Robert Mnuchin of New York's C 
& M Arts, who was bidding on behalf of a 
private client. Bidding for the picture opened at $4.5 
million and proceeded slowly in a tense 
salesroom at $500,000 increases. The pace 
quickened at the $6 million mark. One 
American private bidder dropped out at $10 
million, leaving the contest to Mnuchin and 
the telephone, manned by Christie's veteran 
expert Martha Baer. At $13.75 million the 
bidding scaled back to $250,000 increments. 
Finally, Mnuchin shook his head after 
Baer's $14.2 million bid and the standing 
room only crowd broke into delirious 
applause.



Even pictures familiar to the market, went 
like gangbusters, such as Tex, Roy 
Lichtenstein's war comic strip panel from 
1962 that sold to an anonymous telephone 
bidder at a huge $3.96 million (est. $2.5 
million-$3 million). London dealer Anthony 
D'Offay was the underbidder, apparently 
bidding on behalf of an unnamed American 
institution.


 
Auctioneer Christopher Burge practically 
laughed through the sale, quipping after 
Wayne Thiebaud's Drink Syrups became the 
first casualty at lot #36, "finally." Only 
eight of the 61 lots failed to find buyers. 
Of the 53 that sold, 24 exceeded their high 
estimates.



It was a night to remember.



JUDD TULLY covers the international art 
market for a variety of publications, 
ranging from Art & Auction to The 
Washington Post.