( son of ) art + beat

IT'S CHRISTIE'S TURN AT BAT

And its heavy hitter night, 

none of this sea sponge glued to a stick bat shit craziness

some history was made.

58.3 Million

No. 19 - 1948

Jackson Pollock.

BOOM! Owned till this week by DC billionaire Mitchell Rales - it last sold at Christies in 1993 for 2.4 million. Re read that bad boy - and hum to yourself : the rich get richer and the poor get children.

 Let's do a little art 101 final and compare and contrast the painting sold earlier this week, Pollock's 1946 Blue Unconscious which sold for 20.8 to this one. Two years and 28 million dollars - We are purely Pavlovian driven to love this, blame Peggy and Life Magazine. Mr or Ms Anonymous Bidder now has the coolest living room in Seattle , San Francisco or Riyadh.

56.1 Million

Woman with a Flowered Hat - 1963

Roy LIchtenstein

23.6 Million

Nude with Yellow Flower - 1994

Roy Lichtenstein

A double shot of Lichtenstein love, as the painter set a new record last night with his riff of Picasso's painting of the same name, Woman with a Flowered Hat , which the famed Spanish painter did in 1921 and is a blue period painting NOT cubist at all - so the whole thing is just trippy. Owned by Revlon's Ronald Perelman - it was bought by London jeweler Laurence Graff . From the NYT , "

Mr. Graff, who sat in the front row of the salesroom, patiently outbid three telephone contenders. After the sale, he said he had bought it as a birthday present for himself; he turns 75 on June 13. “It’s a masterpiece,” Mr. Graff added. “I’ve known the painting for years, always saw it in the textbooks.
” “Woman With Flowered Hat” had been included in museum shows, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Tate in London and the Whitney Museum of American Art. It was not the only work by Lichtenstein to score a high number. “Nude With Yellow Flower,” a 1994 painting with the artist’s well-known vertical stripes and benday dots, depicting one of the artist’s signature comic-book blondes talking on the telephone, was expected to fetch $12 million to $16 million. A seller paid $21 million, or $23.6 million with fees.
Let's just hope that this work, like all of these ,really - can find their way back to some public views someday

48.8 Million

Dustheads -1984
Jean-Michel Basquiat

Another record set, this time for k+b favorite Basquiat, the seven foot tall painting "sold to a telephone bidder for $48.8 million with fees, also a record price. (The last record, set at Christie’s in 2012, was $26.4 million.) The painting had been estimated to sell for $25 million to $35 million and was being sold by the London collector Tiqui Atencio, who bought it from the dealer Tony Shafrazi in 1996."

Something that surprised me a great deal, another Basquiat and a Willem de Kooning BOTH from the collection of the late ANDY WILLIAMS sold 

5.7 million

Furious Man - 1982

a work on paper

Jean-Michel Basquiat

9.7 Million dollars

Untitled XVII - 1984

Willem de Kooning

Who knew that Mr. Moon River had some wicked chops when it came to 20th Century art! "de Kooning’s “Untitled XVII,” from 1984, a large canvas of abstract ribbons of orange, blue and yellow, sold for $8.6 million, or $9.7 million with fees. Williams had bought it in 2003 for $3.7 million at a Christie’s auction."

His and Claudine's children netted 46 million altogether as they shucked their dads collection.