MARCEL DUCHAMP - The art of provoking the art world [Aug 06]

With just a handful of “ready-made” works, Marcel Duchamp turned a new page in Art History. These rare and emblematic pieces occasionally surface in UK and American auction rooms.

Marcel DUCHAMP liberated Art from its art and crafts tradition and from technical virtuosity by inventing the principle of the ready-made. At an exhibition of aeronautical technology in 1912 Duchamp was struck by the formal perfection of a propeller and by the relative incapacity of paintings to capture such perfection. Thereafter his artistic curiosity turned towards manufactured – "already made" - objects. At the hands of Duchamp, industrial objects were stripped of their primary utilitarian function and transformed by his artistic choice into works of Art, thereby reflecting Leonardo da Vinci's old adage that art is essentially a cosa mentale (a mental thing).

Of French nationality, Marcel Duchamp chose to live in the United States and the UK/US markets partly reflects this choice by generating 90% of sales revenue on only 50% of total transactions. Duchamp began his artistic career in France and exhibited his first ready-made in New York - the famous Fountain urinal - that was refused by the Society of Independent Artists in 1917. The French market nevertheless hosts 40% of the total number of sales of the artist's works which come up for sale on a regular basis.

Marcel Duchamp began his career as a painter, but most of his paintings are already on museum walls. To obtain one of his pieces, art buyers have to look elsewhere – essentially sculptures, drawings, photos and prints. For example, the work Prière de toucher, created for the cover of the catalogue Le Surréalisme in 1947, was offered for sale on 16 May 2002 at Neumeister (Munich) for EUR 8,000, but did not find a buyer. His Rotoreliefs are even more affordable. These are cardboard disks with printed spirals that produce a kind of optical illusion. On 6 June last, the series of Rotoreliefs (a total of 100 were printed) sold for EUR 5,866 at Artcurial in Paris, whereas the same series had previously changed hands several times for as much as EUR 10,000 (9 May 2006 at Blindhouse Casa d’Arte in Naples, and 6 October 2005 at Sotheby’s in Paris). In the spirit of the ready-mades, the Bouche-évier, cast in bronze in 1964, and also produced in a series of 100, generally sells for between 3 and 5 thousand euros. At Christie's Amsterdam showroom, one sold for EUR 4,200 in 30 May of this year. These small 3-dimensional pieces are often less expensive than a lot of Duchamp's prints. In fact, a 1964 etching entitled Un robinet original révolutionnaire, from which 100 proofs have also been printed, sold for EUR 5,800 at Sotheby’s Paris on 6 July 2006.

The original ready-mades have practically all disappeared. Either lost or broken during the artist's lifetime Duchamp decided to reproduce some of his works. In 1964 he accepted a proposition from Arturo Schwartz to reproduce 8 copies of 13 ready-mades. Several were acquired by major museums such as the Centre Georges Pompidou de Paris, and they are considered as "originals". Very few of these pieces change hands and it is rare to see more than one ready-made at a public auction. Hence the historic nature of the New York sale of 13 May 2002 when Philips, De Pury & Luxembourg offered a total of 11 ready-mades. Nothing like it had ever occurred before. Indeed, it was at that session that Roue de bicyclette confirmed its highest bid for a Duchamp work: USD 1.6m (EUR 1.75m), a price already reached on 17 November 1999 at Sotheby’s NY for the famous Fountain of 1917. The other ready-mades sold for between EUR 100,000 and 300,000 on average. While the ready-mades fetch high prices (90% go for at least EUR 100,000), Duchamp's other works remain relatively affordable.

Boosted by the statistics of the New York auction on 13 May, 2002, Marcel Duchamp's price index shot up 135% over 24 months. However since then, with no highly publicized sales to stimulate prices, his price index has tended to stabilize.

Cubist sculpture [Aug 06]

As a Fine Art segment, the price index for Cubist sculpture contracted in 2005, but seems to be growing again this year.

Cubism was born in 1907 with the Demoiselles d’Avignon, and it begat various different cubist periods from Cézanienne to Analytical to Synthetic, with the use of different materials. Pablo PICASSO and Georges BRAQUE deconstructed shapes, mixed points of view, geometrised drawings. As of 1912, sculptors like Alexander ARCHIPENKO, Henri LAURENS, Jacques LIPCHITZ, Louis MARCOUSSIS, Jean METZINGER, Gustave MIKLOS, Jozsef CSAKY, Jean LAMBERT-RUCKI, Alexandre NOLL, and Jan & Joël MARTEL were all inspired by cubist theories. The broad range of styles of the different artists makes cubist sculpture a highly rich segment, and it lasted until 1955.

