Record art sales at Christie’s, US$ 1,1bn in three hours; US expressionist Pollard painting sold for US$ 181 million
The roughly three-by-one meter oil and enamel work on canvas, entitled Number 7A, 1948, was painted at Pollock’s Long Island, New York, studio
A painting by US Abstract Expressionist painter Jackson Pollock sold for a record US$181.2 million (€156.2 million) with fees, at Christie’s auction house in New York this week, alongside other staggering sales on what was a blockbuster event for the institution.
The roughly three-by-one meter (88.9 x 334 centimeters) oil and enamel work on canvas, entitled Number 7A, 1948, was painted at Pollock’s Long Island, New York, studio when the artist was 36 years old and is considered was a key early example of his floorbased drip technique.
Christie’s described the postwar work, which consists of black drips with a few red accents, as follows, It is with this work that Pollock finally frees himself from the shackles of conventional easel painting and produces one of the first truly abstract paintings in the history of art.
The record sale made Pollock’s canvas the fourth most expensive artwork ever sold at auction and eclipsed his own previous 2021 auction record of US$ 61.2 million.
For Christie’s this week’s three hours sale brought in US$ 1.1 billion. The 16 lots included in the Newhouse sale alone accounted for US$ 630.8 million. A sale of 20th-century works brought in a further US$ 490.3 million.
Salvator Mundi, (Savior of the World), a Renaissance work attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, holds the top spot for the most expensive painting ever sold at auction, demanding US$ 450 million in 2017. It is believed the painting is currently is Saudi Arabia.
Although works by Pollock have brought as much as US$ 200 million in private sales, this week’s was the priciest ever sold at auction. Other works in the sale included US painter Mark Rothko’s ”No. 15 (Two Greens and Red Stripe), which sold for US$ 98.4 million; and Catalan artist Joan Miro’s Portrait of Madame K., which went for US$ 53.5 million.
Danaide,” an abstracted head in bronze (ca. 1913) by Romanian artist Constantin Brancusi sold for $107.6 million, making it the second most expensive sculpture ever to be sold at auction.
Born in Cody, Wyoming, in 1912, Pollock moved to New York in 1930 and studied at the famous Art Students League in New York under the tutelage of Thomas Hart Benton, who would become his mentor and friend.
After working for the US government’s WPA Federal Art Project between 1938 and 1942, Pollock joined the stable of artists at Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of this Century gallery in New York.
He became an established cultural figure in the city and attained national notoriety when Life magazine ran a story on him entitled, Jackson Pollock: Is He the Greatest Living Painter in the United States?
Pollock, who was married to fellow abstract painter Lee Krasner, was a volatile figure who struggled with alcoholism throughout his life. He died at the height of his career in a single-vehicle car crash in 1956 while driving under the intoxicating influence.
His works have become part of the canon of Western art history and belong to the collections of numerous important museums worldwide.