Contemporary art heating up
The success of recent auctions in London at Christie's and Sotheby's show that the contemporary art market is heating up -- and one my favorite artists, Sean Scully, who's newest work on paper we recently acquired coincidentally from a London gallery -- hit a record high for his work. Plus, there's a major US show of his work coming up this Fall. According to this Wall Street Journal story (subscription required):
Contemporary work dominated this week's fine-art auctions in London, continuing a trend that began four years ago. At Sotheby's Wednesday, sales of contemporary works rose 37% from last year, to $35.3 million. Yesterday, Christie's posted $44.5 million in contemporary sales, up almost 74% from the total in 2004.
In contrast, evening sales of Impressionist and Modern pieces sank 25% from fall 2004 at Sotheby's and rose 9% at Christie's.
...At one point Wednesday night at Sotheby's, eleven bidders were vying for Sean Scully's large geometric painting, "Wall of Light, Temozon," which set a record for the artist when it sold to a private buyer for £377,600.