Price Check! Here’s What Sold—And For How Much—at Art Basel in Miami Beach 2018

Here's what art dealers say they sold at the fair (though watch out for number-fudging and other kinds of general sneakiness).

Art Basel Miami Beach. Courtesy of Art Basel in Miami Beach, 2018.

This year’s Miami Art Week launched during a rocky moment in the stock market and amid ongoing fears of a trade war between the US and China. But art fairs have a tendency to feel as if they are operating in an alternate universe, far removed from real life. Inside the newly renovated Miami Beach Convention Center, Jennifer Lopez and Leonardo DiCaprio rubbed shoulders with Blackstone Chairman J. Tomilson Hill and Guggenheim Museum director Richard Armstrong at the week’s flagship fair.

At the end of the day, however, the deals that galleries broker this week have a very real impact on their bottom lines—and can often be the difference between a good year and a bad one. Sales appeared to come in fast and furious during the VIP preview on Wednesday (particularly for brand-name galleries offering brand-name works). By the end of the week, a considerable number of the biggest-ticket items—including a $50 million Rothko—appeared to be left unsold, while some smaller dealers outside the fair’s main section experienced less frothy action than their blue-chip peers.

What follows is a rundown of the fair’s reported sales this year, ranging from paintings that reached the auction-worthy nosebleed terrain of seven figures all the way down to artworks that left the fair for the price of a luxury handbag.

As usual, sales reports are slippery—some purchases may have been finalized long before the fair, while others might only be hypothetical, still awaiting the all-important paperwork (and cash). Prices, however, are far more reliably telling, giving a valuable snapshot of where individual artists stand in the art-market matrix today. Notably, some dealers prefer to report ranges or the “asking price,” to obscure the actual price and, for instance, cover up any favorable treatment that another buyer of a comparable work may not have received.

Here is a (partial) roundup of notable sales at the fair—take it all with a pinch of salt—as compiled by artnet News, sorted by medium and price. Any sums reported in GBP or euros were converted to US dollars for consistency and ease of reading.

PAINTINGS

Courtesy of Art Basel.

$17 million: Pablo Picasso’s Tete de Femme (1917) at Van de Weghe Fine Art

$7.5 million: Philip Guston’s Shoe Head (1976) at Hauser & Wirth; the painting has not been publicly exhibited since it was first presented in 1976

$5 million: Mark Bradford’s Feather (2018) at Hauser & Wirth, now promised to a US-based institution

$3.6 million: Marc Chagall’s Deux ânes verts (1980) at Hammer Galleries

$3.6 million: Lee Krasner’s Bird Image (1963) at Kasmin Gallery

$2.75 million: Philip Guston’s painting Untitled (1969) at Hauser & Wirth sold to a European collection

$2.5 million: Mark Bradford’s Amendment #6 at Mnuchin Gallery

$2.4 million: Marc Chagall’s Peintre au coq rouge (1959–68) at Hammer Galleries

$2 million: Larry Bell’s painting My Montauk (1960) at Hauser & Wirth

$1.4–1.5 million: Jesús Rafael Soto’s Mural Cinético, 1983 at Sicardi Ayers Bacino Gallery

$1.1 million: George Condo’s Listening and Talking (2018) at Skarstedt Gallery

$1.08 million: Georg Baselitz’s Ist das der Weg? at Thaddaeus Ropac

$850,000: Al Held’s Phoenicia IV (1969) at White Cube

$750,000: Bridget Riley, Light Shade 7 (2018)

$750,000: Sean Scully’s STACK GREYS (2018) at Cheim & Read

$750,000: Francis Picabia’s Transparence (Deux tetes) (1935) at Hammer Galleries

$750,000: Al Held’s B/W XIV (1968) at Cheim & Read

$700,000–800,000 each: Carlos Cruz-Diez, Physichromie Panam 309 at Sicardi Ayers Bacino, as well as commissions for two works from the same series.

