{"id":26070,"date":"2014-05-14T09:21:03","date_gmt":"2014-05-14T13:21:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/?p=26070"},"modified":"2014-05-14T09:21:03","modified_gmt":"2014-05-14T13:21:03","slug":"more-art-madness-the-perfect-investment-skip-college-go-to-art-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/?p=26070","title":{"rendered":"More art madness. The Perfect Investment: Skip college. Go to art school."},"content":{"rendered":"

More on contemporary art:\u00a0<\/strong><\/span> It’s going truly nuts — I suspect a function of last year’s strong stockmarket. From today’s Wall Street Journal:<\/em><\/p>\n

+ The contemporary art market is on fire. Christie’s in New York made auction history Tuesday when it sold $745 million worth of contemporary art in less time than it takes to watch a basketball game.<\/p>\n

The auction house’s total surpassed its $691.6 million landmark sale last November and reset records for artists like Alexander Calder and Barnett Newman, whose black-and-tan abstract, “Black Fire I,” sold for $84.2 million.<\/p>\n

\"RaceRiotAndyWarhol\"<\/a>
\nAndy Warhol’s 1964 silkscreen, “Race Riot,” sold at Christie’s for $62.9 million. It was only expected to sell for up to $50 million.<\/em><\/p>\n

Christie’s total easily exceeded its own $500 million expectations, with collectors, fashion designers and dealers in chunky eyeglasses chasing nearly everything on offer\u2014and whistling and shaking their heads in amazement on occasion.<\/p>\n

\"JoanMitchellPainting\"<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
In a surprise twist, abstract painter Joan Mitchell also became the most expensive female artist at auction when her untitled colorful bouquet (see above) from 1960 sold for $11.9 million.<\/div>\n

The work bested the previous titleholder, Berthe Morisot, whose 1881 portrait, “After Lunch,” sold for $10.9 million last year.<\/p>\n

But the sale’s biggest sleeper hit was Newman’s abstract, a 1961 example of the artist’s signature “Zip” series in which the artist painted a stripe, like a zipper, so that it appears to slice through fields of saturated color. The New York artist gained a reputation for such “Zips” in the late 1940s, but this black version is significant because he painted it while grieving the loss of his younger brother, George.<\/p>\n

Only three “Zip” works created between 1958 and 1966 remain in private hands, and this example had spent years on loan to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the auction house said. Sotheby’s sold an earlier “Zip” for $43.8 million last May.<\/p>\n

Xan Serafin, a Christie’s specialist based in New York who typically represents American collectors, fielded the anonymous winning telephone bid for Christie’s $84.2 million Newman.<\/p>\n

Sellers were feeling confident heading into Tuesday’s sale\u2014nine works alone carried $20 million-plus estimates\u2014and their timing paid off: At least four of the works sold for more than $50 million, and 12 surpassed the $20 million mark.<\/p>\n

Among the usual roster of international collectors, mainland Chinese collectors bidding over the telephone stood out, taking home a gallery’s worth of works. Their wins included an $80.8 million Francis Bacon triptych, “Three Studies for a Portrait of John Edwards” from 1984 that was being sold by Taiwanese computer-chip maker Pierre Chen. Also, lot 8 must have seemed a lucky number for another Asian collector who paid Christie’s $25.9 million for Alexander Calder’s black mobile of a squiggly-tail “Flying Fish.” The sculpture from 1957 was only expected to sell for up to $12 million.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n

Christie’s sold Barnett Newman’s “Black Fire I” for $84.2 million in New York, a new record price for the artist.<\/em><\/p>\n

All night long, auction regulars like New York dealers Larry Gagosian and Dominique Levy found themselves competing with Asian telephone bidders for the sale’s art trophies\u2014with each taking spoils in turn. An Asian buyer outmatched several dealers in the packed sale room to win an untitled $66.2 million orange and purple Mark Rothko. But Mr. Gagosian beat out three rivals to win Andy Warhol’s $62.9 million, red-white-and-blue “Race Riot.” The Warhol was being sold by fellow dealer Bill Acquavella’s family trust. Mr. Gagosian also won a $23.7 million Christopher Wool, “If You.”<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the sale, Christie’s sold another Warhol portrait of Hollywood starlet Marilyn Monroe to an American collector for $41 million. The 1962 silkscreen “White Marilyn,” which was only expected to sell for up to $18 million, was being sold by Barbara Lee, the Boston collector and former wife of Lee Equity Partners president Thomas H. Lee.<\/p>\n

Other major sellers included Chicago collector Stefan Edlis, who sat in the sale room wearing a ball cap and stared intently as his Jeff Koons sculpture of a train filled with bourbon, “Jim Bean\u2014J.B. Turner Train,” sold to a Chinese telephone bidder for $33.7 million. A different version of this 9-foot-long, stainless-steel train sold a decade ago for $5.4 million at Christie’s.<\/p>\n

