Basquiat overtakes Warhol
Jean-Michel Basquiat has become the most expensive US artist ever. His work Untitled (1982), estimated at $60 million, fetched a record-breaking $110.5 million (including fees) at Sotheby’s during their Postwar and Contemporary Evening Sale yesterday evening. The artist’s previous auction record of $57.3 million was established a year ago. The buyer was revealed to be Yusaku Maezaw, who was also responsible for Basquiat’s previous record. The price of Basquiat’s work exceeded that of Andy Warhol’s Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster) (1963) which sold for $105 million at Sotheby’s in 2013, becoming the most expensive work by an US artist ever sold at auction until yesterday.
During the sale, which totalled an overall $319.2 million, new records were set for artists Jonas Wood, Wolfgang Tillmans, Mira Schendel, Blinky Palermo and Takeo Yamaguchi. Nude Sunbathing (1995) by Roy Lichtenstein, estimated at $20 million, fetched $24 million. More on an incredible auction night at Sotheby’s via ARTnews.
Over at Phillips, a white glove sale realized $100 million, with 37 out of 37 lots being sold. After a false start with the withdrawal of a top lot by Gerhard Richter, estimated at between $15 and $20 million, the auction house, which had guaranteed a number of lots, managed to deliver with a record sale for Peter Doig’s Rosedale. (1991) Bidding began at $22 million, with the work being sold for $28.8 million. The artist’s previous record was set at $25.9 million. Read more on artnet news.
Peter Doig's Rosedale (1991). Photo: courtesy of Phillips.
Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez to curate the Contour Biennale 9
Art Centre NONA has announced that Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez has been appointed the curator of the Contour Biennale 9.
The event, taking place every two years in Mechelen, Belgium, is dedicated to film, video, installation and performance. The independent curator and author Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez was responsible for curating the exhibitions “Show me the archive and I will tell you who is in power” at Kiosk, (2017, with Wim Waelput, Ghent) and “Let's Talk about the Weather” at the Sursock Museum (2016, with Nora Razian and Ashkan Sepahvand, Beirut), Resilience, the Triennial of Contemporary Art in Slovenia (2013, Ljubljana) and transmediale.08 at HKW (2008, Berlin). She has also co-directed the Laboratoires d'Aubervilliers (2010–12) and was editor-in-chief of the Manifesta Journal between 2012 and 2014. Read more on e-flux.
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Twenty-six finalists for the 2017 John Ruskin Prize
Twenty-six artists were shortlisted for the 2017 edition of the John Ruskin Prize, celebrating the concept of “artist as polymath”. The prize, open to both emerging and established artists, celebrates artists whose work “defies categorisation, dissolves boundaries and has a joyous disregard for the conventions of their chosen materials and disciplines”.
The 2017 finalists are Louisa Boyd, Holly Brodie, Nuala Clooney, Andrew Ekins, Erin Dickson, Paul Hazelton, Marielle Hehir, Anne Howeson, Rebecca Ilett, Shelley James, Debbie Lawson, Emily Lazerwitz, Sue Lawty, Bethan Lloyd Worthington, Hugh Miller, Rosa Nguyen, Kyle Noble, Briony O Clarke, Sumi Perera, Shauna Richardson, Conor Rogers, Fi Smart, Serena Smith, Harland Viney, Simon Ward & Robert Mach, and Ray Winder. An exhibition of works by the shortlisted artists, titled ‘Master of all Trades’ will open at Sheffield’s Millennium Gallery on June 20, on occasion of the award ceremony. The awards total £5,000 with a first prize of £3,000 and two awards of £1,000 for second prize and a student and recent graduate prize. More on a-n news.
Rebecca Ilet ‘Spinning Straw into Gold’, 2016, silver, gold, broom bristles, 6 x 4cm. Photo: Simon White. The John Ruskin Prize 2017 shortlist.
