After a quiet August, the auction house scene in London is starting to pick back up again, with Phillips hosting several modern and contemporary sales this week. While their Evening Edition was good to watch, their David Hockney sale on Thursday, September 19th, drew some attention, for good and for bad. A sale dedicated to a single artist’s work is not unusual. Depending on the auction house, lone sales are often dedicated to prolific artists like Banksy and Marc Chagall. Thursday’s sale is not the first time Phillips has hosted an auction devoted to David Hockney’s work. However, while these sales are normally easy successes for Phillips, this most recent one fell a little short at the end.
Selections from Dog Wall by David Hockney
The sale was relatively successful, with most of the sixty-one available lots selling within or over their estimates. One of the reasons why Phillips can host David Hockney’s sales nearly every year is because of the artist’s extensive output of prints and multiples, including the iPad drawings he’s created in more recent years. The sale’s top two lots consisted of complete collections of such prints. In the number one spot, a series of fifteen etchings from 1998 called Dog Wall is a tribute to Hockney’s dachshunds, Stanley and Little Boodgie. Dog Wall was originally estimated to sell for between £200K and £300K, selling for exactly in between at £250K / $330K (or £317.5K / $420.1K w/p). The second-place lot was a series of sixteen etchings and aquatints called A Rake’s Progress. The series bears the same name as a series of paintings by the eighteenth-century English artist William Hogarth, showing the story of a wealthy young man and his descent into debauchery that lands him in prison and then an asylum. Hockney’s version, completed in 1963, is a more modern take on a similar story inspired by a trip to New York he took in 1961. Like Dog Wall, Phillips specialists assigned the series an estimate range of £200K to £300K. A Rake’s Progress eventually hammered at the low estimate (or $264.6K; £254K / $336.1K w/p).
Selections from A Rake’s Progress by David Hockney
The third-place lot is an example of Hockney’s recent work. The iPad drawing is part of a series of digital drawings Hockney made in 2011 called The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate. It shows scenes along the titular road in Hockney’s native Yorkshire. Hockney would create these works on his iPad before making them into physical prints. Some examples from the series have previously sold at auction for as high as £500K w/p, primarily at Phillips but also at Sotheby’s, Christie’s, and Bonhams. Hockney applies his unnaturally bright color palate to simple landscapes and natural scenes that make forests and country roads unforgettable. Hockney created the example offered at Phillips on April 30, 2011. Phillips initially gave it an estimate of £70K to £90K. However, the print eventually sold for over 50% more than the high estimate at £150K / $198.5K (or £190.5K / $252.1K w/p).
The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011 (twenty eleven) – 30 April by David Hockney
And, of course, the sale was not without its surprises. Four Lots sold for more than double their High estimates, with one example being a work called Swimming Pool Carpet. This is an actual rug Hockney designed, measuring nearly ten by six-and-a-half feet. Although estimated to sell for no more than £7K, interest in the piece pushed the final hammer price up to £18K / $23.8K (or £22.8K / $30.2K w/p). Twenty-one of the sixty-one available lots sold within their estimates, giving Phillips specialists a 34% accuracy rate. An additional twenty-four lots (39%) sold above, while twelve (20%) sold below. Although the David Hockney sale did well in several ways, the total amount brought in fell short of expectations mainly because of a single lot that went unsold. Only four of the sixty-one available lots were bought in, giving the sale a sell-through rate of 93%. However, among these unsold works was another print from the Arrival of Spring in Woldgate series, created on May 16, 2011. While the April 30th entry shows a bush of white flowers, the May 16th shows Woldgate itself. The road is a far more recognizable subject from the series, explaining the pre-sale estimate range of £280K to £400K. With the May 16th print going unsold, the sale overall failed to meet the pre-sale £1.46 million minimum estimate. It did get close, reaching £1.4 million / $1.86 million.