Art Fairs
Price Check! Here’s What Sold—and for How Much—at the 2019 Armory Show in New York
Here's what art dealers say they sold at the New York fair (though watch out for number-fudging and other kinds of general sneakiness).
Here's what art dealers say they sold at the New York fair (though watch out for number-fudging and other kinds of general sneakiness).
Caroline Goldstein ShareShare This Article
The art world has officially made it through another marathon fair gauntlet in New York. The booths are packed up, the crowds have dispersed, and we’re left to sit back and take stock of what really went down at the Armory Show’s 25th anniversary edition, which managed to sail through the weekend crisis-free after a rocky start.
As we reported during the VIP preview, canvases by the Philadelphia-based artist Jonathan Lyndon Chase were selling like hot cakes out of Kohn Gallery’s booth, with multiple institutions adding his colorful works to their collections. Fewer six-figure sales made headlines than at other marquee fairs; the top price we noted was $1 million for a Lee Krasner painting at the booth of New York gallery Hollis Taggart.
Nota bene: Sales reports are notoriously slippery. Some purchases may have been finalized long before the fair, while others might only be handshake deals, still waiting on paperwork and cash. But prices themselves are more reliably telling, providing a snapshot of where individual artists stand in the matrix of the art market today. Even here, of course, there is room for slippage: Some dealers occasionally offer inflated figures, while others prefer to report ranges or the “asking price” to obscure the actual selling price, or to cover up favorable treatment that one buyer may have received over another. We did not include reported sales unaccompanied by a price or price range in our list, so the galleries that tend to disclose figures are disproportionately represented here.
Caveats aside, here is a (partial) roundup of notable sales at the fair as compiled by artnet News, helpfully sorted by medium and price. Any sums reported in GBP or euros were converted to US dollars for consistency and ease of reading.
$1 million: Lee Krasner’s Peacock (1973) at Hollis Taggart Gallery
$500,000: Frank Bowling’s Untitled (1968) at Michael Rosenfeld Gallery
$400,000: Michaël Borremans’s Mud Boy II (2019) at Zeno X Gallery
$375,000: Mary Corse’s Untitled (DNA Series) (2017) at Kayne Griffin Corcoran
$270,000: Michaël Borremans’s The Mother (2007) at Zeno X Gallery
$250,000: A new portrait by Kehinde Wiley at Sean Kelly Gallery
$225,000: Imi Knoebel’s Figura P (2018) at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac
$225,000: Jennifer Bartlett’s Path at Marianne Boesky Gallery
$210,000: Frank Bowling’s Remembrance Saturday with Marcia Scott at Marc Selwyn Fine Art
$150,000: Kehinde Wiley’s Portrait of a Florentine Nobleman II at Roberts Projects, Los Angeles
$100,000: Sue Williams’s Empty Strip Mall (2019) at 303 Gallery
$95,000: A painting by Mary Heilmann at 303 Gallery
$90,000: A painting by Rodney Graham at 303 Gallery
$85,000: Mernet Larsen’s Situation Room with Angst at James Cohan Gallery
$65,000: Sam Falls’s Untitled painting at 303 Gallery
$60,000: Llyn Foulkes’s The Mask (2019) at Kayne Griffin Corcoran
$57,000: A work by Nicola Samori at Galerie EIGEN + ART
$45,000: Imi Knoebel’s BIG GIRL E.1 (2018) at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac
$40,000: Derek Fordjour’s Three Straight Locked (2019) at Josh Lilley Gallery
$40,000 each: Mika Tajima’s Art d’Ameublement (Islote Vinilla) and Art d’Ameublement (Ostrova Oktyabryata)(both 2018) at Kayne Griffin Corcoran
$40,000: Nick Goss’s The Loverman (2018) at Josh Lilley
$35,000: Jay Heike’s cloudscape Mother Sky (2018) at Marianne Boesky Gallery
$33,000: David Renggli’s painting from the “I Love You” series at Wentrup Gallery
$32,000: A painting by Landon Metz at Galerie von Bartha
$28,000: Vaughn Spann’s X. No.7 burning man/hands up (2019) at David Castillo Gallery
$24,000: Gareth Cadwallader’s Landscape (2017) at Josh Lilley
$22,000: Meg Cranston’s California (2006/19) at Meliksetian | Briggs Gallery
$18,000: Painter Mary Obering’s geometric abstraction, Cottages in a Misty Time in Autumn, at Kayne Griffin Corcoran
$15,500: A small painting by Winfred Gaul at Galerie Ludorff
$12,000: Ardeshir Tabrizi’s A Man from Isfahan at Roberts Projects, LA
$11,300: A work by Fatma Shanan at Dittrich & Schlectrium
$10,000: Paulo Monteiro’s Untitled (2019) at Zeno X Gallery
$7,000 each: All of the paintings by Florine Demosthene at the solo booth of Mariane Ibrahim
$2,800–30,000 each: All paintings by Naudline Pierre at Shulamit Nazarian Gallery; Swizz Beatz purchased the largest painting for his Dean Collection.