Indeed, Cubism was not just a flat phenomena; it was also expressed in three dimensions. Cubist sculpture derives from the geometrical experiments of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. After a morose period in the 1990s, this market has regained dynamism since 2000 and its price index has doubled since that date.
The members of the founding clique of cubism and of the "Section d'Or" remain the most sought-after artists. These artists, such as Braque, Picasso and Archipenko, have left a huge volume of sculptures and the prices for these works have been climbing sharply since the beginning of 2006. For example, Archipenko's works have tripled in price since 2004 and sales of Picasso's cubist sculptures for around 30 to 40 thousand euros are showing a very low bought-in rate (15%). Interest for the post-cubist works of these artists is just as strong as for the sculptures produced during the cubist movement.

The increasing rarity of the works is stimulating prices; this is notably the case for Marcoussis and Miklos. Only 5 Marcoussis sculptures have been sold over the last 10 years. The latest work, Composition, sold for EUR 20,000. In the case of Gustave Miklos, on 1 June 2005 his bronze entitled Jeune Fille, a unique piece from 1927, estimated at EUR 180-200 thousand euros, finally sold for EUR 1.4 million at Mouel-Cabinet Camard! This record was followed by three others at Christie's June sales this year. Divinité Solaire, a gold plaster work, sold for EUR 38,000 tripling its estimate, and Jeune Homme au repos appuyé sur un coude sold for EUR 28,000, although estimated at EUR 15-20,000. The last, Tête de Femme from 1929 went under the hammer for EUR 260,000 after being estimated EUR 100-150,000, a very surprising price considering that this bronze had been bought-in twice at sales in February and December 2001 (Christie’s Paris, 8-9 June 2006).

The most sought-after themes are women and the human body in general. The highest sales in 2006 involved geometrical representations of naked human torsos and bodies. Works like Portuguese: Woman Standing from 1916 or Flat torso from 1914 recently changed hands for EUR 130,000 and EUR 230,000. Leaving aside thematic preferences, the most sought-after sculptures are unique works (single productions) made with rarer materials such as the oxidised copper or exotic wood pieces by Lambert-Rucki and Noll. Although, the price index of these artists is tending to remain flat or even to contract, with high bought-in rate of 45-50%, it is nevertheless rising for their rarer works: At the record sale hosted by Tajan in November 2001, Totem, masques et sphères, a sculpture in oxidized copper and polished steel sold for EUR 114,337. Likewise, a sculpture in mahogany from 1955 by Noll sold at Sotheby’s NY on 14 June 2006 for EUR 140,000, a good price considering that the work was bought in at a number of previous auctions.

The start of 2006 saw the initiation of an upward price trend that has been confirmed by the record sale at Christie’s Paris offering a broad selection of sculptures by Miklos on 8 and 9 June last. Likewise, Archipenko recorded 7 superb results at the Sotheby’s NY sales on 3 and 4 May 2006: the hammer fell at USD 45,000 for a bronze from 1916 entitled Femme Debout, and at USD 350,000, for Large Dance, a bronze from 1912.
Other cubist sculptors like Laurens, Lipchitz , Metzinger or even Jan and Joël Martel have seen a constant and positive evolution of their price indices over the last ten years. The annual revenue generated by the Martel Brothers, for example, have grown from EUR 10,000 to EUR 440,000 in a decade.

Successful launch of Artprice Decorative Arts [Aug 06]

Artprice Decorative Arts®, the online marketplace for furniture, design, antiques, ceramics, collections, clocks and watches, military memorabilia and objets d’art, was launched two months ahead of schedule on 9 July 2006. Initial results confirm strong demand and Artprice’s powerful reputation in a market that is twelve times the size of the fine art market by turnover. The full data base of 90 million sale results complete with images will soon be available. This new venture means that Artprice can now cover 90% of the market for catalogued auction sales.

