A Tribute to Frank Auerbach (1931–2024)

Posted on November 18, 2024November 27, 2024 by Jonathan Horwich

Frank Auerbach, one of the most important and unique voices in contemporary art, passed away on 11^th November, leaving a profound legacy in the world of painting. His death marks the end of an era, but his work—raw, visceral, and deeply human—will endure for generations to come. Auerbach’s paintings, which often appeared as works of fierce immediacy, were also the products of an unrelenting pursuit of truth and an intimate understanding of his subjects.

Born in 1931 in Berlin, Auerbach’s life and art were shaped by history, by the upheavals of World War II, and by the quiet intensity of urban London. His parents were, jewish and were part of a thriving and integrated community fully assimilated into German society. His father, Max, who had served in the German army, was a lawyer, and his mother, Charlotte, had studied art. In 1939 his parents, concerned by the escalating, violent anti-semitism of Nazi Germany, dispatched Frank then aged 8 to England via the Kinder transport, he never saw them again. Sporadic letters from them conveyed via the Red Cross, ceased in 1943. Only much later did he learn that they had both been taken to Auschwitz early in March 1943 and both has died there that year. Talking about this time in his life on BBC radio’s ‘This Cultural life’ first broadcast on January 27^th this year, he says “I am in total denial, and it has worked very well for me. To be quite honest I came to England, and it truly was a happy time. There’s just never been a point in my life when I wished I had parents.” Indeed, it did all work out well for him. He had the good fortune to find himself with some of the other Jewish Refugees at Bunce Court, a Quaker school in Kent which he loved and where he excelled in Art and Drama. In 1947 he was naturalised as a British Citizen and moved to London. He decided at the age of 16 to become an artist and attended art classes at Borough Polytechnic, now London South Bank University where the famous British painter David Bomberg taught him. Following this he was accepted at St. Martin’s School of Art.

It is tempting, to see Auerbach’s need for routine, his desire to keep the same sitters in the same place year after year, as a reaction to his childhood. Equally he lived within a very tight local orbit, and his subject matter comes almost entirely from his immediate environs of North London and his studio with its unfailingly regular and intensely loyal sitters.

In the early 90’s I had the pleasure of meeting one of these sitters, the art collector and academic Ruth Bromberg (1921-2010). Ruth sat regularly for Frank for two hours every Thursday for almost seventeen years. I asked myself why ? I found the answer in a letter Ruth wrote to Frank in 2008 published by the British Museum. Due to failing health Ruth reluctantly relinquished her duties as sitter, she wrote sadly to Frank as follows.’ I know how important your sitters are to you, and I would not wish to be the cause of disruption in your work schedule…I cherish my hours spent in the studio, my home away from home…Thursday afternoons will never be the same again and I feel the loss.’

Frank’s brushwork, a relentless engagement with the surface of the canvas, was a testament to his tireless search for meaning beneath the layers of the everyday world. His portraits, are at once fiercely abstract and deeply personal, capturing the essence of the individual through the weight of paint and the tension of form.

Auerbach’s paintings are known for their emotional depth and complexity, born of years of painstaking observation and reworking. He would often spend months, even years, refining a single portrait or cityscape, digging deeper each time into the texture and emotion beneath the visible surface. His relentless approach to painting was not only about achieving perfection but about honing a profound connection between artist and subject. Each stroke on the canvas, each layering of thick impasto, spoke to Auerbach’s belief in the struggle to capture truth and memory—never an easy task, but one that demanded everything of him.

His works were never concerned with trends or the fashion of the moment; instead, Auerbach’s paintings radiated an honesty and integrity that transcended time. His commitment to figuration, at a time when abstraction was dominant, and his resistance to simplification, made him a singular figure in British art. He was a master of his craft, but never complacent; always evolving, always questioning. He was a painter’s painter and his opinion really mattered to his fellow artists, particularly to his close friend Lucian Freud, who would not consider a work finished until Frank had seen and approved it.

Throughout his life, Auerbach remained a fiercely private individual, rarely seeking the limelight. Yet, his work spoke loudly, its emotional power reverberating in galleries and collections around the world. His portraits were not just depictions of faces—they were psychological explorations, capturing the depth of the inner life of his subjects. His cityscapes, on the other hand, were a meditation on the persistence of memory, as well as the transformation of place over time.

Auerbach’s influence, though perhaps understated in some circles, was profound. His legacy is not merely in the works themselves but in the way he taught us to see: to engage with the world with intensity, with a fierce awareness of its complexities and contradictions, and to never settle for the surface.

In his passing, the world has lost a giant. But the impact of Frank Auerbach’s work will continue to inspire and challenge us for many years to come. His paintings will live on, continuing to confront us with the same questions he asked of himself throughout his career: ‘What does it mean to capture a moment, a face, a city? How can we, as artists and as people, approach the world with the depth and urgency it deserves?’

Rest in peace, Frank Auerbach. Your vision, your dedication to your art will never be forgotten.

