Pierre Bonnard 1923 "Terrasse à Vernon" sold for $11.6 million at Christie's

By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views, Contributor

Pierre Bonnard’s 1923 sun-dappled Terrasse à Vernon sold for $11.6 million at Christie’s in London last night, an auction record for the artist. Bloomberg identified the buyer as Russian, in a report here.

The sunny, bucolic landscape is one of only three works that Bonnard choose to present at the 1923 Salon d’Automne. It portrays the waterfront vista from Bonnard’s South of France home.

The evening’s biggest failure was the projected top lot, Paul Gauguin’s sunflower still-life tribute to Vincent van Gogh. The 1901 painting, Nature morte a L’Esperance was estimated to sell for £ 7 – 10 million and drew no bids, according to salesroom reports.

The works were offered during Christie’s Impressionist and Modern Art evening sale tallying $136.3 million, with a 79 percent sell-through rate on 76 lots. A portion of the evening was devoted to Surrealist art, totaling realized $36.9 million. The Art of the Surreal, has been featured since 2001.

Pretty reigned supreme. Andre Derain’s Bateaux à Collioure (1905) sold for $9.4 million. Edgar Degas’ Danseuses jupes jaunes (Deux danseuses en jaune) sold for…

Picasso's "La Lecture" sold for $40.7M at Sotheby's in London on Feb 8

By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views, Contributor

Picasso’s 1932 portraits of his paramour Marie-Therese Walter continue to triumph at auction, with Sotheby’s racking up $40.7 million (£25.2 million) last night in London for a swirling composition in lavenders and yellow.

La Lecture sold to an unnamed phone bidder, topping the £18 million high estimate. Sotheby’s reported a field of seven bidders in the salesroom and over the phone, during a six minute bidding battle.

Among the first works to feature Walter, she is depicted in sensual, colorful swirls, dozing in an armchair.

The painting sold during Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art evening sale which tallied $111 million, with a less than stellar 76 percent of the 42 lots finding buyers.

A 1955 gouache by Rene Magritte, Le Maitre d’Ecole, sold for $4 million, an auction record. Other highlights include a monumental sculpture of a horse and rider by Italian artist Marino Marini, L’idea del cavaliere (Idea for the Rider), which sold for $6.8 million. Lyonel Feininger’s maritime painting Raddampfer am Landungssteg (1912) sold for $5.1 million, more than double its high estimate.

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Subodh Gupta "Untitled" (2006) sold for $184,000

By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views, Contributor

The online art fair model needs some refinement, but the web is bringing in big bucks via auction.

Saffronart, an online Indian art auctioneer, tested out a new blitz 24-hour sale format last week, reaping $746,403 for 49 contemporary works. Results exceeded the presale low estimate of $578,590, with 82% of 60 lots selling.

The auction was the first in a new series of quickie 24-hour sales of Indian art, featuring focused, smaller sales of modern and contemporary Indian art. Bidding took place online on Saffronart’s website, or via a mobile bidding application created for iPhones, Blackberrys, iPads and the like.

Saffronart’s online auctions typically last two or three days. The 24-hour sale ran Feb. 2-3.

A 2006 Subodh Gupta painting was the top lot fetching $184,000. The canvas depicts a cluttered Indian shop, filled with metal pots, buckets, cardboard and an ancient taraju or weighing scale. It was estimated to sell for $150,000 – $200,000.

Other top lots included an sculpture of a gilded female head by G. Ravinder Reddy, which went for $140,875, and Jyothi Basu’s colorful figurative canvas, Invasion (2006),…

Unique ESU Cabinet Charles and Ray Eames, circa 1950s est $25,000 - $35,000. Image Courtesy Sotheby's

By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views, Contributor

Noted mid-century dealer Mark McDonald is selling a stash of American, Scandinavian and Italian design, tagged $5,000 to $30,000, at a single owner Sotheby’s sale on March 10th.

Objects by Isamu Noguchi, Charles and Ray Eames and Ettore Sottsass are among the offerings.

