Who would have thought just a few years ago that Pablo Picasso’s dominance as number one in the world auction market would be under threat from a Chinese artist?
Well, it’s the case now. Picasso’s worldwide sales at auction achieved almost US$362 million in 2010. However, in second spot with almost US $340 million was Qi Baishi (1864 – 1957). Most of us in the Western world would never even have heard of this artist. And what about Zhang Daqian (1899 – 1983), Xu Beihong (1895 – 1953) or Fu Baoshi (1904 – 1965)?
Among the top-selling 10 artists comprising house-hold names such as Andy Warhol or Alberto Giacometti, four are now Chinese artists, whose combined auction sales approached an incredible US $1 billion last year.
2009 2010 Artist Sales 2010 in US$ excl. BP
1 1 Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) 361,493,772
3 2 Qi Baishi (1864 – 1957) 339,231,302
2 3 Andy Warhol (1928 – 1987) 313,535,564
11 4 Zhang Daqian (1899-1983) 304,303,005
6 5 Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) 213,618,702
19 6 Xu Beihong (1895-1953) 176,249,208
4 7 Henri Matisse (1869 – 1954) 174,029,764
55 8 Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920) 139,795,698
21 9 Fu Baoshi (1904-1965) 125,214,666
46 10 Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997) 112,531,769
Of course, this positioning can be upset by the sale of one single major work which sells for an extraordinary price. This is the case for Amedeo Modigliani, who was catapulted from 55th in 2009 to 8th spot in 2010 through the sale of his ‘Nu assis sur un divan’ for US $61.5 million at Sotheby’s New York in February 2010.
Similarly, Roy Lichtenstein’s ‘Ohh … alright’ fetching a similarly jaw-dropping US $38 million with Christie’s New York in November 2010 propelled him from 46th to 10th place.
Where do the Australian top 10 artists sit internationally? Locally, the first 10 spots are occupied by the usual suspects (sales figures include BP)
2010 Artist Sales 2010 $AU Sales 2009 $AU
1 Sidney Nolan 8,711,142 2,731,930
2 Brett Whiteley 5,762,321 4,059,820
3 John Brack 5,292,210 605,399
4 Jeffrey Smart 4,845,660 3,236,780
5 Fred Williams 4,243,933 4,261,680
6 Russell Drysdale 3,270,978 3,485,202
7 Charles Blackman 2,640,589 3,317,316
8 Arthur Streeton 1,994,524 2,469,250
9 Norman Lindsay 1,730,597 955,114
10 John Perceval 1,545,593 589,126
Internationally, according to Artprice, these artists rank from the high 200s to the 400’s, listed here in ascending order: leading is Sid Nolan at number 271 due to the one major sale of ‘First-class marksman 1946’ for $5,4 million.
John Brack is ranked 331, pipping Norman Rockwell, Brett Whiteley sits at number 336, beating Jean Ingres, Jeffrey Smart at 376, Fred Williams down from 229th to 400th, and Russell Drysdale on number 439 (down from 357).*
Let’s now look at the market for international works in Australia. Historically, the auction room in Australia has not favoured the sale of international paintings. Except for 2008, when overseas artists’ sales reached an unprecedented $15.183 million or 13% of annual total auction turn-over of $114.688 million. Mostly, the percentages of international art sold in Australia are in the 2.5 to 8 % bracket of total sales.
Looking at sales for five artists in the international top 10 – Picasso, Warhol, Giacometti, Matisse and Lichtenstein – is revealing. Picasso is listed in Australia with 339 results since 1970, consisting mostly of his low value print works. The exceptional 2008 international sale is due – again – to the sale of one single work, ‘Sylvette 1954’, sold by Deutscher-Menzies in June 2008 for AU $6.9 million. The second-highest price comes in at NZ $35,200, a drawing sold at Webb’s in New Zealand in 1999.
Andy Warhol’s results are made up also predominantly with his lower value screenprints – achieving the respectable second-highest price paid in Australia for this artist’s work of AU$96,000. The highest price however was AU $1.8 million for ‘Head after Picasso’, also sold by Deutscher-Menzies in September 2008.
Matisse’s ‘Jeune Femme’, an ink on paper from 1942, sold for AU $132,000 by Deutscher & Hackett in April 2008, while most others of the 85 lots sold in Australia are multiple edition prints, selling for less than AU $20,000.
Very few Roy Lichtenstein works have surfaced at auction in Australia, however there was healthy interest when ‘Crak! Now, mes Petits … Pour la France!, 1964, when Deutscher & Hackett sold this colour lithograph of an edition of 300 for AU $32,480 in September 2010.
Lastly, Giacometti is almost non-existent in the Australian auction room, with only a couple of lithographs sold at low values.
The recent sale of three works - sculptures by Jacques Lipchitz for AU$857,000, one by Jean Arp for AU$564,000 and one by Aristide Maillol for AU$112,500 – achieved a total of AU $1.529 million at the Menzies auction in June 2011. With perhaps more to follow, this looks likely to set up 2011 as another year with significant auction results for international artists in Australia. Notably, none of these three artists had any major sales here at all before, and for Maillol it was an antipodean auction premiere.
Interest from buyers in international art at auction in Australia might also be sparked by the John Kaldor collection now accessible at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Four major auction players who are all ambitious, competitive and hungry for bigger and better things are sure to put some spice back into a subdued local market trailing its international counterparts. Australian collectors might welcome into Australian sales more Roy Lichtenstein lithographs or Andy Warhol screenprints. It may however be some time before Australian buyers are collecting works by Qi Baishi or Xu Beihong.
*International data are sourced from Artprice. For the Australian auction sales records we have used the Australian Art Sales Digest data. There are some discrepancies in the total auction figures per year for individual artists, perhaps due to the fact that Artprice has less comprehensive sales data for Australian art auctions than AASD.
