Contemporary Art

The Contemporary art auctions staged during London’s Frieze week showed no signs of letting up as the bidding took little account of the stockmarkets that were nosediving at the same time.

The total from last week’s Contemporary art auctions in London may have been a far cry from the record New York series in May where $1.57bn (£975m) of art changed hands, but there was still plenty of action as the market continued on its current buoyant course.

This postcard sketch by the Chapman Brothers is one of a large number created by well-known figures in art, sport, music TV and film to raise money for Action Against Cancer and the Brain Tumor Charity Silas Pullen Fund.

Christie’s posted a record total for any auction ever with a $745m (£462.7m) premium-inclusive total at their evening sale of post-war and Contemporary art in New York last night (Tuesday, May 13). It now begs the question: how much further can this boom keep going?

The Contemporary art sales in London last week raised a hammer total of £254.6m, a record for an auction series in this category in the capital.

The large volumes of money being spent in the Contemporary art market continued at Sotheby’s last night as the auctioneers posted their highest ever total for a single sale.

French-run PAD London returned to its sleek marquee in Berkeley Square with solid sales reported around the chic mix of design, art and, increased this year, antiquities and tribal art and an even stronger Gallic vibe.

This week is Frieze Week in London, a flurry of fairs, exhibitions and sales including the opening of the Contemporary art giant Frieze London.

Several of the main French auction firms and French branches of international houses have produced their half-year sales figures.

A rare linocut by Cyril Power (1874-1951) leads the sale of Modern & Contemporary prints at Bloomsbury Auctions in London on June 27.

A trademark landscape by Peter Doig was among the most strongly contested lots at Christie’s latest evening sale of post-War and Contemporary art.

The Modern and Contemporary art collection accumulated over a 60-year period by singer Andy Williams will be sold at auction later this year.

This year’s Frieze week auction totals in London were largely consistent with 2011, but the much-publicised sale of Eric Clapton’s prize abstract by Gerhard Richter (b.1932) proved crucial in bolstering the overall figures.

The Scottish organisers and dealers Arte in Europa, best known for organising the ‘Edinburgh Art Fair’, are expanding south of the Border with a new fair in Cheshire.

The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts has struck an exclusive deal with Christie’s to sell its enormous holdings of works from the artist’s estate.

Highly lucrative totals, a record sale and a selection of unprecedented prices seen for individual artists – the Contemporary art market seemed to carry on regardless in London last week.

A string of record prices for leading names in the Contemporary art market saw the amount of money raised in the latest New York auction series heading back to boom-time levels.

IT may sound a little gimmicky, but one of the most captivating TEFAF exhibits this year was an animated version of Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder’s Vase With Flowers in a Window by the contemporary artists Rob and Nick Carter on the stand of London’s Fine Art Society.

A SERIES of key consignments at the latest Contemporary art auctions helped lift the mood of the art market in New York.