The Kings of Pop – Michael Jackson by Warhol goes to Auction

Andy Warhol, Michael Jackson, 1984, 76.2 x 66 cm, technicolor silkscreen

Commissioned to celebrate the success of Thriller, a portrait of Michael Jackson painted by Andy Warhol goes to auction later this August in New York. From 1984, when both artists were at their peak, the silkscreen will probably fetch far more than its starting price of $800K. Read more.

Emily Carr painting goes for over 2 million at Vancouver auction

One of the three paintings to be sold for over the one-million mark, Emily Carr’s Wind in The Tree, circa 1939, went for a record $2,164,5000 on Heffel’s auction last night (June 17) at Vancouver Convention Centre. David Heffel, on the auction brochure: “I think there’s three key elements in this painting that pushes it to the forefront. One, it’s a great painting. Two, it’s in great condition. Three, it’s got great provenance.”
A small sketch by Tom Thomsom, Birches and Cedar (below), sold for $1,404,000. Read more at Vancouver Sun.
It’s good to see the art market in Vancouver – and Canada – showing this level of confidence and optimism.

Collecting Contemporary

Entertaining and insightful, Collecting Contemporary, by Adam Lindeman is the book you should buy to get in tune with how the international art market works. Made entirely of interviews and divided in chapters dedicated to the main actors in play (the Dealer, the Consultant, the Curator, the Critic) the book is full of updated advice for new collectors or for whoever is interested in contemporary art.

Auction Season Opens at Sotheby’s

Working Model for Draped Reclining Figure by Henry Moore sold for $1,818,500
Photograph: Don Emmert/AFP

Not as good as recent years, but not exactly bad. The inaugural day of the fall auction season had nice surprises like Malevich’s Suprematist Compostion being sold for $60 million, a record for the artist. The total of the night reached $223.8 million. Read the full article in The New York Times.

Money, Money, Money

Lines of Power, 2008 Currency collage , 6 x 4 inches

If you are having a hard time deciding between investing in art or in more traditional markets, how about doing both? Mark Wagner makes collages using only one dollar bills. His work is collected by several art institutions like the Museum of Modern Art and the Smithsonian Institute. Pavel Zoubouk Gallery represents him in NY.

Person Mark Wagner

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