McDonald made a name over the past forty years at the helm of a string of design galleries, including the pioneering Fifty/50 and Gansevoort Gallery in Manhattan.  McDonald currently operates a gallery in bucolic Hudson, New York.

He is credited with having helped revive the market for mid-century furniture and industrial design. (A 2002 New York Times article, found here,  dubbed him “Mr. Modernism” and a “walking, talking 20th-century-design database.”)

Sotheby’s previously sold works from McDonald’s collection in 1993. In March  McDonald is unloading more of his design stock to focus on his role as an advisor for studio jewelry collectors.

Sotheby’s upcoming sale, titled What Modern Is: The Collection of Mark McDonald , features  a Charles and Ray Eames’s Unique ESU Cabinet, estimated to sell for $25,000 – $35,000.

A selection of Scandinavian…

Andy Warhol's 1972 "Mao" screenprint, sold for $302,500. Photo: Christie's Images LTD 2010

By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views, Contributor

A two-day auction from the estate of actor Dennis Hopper raised $3.4 million at Christie’s in New York this week.

A 1972 blue and green Warhol print of Mao Zedong was the top lot, fetching ten times the presale estimate.

The portrait — from an edition of 250, plus 50 artist’s proofs — sold for a whopping $302,500, crushing the $30,000 presale high estimate. The work, which included a pair of Hopper inflicted bullet holes, was acquired by investment banker Amed Khan, according to salesroom reports.

The sales raised the the tally of Hopper’s estate to $14.7 million. The priciest material was sold last November, including a 1987 Basquiat fetching $5.8 million. (Preview of that sale here).

The events came with a touch of drama as Christie’s yanked 32 items following a court order in connection with Hopper’s estranged wife. (Hopper was in the process of divorcing 42-year-old Victoria Duffy Hopper, his fifth wife, when he died in May at the age of 74.)

The offerings featured nearly 250 objects from Hopper’s Venice Beach pad, including works by Bruce…

Zhang Lichen张立辰 (b. 1939). Orchid, 1986. Ink and color on paper. 19 ¼ x 31 ½ inches. Signed with 5 artist seals. Courtesy China 2000 Fine Art.

By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views, Contributor

Ever since the New York International Asian Art Fair was mothballed in 2009, dealers and auctioneers have jockeyed to keep the spirit of Asia Week alive.

This year’s bid takes place around Manhattan from March 18-26, as Asian art dealers, auction houses and museums join forces to present week-long events highlighting the continent’s flourishing arts and buoyant market.

Thirty-four dealers will take part, hailing from the US, England, France, Italy and Japan.

Festivities begin on March 18 with a private cocktail reception and panel discussion at Asia Society.

The big money Asian art auctions take place at Christie’s and Sotheby’s. The houses grossed $82 million in sales last March, and upped the ante to $98.4 million last fall.

Japan Society’s offerings include a group show, Bye Bye Kitty!!!, featuring young Japanese artists, the majority of whom are based in Japan and have never exhibited in New York.

More info is available here.

Beatriz Milhazes' 1993-1994 "Machina," (est. $200-$300,000) sold for $722,500 at Christie's. Photo: Courtesy Christie's Images Ltd. 2010

By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views Contributor

The Latin American art market’s pudgy Colombian sweetheart, Fernando Botero, led last night’s sale at Christie’s. His portly bullfighter family fetched $1.7 million, above the high $1.5 million estimate. The work sold to an anonymous phone bidder.

The sale totaled $18.7 million, with a lackluster 73 percent of lots finding buyer. Christie’s is developing a specialty in the marathon evening auction, and last night was no different: 84 lots were on offer. Buyers gravitated to market stalwarts like Botero, Op Art, and modern, geometric abstract works.

The night before, Sotheby’s evening Latin sale made $14.8 million, bringing the week’s two-sale total to $33.5 million, less than hedge funder Steve Cohen paid for his Warhol Coke bottle during the contemporary sales the week prior, and well under the projected $50 million high estimate.

