Edward Hopper: “Chop Suey” (1929)
Sold for $91,875,000.
Hopper and Hockney lead New York art auctions Edward Hopper’s ‘Chop Suey’ and David Hockney’s ‘Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)’ were the top lots at the New York art auctions, November 2018]]>
November 17th 2018, source: Christie’s and Sotheby’s
Art auctions at Christie’s
Part One of Christie’s sale of An American Place: The Barney A. Ebsworth Collection totaled $317,801,250, a vigorous start to the two-day dedicated sale of the travel entrepreneur’s exceptional collection of 20th Century American art. Highlights of the collection include Edward Hopper’s Chop Suey, 1929, the most important work by the artist still in private hands, which achieved $91,875,000, a record for the artist and the category of American Art. Willem de Kooning’s ‘Woman as Landscape’ also set an artist record at $68,937,500, and Jackson Pollock’s ‘Composition with Red Strokes’ sold for $55,437,500. Additional auction records were achieved for the following artists: Arshile Gorky, John Marin, Joseph Stella, Gaston Lachaise, Tom Otterness, Leon Polk Smith, Suzy Frelinghuysen, George Tooker, David Smith, Francis Criss, Charles Green Shaw, and Patrick Henry Bruce.
The Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale sale ahcieved a total of $357,622,500. David Hockney’s Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures), painted in 1972, realized $90,312,500 — not only a record for Hockney, but a world record price for a living artist.
Art auctions at Sotheby’s
Sotheby’s Impressionist & Modern Art auction achieved a total of $315.4 million. The sale was led by René Magritte’s ‘Le Principe du plaisir The Pleasure Principle)’, which established a new world auction record for the artist when it sold for $26.8 million, well exceeding its $20 million high estimate after a bidding battle between 7 collectors. Painted in 1937, the entrancing portrait depicts Edward James, one of the most influential patrons of Surrealist art, who was introduced to Magritte by Salvador Dalí in 1937. Commissioned directly by James, the work was rendered from a photograph of the patron that was taken according to the artist’s specifications by fellow Surrealist, Man Ray.
Wassily Kandinsky‘s ‘Improvisation auf Mahagoni (Improvisation on Mahogany)’ from 1910, achieved $24.2 million and Maurice de Vlaminck‘s ‘Paysage au bois mort (Landscape with Dead Wood)’ from 1906, brought $16.7 million.
Related content
Hopper and Bellows lead Sotheby’s auction, May 2012
Follow us on:
