NADA, the New Art Dealers Alliance, is poised to launch a new art fair July 30-31, in a brick 19th century former foundry in Hudson, New York.

The non-profit dealer group run a successful December oceanside fair in Miami at the Deauville Beach Resort, concurrent with Art Basel Miami Beach.

The group is currently soliciting applications for exhibitors wishing to present artworks, sculptures and performance pieces at the Basilica, an 8,000 square foot 1884 building in Hudson.

Hudson, two hours from New York City, is stocked with antiques stores and cheap, charming real estate. A few years ago artist Marina Abramovic acquired a dilapidated theater as a future home for her performance art foundation. (Read more here).

Ron Mueck 1996 "Big Baby," est. £800,000 to £1.2 million, via Christie's

By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views, Contributor

Christie’s will offer 32 works from the collection of noted British collector Kay Saatchi in its June Post-War and Contemporary art auctions in London. The works are estimated to sell for up to £3.4 million.

Saatchi is moving to Los Angeles after 25 years in London as a major YBA patron. (She and ex-husband, advertising magnate and private museum owner, Charles Saatchi, divorced in 2001.) Read a long profile on Saatchi from the Times London here.

Take heed David Kordansky and Tim Blum: Saatchi is quoted in a Christie’s press release explaining that she plans to sell the U.K. works to make space for West Coast art acquisitions.

Evening sale highlights include Ron Mueck’s life-size, blue-eyed Big Baby sculpture from 1996, estimated to sell for £800,000 to £1.2 million. Kay and Charles Saatchi acquired seven of the hyper-realist sculptor’s earliest works, three of which were on display at the traveling Sensation show during the late 1990s.

Paula Rego’s Looking Back (1987), a large-scale painting of buxom lounging ladies, is estimated to sell for £600,000 – £800,000. The Saatchi duo purchased the work (along…

Jean Dubuffet 1961 "L'Erratique," sold fof $698,500 at Christie's on March 10, 2011

By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views, Contributor

Christie’s First Open sale of Post-War and Contemporary Art totaled $10.3 million yesterday, the highest grossing First-Open sale since the pre-bust days of March 2007.

The tally suggests a market uptick, even at lower points on the pricing index, and arrives on the heels of a commercially successful New York fair week. (See results here).

Eighty-four percent of lots found buyers, with 262 of the 312 lots selling. The top lots were acquired by U.S. private and trade buyers, along with Russian, European and Asian dealers and collectors.

The priciest work was Jean Dubuffet’s impasto oil on masonite, L’Erratique (1961) which sold for $698,500, trumping the $300,000 – 400,000 presale estimate.

Other highlights included work by the auction block’s old faithful, Andy Warhol. His 1985-1986 black and white cartoonish silkscreen text, Heaven and Hell are Just One Breath Away! (Positive) sold to an Asian collector for $242,500.  Christopher Wool’s 2007 black and white abstract Untitled enamel on aluminum sold for $362,500, above the the $250,000 – 350,000 estimate.

The Top Ten:

Artist / Title / Year / Price Realized / Estimate…

1959 Gio Ponti conference table from Time-Life building, sold for $104,500

By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views, Contributor

Sotheby’s 20th Century Design sale totaled $3.5 million yesterday, with works from  modern design dealer Mark McDonald fetching $1.3 million.

The single owner sale, titled What Modern Is: The Collection of Mark McDonald, resulted in 84 percent of lots finding buyers. (View results here).

McDonald had said he was selling works to focus on advising studio jewelry collectors. (See AMV’s preview here).

McDonald’s top lot was a Gio Ponti blonde wood conference table from the offices of New York’s Time-Life Building, which sold for $104,500 to an American collector.

Among American makers, ESU steel-frame, birchwood storage cabinets by Charles and Ray Eames – almost a mid-century cliche at this point – sold well. A custom ESU sold for $46,875, over a $35,000 high estimate. A 1st edition ESU-400 fetched $31,250, above the $20,000 high estimate.

McDonald works closely with the estate of modernist jeweler Art Smith.  A patinated copper and brass Lava cuff made $28,125, zooming past a conservative $20,000 high estimate. Other jewelry on the block included pieces by Claire Falkenstein, Ed Wiener and Sam Kramer.

Top Ten:…

Ettore Sottsass marble table, est. $10,000-$15,000 at Los Angeles Modern Auctions

By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views, Contributor

The estate of California collector Max Palevsky, a tech guru with a keen eye, continues to sell on March 6 at Los Angeles Modern Auctions. Pavlesky, who died last year at the age of 85, owned extravagantly art-stocked homes in Beverly Hills, Palm Springs and Malibu. Offerings include 1980s Ettore Sottsass furnishings, tagged with what appear to be lowball estimates.

Pricier Palevsky artworks, including paintings by Fernand Leger and Richard Lindner, sold last fall at Christie’s. (See prior coverage here).

Palevsky highlights, from the Malibu property, include a custom-made Sottsass marble entry table (est. $10,000 – $15,000), a Sottsass headboard with built-in nightstands (est. $2,000 – $3,000), and four Murano glass windows (est. $10,000 – $20,000). All  Palevsky goods are sold without reserve.

The sale also includes works from James Byrnes, LAMCA’s first curator of modern art, who held the post from 1946 to 1952. While at LACMA he purchased the museum’s first Jackson Pollock (for approximately $400) and Josef Albers paintings.

