Contemporary Art Red Hot at Phillips

Any fears that the contemporary art market was in for a correction were allayed last night when the sale at Phillips, de Pury & Company achieved 12 artist records and brought in a solid total of $23.6 million, against a pre-sale high estimate of $24.9 million. The exuberance of Christie's highly successful Post-War and Contemporary sale on Wednesday night seemed to have carried over to Phillips, with the difference that, as per usual with Phillips, the material was far less post-war and far more contemporary, focusing on works from the 80's and 90's. Phillips, a smaller operation than Sotheby's or Christie's, has carved out a niche for itself in contemporary art (so much so that one dealer suggested that the house's successful sales may have been the motivating factor behind Christie's first "First Open" sale of younger contemporary art in March.)

Phillips' head of contemporary art, Michael McGinnis, estimated that 70% of the buyers were private, and 30% trade. Asked about the speculation that seems endemic to the contemporary market these days, he said, "Speculation has cooled out. People who are buying the top-priced works are established, wealthy individuals who don't need to speculate, and are willing to pay premium." The sale's few casualties, such as a Rachel Whiteread sculpture and a painting by Jenny Saville, were more than balanced by the 12 artist records achieved, including ones for John Bock, Kai Althoff, Richard Prince, Ron Mueck, Yoshitomo Nara, Chris Ofili, Martin Kippenberger, Piotr Uklanski, Ugo Rondinone and Jorge Pardo.

Top Five Prices

Price

Estimate

Jean-Michel Basquiat,Catharsis

$1.6  million

$1.2-1.8  million

With its highly active, colorful composition of alternating words and images, this 1983 triptych has everything a buyer looks for in a Basquiat, even if its subject matter is grim ("Suicide attempt" is scrawled on the right panel). Its price landed squarely in the middle of Phillips' estimate. The painting sold to an unidentified phone bidder, but one observer identified movie producer Stavros Merjos as the underbidder.

Marlene Dumas, Cracking the Whip

$1.08  million

$800,000- 1.2 million

This was one part of a suite of paintings by Dumas in collaboration with photographer Anton Corbijn, strippers in Amsterdam's Red Light District. Combine its naughty subject matter with the current craze for figurative painting and you have a winner. This one shows the back of a scantily clothed woman wearing precipitously high heels. The healthy price paid for it was not unexpected. A Dumas painting The Teacher achieved a world record for a living woman artist at Christie's, London, in February 2005, selling for $3.34 million.

Richard Prince,A Nurse Involved

$1.02  million

$200-  300,000

Although other works by Prince have come up this week, this one was arguably the most desirable, and the most highly anticipated. It is part of a suite of large "nurse" paintings shown at Barbara Gladstone gallery two years ago. Prince's sexy nurses combine imagery and titles from pulp paperback covers with energetic brushwork. They proved extremely popular with collectors and are already somewhat rare. Add to this the fact that the market for Prince's work in general is soaring. After a long round of bidding expertly managed by auctioneer Simon de Pury, the painting was hammered down to collector Harry Lis, who was seated in the front row, bidding throughout the evening.

Martin Kippenberger, Untitled

$1.02  million

$600- 800,000

That this 1991 painting set a world record for the late, iconoclastic German artist comes as no surprise to market observers. A few months ago there were simultaneous shows of Kippenberger's work at Gagosian Gallery and Luhring Augustine. The painting, with its complex symbolism involving a bird, a battleship and numbers, soared past its high estimate after energetic bidding in the room, to set a new record for Kippenberger. Even so, Michael McGinnis observed after the sale that though this painting comes from a great series and appeals to a sophisticated client base, the market for his work is far from hitting its peak. "The right painting, a self-portrait, say, could achieve $2 million," McGinnis told Artinfo.com.

Chris Ofili, Afrodizzia

$1  million

$500-  700,000