Friday, April 15, 2011

Auction: Post-War and Contemporary Art, April 20, 2011 @Christie's South Kensington

On the heels of the spring Photograph auctions and before the main event Contemporary Art sales in New York in mid May, Christie's has jammed in a low end Post-War and Contemporary Art sale at its South Kensington office in London, scheduled for the middle of next week. It's an eclectic mop-up of contemporary art photography, with a variety of lesser known and more affordable images. I was particularly happy to see the abstract photographs by John Chamberlain (better known for his massive sculptures of swirled together car parts), which don't tend to surface much at auction. Mixed in with works from other mediums, there are a total of 43 lots of photography on offer, with a Total High Estimate of £328800.
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Here's the statistical breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including £5000): 21
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): £68800

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between £5000 and £25000): 22
Total Mid Estimate: £260000

Total High Lots (high estimate above £25000): 0
Total High Estimate: NA

The top lot by High estimate is lot 38, Robert Gober, Untitled, 1988, at £18000-22000. (Image at right, top, via Christie's.)

Here is the list of the photographers who are represented by two or more lots in the sale (with the number of lots in parentheses):

John Chamberlain (3)
Candida Höfer (3)
Nobuyoshi Araki (2)
Dan Graham (2)
Gabriel Orozco (2)
Wolfgang Tillmans (2)
James Welling (2)
Erwin Wurm (2)

(Lot 87, Sean Scully, Santa Domingo Facade No. 2, 1999, at £7000-10000, image at right, bottom, and lot 150, John Chamberlain, Untitled, 1997, £2000-3000, image at right, middle, both via Christie's.)

The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here. The eCatalogue is located here.

Post-War and Contemporary Art
April 20th

Christie's
85 Old Brompton Road
London SW7 3LD

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