Through its two standardised and unified marketplaces, Artprice is now equipped to handle any artistic artefact put up for sale in the world, either at auction or over the counter, and is ready to turn itself into the benchmark platform for the world’s auction houses who wish to migrate online and take advantage of the internet’s leading art dealing community. With its 1.1 million members (based on member log-ins) and standardised classification of cultural artefacts, Artprice now offers the best service available for both buyers and sellers. On 1 August 2006 the Artprice marketplace was running 43,048 real-time ads, compared to an equivalent 13,021 the previous year. Artprice’s online market has grown at an average rate of 10.5% per month (+230% over the year)

This growth is confirmed by:

- Unique visitor traffic up by 86.7% in a year.

- A 432% rise in Average Visit Length over 18 months mirroring the development of the marketplace.

- Strong growth in Artprice Stores, the professional version of the small ads site where art market players can deal live on a standardised marketplace. The concept was launched in June 2005 and Artprice now hosts 11,669 stores.

- Exceptional growth in the market for art at auction. Compared to the first half of 2005, the proceeds of global fine art sales have grown by 48.2%. The market has quadrupled in ten years.

Artprice’s performance has made it world leader in the fine art market. In 2005, according to the latest annual report by the French auction market authority, the Conseil des ventes volontaires de meubles aux enchères publiques (see p.34, French Documentation), Artprice offered art works worth EUR 1.3 billion for sale. This puts it ahead of the leading global auction houses for fine art. The Artprice marketplace has been expanded to include furniture and the decorative arts since 9 July 2006. Given the structure of this market, Artprice expects to double the current number of Artprice Stores by the end of the year. Total daily adverts on the Artprice marketplace by 31 December 2006 are forecast at 90,000.

In January 2005, Artprice offered art market players a new and original model where they could buy and sell art, away from the classic channels of galleries, dealers and auctions. Within eighteen months the combination of penetration pricing, while remaining in operating and net profit, and a standardised advertising process had made Artprice the world’s leading marketplace for works of art. Thanks to a well-judged pricing policy the group was able to reach both its target audiences: professionals and, crucially, the wider public.

New avenues of growth:

Artprice’s marketplace, now expanded to include antique furniture and design, is the daily meeting point for the world’s leading art market community. Artprice members, besides trading, take advantage of the recognition of the market’s leading site, to share their passions for collection. There are now 1.1 million members and their numbers are growing by 10.4% per month.

Looking beyond the rising trading volumes, the needs of this community are continuously diversifying. Artprice therefore plans to create themed forums for its members with instant and secure e-mail. Artprice members will also be able to use an interactive database where anyone can freely post their events.

In light of the rise of on-line advertising Artprice will, for the first time, in September throw open all its services to advertisers and its partners in the art market.

Artprice will be addressing the Chinese market in 2006 following modifications to legislation that increase its transparency. China may well overtake France in 2006 as the number three art market in the world rankings. This revolution will naturally impact Artprice’s sales in the Chinese market.

Artprice has completed its new purpose-built data bases for the value added services of the leading search engines, including pay per unit facilities.

Avalanche of records at auction [Aug 06]

A massive 6,130 artists have set new records at auction in the 2006 spring/summer season alone. And no fewer than 102 have broken the million dollar barrier this year.

Download the list of the 100 top records of the season

The biggest record sale this season was for a view of Venice by William TURNER, knocked down for USD 32 million on 6 April 2006 at Christie’s. The master English landscapist repeated the feat in June with a record for a watercolour of GBP 5.2 million (USD 9.8 million) paid for the luminous Blue Rigi, Lake of Lucerne, Sunrise. Turner’s overall index has doubled in ten years. London has seen a swathe of record sales this year. Of the 102 record prices to exceed a million dollars, 48 were at UK auctions. The artists commanding the biggest bids were modern masters such as Egon SCHIELE (GBP 10.5 million), Chaïm SOUTINE (GBP 7 million) and Edvard MUNCH (GBP 5.5 million). In Switzerland, the highest record was for Ferdinand HODLER whose Am Genfersee (Landschaftlicher Formenrhythmus), dated circa 1908, reached CHF 4.4 million at Sotheby’s Zurich on 31 May. In Hong Kong, the top price was for a Yu SAN: HKD 25 million for Pink Lotus, once again at Sotheby’s. And it was the same auctioneer, this time in France, that sold a Pierre SOULAGES for EUR 1.06 million on 6 July.