ArtfixDailytm News Feed - Thursday, May 17 2012
Frederick Carl Frieseke's Foxgloves from ca.  1912-13 brought $2.2 million at Christie's.

Stand-outs in the American Art Auctions

Following the record prices achieved for post-war and contemporary art last week, sales of historic American art this week have started off with several high-flying lots. Highlights include a vibrant...
"Untitled" of 1981 by Jean-Michel Basquiat sold for $16 million at Phillips de Pury.

Basquiat Record Rounds Out Blockbuster Auction Series

May has so-far ushered in a record-smashing season of auctions. Nearly $1.5 billion of art was sold in 2 weeks at three New York auction houses: Christie's, Sotheby's and Phillips de Pury. The latest headliner is Jean Michel Basquiat's ‘Untitled”...
Roy Lichtenstein’s iconic "Sleeping Girl" from 1964 will be offered by Sotheby's in May 2012.

Lichtenstein Retrospective Opening Delayed Due to Members' Demands

A retrospective of the work of Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, whose “Sleeping Girl” set an auction record of $45 million last week, will open May 22 at the Art Institute of Chicago. Proving the artist's current popularity, on onslaught of...
A Leica O series camera from 1923.

Leica Brings Record Price for Camera at Auction

A prototype Leica camera from 1923 brought an auction record of 2.16m euros ($2.8 million) in Vienna, Austria. One of only 12 Leica A prototypes known to survive, the camera went to...
Artnet Auctions sold an edition of Robert Indiana's American love, 1972 prints, serigraph / screenprint, for $4,025 in March 2011.

Artist Robert Indiana Sued over Sculptures

A Monaco-based art dealer is suing renowned Pop artist Robert Indiana, who is celebrated worldwide for his LOVE sculptures. The dealer bringing the suit...
Roy Lichtenstein’s iconic "Sleeping Girl" from 1964 will be offered by Sotheby's in May 2012.

Lichtenstein, Bacon Boost Sotheby's $266.6 million Sale

Led by $44.9 million final bids for Francis Bacon and Roy Lichtenstein, Sotheby's took in a grand total of $266.6 million with its Contemporary art evening sale on Wednesday. Nearly half of the offered lots went above estimates with 46 of 57 lots selling. Lichtenstein's "Sleeping Girl"...
Frieze New York 2012.  Photograph by Linda Nylind.  Courtesy of Linda Nylind/ Frieze

Sales Highlights from New York's First Frieze

An overall success, the first annual Frieze Art Fair in New York wrapped up this Monday. Held on Randall's Island in Manhattan, the fair featured 180 galleries from 30 countries, representing the crème de la crème of the contemporary art scene. There were several major standouts...
Mark Rothko's Orange, Red, Yellow brought an auction record $86,882,500 at Christie's.

Christie's Sale Shatters Records for Post-war Masters

Works by modern art giants from Rothko and Pollock to Calder and Klein sparked furious bidding at Christie's on Tuesday. A number of record-breaking prices sent the Post-war and contemporary art sale to $388.5 million, the highest total ever for the category, with 59 offered lots. From the estate of David Pincus, Mark Rothko's Orange, Red, Yellow of 1961 blazed to $86.9 million...
Art dealer Frank Faryab thinks he has rediscovered a JMW Turner.

Experts Examine a Possible Rediscovered Turner

Art and antiques dealer Frank Faryab believes he is the owner of a lost J.M.W. Turner masterpiece, and so far he has spent over $3 million to prove it. Faryab purchased the painting, a mid-size oil on panel depicting a seascape, through...
Sheena Wagstaff, first chairman of the Met's modern and contemporary art department.

Metropolitan Museum of Art Goes Contemporary

The Metropolitan Museum is Art is steadily becoming a contender in the contemporary art scene, notably with last year’s Alexander McQueen show which drew 660,000 visitors. This move into the 21st century is being hastened by...
"The Billionaire's Vinegar" by Benjamin Wallace spurred a lawsuit from U.K.  wine expert Micheal Broadbent

Koch Revives Wine Dispute with Christie's

Billionaire art and wine collector William Koch is appealing a court decision that threw out his lawsuit against Christie's in which he claimed the auction house sold him counterfeit wine.
Edvard Munch's iconic "The Scream" will lead Sotheby's May 2 Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale in New York.

Munch's 'The Scream' Lands Record Price for Art

Edvard Munch's iconic "The Scream" went for a staggering sum at Sotheby's Impressionist and Modern Art Evening sale on Wednesday to become the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction.
Freeman's will offer historic and rare naval flags from one of the most revered patrons and collectors of American art, the late H.  Richard Dietrich, Jr.

Naval Flag Collection Fetches $784,500 at Auction

Eleven rare and historic naval flags brought a total of $784,500 at a Freeman's auction in Philadelphia, according to reports. Banners that flew over the course of two centuries from the USS Constitution...
Girl with a white dog , 1951 - 1952.  Oil on canvas, by Lucien Freud.

Estate of Artist Lucien Freud Valued at $156 Million

itish portrait painter Lucien Freud left 96 million pounds ($156 million) in his will. According to the Mail on Sunday newspaper, the amount is a record for an artist's estate in the UK. Freud, who died last year, bequeathed...

Featured Event
Ellsworth Kelly (American, b.  1923) Wild Grape 1961 Watercolor on paper 22 1/8 x 28 1/2 in.  Private collection © Ellsworth Kelly Photograph Courtesy: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
June 5 - September 3, 2012
New York, New York
One of the foremost artists of our day, Ellsworth Kelly may be best known for his rigorous abstract painting. However, ...
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Book Spotlight
Cover of Tamara de Lempicka: The Queen of the Modern
Tamara de Lempicka: The Queen of the Modern

The definitive catalog on the first woman artist to become a glamourous star. A cosmopolitan painter and icon of the art deco movement, Tamara de Lempicka created images that became the symbols of an era, the “crazy” 1920s and 1930s. She was possibly that period’s most brilliant exponent. Driven by an iron will to achieve, Tamara not only cultivated her artistic talent, she also consciously built an image, that of an elegant and sophisticated woman, the extravagant protagonist of the European high life.

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When he wasn’t painting, Hudson River School artist David Johnson loved to draw, with confident lines on big sheets. Every once in a while his pencil traced the figure of a woman. For example, in an 1886 drawing (above), a woman in full dress looks out over a pond in the Adirondacks. In lieu of ...
David Johnson (1827-1908) - "Near Buck Mountain" - pencil on paper