2022 has been an exceptional year for Modern British & Irish art, with auction records set for many artists across the UK’s leading auction houses and specialist departments being set up all across the country. A developing collector base and unprecedented supply of works seem to be at the core of this new rising trend. Unlike works by Old Masters, 20th-century artists, or even the international giants of Contemporary Art, a supply of Modern British & Irish art comes up on the market every year – and at more ‘affordable’ entry points. Many works are also coming to auction from their original owner for the first time ever, building up the all-important momentum that drives prices up.
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Christie’s sales on the 19-20th of October confirmed this upward trajectory, bringing a combined sales turnover of £26.9 million, with a new record set for L.S. Lowry’s Going to the Match. The work was acquired for £7.8 million by the Lowry Museum in Salford – the artist’s hometown – thanks to donations by The Law Family Charitable Foundation, after pleas by the mayor of the town that the painting should be kept on public view.
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Other notable results were achieved for British Abstractionists, with Marlow Moss’ White and Black sold for £378,000, setting a new world auction record for the artist and tripling its low estimate; Barbara Hepworth's Abstract, sold for £163,800; and Bridget Riley’s Painting with Two Verticals 3 sold for £1,242,000. Henry Moore, a favourite of UK auction houses, also achieved impressive results, with a small reclining figure sold for £277,200, a 1970 model for £1,482,000, and Rocking Chair No.2 for £680,400. Further highlights include famous names such as Ben Nicholson and Walter Richard Sickert, as well as a number of female artists, represented by Vanessa Bell, Winifred Nicholson, Celia Paul, and ceramicists Jennifer Lee and Lucie Rie.
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L.S. Lowry was represented with 6 paintings at Christie’s and the auction results seem to affirm the artist as one of the most sought-after on the UK scene. Earlier this month, a seascape by Lowry titled The North Sea sold for £1.07 million at Tennants on its Modern & Contemporary Art Sale. The painting had been last seen on public view in an exhibition in 1967, the year after it was painted, and had since been in private hands. The sale made international headlines.
Other records have been set throughout the country for British artists. In 2022, Roseberys recorded two new auction records for artists Augustus John (£85,000) and Aubrey Williams (£15,000). The Resurrection, Cookham, by British artist Sir Stanley Spencer was also sold in February 2022 for a staggering £403,674. Roseberys’ department of Modern British & 20th Century Art has since expanded to include artworks by international artists, attracting all kinds of collectors to their triannual auctions.
Other leading auction houses such as Lyon & Turnbull now offer several auctions a year across the UK that feature Modern British paintings, sculptures, prints and drawings. Lyon & Turnbull's MODERN MADE sale in London on the 28th of October is set to draw in collectors wanting a piece of Modern & Post-War art, with strong features by Scottish artist Alan Davie, Camden Town Group artists Walter Sickert and Robert Bevan, British sculptor Geoffrey Clarke, and ceramics and craft by Dame Magdalene Odundo and Dame Lucie Rie, among others.
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So what does British & Irish art have to offer to collectors? It seems that the market has never been more vibrant, with a renewed appreciation for the field from emerging collectors on both the domestic and international markets. From the 19th-century British masters such as William Nicholson and Walter Sickert to mid-century icons such as Hockney, Lowry, and Moore, as well as the ultra-contemporary Hirst and Emin (just to name a few) the offer is ever-changing.
