November 26 2005
The Cottelston Bulletin
Michael S. Sellinger
The seemingly endless appetite for Contemporary art, which was apparent in October during the art fairs, was confirmed during November at the fall auctions. There were more than 1,400 Post-War and Contemporary works up for sale at Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips, topping the record number of work of the spring auctions. With 85% of the lots being sold, the market is clearly buoyant.
The almost $400 million sold during the auctions included $23.8 million for a David Smith sculpture: Cubi XXVIII . The price was the highest ever paid for a work at a contemporary art auction. The record 70 lots selling for more than $1.0 million included a Richard Prince photograph from his Marlboro Man series: the firs t photograph to break the million mark. Other records were set for emerging talents including Dana Schutz, $96,000 and Barnaby Furnas, $60,000.
Smith created sculptures that fused abstraction and figuration. Through his organization of negative and positive space, he created volume. Smith's genius for balancing void and solid, form and content, crude material and poetic spirit is the hallmark of his Cubi masterpieces, his last series of sculptures. Cubi XXVIII , completed in 1965, was the last.
Smith created sculptures that fused abstraction and figuration. Through his organization of negative and positive space, he created volume. Smith's genius for balancing void and solid, form and content, crude material and poetic spirit is the hallmark of his Cubi masterpieces, his last series of sculptures. Cubi XXVIII , completed in 1965, was the last.
In this image of a generic cowboy in a prototypical Western setting, Prince celebrates the mythology of the Wild Wild West. Taken from the popular Marlboro cigarette advertising campaign, but cropped in such a way that the text and at least some of the original image are missing, the artist allows us to peer behind the mask. By appropriating and re-contextualizing an iconic advertising and Americana image, Prince allows us to question desire and aspiration.
When being interviewed by Newsweek , I commented on art collecting becoming first a hobby and then a lifestyle. You can find the article Collecting: Art As A Lifestyle --The Good Life, Newsweek International at www.cottelston.com/press_051114_NWI or msnbc.msn.com/id/9939423/site/newsweek .
The lifestyle becomes a reality this week as the art world descends upon Miami for Art Basel Miami Beach, December 1-4. In addition to Art Basel, the worlds largest art party, there are eight other fairs including -scopeMiami. With over 500 galleries exhibiting during four days, be sure to bring comfortable shoes.