$750,000: A light box by Rodney Graham at 303 Gallery
$260,000: Antony Gormley’s SMALL WAIT III (2016) at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac
$250,000: Tony Cragg’s Untitled (2018) stainless steel work at Lisson Gallery
$225,000: Jeffrey Gibson’s THE POWER WITHIN at Roberts Projects
$160,000: Tom Wesselmann’s Birthday Bouquet (Hat Vase) (1988–91) at David Benrimon Fine Art
$140,000: Mark Manders’s Female Head (2017/19) at Zeno X Gallery
$135,000: Yinka Shonibare’s Statue of Wounded Amazon (after Phidias) at James Cohan Gallery
$125,000: The Haas Brothers’ Big Trouble in Little Foot at Marianne Boesky Gallery
$125,000: Xu Zhen’s Only for You My Love at James Cohan Gallery
$105,000: Ryan Gander’s Het Spel (My neotonic contribution to Modernism) at Lisson Gallery
$70,000: Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Cucitrice (1981) at Repetto Gallery
$65,000: Allison Elizabeth Taylor’s GSENM: The Toadstools #1 at James Cohan Gallery
$50,000: Andrea Bowers’s Migration is a Human Right and No Human Being is Illegal; Women’s March Unity Principles (2017) at Andrew Kreps Gallery
$50,000: Sanford Biggers’s quilt Nomad (2019) at David Castillo Gallery
$48,000 each: The entire booth (12 works) from Leo Villareal’s new series, Instance (2018) at Pace Gallery
$45,000: One of Jeppe Hein’s neon artworks at 303 Gallery
$43,000: An Alicja Kwade sculpture at 303 Gallery
$38,000: N. Dash’s Untitled (2019) at Zeno X Gallery
$38,000 each: Two works from Nevin Aladağ’s “Social Fabric” series at Wentrup Gallery
$35,000: A sculpture by Matt Johnson from 2018 at 303 Gallery
$35,000: One of Mel Bochner’s “comical mirrors” at Two Palms
$30,000: Fausto Melotti’s ceramic piece, Bambini (ca. 1950), at Repetto Gallery
$25,000: A work by Julian Charrière at Dittrich & Schlectrium
$25,000: Zak Ové’s DP42 (2018) at Lawrie Shabibi
$20,000: Holly Hendry’s If Organs Can Live Without a Body it Is Because They No Longer Need a Soul (2019) at Josh Lilley
$16,000: Zak Ové, DP43 (2018) at Lawrie Shabibi
$15,000: Kariya Hiroshi’s OSDLM2018SR50% (Part of project: It’s all about the one piece and millions of others Series: Legend of seeds) (1984–2019) at Mizuma Art Gallery
$10,000: Maria de los Angeles RJ’s Medula (2018) at David Castillo Gallery
$10,000: Zak Ové’s Resistor Transistors 6 (2017) at Lawrie Shabibi
$8,500 each: Katy Cowan’s (stray variation) Variation (2019); (as listening) Position (2019); (content/content sedimentation) Position (2018), all at Philip Martin Gallery
$6,700: A work by Alfredo Aceto at Dittrich & Schlectrium
$6,500: Katy Cowan’s (under; sediment) apotential (2019) at Philip Martin Gallery
$3,500–4,500 each: 12 ceramic pieces by Brian Rochefort at Van Doren Waxter
$150,000–200,000: Joan Mitchell’s Tree (ca. 1967) at Helwaser Gallery
$110,000: Jorinde Voigt’s Immersive Integral Midnight (2018) at David Nolan Gallery