A number of living artists fared well, including Brazilian painters Beatriz Milhazes and Adriana Varejao.

The second half of the evening generated the most excitement, with works from the 1960s and 1970s  fetching some of their highest auction prices.

Argentinian kinetic artist Julio Le Parc achieved an auction record $506,500 for…

Fernando Botero's 1972 "Nuestra Senora de Cajica" (est. $600-$800K) sold for $872,500 to a North American private collector at Sotheby's. Photo: Courtesy Sotheby's

By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views Contributor

A third of Sotheby’s 65-lot Latin American art auction failed to sell last night, but there was plenty of spending power for certain works. Eight auction records were established.

“There are definitely chunks of money out there for very good things,” New York dealer Mary-Anne Martin said in an interview with Art Market Views.

The sale tallied $14.8 million, chump change compared with last week’s $222.4 million contemporary art auction at Sotheby’s, but quite respectable for a market with minimal cross-over from non-Latin buyers. The total skimmed the sale’s $14.5 million low presale estimate. The tally was down from $15.9 million a year ago.

A group of works were consigned by Aspen-based collectors, whom dealers say were slammed by Madoff-associated losses. They sold Wifredo Lam’s eight-foot wide 1970 voodoo-inspired painting which made an auction record $2.2 million. (Sotheby’s had sold work for the same collectors in May and a third tranche is still to be sold).

The high rate of casualties contributed to a tense mood in the salesroom. Several pricey lots, including an important Leonora Carrington, tagged $500,000 to $700,000, failed to…

Wifredo Lam's 1970 "Les Abalochas Dansent Pour Dhambala, dieu l’unité," est. $1.75M-$2.25M at Sotheby's. Photo: Courtesy Sotheby's

By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views Contributor

Christie’s and Sotheby’s Latin American art sales this week are slated to tally over $50 million. There is the usual array of Botero fatties (19 in the evening sales!), plus rare Surrealist canvases, Colonial portraiture and kinetic and other optical teasers from the 1960s and 1970s. Sales rev up tonight at Sotheby’s.

New York’s Latin American auction revenues have increased over the past five years. Sotheby’s day and evening sales are projected to total up to $27 million for 261 lots, up from $15.5 million in Nov. 2005. Christie’s may see as much as $26 million realized from sales in the coming days, up from $11.5 million total in 2005.

The action commences tonight at Sotheby’s, with a collection of works from an Aspen collector, tagged to sell for up to $3.8 million.

The sale’s projected priciest work is Cuban Surrealist Wifredo Lam’s jumpy Las Abalochas dansent pour Dhambala, Dieu de L’Unite (1970), tagged to fetch $1.75 million to $2.25 million, which if achieved, would set a new auction record for the artist. (Lam’s current auction record – $1.4 million for…

Willem de Kooning's 1958 "Composition III, " oil on paper on masonite, (Est. $600-800K) Sold for $986,000 at Sotheby's. © Photo: Sotheby's

By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views Contributor

The week’s trio of contemporary art day sales totaled $128 million.

Tuesday’s sale at Phillips de Pury & Co. was no Carte Blanche Philippe Segalot affair, instead totaling $6.1 million, under the $7.1 million to $10.1 million estimate.

More revealing: just 64 percent of the 354 lots were sold. The sale was larger than a year ago, when 263 lots which fetched $4.8 million.

Phillips set auction records for seven artists – though for some artists, like the charismatic Work of Art champ Abdi Farah, the record marks their first time at auction.

Sotheby’s came next, tallying $48.9 million, with eighty percent of 344 lots finding buyers, within the pre-sale $40 million to $57 million projected total. This was in line with 2009 results which made $44.1 million.

The top lot belonged to AbEx standby, Willem de Kooning: his 1958 Composition III fetched $986,500, above the $600,000 to $800,000 estimate.

Christie’s consignments were led by a spattering of estates offerings, including works from the collections of Max Palevsky and Dennis Hopper. A combined 391 lots sold in the morning and afternoon…