Jonathan Horwich, 14/11/2024

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The Art Market 2023

Posted on January 3, 2024August 9, 2024 by Ben Hanly

2023 in the Art Market has been one of readjustment and realignment, but thankfully not collapse – a market correction rather than the much talked about free-fall of the market.

2022 ended on a fever pitch high, with a slew of blockbuster auctions and record-breaking auctions – the Macklowe Collection brought in $922m at Sotheby’s, the Anne Bass Collection achieved $383m at Christie’s, and the Paul Allen Collection achieving just over $1.6b also at Christie’s – taking the honour of being the first sale to top the billion-dollar mark.

Yet even as these records were being made, savvy pundits predicted a gloomier future for 2023 which turned out to be true.

Surprisingly, it was the top end of the market, with its superior quality and strong provenance, that failed to deliver the goods in 2023. It was badly hit in comparison to 2022, generating a little more than half the sales value compared to the previous years. In 2023, the most expensive artworks at auction paled in comparison to last year. The top 100 lots at auction this year totalled $2.4 billion, compared to $4.1 billion in 2022.

Why is this? Experts cite higher interest rates, continued inflations, and the ongoing turbulence in the financial markets as reason for the dip – but economic jitters aren’t the only factor at play. The continuing war in Ukraine continues to negatively effect the global economy, as no doubt, the current Israeli/Palestinian war will too. Added to this, the post-pandemic exuberance of spending that fuelled the market in late 2021 and 2022 has certainly levelled off.

Across every category in the market, sales contracted in 2023 – but some were hit harder than others.

All of this has had a negative effect on the market – spooking all but the motivated seller from consigning their treasures to an increasingly unpredictable and volatile market. Just like the property market, why would you sell in a falling market? As a result, the number of works coming to auction hit a three-year low in the year’s first five months, and the contraction is most extreme on the high end. The May marquee auctions of Modern and Contemporary art in New York were noticeably underwhelming. The three main auction houses grossed an aggregate $1.4bn (with fees), significantly lower than the $2.5bn achieved the previous May, according to data provided by Pi-eX (the Londonbased art auction analysis firm).

Similarly, the up until now extra-hot, speculative/flip led market for young ultra contemporary artists also cooled down dramatically, with demand being far more measured than in 2022. In May 2022 in New York, Sotheby’s The Now sale of 23 recent works by coveted, hard-to-source names had been a bidding frenzy that achieved $72.9m. In stark contrast, just over a year later in June this year, Sotheby’s 14-lot London version of The Now format took £8.7m ($11m). This market had been characterised by heavy speculation and flipping by collectors keen to turn a quick (and often significant) profit on here to untested newcomers to the secondary market. However, market jitters have calmed this market down noticeably – with less activity from ‘flippers’ producing less demand and lower prices.

The biggest decline was in the Impressionist and Modern sector, whose sales plummeted by almost 30 percent year over year. The Postwar and Contemporary category had a slightly smaller dip of 23 percent. Ultra- Contemporary art, once the fastestgrowing category, took a tumble as the froth surrounding the market for young artists began to dissolve. It shrunk by 26 percent year over year. The most stable category turned out to be Old Masters, whose revenue declined a comparatively modest 6 percent. It remains one of the smallest markets by dollar value, second only to ultracontemporary (which covers around two dozen years of artistic production, while Masters embraces nearly six centuries).

Each of the big 3 auction houses saw their sales figures contract in 2023. Christie’s narrowly beat Sotheby’s in the race for the top spot, generating $8.9 million more in fine-art sales by mid 2023. Both houses saw revenue decline in the first five months of the year compared with the equivalent period in 2022. Christie’s was down 23 percent while Sotheby’s was down 20 percent. Hardest hit was Phillips, which reported $255 million in art sales, a 29 percent dip year over year, after reaching a record high in 2022.

In terms of the geographic split of the art market, the top three players stayed the same. The US reconfirmed it preeminence in this regard, albeit with sales down by 25 percent from the equivalent period in 2021, 2020, and 2019. China similarly reconfirmed its place as the second largest market, but in contrast to the US, its total sales spiked by more than 110 percent during the same period. The increase illustrates the continuing strength of the Chinese collector market, but it also reflects a statistical anomaly whereby several Chinese auction houses, including Poly International and Yongle Auctions, postponed their 2022 autumn sales to early 2023 in order to comply with government lockdowns, boosting the country’s spring results.

The UK market experienced a decline in sales of 27 percent but still held third place in the global art market. The impact of Brexit and the increase in overall in logistical and importation costs still continue to effect the profitability of Britian’s historic art market.

During the pandemic and the associated lockdowns, online and digital sales increased out of necessity and market survival and drove global art sales for this period. Now that in-person auctions have fully returned, online fineart sales are hitting a plateau—but they remain far above pre-pandemic levels. A total of $155.8 million worth of fine art was sold in online-only sales at Sotheby’s, Christie’s, Phillips, Bonhams, and Artnet Auctions in the first five months of the year. That’s down 5 percent from the equivalent period in 2022 and down 64 percent from 2021, when many high-profile sales had not yet returned to being held in-person. The 2023 total remains more than 300 percent higher than 2019, when online sales generated just $35.5 million in the year’s first five months. What has changed is the comfort level of collectors to purchase via online routes – the average price in 2023 for an online purchase has dropped to $17,794 which is lower than since 2019.

