March saw the start of the Modern British Art auctions for 2023. Although the major Modern British sales for Sotheby’s and Bonhams will not take place until later this year, there has been plenty activity across both provincial and global auction houses to indicate current market trends.
Opening the season was Sotheby’s ‘Made in Britain’: a cross-category online sale featuring 20th and 21st Century artwork including British studio ceramics. Results across all media were positive, as Robert Adams’ Large Slim Bronze No.3 (Large Version) became one of the stand-out lots making £40,640 against the auction estimate of £8,000 - 12,000. Works by Keith Vaughan and Duncan Grant also surpassed pre-sale estimates with Grant’s Portrait of a Young Man (estimate £2,000 – 3,000) and Still Life with Bottles and Lemon (estimate £3,000 – 5,000) drawing competitive bidding, achieving £13,970 and £44,450 respectively. This outcome is somewhat anticipated given recent interest in Bloomsbury artists, including the record-breaking portrait by Grant last October at Bonhams. Equally, the results for Vaughan will be impacted by a forthcoming exhibition at a commercial London gallery this summer and interest generated by high prices achieved at last year's Christie’s sale.
Figurative subjects also proved popular at both Roseberys and Dreweatts. A unique, small-scale Mother and Child sculpture in lead by Peter King made a notable £36,400 despite an estimate of £1,000 - 1,500. Works in this material are considered some of King’s most accomplished, and this rare sculpture with clear academic associations to King’s mentor, Henry Moore generated a great deal of interest from collectors. King’s untimely death at 29 means that few works by the sculptor exist, and therefore is unsurprising that the result marks a new world record for the artist at auction. At Dreweatts, Glyn Philpot’s intimate oil of American philanthropist Robert Allerton (£75,200), Keith Vaughan’s Nude with Folded Arms (£18,270) and Elisabeth Frink’s bronze Horizontal Birdman study (£40,200) all made over four times their pre-sale estimates. Separately, Eliot Hodgkin’s Snail Shell, Onion, Feather, Daisies, measuring just 3½ inches in diameter sold for over three times its high estimate at Bonhams Knightsbridge with several underbidders, including Portland Gallery. Encouraging results were also seen for works by Adrian Heath, Edward Bawden and Ken Howard.
Towards the end of the month, Christie’s held the first of their major Modern British & Irish Art sales. The high quality of works across both evening and day auctions was clear to see, with a focus on academically radical pieces including a rare group of 19 Vorticist works sourced largely from one private collector. Once more, unique sculpture obtained the highest result in the saleroom as Barbara Hepworth’s mahogany Pierced Form (Toledo) led the sale at £3,522,000, just above its suggested high estimate. Totaling £19,277,100, the evening sale saw nine out of the forty-five lots on offer going unsold, including two interior and still life oils from 1957-8 by William Scott, both estimated at £400,000 – 600,000. Though Scott’s works have certainly achieved higher prices in the past, pre-sale values have tended to remain marginally more conservative. The result could indicate bidder hesitation in the face of more ambitious estimates: something we witnessed across several lots due to a lack of depth in bidding. Paintings by L S. Lowry followed a similar pattern as the majority sold towards low estimate. These prices, however, still mark strong results for the artist when considering performance against market trends and not just estimates.
The Vorticist group saw new records for works on paper by William Roberts, Lawrence Atkinson and David Bomberg as well as a new auction record for a Wyndham Lewis artwork (£107,100). From the same collection, J.D. Fergusson’s Submarines and Camouflaged Battleship, estimate £400,000 – 600,000, attained a new world auction record for the artist (£1,074,000).
British female artists also continued to attract demand. Across all houses, Mary Fedden performed consistently with encouraging results illustrating wide interest and demand. Portland Gallery actively took part in bidding for a number of these works, although prices rose above expected top estimates. In Christie’s day sale, Vanessa Bell’s 1920 Flower Study sold for an impressive £78,120, following Roger Fry’s tender depiction of Bell in Summer in the Garden, which achieved £44,100 against an estimate of £5,000-8,000. Jessica Dismorr’s 1934 Portrait of George Barker, set a new work on paper record for the artist at Roseberys (an oil last year broke the artist’s record at Christie’s), while Surrealists Edith Rimmington, Eileen Agar, Ithell Colquhoun and Marion Adnams also reached significant prices. Growing global appeal has been further highlighted by a major new exhibition Surréalisme au Féminin? at the Musée de Montmartre Jardins Renoir, intended to explore and celebrate the crucial role these artists had in developing the Surrealist movement, having been initially dismissed in comparison to their male counterparts.
In 2022, Art Basel and UBS recorded that the Modern and Post-War and Contemporary art sectors accounted for just over three-quarters of the value in sales within the fine art auction market, continuing a 20-year lead of both market share and number of record prices achieved*. This year is undoubtedly still very active in these sectors, and with each season, buyers are coming forward with competitive levels of bidding. It is encouraging to see the number of works on offer at ‘top tier’ quality and rarity are not diminishing, although what is apparent for both trade and auction houses is that acquiring these works has become more challenging compared to past years. Once again there appears to be a positive, albeit relatively unchanging market value for the bigger artist names, coupled with caution towards rising and aggressive estimates. In turn, this has heightened appeal for the ‘lesser known’ artist, and these feel poised to continue setting new artist records as demand grows and while estimates remain appealing to collectors.
*C. McAndrew, The Art Market 2023: A Report by Art Basel and UBS, Switzerland, 2023, p.181.
N.B: All results listed include buyer’s premium.
