As the art market continues to evolve, prices at auction also soar and surprise as both blue chip and upcoming stars set records. "The high end of the art market is still very focused on the Blue Chip names," says Pontus Silfverstolpe, co-founder of Barnebys. "About 65% of the global turnover comes from the same 50 artists."
Speaking of the big trends for 2019, Silfverstolpe continues, "[Beyond the most expensive works sold], this year has been about the interest in street art, work by female artist (of all decades), and art by African art and Afro-American artist, such as Kerry James Marshall and Mark Bradford, and also names like Elizabeth Catlett, Kenneth Victor Young and others. This is a trend that will continue and rise for 2020."
Although one of the hottest trends is about equality between female and male artists in the art market, female artists are still rare at the top of the list. "The price differences between the sexes is still substantial," Silfverstolpe says. "Only twelve women are among the 100 most expensive artists at auction in 2019."
We will see what 2020 holds, but here are the 10 most expensive paintings auctioned in this year:
10. Henry Geldzahler and Christopher Scott, David Hockney, 1969 ($49.5 mil or £27.8 mil)
Henry Geldzahler was one of the most powerful arbiters of the New York art scene in the 1960s. After leaving graduate school at Harvard, the young visionary joined the Met staff at age 25 and quickly rose to the role of head curator, where he introduced modern and contemporary art to the institution's canon. In 1969, at the age of 33, Geldzahler spearheaded New York Painting and Sculpture: 1940-1970, a seminal exhibition at the Met that launched the museum’s contemporary art department.
In the double portrait, Hockney portrays Geldzahler, and his partner Christopher Scott in their New York City apartment, creating a highly balanced, symmetrical work that centres on the Met maestro. Framed by the window that opens onto New York skyscrapers, Geldzahler assumes a posture of comfortable authority on the plush pink sofa and gazes directly at the viewer. His partner, Christopher, stands off to the side, looking straight ahead as not to challenge the eye contact that Geldzahler demands.
Related: A Major David Hockney Painting Heads to Auction
9. Untitled, Mark Rothko, 1960 ($50 mil or £38.1 mil)
At Sotheby's Post War and Contemporary sale in May, SFMOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) auctioned Untitled, a Mark Rothko Colour Field painting from 1960 for US$50 million. The oil on canvas was a gift from Peggy Guggenheim and had been in SFMOMA's collection since 1998. The museum announced that the reason behind the sale was to "broadly diversify its collection, enhance its contemporary holdings and address art historical gaps." Neal Benzra, the Director of SFMOMA, added, "With a spirit of experimentation, diversity of thought and openness to new ways of telling stories, we are rethinking our exhibitions, collections and education programs to enhance accessibility and expand our commitment to a global perspective, while sustaining our dedication to Bay Area and California art."
Related: Why Are Museums Selling Their Masterpieces?
8. Study for Head, Francis Bacon, 1952 ($50.3 mil or £38.4 mil)
Inspired by Diego Velázquez's 1650 portrait of Pope Innocent X, Francis Bacon introduced his iconic Study after Velázquez’s Portrait of Innocent X in 1953. But in the year prior to this painting, he worked on smaller studies that focused especially on the bust and head, focusing on the face distorted in suffering and despair a reflection of the existential angst and fear of death post World War II.
Related: The Life and Work of Francis Bacon
7. Hurting the Word Radio #2, Ed Ruscha, 1964 ($52.4 mil or £40 mil)
American pop artist Ed Ruscha set the record for the most expensive artwork sold at auction this fall with Hurting the Word Radio #2 selling for US$52.4 million and displacing his previous auction record of US$30.4 million (£23.2 mil). Hurting the Word Radio #2 (1964) is emblematic of his pop artworks that combined commercial products, typography and satire.
Related: 5 Biggest Auction Records of the Week
6. Double Elvis, Andy Warhol, 1963 ($53 mil or £40.4 mil))
No other artist has documented and transformed the nuances of American culture through their work like Andy Warhol. The 1960s firmly established Warhol as the premier artist of the zeitgeist, who was attuned to the obsessions of American society and consumer culture, especially the fascination with celebrities and entertainers. The top male entertainer of the '60s was arguably Elvis Presley, who is portrayed in Warhol's signature silkscreen as a Western rancher in a shoot for the 1960 film Flaming Star. These Elvis works were featured in Warhol's 1963 exhibit at LA's Ferus Gallery, for which he wanted to highlight Hollywood cinema and celebrity in action.