In conclusion, 2023 – whilst certainly not a bullish year, it has still proved to be a strong market with no collapse foreseen in the near future. Bearing in mind the overall global uncertainties, and the fact that purchasing art is not a survival purchase, this is no mean feat!

Andy Warhol’s Birthday

Posted on August 8, 2023August 9, 2024 by Jonathan Horwich

Andy Warhol, born Andrew Warhola, was born on August 6, 1928, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Slovakian immigrant parents. Andy was the fourth of five children, his father worked as a construction worker, and his mother was a homemaker and they lived in a working-class neighbourhood in Pittsburgh.

Andy was ‘dogged’ by illness, at the age of eight, he contracted a rare and severe illness called Sydenham’s chorea. This left him bedridden for several months, during which time his mother helped fill his days by giving him drawing lessons, which ignited his passion for art. Andy attended Schenley High School in Pittsburgh, where he demonstrated early artistic talent and where he was recognised and encouraged in these abilities. After graduating in 1945, he went on to study at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) in Pittsburgh.

After completing his studies in 1949, Andy moved to New York City, where he began his career as a commercial artist and illustrator. He worked for magazines, advertising agencies, and retail stores, quickly gaining recognition for his unique and imaginative art style.

By the late 1950s, he had started experimenting with Fine Art and had begun producing paintings, drawings, and prints. He found his inspiration in everyday objects and popular culture, leading him to create many of the works that would become iconic representations of the Pop Art movement and synonymous with Andy Warhol.

In the 1960s, he established his now famous studio space called “The Factory.” It was a hub for creative collaborations, attracting artists, musicians, writers, and celebrities, alike and it rapidly became a centre for the avant-garde in New York City.

Warhol’s fascination with celebrity culture led him to create portraits of many famous personalities, including Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, and Elizabeth Taylor.

Andy Warhol’s creativity extended way beyond painting and drawing and he ventured into film, creating the experimental movies “Chelsea Girls” (1966) and “Empire” (1964), a slow-motion film of the Empire State Building.

Andy Warhol, well known for his contributions to the Pop Art movement and his choice of subjects for his art, was heavily influenced not only by celebrity and popular culture but also brand names, crime and for some reason car crashes. Some of his most famous paintings include the following:

The market for Warhol’s work has existed from day one and interest from buyers is truly international, with his work being sold across the world, where it is both a highlight and a mainstay of all the major and minor auction houses and galleries across the world. His major works continue to change hands for multi-million pound sums and the second and third most expensive Warhol works sold at auction to date are as follows:

Behind the scenes Andy Warhol is just as fascinating, here are a few little known facts about him.

Time Capsules:
Warhol was an avid collector and archivist. He had a fascination with preserving everyday items and created what he called “Time Capsules.” These Time Capsules were essentially cardboard boxes in which he stored various objects such as newspapers, correspondence, photographs, art supplies, and random items from his daily life. Over the years, he filled over 600 of these Time Capsules, which provide a unique insight into his life and the culture of the time.

Religious Devotion:
Despite his flamboyant and controversial public persona, Warhol was a devout Byzantine Catholic. He attended church regularly, and his religious beliefs played a significant role in his life. He even commissioned religious-themed artworks, including several portraits of Jesus Christ.

Art Collector:
Warhol was an enthusiastic art collector and he had his own extensive collection of art, including works by fellow contemporary artists and art pieces from various periods and styles. Following his death, Sotheby’s auction house held a nine-day auction in 1988 where they sold off more than 10,000 items from Warhol’s personal collection, which fetched tens of millions of dollars.

Underground Filmmaker:
As mentioned earlier in this piece Warhol is well-known for his contributions to the visual arts and he was also a pioneer in underground filmmaking. In the 1960s, he produced a series of experimental films that challenged traditional cinematic conventions. One of his most famous films is “Sleep” (1963), which depicts his friend John Giorno sleeping for over five hours. Warhol’s films often explored themes of monotony, voyeurism, and the passage of time.

Wig-Wearing Icon:
Andy Warhol’s signature silver-white wig became an essential part of his public image. He began wearing wigs in the 1960s to create a distinctive look, and it quickly became one of his trademarks. The wig allowed him to transform his appearance and present himself as an enigmatic figure in the art world and popular culture

Cookbook Author:
In 1959, Warhol and his friend Suzie Frankfurt co-authored a quirky and amusing cookbook titled “Wild Raspberries.” The book, which was never intended to be a practical guide to cooking, featured illustrations and handwritten recipes for dishes like “Omelet Greta Garbo” and “Piglet a la Cubist.” This limited edition book is now a highly sought-after collector’s item.

These lesser known facts highlight the diverse and eccentric aspects of Andy Warhol’s life and artistic pursuits. His impact on various forms of art and culture continues to be influential and celebrated to this day.

