An Auction With Training Wheels

Like it or not, contemporary art is trendy and fashionable. Shows at Chelsea galleries are instant sellouts, and last weekend, Manhattan was converted into a veritable contemporary art shopping mall, from the Armory Show art fair on the Westside Piers to the “Greater New York” show at P.S.1. Not surprisingly, one of the two major auction houses decided to get in on the action. Yesterday, Christie’s held their first auction focusing on the ultra-new.The sale, forgettably titled “First Open,” brought unforgettable results. Not only were auction records achieved for the contemporary section of the sale, strong prices were also paid for relatively minor works in the postwar section. This was a marketing coup. They repackaged the mid-season sale – usually a dumping ground for works not up to snuff for the big sales – and created buzz. The next “First Open” sale is scheduled for September. A full 90% of the lots sold with ease, many zooming far above high estimates.Christie’s had projected the sale to total $3.1-4.4 million, and wound up raking in $5.5 million. This total may be a pittance compared to the major biannual contemporary and Postwar sales – Christie’s sold around $124 million last fall in those sales – but it’s a promising start for a category that aims to bring in new buyers.Christie’s says the name refers to both the Asian financial markets, which literally open first (so?) and the fact that “First Open” is the first time an auction category was introduced with an educational component – designed to educate potential buyers, of course. At the beginning of the year, a list of prospects was drawn up and invitations mailed for an evening of auction 101. The February 22 reception at Christie’s provided cocktails and lessons on auction etiquette for the newly converted.The sale, which targets new collectors with art starting at $1,000, aims to convince the young and rich that they, too, can brave the auction room. Christie’s knows it takes a certain amount of know-how and nerve to attend the twice-annual evening contemporary art auctions. Bidding is unnerving. A fumbled bid could be the most embarrassing moment of any young hedge-funder’s life. To rectify the situation, it has founded an auction category akin to training wheels.The affable and approachable Alicia Bona is in charge of the new sales. Slender and fashionable, wearing an alarmingly chic navy suit and green python stilettos, Ms. Bona showed me around her exhibition last week, moments after having her photograph taken for Women’s Wear Daily. The photogenic Ms. Bona is also featured in Christie’s advertisements for the sales, an auction-house first.Ms. Bona put together a sale that reflects several trends seen at art fairs and galleries. There was a concentration on artists whose works have not yet been offered at auction. These include very young talents Barnaby Furnas, Marcel Dzama, and Kai Althoff. Christie’s put these works up early in the sale, and with such low estimates, it was a sure-fire success.It was 32-year-old Mr. Furnas’s first time at auction, and his 2000 watercolor “Where the Boys Art (Iwo Jima)” brought $45,600, above a teasingly low $10,000-$15,000 estimate. Another watercolor, a powerful somber image by German-born Mr. Althoff also from 2000, “Untitled,” which had been included in a 2002 show of drawings at MoMA, went for $78,000 – more than 10 times its $5,000-$7,000 estimate. Mr. Dzama’s 13 drawings also nearly doubled their high estimate, fetching $11,400 against a $5,000-$7,000 estimate.The sale is born of a contemporary art market that won’t quit. Chasing contemporary art has become a pursuit where money alone doesn’t guarantee the right to buy. Take Dirk Skreber, for instance. This 44-year-old German artist is rip-roaring hot. But for those who must own a Skreber, a visit to his Chelsea dealer, Friedrich Petzel, is a waste of time. Mr. Petzel doesn’t have anything to sell. When important works do come up, they go to a museum or major collector whom Mr. Petzel has vetted, someone who is not a “flipper”- a speculator buying for profit.When Mr. Petzel did have important Skrebers in stock, they went for around $100,000. Now there are none – except for the major work on the cover of Christie’s “First Open” catalog, which was snapped up by a European dealer. Lot 22, simply called “Untitled,” is a large oil painting of a mysterious silver train, chugging in a barren desert landscape. Painted in 1991, it was originally purchased from the artist’s German dealer, Luis Campana Galerie in Cologne. Somehow it wound up in the hands of a collector out to make a buck: The auction estimate was $120,000-$180,000, probably close to double whatever was originally paid; Tuesday it sold for $396,800.Skreber himself is “indifferent” to being on the auction block, according to Mr. Petzel. While galleries normally loathe the prospect of having their star artists tossed out on the open market, Mr. Petzel was circumspect. “It doesn’t inflict any harm on me,” he said. The quick and easy profits on the Skreber will doubtless encourage even more speculative buying and flipping, to the aggravation of dealers who hope to control the supply for the artists’ market, and place works in collections where they will remain.Mr. Petzel also noted he sold one of the lots, a photo called “Phantom Towers,” for $1,200 in 2001. The image, by Julian Laveridere and Paul Myoda, is an homage to the fallen Trade Towers, a nighttime shot of the lights projected where the towers once stood. The image was made famous when it graced the cover of the New York Times Magazine.When the six editions of the prints were sold, all proceeds went to a September 11-related charity. The artists donated the works, and the gallery didn’t take any commission. Presumably, the buyers took a tax deduction on their purchase. There is some irony that the seller has even profited off what was a charitable act. The photo, estimated at $2,000-$3,000,sold for $2,400.Ironically, the least appealing lots in the sale, the stuff shoved at the end, are the works by artists with proven track records. A number of pieces by stars of the 1980s soared, including Robert Longo’s 1978 charcoal “Jet Boys,” which sold for $42,000 (est. $10,000-$15,000) and a 1993 Ross Bleckner painting, “Trust Over Love,” which brought $54,000 (est. $25,000-$35,000).Even minor works by Postwar artists attracted attention. A 1957 abstract oil painting by William Baziotes, “Untitled,” went for $251,000 to a U.S private collector, well over the $40,000-$60,000 estimate. Even an unappealing 7-by-4-inch oil panel by Mark Rothko, made in 1938, before the man discovered abstraction went for $54,000 – again topping the $15,000-$20,000 estimate. The thirst for art still appears to be unquenchable, whether for major works by minor artists, or minor works by major artists.

An Auction With Training Wheels

An Auction With Training Wheels

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