$90,000: Robert Longo’s Study of Fireworks (2017) at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac
$85,000: Robert Longo’s Study of Flag with Black Square (2017) at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac
$65,000: Robert Longo’s Study of Fog + Forest (2017) at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac
$55,000: A monoprint by Mel Bochner at Two Palms
$50,000: Hank Willis Thomas’s Bifocal at Kayne Griffin Corcoran
$40,000: Mickalene Thomas’s Raquel with Les Trois Femmes at Yancey Richardson Gallery
$40,000: Xaveria Simmons’s Sundown (Number Nineteen) (2019) at David Castillo Gallery
$36,000: Per Barclay’s Vannhus Centre d’Art Contemporain de Vassiviere (1995–2001) at OSL Contemporary
$36,000: Sol LeWitt’s Untitled (1994) at David Benrimon Fine Art
$35,000: Mickalene Thomas’s A Moment’s Pleasure in Black and White at Yancey Richardson Gallery
$30,000: Ori Gersht’s New Orders, Evertime 11 at Yancey Richardson Gallery
$28,000 each: A five-edition work by Roe Ethridge, Cat With Yarn Ball (2017), at Andrew Kreps
$28,000: Mickalene Thomas’s Hot! Wild! Unrestricted! at Yancey Richardson Gallery
$27,000: Ben Enwonwu MBE’s Anani (1957) at TAFETA
$24,000 each: Jorinde Voigt’s Immersion VIII (2018) at David Nolan
$22,000: Todd Gray, Shimmer (2019), at Meliksetian | Briggs Gallery
$15,000: A work by Robert Lazzarini at Dittrich & Schlectrium
$15,000: A drawing by Antonio Calderara at Galerie von Bartha
$14,000: Zanele Muholi’s Khala, Womens Jail, Constitution Hill, Johannesburg at Yancey Richardson Gallery
$14,000: Two pieces by Paul Mpagi Sepuya at DOCUMENT Gallery, acquired by trustees of the Whitney Museum
$14,000: Another pair of works by Paul Mpagi Sepuya at DOCUMENT Gallery, acquired by trustees of the Guggenheim Museum
$14,000: Zanele Muholi’s Sindile II, Room 206 Fjord Hotel, Berlin at Yancey Richardson Gallery
$12,500: Ori Gersht’s New Orders, Evertime 01 at Yancey Richardson Gallery
$12,500: Liza Ryan’s White Line (2017) at Kayne Griffin Corcoran
$12,000: An etching by Elizabeth Peyton at Two Palms
$11,300: Tony Cragg’s Untitled pencil drawing (2003) at Lisson Gallery
$11,300: A work by Asger Carlsen at Dittrich & Schlectrium
$10,000 each: Jorinde Voigt’s Ludwig van Beethoven/ Sonate Nr. 28 (Opus 101) (2012); Ludwig van Beethoven/ Sonate Nr. 14 (Opus 27 Nr. 2) (2012); and Jorinde Voigt’s Ludwig van Beethoven/ Sonate Nr. 14 (Opus 27 Nr. 2) (2012) at David Nolan
$10,000 each: Two prints by Mel Bochner at Two Palms
$10,000: Zanele Muholi’s S’manga, Amsterdam at Yancey Richardson Gallery
$10,000: Zanele Muholi’s Zank’zizwe, Green Market Square at Yancey Richardson Gallery
$10,000: Zanele Muholi’s Misiwe III, Biljimer, Amsterdam at Yancey Richardson Gallery
$9,500: Rachel Perry’s Lost in My Life (Fruit Stickers Reclining) (2018) at Yancey Richardson Gallery
$7,000: Liza Ryan’s Lit at Kayne Griffin Corcoran
$4,000 each: Two small-scale watercolor monotypes at Two Palms