Throughout his life, Andy Warhol continued to push the boundaries of art, leaving a lasting impact on the art world and popular culture. His early experiences and upbringing shaped his artistic style and many of the themes he explored in his work.

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David Hockney soon to be 86 on July 9th

Posted on July 4, 2023August 9, 2024 by Jonathan Horwich

David Hockney is one of my all time favourite British artists and throughout his career he has created many truly iconic paintings. While it’s subjective to determine the “most famous” ones, here are some of his most notable works:

These are just a few examples of David Hockney’s most famous paintings, but his extensive body of work covers a wide range of materials, dates, subjects and styles, showcasing his endless versatility as an artist.

David Hockney is a renowned British artist known for his contributions to the Pop Art movement and his vibrant, colourful paintings, drawings, and prints. Hockney was born on July 9, 1937, the fourth of five children in Bradford, W est Yorkshire. He demonstrated a keen interest in art from an early age.

Hockney’s parents were Kenneth and Laura Hockney. His father, Kenneth, was a conscientious objector during World War II and worked as a conscientious objectors’ medic. Hockney’s parents were supportive of his artistic endeavours, even though they did not initially understand his decision to pursue art as a career. Throughout his life, Hockney maintained a close relationship with his family, particularly with his mother, who played a significant role in his life and artistic journey.

He attended Bradford Grammar School and then Bradford College of Art from 1953 to 1957, where he gained a solid foundation in traditional artistic techniques and disciplines. His fellow students included Derek Boshier, Pauline Boty, Norman Stevens, David Oxtoby and John Loker. Later, he pursued higher education at the Royal College of Art in London from 1959 to 1962, where he met R B Kitaj and also featured alongside Peter Blake in an exhibition there called ‘New Contemporaries’ which heralded the arrival of British Pop Art, a period when his artistic style began to take shape and evolve.

In the 1960s, Hockney rose to prominence as a key figure in the Pop Art movement, which challenged the traditions of art by incorporating popular culture and everyday objects into artworks. Alongside artists like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, Hockney explored themes such as consumerism, mass media, and the impact of technology on society.

Here are a few examples of some of Hockney’s most expensive paintings at auction.

Here are some lesser-known facts about David Hockney: Hockney has a love of new Technology, especially that which will help him to make art, and he has embraced it in his artistic practice. He was an early adopter of the iPhone and iPad, and he has created numerous artworks using these devices. He even published a book of iPhone and iPad drawings titled “David Hockney: A Bigger Book.”

Hockney is secretly an author: In addition to his artistic endeavours, he has also authored several books. One notable example is “Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters,” in which he explores the possibility that some of the Old Masters employed optical devices such as the camera obscura to aid in their artwork.

Stage design: Hockney’s creative talents extend beyond the realm of visual arts. He has designed sets for numerous operas, including productions at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, and the Los Angeles Opera. His stage designs are known for their vibrant colours and innovative use of space.

Dual nationality: Hockney holds both British and American citizenship. He moved to California in the 1960s and became inspired by the vibrant landscapes and lifestyle of Southern California, which greatly influenced his artwork during that period.

Knighthood: In 1990, David Hockney was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his contributions to the arts. Later in 2012, he was further honoured with a knighthood, becoming Sir David Hockney.

Love for nature: Hockney is drawn to the beauty of nature and has spent considerable time painting landscapes, particularly in his native Yorkshire. He finds inspiration in the changing seasons and has captured the essence of nature’s colours and textures in his artwork.

David Hockney has had several close friends and acquaintances throughout his life, including notable figures from the art world, literature, and entertainment industry. Some of his close friends include, Peter Schlesinger, an artist and photographer, was one of Hockney’s closest friends and a frequent subject of his paintings. They were in a relationship during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Celia Birtwell, a renowned textile designer and fashion icon, became friends with Hockney in the 1960s, and he often used her as a muse in his paintings. Birtwell’s vibrant and patterned fabrics also influenced Hockney’s artistic style. Ossie Clark was a British fashion designer and a close friend of Hockney. Clark’s designs were known for their bohemian style, and Hockney often collaborated with him, creating artwork inspired by Clark’s fashion. Jonathan Silver was a major patron and collector of Hockney’s work. He was a close friend of the artist and played a significant role in supporting and promoting his career at his gallery space at Salt’s Mill in Bradford.

At 86 David Hockney is a shining example of how making art and being constantly busy and creative can stop the years creeping up on you, long may he continue!

Art Basel

Posted on June 21, 2023August 9, 2024 by Ben Hanly

Last week’s Art Basel 2023 contemporary art fair, June 15 – June 18, defied forecasts of a market slowdown, with wealthy collectors buying works with seven or eight-figure price tags.

Described by its new chief executive Noah Horowitz as ‘the single most important annual event in the global art market’ and the ‘barometer of the industry’, Art Basel opened its doors to VIPs last Tuesday – the first two and a half days of the fair are traditionally reserved for wealthy collectors, before the doors open to the public from Thursday to Sunday.