Byrnes is selling around 50 lots, including an Alexander Calder black and white drawing of a mobile …

Wendy Hilty's 1958 portrait of Lena Horne, from album cover "Give the Lady What She Wants" sold for $1,088

By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views, Contributor

Buoyed by fans seeking mementos, the estate of singer Lena Horne fetched $315,976 at Doyle yesterday, more than double pre-sale projections. All 199 lots on offer found buyers.

The sale’s expected top lot, a Charles Henry Alston painting titled Abstract fetched a mere $20,000, below the pre-sale estimate of $30,000 -$50,000.

Horne’s personal items, tagged with low estimates, propelled the total.

A Louis Vuitton trunk, with emblazoned with stickers printed “Lena Horne Hayton,” estimated up to $700, sold for a $20,000. Horne’s Giorgio di Sant’ Angelo reversible mink fetched $8,125, more than sixteen times the $500 high estimate. A size four bright red matte jersey dress by the designer, which was predicted to fetch up to $150, sold for $2,250.

Photos also fared well. A 1941 picture of the actress in profile by Carl Van Vechten sold for $3,438, while a vampy portrait of Horne in a red dress by Wendy Hilty (taken for the cover of her 1958 album Give the Lady What She Wants) brought in $1,088, against a $100 high estimate.

Geoffrey Holder's 1959 "Lena" estimated to sell for $2500-$3500

By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views, Contributor

Doyle New York will auction the estate of celebrated singer and civil rights activist Lena Horne on February 23.

The sale features nearly 200 lots of fine art, accessories, photographs and furniture from Horne’s Upper East Side home.

The Brooklyn-born actress began her career as a nightclub performer and starred in films such as Cabin in the Sky and Stormy Weather. She won a Tony in 1981 for her performance in the one-woman Broadway show, Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music. Horne died in May 2010 at the age of 92. (Click here for a clip from the 1943 Stormy Weather).

Highlights from the sale include a colorful bubble gum pink abstract by African-American painter Charles Alston, which is estimated to sell for $30,000 – $50,000. Also included is a painting of a family of boaters by David Burliuk (est. $7,000 – $9,000), a coral-hued portrait of Horne from 1959 by Geoffrey Holder (est. $2,500 – $3,500), and a busty bronze sculpture of her by Peter Lambda (est. $3,000 – $5,000).

Costume jewelry from Chanel, Giorgio di Sant’Angelo couture minks,…

By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views, Contributor

Warhol propelled yet another contemporary auction last night in London. His 1967 tomato-hued Self-Portrait fetched $17.4 million (£10.8 million) at Christie’s. The buyer was dealer Larry Gagosian, according to salesroom reports.

The painting, depicting the artist with his fingers splayed over his mouth and gazing directly at the viewer, is from a series of ten 1960s self-portraits. This particular example had been in a private collection since 1974.

The evening’s sale totaled $99.2 million (£61.4 million), with a strong 92 percent of 64 lots finding buyers. Twenty-eight works sold for over $1 million (16 lots were over £1 million). Six auction records were set for Jenny Saville, Martial Raysse, Miquel Barcelo, Wade Guyton, Ged Quinn and Adriana Varejao.

Self taught artist Martial Raysse’s 1962 pop inspired portrait, L’année dernière à Capri (titre exotique) -  sold for $6.6 million (£4.1 million), more than quadruple the high estimate and a auction  record for a work by a living French artist.

Brazilian artist Adriana Varejao’s fleshy-tiled and Lucio Fontana-inspired Wall with Incisions a la Fontana II (2001) fetched $1.8 million (£1.1 million),…

Sotheby's London contemporary auction, paintings by Andy Warhol and Franz Gertsch wall. Auctioneer Tobias Meyer at rostrum.

By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views, Contributor

A protracted recession, banner-waving protesters and even health concerns failed to stymie a Sotheby’s contemporary art sale held last night in London. The unusually eventful proceedings achieved a robust $71.1 million (£44.4 million).

The total, combined with last week’s “white glove” sale, (found here) brings the month’s contemporary art tally to $138.7 million (£88 million) -  the highest for a Sotheby’s London contemporary art sales series since the downturn in July 2008.

The auctions revealed buyers are back, with 91.5% of the 59 lots finding buyers. Bidders came from around the globe, with 23 works selling for over $1 million, according to Sotheby’s.

The evening’s top lot was Gerhard Richter’s Abstraktes Bild (1990), sold to an Asian telephone bidder for $11.5 million, according to reports. The monumental squeegeed canvas, dripping with deep reds, greens, and grays, was estimated to sell for £5 – 7 million ($7.7 – 10.8 million).

Chinese activist artist Ai Weiwei’s mini-mountain of ceramic seeds (a larger version can be found at the Tate Modern (found here) sold for $559,394 (£349,250) to an anonymous…

Tobias Meyer wielding the gavel at Sotheby's in London, Bacon triptych on wall

Francis Bacon burst back on the auction block last night. A crimson 1964 triptych portraying the artist’s painter pal Lucian Freud sold for $37 million at Sotheby’s in London, topping a $14 million presale high estimate.

The work was sold during the sale of a 60-lot single owner collection, offered by heirs of the late Geneva collector George Kostalitz, according to news reports. The sale was 100% percent sold, white glove in auction lingo, tallying $150 million.

The Bacon buyer was identified by Bloomberg News and the Financial Times as  Cologne dealer Alex Lachmann, who was reported to buy for Russian clients.

The evening’s second priciest lot was Salvador Dali’s 1929 symbol-laden Portrait de Paul Eluard, selling for $21.7 million, an auction record for the artist and a Surrealist artwork at auction. The previous record had been set the night before at Christie’s.

Other top lots included a pair of sculptures by Julio Gonzalez, a record setting Wols, and a Giacometti painting.