Related: Andy Warhol Reframed
5. Femme Au Chien, Pablo Picasso, 1962 ($54.9 mil or £41.9 mil)
Femme Au Chien, painted in 1962, depicts Picasso's last muse and wife, Jacqueline Roque, with their beloved dog Kaboul. At this point, the couple had just moved from Cannes to Mougins, a forested region just north of the Riviera. Characteristic of Picasso's later works, the painting reflects his bold use of colour, distorted figures and geometric shapes.
Related: Picasso: the Universal Artist
4. Bouilloire et Fruits, Paul Cézanne, 1888-90 ($59 mil or £45 mil)
Bouilloire et Fruits was painted by Paul Cézanne between 1888-90, while the artist lived with his family in Provence. He was known for his still lifes, in which he paid specific attention to shapes of the fruit, ceramics and flowers, while also infusing the tableau with rich colour and provincial ease. The lush, painterly strokes and spatial composition capture the artist's rarefied technique and mastery of the Post-Impressionist still life.
Related: Will This Rabbit Set A New Record for Jeff Koons?
3. Buffalo II, Robert Rauschenberg, 1962-64 ($88.8 mil or £67.7 mil)
Robert Rauschenberg's large-scale painting Buffalo II (1964) set a new record for the artist when it sold for US$88.8 million this spring. The seminal work on oil and silkscreen depicts some of the most recognisable images of the early sixties: President John F. Kennedy, space exploration, the American bald eagle and a Vietnam War-era army helicopter and combines elements of the emerging genre of Pop Art and the colour blocking of abstract art. Rauschenberg debuted the work at the Venice Biennale in 1964 and won the prestigious Grand Prize for Painting for it, the first American to do so. Beatrice Mayer, the heiress to the Sara Lee baking fortune, and her husband, Robert, acquired the work in 1965, and it had been in their collection for the past five decades, until Beatrice's death in September 2018.
2. Rabbit, Jeff Koons, 1986 ($96.1 mil or £73.3 mil)
The 3.4-foot-high Rabbit, which entered the auction room with an estimate of US$50-70 million, was particularly notable because it was the very first Koons' inflatable to be cast in stainless steel, now the artist's most recognisable art form. It was also the only one in the original series of three (plus an artist's proof) that was still privately owned (the others are in public collections of The Broad in LA, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and the National Museum of Qatar.)
The iconic sculpture first debuted in 1986 at New York's Sonnabend Gallery and transformed the future of contemporary art. Alex Rotter, the Chairman of Post-War and Contemporary Art at Christie's, mused, "For me, Rabbit is the anti-David. It signaled the death of traditional sculpture and disrupted the medium in the same way that Jackson Pollock's Number 31 permanently redefined the notion of painting." With the US$96.1 million sale, Koons also reclaimed the title of the most expensive living artist, dethroning David Hockney.
Related: Jeff Koons Is The Most Expensive Living Artist (Again)
1. Haystacks, Claude Monet, 1890 ($110.7 mil or £84.4 mil)
Next to his famed waterlilies, Monet's bulbous Meules (in English, Haystacks) are his most recognised motif. In 1890, the artist purchased his home and gardens in Giverny and the surrounding area became his main inspiration. Haystacks, once just a background addendum, became the focus in this series and this work captures Monet's singular mastery of the sun's glow on the edges of the haystacks and streams of light through the field. His use of rich tones of reds, purples, greens and pinks infuse the painting with a sense of his love of colour and passion for capturing nature's beauty. The harmony of sky, sun and countryside convey Monet's own sense of harmony at his settled life at Giverny that year. The painting was purchased in 1892 by Mrs. Potter Palmer, the wife of the wealthy Chicago industrialist, who was one of the earliest patrons and champions of Monet's art and had been owned by the Palmer family ever since. The new owner is said to be Hasso Plattner, the German software billionaire who founded the Museum Barberini in Potsdam, Germany. The US$110.7 million sale was the most expensive of 2019, showing the enduring fascination with Monet's Impressionist masterpieces.
