BLAST #19
In spite of some gloomy predictions for early autumn, the British art market emerged largely unscathed, coming away with many positives. BLAST has got the microscope out to focus on two key events.
British Art Fair
Running between 26 - 29 September, the 34th edition of the British Art Fair (conceived in 1988 as the 20th Century British Art Fair) attracted over 13,000 visitors to the Saatchi Gallery - a 10% increase on 2023. Attendees on the opening day included Queen Camilla who slipped in without fanfare. Sales were also better than expected, especially in the middle market.
Henry Moore, (1898-1986), Reclining Figure, 1948, Silkscreen print on linen, 178 x 254 cm. Image courtesy Blond Contemporary
Sales in six figures were reported by: Blond Contemporary for a large Henry Moore silkscreen print on linen, Reclining Figure, 1948; Patrick Bourne & Co for a 1930’s surreal watercolour by Paul Nash of his studio; and John Swarbrooke Fine Art for Edward Burra’s Still Life with Pot, 1955-57.
Bridget Riley, Ritual, 2024, Screenprint, 72×70 cm, Edition of 75. Image courtesy Julian Page
Scores of sales were reported in five figures denoting a healthy middle market. Among them, a 1986 David Hockney Self-Portrait print made with a colour laser photocopier, sold for £50,000 at Christopher Kingzett, and Willoughby Gerrish sold an abstract sculpture by Sir Anthony Caro for £80,000. Patrick Bourne sold an Alfred Wallis ship picture for £65,000; Quad Fine Art sold an Adrian Heath abstract for £14,000; Castlegate House Gallery sold a large Josef Herman painting, The Rower at Twilight, for about £20,000; and Portland Gallery sold works by Paul Mount and Alberto Morrocco in the £14,000-24,000 range.
No doubt several other reported sales by artists Ivon Hitchens, Lawrence Gowing, Keith Vaughan, Lynn Chadwick, Prunella Clough, Craigie Aitchison, J.D Fergusson and William Gillies also fell into that bracket or higher.
In terms of quantity, among the best-selling galleries and artists were:
Norman Ackroyd, Achiltibuie, 1991, 330 x 255mm, Etching with aquatint on paper, signed, titled and dated in pencil. Image courtesy Eames Fine Art
Julian Page Gallery who sold at least twenty editions of Ritual, a new print by Bridget Riley, and Cynthia Corbett who sold out of ceramics by Jemma Gowland (priced up to £3,000 each) and 7 prints by Margo Selby from her Nexus series (£2,800 each). The Nine British Art sold seven sculptures by Jonathan Clarke; Eames Fine Art sold nine unique, hand-coloured etchings by the late Norman Ackroyd in the £750-6,500 range; and Clarendon Fine Art which sold all eight editions of Damien Hirst’s print, The Secrets, 2023.
Barber Lopes got off to a flying start with ten sales within a couple of hours of opening with Kate Giles’s old master inspired oils going fastest at around £3,000 each. And numerous works by Keith Vaughan at a variety of galleries.
Sally Hunter Fine Art claimed 50 sales of modern, figurative work, with the animal painter Elsie Henderson and Joan Warburton (like Lucian Freud, a student of Cedric Morris and Lett-Haines at Benton End) among her best sellers.
At Abbott & Holder a sea of red dots threatened to engulf the stand as The Great War, Britain’s Efforts and Ideals, the set of prints by Eric Kennington, Frank Brangwyn, George Clausen, C. R. W. Nevinson et al., commissioned to support the war effort in 1917, found additional buyers at prices up to £7,500 each. Other works by Patrick Procktor, Duncan Grant, Paul Nash and Fred Jackson added to the swell. ‘Press reports tend to focus only on difficulties at the top end of the market, but we are having as good a time as ever’, said gallery owner and Managing Director, Tom Edwards.
Similarly, Portal Painters had a good run with eight of their finest ‘idiosyncratic’ artists finding buyers, and print dealer Dominic Kemp, who always does well at this fair, says this year was his best yet.
Auctions under the microscope.
Christie’s two Modern British and Irish art sales in October realised £19.7 million, well within pre-sale estimates even without the added auctioneer’s commission, and a whopping 18.7% up on last October. They therefore bettered the positive performance during Frieze week by London’s three leading auctioneers of international Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary art, which countered swirling press speculations of pending doom for the London market by selling £172 million of art, down only 8% on last year. In the following report I itemise Modern British lots of interest, in sale order. Providing context with comments, naming bidders and buyers where possible, and pointing out a mixed assortment of gains and losses.