“I’m so happy with my price,” Mr. Edlis said afterward. “The art market is hot across the board\u2014Pop is selling, Ab-Ex is selling, New Wave is selling, it’s all selling.”<\/p>\n

Of the sale’s 72 works, only four failed to sell\u2014a rarified result for a segment of the art market that can veer toward speculation when collectors and investors feel like betting on rising art values.<\/p>\n

Christie’s also made sure the sale was a success, in a way. Around 39 of its offerings carried guarantee, which means either the auction house\u2014or a group of outside investors\u2014had previously arranged to buy those works if other bidders didn’t compete for them during the sale itself. Christie’s guaranteed works were worth at least $287.73 million combined and amounted to roughly 38.6% of its total.<\/p>\n

Whether Tuesday’s sale represents a new high point for the art market\u2014or the next step in a developing cycle \u2013 remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

Other hits in the sale included Jean-Michel Basquiat’s $34.8 million self-portrait in the guise of a warrior king standing against a sunset-colored sky. The artist was 21 when he created the untitled work, and it was bought in late 1981 by Maryland collector Anita Reiner, whose estate sold it to an anonymous telephone bidder on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Records were also reset for artists including Joseph Cornell, Robert Gober, Frank Stella, Robert Mangold, Lucas Samaras and Martin Puryear.<\/p>\n

Bargains proved scarce, but film producer Stavros Merjos pounced when the bidding flagged on Jackson Pollock’s “Number 5, 1951 (Elegant Lady),” a drippy abstract that he famously traded for the car he crashed and died in two years later. The painting was estimated to sell for at least $12 million, but Mr. Merjos won it for $11.3 million.<\/p>\n

Miami-based collector Paul Cejas took home a $6.9 million Robert Ryman, “Mission.” The work’s title is apt because the collector said he came into the sale determined to win the 1980 minimalist work. “You have to be disciplined and not reckless in this market,” Mr. Cejas added, “but if you like something, you stretch for it. And this is the one I wanted.”<\/p>\n

Sotheby’s counters with its own sale of contemporary art this evening. One piece it will be selling:<\/p>\n

\"MightJeffKoons\"<\/a><\/p>\n

You can see the rest of what’s for sale this evening by visiting Sothebys site. Click here.<\/strong><\/a> I bet you can watch the entire auction this evening on the Internet via Sothebys site. Even if you’re not interested in buying something, you should visit Sothebys and Christies web sites. These guys really know how to make great web sites.<\/p>\n

Meantime, if you happen to be in Hong Kong this weekend, go visit Art Basel.<\/strong> The town is under modern art lockdown with everybody and their uncle peddling “art.” One hotel has even converted several floors of guests rooms into spaces for galleries visiting from all over the world.<\/p>\n

The final word on all this goes to my friend, Pete Howley:<\/p>\n

+ + There are risks, of course, to buying expensive art. My now ex, using my hard earned money of course, bought a painting for the house I also bought her on the beach in Rhode Island. The “rare” painting cost $33,500 from a gallery in Newport, RI. After the divorce she didn’t want to keep it, so ultimately I got hold of the painting and had it professionally appraised. Value today: $3,000 give or take a buck. So as they say, why are divorces so expensive? Because they’re worth it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0If your kids don’t like computer science, business, doctoring or teaching, maybe they should become artists? I present for your edification my pictures of some of the weirder stuff I saw earlier this week at Frieze in New York. I have no idea what any of this costs. I’m sure you don’t have to sell many each year to live handsomely. Spend the rest of the time promoting yourself.<\/p>\n

\"smashedcar\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"AscendingStairs\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"shoes\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"legs\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Revenge\"<\/a> \"Popeye\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Suit\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"HarryNewton\"<\/a>
\nHarry Newton who is obsessed with stairs. On a Westchester commuter train station at Croton Harmon a few years ago, a 60-year old man slipped on the stairs. He landed at the bottom unconscious. They got him to the hospital quickly. But several hours later he was dead. I don’t make this up. Please be careful with stairs. Always hold the handrail.<\/p>\n

Epilogue: the family sued the railroad, which lately changed the handrail from an old wooden hard-to-grip handrail to a shiny new stainless steel easy-to-grip one. Sorry to harp on this. But I’m hearing too many stories of falls on staircases. Our doorman Federico slipped on subway stairs nearly two years ago and still can’t walk properly and may never be able to .<\/p>\n

I bought a little RIG yesterday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More on contemporary art:\u00a0 It’s going truly nuts — I suspect a function of last year’s strong stockmarket. From today’s Wall Street Journal: + The contemporary art market is on fire. Christie’s in New York made auction history Tuesday when it sold $745 million worth of contemporary art in less time than it takes to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26070\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyinvestor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}