Some 284 galleries representing more than 4,000 artists are represented at the fair in the Swiss city, which for one week every year becomes the centre of the global contemporary art market. Among them are regulars of the art event such as Gagosian, Hauser & Wirth, Pace, David Zwirner and Perrotin. Some 20 galleries from Europe, Africa, Asia and America will have a stand for the first time.

Three of the first-time labels are entering directly into the main Galleries sector, namely Blank projects (Cape Town), Empty Gallery (Hong Kong) and Offer Waterman (London). The Feature sector will host eight first-time exhibitors, including David Castillo (Miami), Thomas Erben Gallery (New York) and Gajah Gallery (Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Singapore), compared to 10 for the Statements sector.

Art Basel director Noah Horowitz hopes this year’s event helps maintain Art Basel’s status as the world’s leading contemporary art fair.

‘I am incredibly excited to welcome the international art community to Basel in June for another premier edition of our show and my first as the organization’s CEO,’ he said in a statement. ’Ranging from bold contemporary positions to rare presentations by 20th-century icons, our Basel fair will once again reaffirm its pre-eminent position as a platform for discovery and encounters that drive the art world.’

Alongside the contemporary art fair itself, visitors to Art Basel were able to discover some 20 special installations around Münsterplatz and downtown Basel.

One of these was a ‘sprawling superstructure’ designed by French-Moroccan artist Latifa Echakhch, a former Marcel-Duchamp Prize winner and Switzerland’s representative at the Venice Biennale in 2022. In addition, the city’s museums and cultural centres offered a wide range of exhibitions and events throughout the week.

While stock markets jitters and soaring interest rates had triggered predictions that the art market was cooling, that was not evident at the fair, where it was reported by Marc Glimcher, CEO of Pace NY ‘the art market seems quite healthy here in Basel. People are not paying crazy high prices, but they are not asking us to sell at crazy low prices either.’

At its VIP Day last Tuesday, Zurich’s Hauser & Wirth confirmed that they had sold a major 1996 spider sculpture by Louise Bourgeois to a US collector for US$22.5m (the most expensive sale of the day), and also an oil on canvas by US painter Philippe Guston for US$9.5m.

Similarly, New York’s Pace Gallery sold two fox sculptures from a new series by US artist Jeff Koons, even though one of the works had yet to be finished. They went for US$3m each. They also sold a Alexander Calder mobile for $2.8m and two smaller works by the artist, offered by his family, for $775,000 and $675,000. David Zwirner exhibited and sold Gerhard Richter’s oversized 2023 sculpture STRIP TOWER for $2.5m. Blue-chip work on the primary market that sold on VIP Day included a new painting by Jonas Wood, offered by David Kordansky Gallery for $2.5m.

Other highlights to be seen at the fair included a gorgeous sunset collured Rothko painting offered at $60m by Acquavalla Galleries; an impressive Picasso for $25m at Landau and a $14m Joan Mitchell triptych at Pace.

After a healthy rebound in 2021, the art market grew three percent in 2022 to US$67.8b, according to Art Basel’s annual art report published by Clare McAndrew.

McAndrew writes that while the first half of 2022 was marked by strong sales, and a number of record prices, the market was more subdued in the latter half due to political and economic instability, the war in Ukraine, increasing inflation rates, supply issues and looming recessions in key markets.

Whilst the Art Market is almost certainly cooling, this is a necessary correction that happens in the market every now and again. The market is still buoyant, with good things selling, but buyers are simply not paying over inflated prices. As art dealer David Nolan reported, ‘tricky times are often prime opportunities to buy art, with galleries more amenable to discounts and collectors looking to free up capital. There is such diversity in the types of people who come to Basel, many of whom budget specifically to buy at Art Basel, and who are less affected by the stock market and the interest rate fluctuations.’

The Paul Allen collection

Posted on November 23, 2022January 15, 2025 by Ben Hanly

In the same way that ‘location, location, location’ has historically underpinned great property investment, ‘quality, quality, quality’ has always lain at the heart of great art collecting. The strength of this strategy of only buying the very best proven crystal clear with the spectacular results achieved by the recent auction of the art collection amassed by the late Microsoft co-founder, Paul Allen’s at Christie’s.

Split in two parts – Visionary: The Paul G. Allen Art Collection, was provocatively billed by Christie’s in their pre-sale marketing, ‘to be the largest and most exceptional art auction in history’, with predications that it would surpass $1 billion in sales for the first time in history, beating the $922.2m realised last by Sotheby’s in May last year’s Macklowe Collection.

Christie’s predictions turned out to be both true and conservative – Part I of the collection on 9th November saw 60 extraordinary works achieve a total of $1,506,386,000, with five paintings achieving prices above $100 million. The works in the sale sold 100 per cent by lot with 65 per cent of the lots selling above their high estimates. Part II of the collection on 10th November, went on to achieve an additional $115,863,500 for the remaining 95 works offered for sale. In total, the proceeds for the landmark series of sales, totalled and an extraordinary and ground-breaking $1,622,249,500 – all of which is being donated to the various charitable causes Paul Allen established and supported during his lifetime.

