Post by commandax on Jun 30, 2009 20:28:50 GMT -8
Art Deco flourished in the wake of World War I, as a reaction to wartime austerity, but it fell into disfavor after World War II, and has never really regained any cachet in the fine art world. When Tamara de Lempicka's work was the star of the Sotheby's sale last month, I was intrigued... but seeing this work by a little-known Art Deco painter sell so far over estimate at the London Christie's sale really caught my attention.
One of the interesting things about Art Deco is that it's among the most obvious precursors of Pop... and I think its echoes still bounce around in Pop Surrealism. If collectors with deep pockets are interested in this sort of work suddenly, that might prove to be a tectonic shift in tastes that could have repercussions in our market.
From Christie's June 2009 Impressionist & Modern Sale in London:
"Amazones," a monumental Art Deco painting by the little-known Eugène Robert Pougheon... rose from £56,000 to £1.1 million in the space of 10 years. “That had the ‘wow factor’ as far as Art Deco collectors are concerned,” said Thomas Seydoux, of Christie’s. “People are definitely looking for art with ‘wall power’ these days. Boring subjects are not selling.”
From Sotheby's Spring Impressionist & Modern Sales in New York:
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the sales was the inclusion of 12 highly stylised paintings by Tamara de Lempicka. Paintings by the bisexual society artist of the Twenties and Thirties, once described as "lighting by Caravaggio, tubism by Fernand Léger, and lipstick by Chanel", used to be found in Art Deco rather than Modern art sales. But now, because of the appeal they have to Hollywood stars (Madonna, Barbra Streisand) and the wealthy owners of period properties in Florida and the Upper East Side of New York, they receive star billing alongside Picasso and Giacometti.
Ten of these extravagant Art Deco icons, laced with sexual innuendo, were from the collection of German fashion designer Wolfgang Joop, and eight were sold, with a portrait of Marjorie Ferry fetching a record $4.9 million. The next day at Christie's, the record was trounced when de Lempicka's Portrait of Madame M sold for $6.1 million.
...The de Lempicka portrait of Marjorie Ferry had cost Joop $552,500 in 1995.
From The NY Times:
...the great money winner of the day [was] Tamara de Lempicka’s “Portrait of Marjorie Ferry,” painted in 1932. The picture was bought by the consignor at Sotheby’s New York in November 1995, where it made $552,500. This week, it briefly set a world record for the artist at $4.89 million. Blending café society portraiture kitsch with a contrasted light influenced by the avant-garde cinema of the period (“Metropolis” springs to mind), the portrait could be seen as one of the forerunners of Pop. Two lots down, the likeness of the Duchesse de la Salle sold for $4.45 million and became the second most expensive Lempicka yet auctioned, confirming the startling upward trend of her work.
Looked at from a broader perspective, Lempicka’s success ties in with the accelerating preference given to art that can be taken in at a glance and has an instantly recognizable style, like branded handbags or shoes.
One of the interesting things about Art Deco is that it's among the most obvious precursors of Pop... and I think its echoes still bounce around in Pop Surrealism. If collectors with deep pockets are interested in this sort of work suddenly, that might prove to be a tectonic shift in tastes that could have repercussions in our market.
From Christie's June 2009 Impressionist & Modern Sale in London:
"Amazones," a monumental Art Deco painting by the little-known Eugène Robert Pougheon... rose from £56,000 to £1.1 million in the space of 10 years. “That had the ‘wow factor’ as far as Art Deco collectors are concerned,” said Thomas Seydoux, of Christie’s. “People are definitely looking for art with ‘wall power’ these days. Boring subjects are not selling.”
From Sotheby's Spring Impressionist & Modern Sales in New York:
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the sales was the inclusion of 12 highly stylised paintings by Tamara de Lempicka. Paintings by the bisexual society artist of the Twenties and Thirties, once described as "lighting by Caravaggio, tubism by Fernand Léger, and lipstick by Chanel", used to be found in Art Deco rather than Modern art sales. But now, because of the appeal they have to Hollywood stars (Madonna, Barbra Streisand) and the wealthy owners of period properties in Florida and the Upper East Side of New York, they receive star billing alongside Picasso and Giacometti.
Ten of these extravagant Art Deco icons, laced with sexual innuendo, were from the collection of German fashion designer Wolfgang Joop, and eight were sold, with a portrait of Marjorie Ferry fetching a record $4.9 million. The next day at Christie's, the record was trounced when de Lempicka's Portrait of Madame M sold for $6.1 million.
...The de Lempicka portrait of Marjorie Ferry had cost Joop $552,500 in 1995.
From The NY Times:
...the great money winner of the day [was] Tamara de Lempicka’s “Portrait of Marjorie Ferry,” painted in 1932. The picture was bought by the consignor at Sotheby’s New York in November 1995, where it made $552,500. This week, it briefly set a world record for the artist at $4.89 million. Blending café society portraiture kitsch with a contrasted light influenced by the avant-garde cinema of the period (“Metropolis” springs to mind), the portrait could be seen as one of the forerunners of Pop. Two lots down, the likeness of the Duchesse de la Salle sold for $4.45 million and became the second most expensive Lempicka yet auctioned, confirming the startling upward trend of her work.
Looked at from a broader perspective, Lempicka’s success ties in with the accelerating preference given to art that can be taken in at a glance and has an instantly recognizable style, like branded handbags or shoes.
