Christie’s two-part sale for Modern British and Irish Art on March 20 and 21 comfortably met the pre-sale estimate, with a steady sell through rate of 89.5%, indicating Christie’s had read the market well. 

In an intriguing double turn around, a work by Boyce that was unsold at Christie’s five months ago, seemingly unwanted, has just been acquired by the National Portrait Gallery. The acquisition underlines how the artist has moved from the margins, to the mainstream.

In Issue #23, BLAST reviews this year’s London Art Fair, where the most red dots on day one were accumulated by Glasgow Print school generally in the lower thousands, but more expensive works proved difficult to sell. Also covered in the issue is a focus on Gillian Ayres, a shift towards the modern and contemporary at TEFAF Maastricht, and Christie’s sale of the Barry Humphries collection which almost doubled estimates. 

In Issue #22, BLAST covers the Edinburgh based auction house Lyon & Turnbull’s recent offering of the late banker Bernard Kelly’s art collection, London Art Fair’s report on the Modern British market, the Paule Vézelay retrospective at the Royal West of England Academy in Bristol, and reveals the identity of the Vorticist seller covered in BLAST #6.

While the Sotheby’s 14 November sale seemed to send out a gloomy message to the market, BLAST covers the subsequent action at Christie’s and Bonhams in which the danger signs were averted. 

The autumn season produced a flurry of Modern British and Irish art sales which BLAST is covering in two issues. In the first, #20, the Sotheby’s sale on 14 November seemed to send out an ominous message to the market. 

In this issue BLAST gets the microscope out to review sales at the British Art Fair in September and at Christie’s Modern British and Irish Art sales in October.

In this issue, BLAST spotlights the energy hot spots at auction this summer, the British contemporaries starring in international art fairs and an impending sell out of Terry Frost ceramics – plus a new section on the latest books and catalogues.

A Modern British and Irish Art sale at Bonhams on June 19 provided a positive backdrop to the market as it wound down for the summer before reopening with the British Art Fair in September.

Colin Gleadell’s June report reviews a pair of Modern British art sales at Sotheby’s that saw triumphs, tribulations, and a below estimate result.

In his latest auction report, Colin Gleadell gives a Spring review of seasonal highlights in the Modern British art market away from London’s West End.

In this auction report, Colin Gleadell gets the microscope out to reveal exclusively who bid and bought, and which works made profits or losses for the owners.

Mod Brits multiply at The Decorative Fair; London Art Fair: a Bloomsbury Blast in Islington; Courtauld choice reflects the market and British art on the international stage

Contemporary British artists spearheaded the $2 billion dollar modern and contemporary art sales in New York this November.

The two key events for the Modern British art market this autumn have been: The British Art Fair at the end of September which reported a 10% increase in visitor numbers to almost 12,000 over 4 days, and numerous sales. And a Modern British and Irish Art sale at Christie’s which made £16.6 million.

Crossing Borders: Internationalism in Modern British Art was devised to highlight the significant contribution that artists who came to Britain to work from overseas during the 20th century had on Modern British art and the broad definition of ‘British’ art throughout the fair. The diversity of Britain’s cultural scene today owes much to them.

London’s International Modern and Contemporary art sales at the end of June told a number of different stories. Although there was jubilation over a Gustav Klimt going for a record £85.3 million, sale totals were down by over 20%. That of course doesn’t necessarily mean prices were down – just the supply of major works. British artists, for instance, performed well...Frank Auerbach in particular.

The Hambro sale at Christie’s, two lithographs by King Charles III at Bonham’s and British connections at the Taipei Dangdai art fair.

New records for ‘degenerate’ Neuschul, Mel Gooding Tribute at Jonathan Clark Fine Art, Mark Rothko paired with British artists and a fascinating glimpse into a brief attempt to democratise the latest contemporary art in the mid-1960s is currently on view at the Assembly Rooms in Bath. Not to miss the Tate re-hang.

Christie’s Modern British sale - including final hammer prices, underbidders and sale records.