What makes the Allen collection so extraordinary, aside from the huge numbers attached to it, is that the collection was put together entirely by Allen himself in less than 30 years. The fact that a collection of such quality and size can still be amassed today, with so many masterworks being in museum collections and out of commercial circulation, is remarkable.

The scope of Allen’s collection is unusual in that it spanned more than 500 years, from Botticelli to Monet, from Picasso to Stella, from Seurat to Hockney. This breadth and variety of collecting is increasingly rare in today’s world, when most collectors tend to focus on a specific area of interest or particular artists, and develop collections which, although important, are more limited in their reach. Paul Allen’s collection and his method of collecting harks back to the height of American collecting in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when legendary collectors such as Frick, Rockefeller and Getty scoured the world for masterpieces across all genre and eras – the only prerequisite being quality. This type of collecting is a truly American phenomenon and demonstrates that when there is the rare combination of ambition, taste and limitless money, great things can happen.

What sets the Paul Allen Collection apart from others is the also fact that Allen himself oversaw each and every purchase himself, without the help of the ubiquitous art advisor who is the mainstay of most billionaire collectors. This personal engagement in the collection, reflects Allen’s strong interest in world culture and history, and gives the collection a personality which only great collections possess. As Paul Allen said, “When you look at a painting you’re looking into a different country, into someone else’s imagination, how they saw it.”

It was a given that such an extraordinary collection was always going to achieve extraordinary things when offered at auction – since the market is avaricious for works of this level. Christie’s performed their part superbly, and ran a slick international marketing campaign that promoted the collection worldwide. The results were stupendous.

The highest price achieved in the sale was for Georges Seurat’s 1888 Pointillist masterpiece, Les Poseuses, Ensemble (Petite version), which made $149.2m and smashed the previous Seurat world record by a multiple of four. The world icon is used far too often in modern parlance, but in this case, the word is truly deserved.

Similarly, Paul Cézanne’s 1880-1890 La Montagne Sainte-Victoire – a classic rendering of Cézanne’s most iconic of subjects – also smashed the $100m barrier, achieving $137.8m; and Gustav Klimt’s 1903 painting, Birch Forest, set a world record for a Klimt, selling for $104.6m.

Other notable sales included the highest price ever for a van Gogh painting, Verger avec cyprès, which sold for $117.2m. Paul Gauguin’s 1899, Maternité II made $105.7m, and Lucien Freud’s masterful portrait, Large Interior WII (after Watteau), made $86,265,000.

Further paintings by Éduard Manet, Pablo Picasso, David Hockney, Andrew Wyeth, and Georgia O’Keeffe, all went onto achieve strong prices, alongside sculptures by Alberto Giacometti, Alexander Calder and Max Ernst.

In contrast to these masterpieces of Impressionist and Modern Art, the collection also featured a number of significant old master paintings – most notably, Sandro Botticelli’s exquisite, Madonna of the Magnificat, which sold for a ‘relatively’ affordable $48,480,000m, when one considers the rarity of fully autograph works by Botticelli on the market.

One work, Lot 131, demonstrates to me more than any other work, the personal nature of the collection, and the discerning eye of the Paul Allen himself. It also happens to be the most modest work offered for sale. Measuring only 21cm high, it is an exquisite but fragmented Renaissance sculpture showing clasped hands of the Virgin Mary, catalogued as Circle of Donatello. The fact that a man such as Allen, who could afford any masterpiece in the world, was also drawn to such an exquisite but unassuming work, indicates the level of his sophistication, and proves that quality, should lead a collector when buying a work. The market agreed, and the little gem made 26 times its lower estimate and made $252,000.

L.S. Lowry – Going to the match

Posted on October 21, 2022January 16, 2025 by Jonathan Horwich

Lowry’s painting, ‘Going to the Match’ from 1953 depicts a bustling throng of football fans gathered at the former home of Bolton Wanderers. It won Lowry first prize in a 1953 exhibition, which was sponsored by The Football Association.

Jonathan Horwich with L.S Lowry’s ‘Going to the match’.

The painting, last came up for auction in December 1999, just days away from the new millennium and the dawn of the new technology that has changed all our lives and turbo charged the Art and Auction world.

The estimate back then was £700-900,000 which was itself a world record estimate and the final price of £1.9 million was also a new record which stood for almost 10 years! ‘Going to the Match’ was bought by Graham Taylor, bidding via phone, on behalf of the Professional Footballers Association, (PFA) the footballer’s Trade Union.

From the auction it went on long term loan to the Lowry in Salford, where until April this year it was on permanent display to the public.

Last night in London, 22 years on, it was back on the auction block, again with a world record estimate of £5-8 million and after a fierce auction battle it deservedly made a new world auction record price of £7.8, far exceeding the previous record for a Lowry of £5.6 million set in 2011.

