NEW YORK—The other night, when Christie’s sold a Peter Doig painting for a whopping $10.2 million — a full $4 million above its pre-sale estimate — Doig happened to be in the room, sitting next to the collector who was selling the work. According to Sarah Thornton’s report on Artforum.com, the artist was pretty mellow about the whole thing. “Everyone says artists shouldn’t attend auctions, so I wondered: What are they hiding from me? It’s my painting, after all,” he told Thornton. Though he added, “But I don’t think I’ll need to come again.”

Things weren’t always so tame. Back in 1973, taxi fleet owner Robert Scull sold two pieces from Robert Rauschenberg at Parke-Bernet as part of the first auction that included work by living artists, and Rauschenberg, miffed that he saw no proceeds from the astounding sum his works had brought, reportedly decked Scull after the sale. That incident was on artist Ryan McGinness’s mind when he organized the Artist Direct Party, an auction to take place tomorrow night at McGinness’s studio in downtown Manhattan. The auction house — or “middleman,” as McGinness puts it — has been cut out, and artists are selling directly to collectors.

The artists in question — there are pieces by McGinness himself, as well as Robert Lazzarini, Erik Parker, Eve Sussman, Spencer Tunick, and others — are all McGinness’s friends. He asked them to select any work of theirs that they wanted to sell. The lots are all estimated at $14,000 or less.

McGinness says he’s “not particularly interested by the smoke-and-mirrors game which is the auction process,” but he is, however, “interested in revealing tricks and transparency.”

The auctioneer is Sara Friedlander from Christie's Post-War and Contemporary Department, and McGinness also got a little help from his friend Cristin Tierney of Cristin Tierney Fine Art Advisory, who served as an advisor to the sale. “I took Ryan to his first sale at Christie’s a few years ago. He’s one of the only artists I know who is interested in the mechanics of how art finds a life outside the studio.” Tierney says this is a good time for such an event. “Things are much harder for artists now than they were two years ago,” she says. “And in visual art there is basically no royalties system.” She guesses that however things go, the sale should generate some good cheer. “I think there will be a warm and fuzzy feeling Friday night, however it goes. Well, as close to warm and fuzzy as the art world gets.”

But was the auction, by any chance, inspired by disheartening experiences McGinness himself has had in the salesroom? “No,” the artist avers. “My work has always done well at auction, and there is no need for an artist to maintain an interest in his commodities if he has sold total property rights to the work.” But...there must have been something that irked him. “I have, however, been disappointed in the sellers who have broken promises to me. The secondary market is populated by schmucks.”

Interested in attending or bidding? Contact info@50parties.com before 1 p.m. on Friday, November 13.