Evening sale
Lot 1. Gwen John (1876-1939), Girl in a Blue Dress, Painted circa 1914-15. CHRISTIE'S IMAGES LTD. 2024
1. Gwen John. Girl in a Blue Dress, c. 1914-15. Estimate £120,000-180,000. Sold for a record £403,200. Underbid by advisor, Conor Mullan. With a Gwen John exhibition set to travel to America, her market could be in for another shift in gear – upwards.
17. Peter Lanyon. Fly Away, 1961. Estimate £350,00-550,000. Sold for £478,800 to Jenna Burlingham. A good example of the artist’s gliding pictures at a comparative bargain. It sold in 2017 for £332,750.
16. Barbara Hepworth. Two Forms (Gemini II) 1966. Estimate £400,000-600,000. Having bought this carving in 1982 for £190, the collector from New England who was now selling not only had the pleasure of living with it for 42 years, but the satisfaction that their investment has been rewarded with a £529,200 sale price – minus all the fees of course which have risen substantially in that time frame and which might have come as something of a shock.
19. Barbara Hepworth. Forms in Movement (Pavan), conceived 1956-59, cast in 1967. Estimate £250,000 – 350,000. Sold for £378,000, underbid by Osborne Samuel.
21. Barry Flanagan. Thinker, 1996-97. Estimate £400,000-600,000. Sold for £1.3 million, the fourth highest price for the artist. Among the posse of underbidders was a former representative of the Pyms gallery who, although the owners have died, may have been bidding for their client, Lord Graham Kirkham. There is a larger version of this take on Rodin’s thinker in an edition of six all of which are in museums, mostly in America, so this unique smaller bronze was the nearest available on the market.
23. Victor Pasmore. Relief Construction in Black and White, 1953-54. Estimate £80,000-120,000. Sold for £151,200, underbid by Osborne Samuel. An almost identical relief sold at Bonhams in 2013 for £57,500, and in 2017 the record for a Pasmore relief for another similar but larger example was set at £329,000.
30. Ivon Hitchens, Flowers in a White Bowl, 1933. Estimate £100,000-150,000. Sold for £176,400 to Jenna Burlingham. A fine early still life, but in an awful frame. It was last at auction in 1998 when it sold to the Lefevre Gallery for £39,500.
Day sale
103. Christopher Wood. St Ives, 1926, estimate £5,000-8,000. Sold for £88,200. The price is less a sign of a strong market than of a ludicrously low estimate. Coming from the estate of Cornish businessman Lord Myners, who became chairman of Tate trustees, and died in 2022, I can only think the estimate is based on the £8,500 Myners bought it for in 1996 and can never have had the valuation updated.
106. Alfred Wallis. Boats, Cliff and Lighthouse. Estimate £40,000-60,000. Sold for £88,200 to Alan Wheatley. Also from Lord Myners, the real strength of the provenance was that it had originally been owned by Mrs Adrian Stokes, the wife of the painter who, along with Ben Nicholson, discovered Wallis.
109. Roger Hilton. Untitled 1967 (Red, White and Black). Estimate £6,000-8,0000. Sold for £7,560, underbid by Alan Wheatley. This apparently abstract composition puts me in mind of the art historian, Margaret Garlake’s comment that Hilton’s work was all about ‘tits and bums.’
111. Roger Hilton. Boats at Sea, 1973. Estimate £4,000-6,000. Sold to advisor Nick Holmes for £11,340 bidding against Alan Wheatley
119. Peter Rose Pulham. Trompe l’Oeil à Clef. Estimate £6,000-8,000. Sold for £13,860 to advisor Conor Mullan. Last sold at Sotheby’s in 1972 for £150 (those were the days), this lesser-known surrealist has been earmarked by dealer Jonathan Clark as an artist to watch, but he didn’t make a move on this one.
124. Henry Moore. Leaf Figure No.1, 1951/53. Estimate £12,000-18,000. sold for £20,160, underbid by Osborne Samuel
129. Sir Peter Blake. Guardia Civil, 1957. Estimate £40,000-60,000. Last at auction in 2007 when it sold to Waddington Galleries for £24,000 it now sold for £50,400. A reasonable return
132. Sir Peter Blake and Jann Haworth. Insert for Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1967. Estimate £70.000-100,000. Last sold in 2012 for £55,250, this showed the Beatles are still in vogue selling for £113,400. The buyer was considered sufficiently important to warrant an appearance by the Honorary Chairman of Christie’s EMERI, Viscount Linley, to take their bid on the telephone.
145. William Brooker. Mytilini, 1964. Estimate £5,000-8,000. Sold to Jenna Burlingham for £17,640
146. William Brooker. Acropolis, 1961. Estimate £4,000-6,000. Sold to Jenna Burlingham for £12,600
149. Eduardo Paolozzi. Computer Head, 1994. Estimate £8,000-12,000. Although sold above estimate for £16,380, it made a loss for the seller who bought it in 2018 for £25,000.