The PFA recently transferred ownership of the picture to their charitable arm, the Players Foundation so that now all the sale proceeds
will go towards helping those in need. Even better, thanks to the generosity of the Law Family charitable trust run by Andrew and Zoe Law, the Lowry Gallery in Salford were able to bid successfully at the auction and so now they will soon have their visitor’s favourite Lowry picture back again on the wall in Salford Quays so we can all enjoy it now and into the future.

The one that got away…

Posted on August 9, 2022January 16, 2025 by Jonathan Horwich

In the early 1950s, L.S. Lowry completed a very small number of large industrial landscape compositions, each of which included many, if not all, of his favourite motifs, people, chimneys, dogs, children, houses, lakes, etc… this particular 1953 ‘Industrial’ features another favourite, Stockport Viaduct, seen towards the rear of the composition.

In a letter from Lowry to the Tate about the 1955 large Industrial in their collection, Lowry writes ‘this is a composite picture, a blank canvas, I didn’t have the slightest idea when I started the picture, but it eventually came out the way you see it, this is the way I like working best.’

In fact, there are only four of these monumental Lowry industrial landscapes, all were painted between 1950 and 1955. The picture below, which I first encountered in 1988, dates from 1953 and was at the time, the only one of the four still left in private hands and available to own. The other three were already part of permanent Museum collections.

Then one day in the late summer of 1988 I received a call out of the blue from the director of a kitchen manufacturer in Manchester, he told me that they owned a Lowry ‘industrial’ painting and that for fiduciary reasons the company needed to sell it before the end of the year and could we (Christie’s) help. At this stage, I knew very little about the picture, as back then there was no email or internet, so I was flying blind as to whether it was th one I was thinking it was or a print or something else…

I put the phone down having made an appointment to see it the next day and I made my way up to Manchester, arriving at an unpromising anonymous industrial estate just outside the centre.

As I made my way up to the top floor, I notice there was nothing on the walls anywhere except for a few Lowry poster type prints. I was beginning to think I was on a wild goose chase when as I turned a corner, there in front of me on the director’s office wall was an utterly monumental and glorious 45” x 60” inch industrial landscape oil painting, truly a Lowry masterpiece!!

I was blown away by it but manage to compose myself enough for a conversation with the MD who was charming and easy to talk to. I established that in principle the company was very happy to sell it with me, at Christie’s in our upcoming 11th November 1988 auction with a then world record estimate of £100,00-150,000. Today it would probably be £3-5 million! However, in every good auction tale, there is a wrinkle. In this case the MD had offered the Salford Art Gallery the option to buy the picture before the auction if they could raise £100,000 in time. Back then, Salford City Council’s Lowry collection was housed on the top floor of the Salford Museum and Art Gallery, in Peel Park, Salford. The state of the art ‘Lowry’ Art Gallery and theatre complex was just a twinkle in somebody’s eye.

Let’s step back for a moment and set the scene back in 1988: the Art market, particularly Modern and Impressionist Art, was roaring away. Contemporary Art was 30 years away from being the dominant force it is today and the market for Art and Antiques was at an all-time high, even today some of the prices achieved back then have never been beaten and buyers were hungry for rare pictures. Interestingly, also at this time Donald Trump was in London making his first ‘state’ visit. He and his wife Ivana were in town and appeared as guests on Terry Wogan’s nightly TV chat show, Wogan even makes a rare ‘slip up’ by calling Ivana, ‘Diana’. Donald doesn’t even notice the gaff as he launches into his ideas on how he ‘could make America great again’.

A few days after my visit the Lowry picture arrived safely from Manchester and I was relieved and pleased to see it matched up with all our research so we could get on and prepare our catalogue entry and get it photographed for the upcoming 11th November auction, where it was included as lot 480. The catalogue came out in the second week of October and calls began to come in for the various lots, including lot 480, which was beginning to create a real buzz around it. I remember one major dealer coming in to view it before the public viewing and telling me that he thought it could make £250,000 or more, and that he was prepared to bid up to £350,000, a price well over three times the then world record. This would have set the Lowry market alight which is what I was secretly hoping for…

Of course, I was also hoping Salford would be able to acquire the picture and as the auction day drew nearer this looked increasingly likely and indeed, I think by Wednesday 9th November I had verbal followed by written confirmation that Salford has purchased the piece and the picture was duly withdrawn from sale and later transported up to Salford where it hangs today in pride of place in the Lowry Salford Quays next to the new Media Centre.

This was truly one that got away and looking back I am certain that if it had been offered there was enough presale interest for it to have made a huge price, thus electrifying the Lowry market 20 years earlier. Had that been the case, who knows where prices would be now!!

The one that got away…

Posted on July 26, 2022January 16, 2025 by Annabell Parry

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Back in 2005, I was newly married, London based and high on life. Money was tight, but we were cool. I’ve always loved poster art. Remember Athena? Later New York subway graffiti album cover art and band posters. Maybe because that’s all I could afford. At that time we read alternative magazines, went to all manner of clubs, listened to house music and drank Smirnoff ice.

