Contemporary Art

For people who follow the art market, Banksy (b.1975) is now impossible to ignore.

Christie’s has announced that from this summer it will be renaming its Impressionist & Modern and Post-War & Contemporary sales.

Famous for the sort of graffiti that morphs into street art and critical acclaim, Banksy is now bringing in big money in the form of screenprints

While Banksy prints abound at auction, the number of original works that emerge is understandably much less.

The live webcast auction of Urban and Contemporary art held by Tate Ward (25% buyer’s premium) on March 24 proved well timed, coming just a day after Christie’s sold Banksy’s 'Game Changer' for £14.4m.

Bonhams (27.5/25/20/14.5% buyer’s premium) has been offering works by Banksy for some time now in a number of different sale types including Contemporary art auctions and specialist print offerings.

Among the Banksy works sold outside London recently was a screenprint of Trolleys that made £40,000 at Tennants’ (20% buyer’s premium) of Leyburn in North Yorkshire.

This image of children swinging along a watch tower was part of Banksy’s ‘Walled Off’ project that relates to the West Bank barrier between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

A number of Banksy’s earlier prints from the early 2000s feature the subject of a rat.

An increasing number of salerooms are now holding specialist sales dedicated to Post-war and Contemporary art with demand at primary market level driving auction opportunities

A group of works from the estate of West Country artist Michael Morgan (1928-2014) drew bidding at a recent sale at Atkins Auctions (15% buyer’s premium) of Axminster, Devon.

Back in 2004-6, a boom occurred in the prices for Jack Vettriano (b.1951) and a host of works made six-figure sums at auction. These included his most famous work 'The Singing Butler', which sold for a staggering £660,000 at Sotheby’s in April 2004, still a Vettriano auction record.

An abstract painting by Aubrey Williams (1926-90) offered at Grand Auctions (20% buyer’s premium) in Folkestone at the end of last year set another auction high for the Guyanese artist.

On March 30 Christie’s France is offering a selection of around 70 Modern and Post-war works from an unnamed Parisian collector that have been assembled over four decades.

Another auction house staging regular sales of Scottish Contemporary art is McTear’s of Glasgow, whose next auction in this category takes place on February 28.

When Paul Feeley (1910-66) returned home after serving as a US marine in Japan during the Second World War, it triggered a fundamental shift in his art.

Legendary yarn explains how this material became a key component of the artist’s designs

As the pandemic continues to upend the art market calendar, two heavyweights of the Contemporary art and design fair scene are going digital.

A painting by Pierre Soulages (b.1919) sold at Caen Enchères (20% buyer’s premium inc VAT) in Normandy featured a particularly notable provenance.