159. Lynn Chadwick. Maquette for Unity, 1975. Estimate £15,000-25,000. Sold for £35,280. Underbid by Osborne Samuel.
Lot 160. Roger Fry (1866-1934), The Quay, St Tropez, 1915. CHRISTIE'S IMAGES LTD. 2024
160. Roger Fry. The Quay, St Tropez, 1915. Estimate £8,000-12,000. Sold for £107,100 to an online bidder. Art advisor Nick Holmes was an underbidder. Again, the estimate was outdated, based on the painting’s previous appearance at auction in 1998 when it sold for £9,430 to Jonathan Clark. Since then, the Bloomsbury artists have all gone up several gears. This was the second highest price for the artist.
179. Lynn Chadwick. Winged Figures, 1955. Estimate £60,000-80,000. Sold for £117,180. After several astute underbids, Osborne Samuel finally caught their prey. A classic small example by an artist whom they have sold for decades and may have a new lease of life now his estate is represented by the international dealer Emmanuel Perrotin, who will open a gallery in London to celebrate.
186. Joan Eardley. Little Girl and Comic. 1958-62. Estimate £10,000-15,000. Sold for £16,380 to Patrick Bourne & Co.
Lot 196. Joe Tilson, R.A. (1928-2023), UH! OH!, 1963. CHRISTIE'S IMAGES LTD. 2024
194. Victor Pasmore. Relief Painting in White, Black and Maroon, 1954. Estimate £70,000-100,000. Last sold in 2007 for £48,500, the relief now sold for £88,200. Another reasonable return.
196. Joe Tilson UH! OH!1963. Estimate £25,000-35,000. This early example by the underrated British pop artist last sold in 1987 for £1,950. I’m sure the owner has had a lot of fun living with it. It now sold for £30,240. Considered by some to be the bargain of the sale.
197. Jeffrey Steele. Ignis Fatuus. Estimate £5,000-8,000. Sold for £10,800 to Connor Mullan. Works by this yet to be rediscovered op art pioneer only started selling at auction a few years before he died in 2021 and are still affordable.
221. William Scott Untitled, 1963. Estimate £30,000-50,000 sold for £44,100, underbid by Nick Holmes
228. Jack Butler Yeats. The Sunset Belongs to You, 1951, Estimate £120,000-180,000. Unsold. A disappointment for the seller who bought it in 2017 for £212,500.
234. Anne Redpath. White Cyclamen, 1962. Estimate £12,000-18,000. Sold near the estimate for £12,600, but a loss for the buyer who bought it at Lyon & Turnbull in 2022 for £32,500
237. Winifred Nicholson. Landscape c.1940. Estimate £30,000-50,000. Sold for £30,240 to Jenna Burlingham
251. Tristram Hillier. The Kitchen Table, 1958. Estimate £4,000-6,000. Neglected for years, this artist’s star is in the ascendant and this surreal realist still life sold for £17,640 to a bidder from California, underbid by Nick Holmes.
Lot 259. Sir Stanley Spencer, R.A. (1891-1959), Study for 'Unveiling Cookham War Memorial', 1919, CHRISTIE'S IMAGES LTD. 2024
233. Christopher Richard Wynn Nevinson. On the Road to Ypres 1916. Estimate £50,000 – 80,000. Bought at Bonhams in 2012 for £90,000, this ink on paper was included in Christie’s Vorticist sale in 2023 (see BLAST#6, March 2023) with a £80,000 low estimate but did not sell. This time round it found a buyer at £56,700, so a loss for the Bonhams buyer.
259. Sir Stanley Spencer, Study for Unveiling Cookham War Memorial, 1919. Estimate £15,000-25,000. After an extended bidding battle between Viscount Linley, for a Christie’s client, and an online bidder in New York, the New York bidder won it for £94,500. The mystery is why neither of the bidders saw the drawing in Christie’s sale of the Sir Nicholas Goodison collection in May 2022 (Blast#1) where it sold for £30,240. Probably the best quick turnaround of the sale.
Books
Peter Gregory by Valerie Holman. Lund Humphries
Paul Huxley by Jeremy Lewison. Lund Humphries
Pop Art Heroes Britain. Whitford Fine Art
Ronald Moody. Sculpting Life by Ego Ahaiwe Sowinski. Thames & Hudson. Published in association with The Hepworth Wakefield where the first major retrospective of the artist’s work ends on 3rd November. Moody’s work is rare on the art market, but it’s appearances at auction over the last two years have been noted by BLAST (#14, March 2024).