However, the Country was also at war. Mobile phone and personal computers were becoming commonplace, and the traditional methods of communication and control were on the wane. There felt a real burgeoning of youthful expression against the ‘accepted norm’. Artists such as Faile, Eulus and Banksy, to name but a few, were hosting the odd show and having read an article on Banksy, an early Internet search took me to the now notorious and now defunct ‘Pictures on Walls’.

On their website was Banksy’s CND Soldiers and Jack and Jill. Signed copies were £156.50. I forget how much the unsigned copies were.

So, for my birthday we went all in and bought a signed Banksy CND soldiers. Limited Edition of 350. Arrived rolled up in a tube! It shows two soldiers in full combat gear surreptitiously painting a red CND sign on a wall. I loved it. It said everything about my views on the current war, the bold colours, glorious details and it was subversive in a very nice way!

We had it framed and it hung in our house, carefully shaded from sunlight for 10 years.

By 2016, I was a single mum of two boisterous boys whose parkour moves were practised upon all pieces of furniture and under the gaze of the, often wonky, CND soldiers. I had followed in the rise of Banksy and one day realised I really should insure it. An art broker friend suggested to have it insured for between £7,000 and £10,000. I was stunned. I simply did not have the money to insure the picture, coupled with the fact I needed a new kitchen.

So, with the help of my broker, a nice Belgian gentleman offered an astounding £14,000 (inc fees) and also offered to pay for packing and transport. I did offer it to the Andipa gallery in Knightsbridge, but they felt £7,000 was the most they would go to.

So, off my Banksy went to Belgium, as part of a pension pot, and I built a lovely kitchen. However, within a couple of years the same picture went for £32,000 at auction and now commands in the region of £50,000.

Yes, I am gutted I sold the picture, as it would be in my pension pot now. However, that piece of art gave a single mum the chance to have a new heart to her home. To feel good about having people over and to look to the future. The one that got away, yes, but left great memories, and sometimes that might be more worthwhile.

Helen Bradley (1900-1979)

Posted on June 7, 2022January 16, 2025 by Jonathan Horwich

Many of us promise ourselves that we will take up painting in retirement, few of us ever do and even fewer stick at it and only a tiny few achieve commercial and critical success with their Art. Helen Bradley was one of these tiny few and in her own uniquely British way she created a whole new life for herself with her Art when at the age of 65 she began painting pictures each one recalling a memory of her Edwardian childhood. To begin with her paintings were a way for her to show her grandchildren just how different a place the world was for her as a child in the Edwardian Era.

Born in 1900 Helen Bradley was like the late Queen Mother, the same age as the century she lived in. She was born in Lees just outside Oldham in Lancashire and showed enough early artistic talent for her to study Art but only for one year from 1913, when as for so many others the Great War intervened stopping her art studies in their tracks , then marriage and children followed.

At first glance you might think that Helen Bradley’s paintings look a little like L S Lowry’s figure compositions, however she had her own unique style and technique just as Lowry has his. Indeed the two artists met early on in Bradley’s career, they got on well and Lowry continued to encourage Bradley in her work and the two developed a firm friendship. Neither artist followed or was influenced by the other and both held a strong admiration for each other’s work.

The majority of Bradley’s figure pictures depict specific remembered events and are often accompanied by a story handwritten in biro on a parcel label and usually attached to the back of the picture. These notes explain to some extent what the viewer is looking at in the composition and the characters, Bradley sets the scene for us to share her memories and individual characters the most famous of which is Miss Carter . This excerpt from her online biography explains a little about her characters.

She mixed a little pink colour, she painted the dress of a tiny figure. From that moment was created the enchanting land that was to delight millions. The figure she painted was that of Miss Carter (who wore pink) who features in most of Helen Bradley’s paintings. Other characters you will find are her mother, grandmother, her three maiden aunts, Mr Taylor (the bank manager) Helen herself with brother George and their dogs Gyp and Barney and many others.

These narrative paintings were first exhibited at The Saddleworth Art Society in 1965, followed by a London exhibition in 1966, and a sell out exhibition at the appropriately named Carter Gallery in Los Angeles in 1968.

In 1971 Jonathan Cape published the first of four books “And Miss Carter Wore Pink”. This was an instant success. German, French, Dutch and Japanese editions were published, and a special edition produced for the U.S.A.

Requests for illustrations of her work were satisfied by the publication of 30 Signed Limited Edition Prints, 3 Unsigned Limited Edition Prints and 11 Open Edition Prints.

Magazine features, appearances on television and radio endeared Bradley to the general public and led to her being awarded the M.B.E. for services to the arts, unfortunately she died on the 19th of July 1979 shortly before she was due to receive her M.B.E. from Her Majesty The Queen.

The market for Helen Bradley’s work is very well established and her work is regularly available at auction and in galleries and I hope that this little snapshot will whet your appetite for further investigation perhaps even a purchase. To start with you could consider buying one of her beautifully illustrated books of story pictures, all are out of print but are available online or in specialist galleries for around £15 to 30, the signed limited edition prints start at around £350.