Sotheby's Contemporary Day Auction Recommendations

By Chadwick Ciocci

CEO / Founder

Chilton & Chadwick

Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Day Auction in London on June 29 is a fantastic opportunity to start or add to your art collection at reasonable price points. The auction house has works available by Calder, Warhol, Dubuffet and many others.

As always, acquiring a work of art or real estate should always be done at the lowest possible point so as to maximize future equity. We recommend works we would add to our own collection or to our clients’ collections at a maximum price point. The auction house’s estimate is noted below the title of each piece, and our acquisition price recommendation is at the end of each section.

Chilton & Chadwick offers art advising and acquisition services. If you are interested in discussing any aspect of the art market, please do not hesitate to reach out. Contact information is at the end of this article.

Below are our recommendations.

Alexander Calder

Blue Counterweight, Two Spines (1975)

Estimate: $364,000 – 509,000

Calder mobiles are at once beautiful and recognizable, and are a necessity for any sophisticated collection. They are also extremely popular right now – even more so than just a year ago – which can mean two things: 1. You risk overpaying because of a generally heated market or 2. If you can acquire his work at the right price, you now have something valuable and in high demand on your hands that can usually be easily offloaded.

This mobile is a beautiful example of his work and at 16 x 11 x 6 inches, its size means you can easily incorporate it in to your home, designs and move it easily. This piece is a little rougher than many of the artist’s other works. By that we mean it doesn’t exemplify the precision of application we see in many of his other works, but that makes it all the more interesting. And when we consider that this piece was executed in 1975 – just one year before his death – said lack of precision suddenly doesn’t seem so lacking, but all the more incredible considering his advanced age.

We recommend acquiring this work below $400,000.

Andy Warhol

Mao (1974)

Estimate: $655,000 – 946,000

Warhol is well known for his portraits of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, Jackie Kennedy and Liza Minelli. His Mao portraits may be slightly less well known, but they are all the more interesting. President Nixon’s visit to China in 1972 prompted the artist to return to painting – something he had taken respite from in favor of film and photography. Painting, thought Warhol, would be the best medium to portray one of the icons of totalitarianism in the 20^th century.

Although the artist claimed this work was not political - ”Since fashion is art now and Chinese is in fashion, I could make a lot of money. Mao would be really nutty… not to believe in it, it’d just be fashion.” – but it is precisely Warhol’s ability to employ art and the capitalist system to benefit from this communist dictator’s image that most impresses us and draws us to the work. Mao’s image was plastered all over China so as to simultaneously inspire fear and loyalty amongst his people. That the very same image could be produced in the United States as art, and not for totalitarian reasons, is so very fascinating.

We recommend acquiring this work at no more than $1,500,000. 

Andy Warhol

Dollar Sign (1980)

Estimate: $364,000 – 509,000

Warhol’s dollar sign is as iconic as his portraits. Our recommendation for why to buy this work isn’t complicated at all: to own and display both Mao and Dollar Sign together, in a beautiful contrasting yet complimentary way, would make not only for a visually appealing and stunning display but is the height of sophisticated art collection: combining works because of their relationship to one another within the confines of a collection which has been put together purposefully, and not randomly.

We recommend acquiring this work up to $550,000.

Alexander Calder

Spirale (1972)

Estimate: $36,000 – 51,000

We have spoken of Calder already, but we are particularly attracted to this painting because of its vibrancy and because displaying it in proximity to the earlier mobile creates a fascinating visualization and realization of just how talented Calder was. The mediums may be completely different – one is a painting on paper, the other a metal, moving mobile – but yet instantly one can tell they are of the same hand.

We recommend acquiring this work as close to the low estimate of $36,000 as possible.

Gunther Forg

Untitled

Estimate: $146,000 – 218,000

He may not be Mark Rothko, but Gunther Forg is still a master abstract expressionist and his color formations still draw viewers in in an emotional and visceral way. This work is radically different than what we have recommended thus far, but diversity is a necessity for any complicated collection.

We recommend acquiring this work below $200,000.

                                          

If you are interested in discussing acquiring or selling art, or if you have questions about the market, please reach our CEO / Founder at Chadwick@ChiltonAndChadwick.com.