Auction Records Set the Tone at Art Basel

MIAMI—Despite jitters in some quarters that the roaring market for modern and contemporary art might hit a hiccup, it kept going strong through the auctions in New York last month. And not surprisingly, dealers at Art Basel Miami Beach seem poised to capitalize on those successes. Scouring the offerings at the fair a day before the it opened, ARTINFO saw works by several recent record-setters taking up plenty of booth space, with strong prices attached.

Basquiat
Especially prevalent in the booths are works by Jean Michel Basquiat, who achieved a record auction price last May at Sotheby's New York, when an untitled painting from 1981 brought $14.6 million. In the most recent round of sales, in November, a Basquiat painting called Untitled (Electric Chair) fetched his second highest price ever, $11.8 million, at the same house.

Jan Krugier features an impressive, museum-quality display of no fewer than nine Basquiat works ranging in price from $900,000 to $10 million.

Fellow New York dealer Christophe van de Weghe also has several paintings by the artist, ranging in price from $3.5 million to $7.5 million. "The recent auctions confirmed that his prices are very strong," says Van de Weghe. "They are sought after by real collectors, and the newer buyers of Basquiat are relatively young. When people come into my gallery the two artists they always ask about are Warhol and Basquiat. Their prices at auction are high, but they were great artists."

Warhol
Van de Weghe also has a rare Warhol Campbell’s tomato soup can from 1964—one of only six—priced at $8.5 million. Warhol, of course, is a perennial success at auction; in May 2006 his Small Torn Campbell Soup Can (Pepper Pot) (1962) set the current auction record for a painting from the soup can series when it sold for $11,776,000, while in November his late Self Portrait (Green Camouflage) (1986) sold for $12,361,000.

As in past editions of Art Basel Miami Beach, Warhol features prominently throughout the fair. Acquavella has an array of Warhols, from hammer-and-sickle works to skulls to dollar bills to a sizable Mao. Skarstedt Gallery has a “Shadow,” a paint and silkscreen on canvas, from 1976, and a “Diamond Dust Shoes” from 1982. Another “Diamond Dust Shoes” is to be found nearby at Jablonka gallery. 

Thiebaud
The Allan Stone Gallery’s booth has several works that reflect records set in last month’s Christie's New York sale of works from the late dealer's collection. In that sale, a Wayne Thiebaud landcape painting from 1970 brought in a record $4.5 million. At Basel, the gallery has a slightly smaller Thiebaud painting from 1967. The gallery declined to give prices.

Chamberlain
Also in the Stone booth were works, in wildly different sizes, by sculptor John Chamberlain, who achieved an auction record last month when his 1962 sculpture Big E sold for $4.6 million at Sotheby's New York. On offer here is a large untitled wall-mounted Chamberlain, in his typical medium of crushed car parts, from 1961, as well as two smaller pieces, one displayed rather preciously under a bell jar.

Also featuring Chamberlains are PaceWildenstein, which has an impressive piece in white, Wandering Gargoyle (2005), priced at $1.2 million, and Margo Leavin, who has brought what could well be the fair's most impressive piece by the artist, a strikingly large vertical work from 1986 called Trumpery Praxis, on sale for $3 million. "We had a space in L.A. that used to be a post office and had very high ceilings," said Leavin when discussing the sculpture, which featured in Chamberlain's retrospective at LA MoCA in 1984. "That's when he started making these tall pieces."

Bacon
One of the most notable artists at auction this year was Francis Bacon, whose 1962 painting Study from Innocent X brought in $52.6 million at Sotheby's New York in May, and whose 1969 painting Second Version of Study for Bullfight No. 1 went for $45.9 million, also at Sotheby's, last month.

Marlborough gallery has a Bacon at Basel, a large oil and pastel on canvas called Study from the Human Body, from 1986. The gallery would not disclose the price.