Page 65 - Studio International - January 1967

Art prices current

Highlights of the season by George Savage

Sotheby record the successes of last season in the certainly not diminish in value. But subsequent may resort. Their cataloguing is a useful ancillary
fourth annual publication of The Ivory Hammer, rises will also be relatively small unless they are activity, although most dealers with any preten-
price fifty shillings, which becomes more lavish keeping pace with future currency depreciation. sions to knowledge of their business could as easily
with the passing years. This, in a trifle more than Paintings of this kind may be likened to the shares dispense with it.
300 pages of plates in black-and-white and colour, of the largest and soundest industrial undertakings; The function of the dealer is to provide the
surveys the 1965-6 season. The illustrations cover the dividend will be low, the money safe. market in which such works may be freely sold
a variety of objects which passed through the rooms, The tendency so far as Sotheby are concerned at a price which bears a reasonable relationship to
with description and price. Interspersed are short seems to have been to offer the most important demand. If the market were limited to private pur-
articles on a diversity of subjects, ranging from modern works in New York. Whether or not this chasers buying only what they liked, then the value
nineteenth-century American landscape painting was a matter of deliberate policy it is difficult to of any painting would be at the mercy of chance,
to the Rolls-Royce as an objet d'art, a status which say, since many of the works which at one time and prices would fluctuate wildly and unpre-
it has acquired fairly recently but which is none- were sold in Bond Street came from American dictably. The stability of the market is the work
theless justifiable. I first drew attention to the collections, and it is obviously easier to sell in of the dealer, something which ought never to be
potentiality of vintage and veteran cars as objects New York than accept the expense and hazards overlooked. Without him the art-market, bringing
worthy of the attention of the collector in these of shipping across the Atlantic. The Americans in £5o m. a year in foreign currency, would not exist.
pages about five years ago, and the best have since offer the most lively market for modern work, and
achieved noteworthy prices. in any case most important paintings of this kind
Christie's celebrate their bicentenary with an offered in London make the journey across the
Annual Review on a much larger scale than usual, Atlantic to their ultimate home. Christie's, London
costing thirty shillings. This also is a repertory of The danger that the burden of taxation will so
objects sold during the past season, with 345 pages weaken the market here that insufficient money Cassatt, Mary
£17,850
in black-and-white and colour, enlivened with will be available for the purchase of notable works Femme tenant un enfant sur les genoux
reproductions of some of the title-pages of past is a very real one, and equally the danger that 284 x 221 in.
catalogues taken from the firm's extensive archives, restrictive legislation—the modern cure-all— may
which are a major source for the art-historian be imposed as a corrective to the flow of works Lowry, R.A., L. S.
interested in price-movements. overseas must not be overlooked. Any such move Narrow Street £2,730
Together the two books form a review of the would, of course, be extremely damaging to the 20 x 16 in. Signed and dated '62, on board.
market indispensable to the serious student of the continuing supremacy of the London market
modern scene, through which anyone interested in which is, in any case, increasingly dependent on Parke-Bernet, New York
art and what it takes to buy it will love to browse. the sale of old works rather than new. The effect
Both list a large number of modern and con- of bureaucratic control and the imposition of taxes Fresnaye, Roger de la
temporary works of painting and sculpture, and on the market in Paris should be sufficient warning L' Arrosoir £35,710
both testify to the value of carefully chosen works to the legislators. 34 1/2 x 78 3/4 in. Painted in 1913, and also known as
as a major investment. Christie's, for instance, The export trade in works of art is worth Emblèmes : Le Jardin, commissioned by André Mare
refer to the sale of a collection of Impressionist £50,000,000 a year at least to the United Kingdom, c. 1912
paintings formed in the 1920's in South America built up on the expertise of its sale-rooms and
which cost the owner £3,789 and realized no less dealers (neither of whom are now allowed to charge Guillaumin, Jean-Baptiste-Armand
than £136,143—an appreciation of 4,000 per cent, the cost of a lunch to an important buyer or seller Portrait de Martinez dans l' Atelier £16,070
difficult to match in any other field. against tax, although the tax-gatherer happily 354 x 294- in. Signed and dated '78
An appreciation of this magnitude necessarily garners the lion's share of the profits), and many
involves not only careful choice, but a willingness of the objects sold come from abroad. Reading Newman, Barnet
to take risks. As a rule (as in every other field of the two books mentioned one could easily lose Tundra £9,280
investment), the safer the purchase the smaller the sight of the fact that although the sale-rooms are 72 x 89 in. Signed and dated 1950
ultimate profit, and the buyer of modern art today the largest single agency for the disposal of works
who hopes for an eventual profit on the scale of art in London, the greater part of the total sum Pollock, Jackson
mentioned must not only be adventurous and able is the product of exports by dealers, whose pur- Composition No. 16 £11,450
to recognize good quality in a painting when he chases are largely responsible for the massive totals 301 x 24 in. Duco enamel on paper. Signed and
sees it, but he must also be able to guess rightly announced each year by the auction-houses. The dated '49.
about the course which will in future years be figure also includes the dealers' private purchases,
taken by economic, social, and intellectual currents, as well as those made at auction. Wyeth, Andrew
because on these will depend the later demand for Dealers have two important functions, neither of Winter Fields £12,140
the works he buys now. which could possibly be undertaken by the auction- 17 1/4 x 41 in. Tempera on gesso panel. Signed.
No one today could buy a Monet or a Cezanne rooms. They nurse the artist through the difficult Painted in 1942
with an expectation of a large profit. Some kind of and expensive stages of his career in acquiring an
profit is inevitable in most cases, for all the reasons international reputation, and they support the Sotheby, London
previously discussed in these pages, but the price market to a point where prices are predictable
for important examples of their work is now so within reasonable limits. Their activities may make Miro, Joan
high that it leaves little scope for appreciation on it difficult for the private buyer to obtain a painting Vase de Fleurs et Papillon £12,800
a massive scale. Sotheby's record $800,000 in the sale-room at a bargain price, but he reaps 32 x 251 in.
(£265,680) for Cezanne's Maisons a l'Estaque the benefit when he sells, since he has the advantage Egg tempera on panel. Signed and dated 1922-23
realized at their affiliated sale-room, the Parke- of the market dealers have established.
Bernet Gallery in New York, and $412,000 The function of the sale-room is to act as the point Tanguy, Yves
(£160,700) for Monet's Le Fumeur at the same of dispersal, gathering together works of an accepted Je Vous Attends £13,200
place, and paintings of comparable quality will standard and providing a centre to which buyers 284 x 45 in. Signed and dated '34