Warhol works sell for $136.7 million at Christie's sale
by
Souren Melikian
A historic auction held at Christie's New York on Wednesday evening raised contemporary art closer to the top of the art market as 74 works sold for a total of $384.65 million.
Eva Working chair, 1941
Paintings by New York school artists of the 1950s and 1960s led the sale, with the spotlight firmly on Andy Warhol, whose works, numbering 10, added up to $136.7 million. This is the highest total ever scored by a contemporary artist in a single sale.
"Green Car Crash (Green Burning Car)," painted by Warhol in 1963 as part of a series called "Death and Disaster," soared to $71.7 million, doubling pre-sale estimates and more than quadrupling the previous auction record price for the artist, $17.37 million, which was paid in November 2006 for a "Mao" portrait. The work is based on a photograph taken by John Whitehead and printed in the June 3 issue of Newsweek in 1963. The image, unevenly repeated several times through the silkscreen process over a green background, is a reminder that Warhol's career began in advertising design. The uneven repetition conveys the impression of a recurring obsession that the viewer in vain seeks to shake off.
When last seen at auction, at Christie's London on Dec. 6, 1978, the Warhol sold for 36,000, then the equivalent of $70,200, and went to the Galerie Bruno Bischofberger of Zurich. It was acquired from the Swiss gallery by the collector, who consigned it this year to Christie's and will thus go down in art market history as the vendor who made the most sensational coup ever, easily earning over $55 million at one throw of the dice.
Another Warhol, "Lemon Marilyn" of 1962, became the second most expensive work by the artist sold at auction as it brought $28 million.
In contrast to Sotheby's sale the day before, Mark Rothko ranked second with a bright red canvas framed in ochre and underlined by a pink band at the bottom. Painted in 1954, the abstract composition went up to $26.92 million, the second highest price paid at auction for the artist.
Another "Untitled" painting by Rothko in deeper shades of red dating from 1961 fetched $22.44 million. This confirms the continuing search for pictures seen as the classics preceding what is today contemporary art.
