Simon de Pury in action
Phillips de Pury and Company is certainly holding its own against the towering twosome of Sotheby's and Christies. For its Contemporary Art Part I sale, the Phillips crowd was young, affluent and international, which made for a noisy party atmosphere during the last big sale of auction week.
Phillips had succeeded in putting together a suitably impressive offering of high-end artworks for the evening session. The auction house managed to secure a Koons, a Kawara, a Judd and a couple of Baldessaris, as well as dozens of other works from auction standards. But the sightlines and acoustics of the rented 15th Street space are atrocious, and threaten to interfere with the company's bottom line. Auctioneer Simon de Pury had difficulty being charming as he was made to bend around the pillar to spot bidders, all the while shouting into the microphone in order to be heard over the din. In fairness, even the unflappable and elegant Tobias Meyer of Sotheby's looked like a game show contestant at times this past Tuesday as he craned his neck to see if the next lot would be appearing on the spinning pedestal. Phillips doesn't yet have any mechanical method to display its lots. Instead, forlorn young men and women in white gloves hold the artworks, shift back and forth on their feet, and try not to shake as bidding climbs into the hundreds of thousands.
Highlights of Thursday evening's sale included a Glenn Brown portrait of a vase of flowers ("I do not feel embarrassed at attempting to express sadness and loneliness," 2001), which brought a hammer price of $550,000. A Felix Gonzales-Torres string of lights from 1993 ('Untitled [last light]') from the edition of 24 went for $190,000. And the second lot of the evening was a spectacular black and lime Butterfly painting by Mark Grotjahn, which carried an estimate of $40-60,000. De Pury opened the bidding at just $20,000 but a bidder in the room, apparently bored and wanting to save time even though the auction had just begun, jumped in with a bid of $150,000 to follow. "Nice increment," de Pury cracked with a French twist. The final hammer price for this magnificent work was an even $300,000.
Works by David Hammons and Dan Flavin
Among the other notable lots was an untitled sculptural wall work by David Hammons. The antelope-like creature was made from an array materials which included African figures. It carried an estimate of $1.5-2 million, although the previous record for Hammons's work was less than half that figure. The piece met expectations by reaching a hammer price of 1.5 million dollars. A large portrait by sexy realist Richard Phillips from 1999 depicted a sultry young vixen that looked so much like Britney Spears she might be a relative or impersonator. The oil on canvas work easily passed its pre-sale estimate of $80-120,000, bringing bids all the way to $320,000.
There was no Jack Pierson word sculpture for sale at Phillips this time around to take the prize for most overpriced creation. So I suppose the honors would have to go to Fred Tomaselli's "Butterfly Effect" (1999), a crafty resin piece consisting of a design of butterflies and aspirins. With the buyer's premium, the tab for this decorative work came to over $300,000.
All but 6 of the 74 lots found buyers, and there were even some relative bargains. Important works by Tom Friedman, Keith Tyson and Paul Pfeiffer were all bought in, perhaps proving the point that sculpture has not truly shared in the frenzied revolution of prices for contemporary art.
Collectors at the final sale of the week
Onto the Contemporary Art Part II sale at Phillips, the final opportunity to wave one's paddle this week. The sale has some of the most interesting lots of the week, including the work of good artists without auction histories. Many of these "unproven" names are nonetheless prized by collectors, and Phillips is to be commended for its risk-taking.
Works by Ivan Navarro, Alexander Ross, Zhi Gang and Terence Koh all topped their high estimates. Auction stalwarts who have continued their winning streaks included Dana Schutz, whose "Albino with Wig" (2002) brought $75,000. A Sarah Morris grid canvas surpassed its high estimate of $60,000 to reach $135,000 in a spirited bidding contest. The colorful Carroll Dunham 1992 work made from oil, acrylic, charcoal and Styrofoam balls blasted past its high estimate of $50,000, selling for $200,000, and a rather unappealing, even by the artist's sloppy-but-fun standards, work by Jonathan Meese brought $65,000 against its $10-15,000 estimate.
Carol Greene was among the savvy Chelsea gallerists in the room. She was here to see how Rachel Harrison's sculpture fared. (It surpassed estimates, bringing $19,000.) But she was visibly annoyed with Phillips when I asked her if the two lots by her star painter Sophie Hellerman were removed because of the low estimates. "Ugh, it's so ridiculous," she said with wave of her hand.
Works by Anton Henning, Keith Haring and George Condo continued to perform well at auction, going above their already lofty estimates. Even Andres Serrano's more ham-fisted photos, such as images of the black Klan member and the severed cow's head on a marble pedestal, not only found buyers, but exceeded the auction house's expectations.
I personally enjoyed seeing Piotr Uklanski's works bring deservedly high prices. His suite of 16 cowboy iris prints "Summer Love" (2000) was well worth the $70,000 hammer price. Also, Uklanski's "Untitled (Skull)" brought back a few memories. The image, which consists of a carefully posed Dali-esque group of naked bodies, was created in 2000 when pornography took up most of my time, both professionally and socially. Gavin Brown called to ask if I could help Piotr find people who were willing to show their willies in exchange for a print. I can't remember if I ended up hooking them up with models, and I never got a print myself, but you can't see any genitals in the image, anyway... just two or three boobs. The b+ w pic was estimated at $15-20,000 and sold for $38,000.
Albert Oehlen, Dirk Skreber and Eberhard Havekost were represented here by lesser works and the low prices realized reflected this. Could it be that auction buyers are becoming more discerning? Yes and no. Mostly, the crappier work was recognized as such. But the prices for a few mediocrities are worth a giggle: Yasumasa Morimura's derivative derivations astonishingly did still sell in the $12-15,000 range. Of the thousands of Vik Muniz photos out there, the chocolate photo of Jackson Pollock is not the worst, but $105,000? Finally, in a case of the auction house taking the lets-be-inclusive-and-see-if-we-can-make-more-money thing too far, a coy photograph by Spencer Tunick (the guy who connives to get free-spirited people to lie in the road naked) went for $25,000. I left after this lot, shaking my head. Auction week, with all its exciting moments and shocking price tags, was over.
Doug McClemont
Doug McClemont is the former Editor-in-Chief of HONCHO. He is currently writing about his adventures as a mortician.
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