Barnett Newman’s “Onement VI” was sold for $43,845,000
Barnett Newman, Gerhard Richter lead Sotheby’s sale Barnett Newman’s ‘Onement VI’ and Gerhard Richter’s ‘Domplatz, Mailand’ were the highlights of Sotheby’s $293,6 million contemporary art auction, May 14th 2013.]]>
May 15th, 2013, source: Sotheby’s
Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening sale totaled $293,587,000, and was 82.8% sold-by-lot. There were exceptional prices for works from every decade from the 1940s through today with records set for Barnett Newman and Gerhard Richter, among others. The price achieved for Richter’s masterwork also established a new benchmark for any living artist at auction.
The sale was led by Barnett Newman’s “Onement VI”, which sold for $43,845,000 after competition amongfive bidders – that price eclipses Newman’s previous auction record by a margin of more than $20 million.The monumental 1953 painting is the most important work by the artist ever to appear at auction and standsas a masterwork not only of Newman’s artistic enterprise, but of the entire Abstract Expressionist movement.
“Domplatz, Mailand” by Gerhard Richter sold for $37,125,000 – a record both for Richter at auction and forany living artist at auction. The work stands as the epitome of the artist’s celebrated 1960s photo-paintingcanon and is a masterpiece of 20th century art. The price for the monumental canvas achieved last evening ismore than 10 times the then-record price it commanded at Sotheby’s London 15 years ago.
Other highlights of the sale included “The Blue Unconscious” by Jackson Pollock, painted in the critical yearof 1946, which fetched $20,885,000; the monumental “Sculpture éponge bleue sans titre, SE 168” by YvesKlein, which set a new record for a sculpture by the artist when it sold for $22,005,000; Richard Diebenkorn’s”Ocean Park No. 46″ from 1971, which fetched $11,085,000 (est. $6/8 million); and Cy Twombly’s “Untitled(Bolsena)” from 1969, which made $15,397,000 – the second highest price for the artist at auction (est. $10/15million).
Related content
Pollock’s ‘The Blue Unconscious’ to be sold at Sotheby’s (news, March 2013)
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