Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s new auction record leads Sotheby’s Frieze Week sales in London. https://ift.tt/itNfoFA

At Sotheby’s on Thursday evening, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye became the Black British woman artist with the highest auction record for her work when her 2015 painting Six Birds in the Bush sold for £2.95 million ($3.6 million).

The sale was one of the highlights of the auction house’s Frieze week sales in London. Sotheby’s concluded two auctions last night: “The Now” and “Contemporary Evening” sales brought in £30.1 million ($37 million) and £15.5 million ($19 million), respectively. Sell-through rates were 90.5% and 95.2%.

The 21-lot “The Now” auction, which took place earlier in the evening, focused on works “by the best artists of the 21st century,” according to Sotheby’s This edition beat its overall low estimate by more than £6 million, and marked a 75% increase on the previous London edition of “The Now” sale, which took place in June.

The top five lots from the sale were as follows:

• George Condo’s Untitled (2016) sold for £2.99 million ($3.7 million).
• Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s Six Birds in the Bush (2015) sold for £2.95 million ($3.6 million).
• Cecily Brown’s Tricky (2001) sold for £2.56 million ($3.18 million).
• Elizabeth Peyton’s David, Victoria and Brooklyn (1999) sold for £1.68 million ($2.1 million).
• Albert Oehlen’s Untitled (2014) sold for £711,200 ($873,816).

The sale also achieved new auction records for works by the following artists:

• William Monk, for Three Clouds Rising (2019), which sold for £266,700 ($327,681).
• Matt Conners, for Untitled (2015), which sold for £127,000 ($156,039).
• Mohammed Sami, for Poor Folk I (2019), which sold for £558,800 ($686,570).

The 21-lot “Contemporary Evening” auction, focused on Post-War and Contemporary artists underperformed its low estimate by more than £9 million. Five of the top lots from the sale were as follows:

• Francis Bacon’s Study for a Portrait (1979) sold for £4.28 million ($5.26 million).
• Andy Warhol’s Diamond Dust Shoes (1980) sold for £3.32 million ($4.1 million).
• Philip Guston’s The Canvas (1973) sold for £3.1 million ($3.78 million).
• Robert Ryman’s Gate (1995) sold for £2.5 million ($3.1 million).
• Ruth Asawa’s Untitled (1953–54) sold for £1.98 million ($2.44 million).

The sale also set a new record at auction for Frank Bowling, whose 1981 piece Moby Dick sold for £762,000 (936,231).

from Artsy News https://ift.tt/QAEkJZC