$600,000 each: Three paintings on aluminum by Carmen Herrera from Lisson Gallery

Approximately $500,000: Franz Kline’s Untitled (ca. 1957–8) at Richard Gray Gallery

Approximately $500,000: Alex Katz’s painting Red Hat (Nicole) (2013) at Richard Gray Gallery

$500,000: Wifredo Lam’s Personnage (1968/70) at Galerie Gmurzynska

$500,000: Robert Motherwell, Mexican Collage at Miles McEnery Gallery, NY

$450,000: Jonas Wood’s Blackwelder Speaker Still Life (2018) at David Kordansky

$380,000: Oscar Murillo’s Manifestation (2018) at David Zwirner

$350,000: Mary Corse’s Blue Black White, Beveled (2010) at Kayne Griffin Corcoran

$325,000: A painting by Henry Taylor at Blum & Poe

$325,000: A painting by Robert Colescott at Blum & Poe

$300,000: Lee Ufan’s Dialogue (2018) at Lisson

$300,000: Jonathan Lasker’s The Price of Being (1993) at Cheim & Read

$300,000: William N. Copley’s Why Are You Staring (1986) at Kasmin Gallery

$250,000–300,000: Markus Lüpertz’s Eurydike (2017) at Almine Rech

$250,000: Ed Clark’s Untitled painting at Mnuchin Gallery

$250,000: Charles Gaines’s Numbers and Trees: Palm Tree 1, Tree #4 Zori (2018) at Hauser & Wirth

$230,000: Virginia Jaramillo’s Epsilon-Endi (1978) at Hales Gallery 

Installation view of works by Mary Weatherford at David Kordansky Gallery.

$225,000 each: Mary Weatherford’s Ice House Canyon, three lights and Ice House Canyon, four lights (both 2018) at David Kordansky

$225,000: Wifredo Lam’s Chant dans la forêt (1968) at Hammer Galleries

$210,000: Daniel Richter’s Dean at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac

$200,000–250,000: Ha Chong-Hyun’s Conjunction 17-20 at Kukje Gallery/Tina Kim Gallery

$200,000: Alberto Burri’s Combustione (1964) at Galerie Gmurzynska

$200,000: Jennifer Guidi’s Offerings to the Sun (Painted Sand SF #1F, Pink, Yellow, Orange Gradient, White) (2018) at David Kordansky

$180,000: Mary Corse’s Untitled (Electric Light) (1968/2018) at Pace Gallery

$180,000: Ron Gorchov’s XUTHUS (2018) at Cheim & Read

$180,000: Jennifer Bartlett’s House: Yellow Roof Left (1998) at Marianne Boesky Gallery

$165,000: Stanley Whitney’s Dream Walking (2018) at Lisson Gallery

$175,000: Amy Sherald’s When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be (Self-imagined atlas) at Hauser & Wirth, sold to an American museum

$165,000 each: Three paintings by Sue Williams—Fluorescent and Flooby (2003); Bindweed and Red (2005); and Golfing at Northwoods (all 2008)—at 303 Gallery

$165,000: Stanley Whitney’s Dream Walking at Lisson Gallery

$165,000: Mary Heilmann’s January Night-Stinson Beach (2002) at 303 Gallery

$150,000: A painting by Harold Ancart at David Zwirner Gallery

$136,000: An abstract work by Karel Appel at Blum & Poe

$130,000–170,000: McArthur Binion’s DNA: Study (2018) at Lehmann Maupin

$120,000–170,000: Hernan Bas’s painting A Boy in Peril (2013) at Lehmann Maupin

$110,000–120,000: Hernan Bas’s Flooded forest (2008) at Lehmann Maupin

$100,000: Sam Falls’s Untitled (Sea Ranch) (2018) at 303 Gallery

$90,000–175,000 each: Three works by Donald Moffat at Marianne Boesky Gallery

$80,000 each: Two works from Young-Il Ahn’s “Water” series at Kavi Gupta

$75,000: Julio Le Parc’s Alchimie 410 (2018) at Galeria Nara Roesler

$72,000: Nina Chanel Abney’s Q&A (2018) at Jack Shainman Gallery

$70,000: A painting by Firelei Báez at Kavi Gupta

$60,000–80,000: A painting by Vivian Springford at Almine Rech Gallery

$60,000–80,000: Angel Otero’s Gap of Time (2018) at Lehmann Maupin

$62,000: Leslie Wayne’s Instructions for Dancing at Jack Shainman

$60,000: A large Shinique Smith painting at David Castillo Gallery

$60,000: Lesley Vance’s Untitled (2018) at David Kordanksy

$58,000: Tala Madani’s Shadow Projection (Animal Hands) 1 (2018) at 303 Gallery

$58,000: Ivan Morley’s A True Tale (2018) at David Kordansky

$50,000–70,000: OSGEMEOS’s Untitled spray-painted work at Lehmann Maupin

$45,000 each: Two works by Jacob Kassay at 303 Gallery

$35,000–40,000 each: Six paintings by Haroshi at Nanzuka Gallery

$30,000–100,000 each: Five paintings by Feliciano Centurión in the Survey section, at Walden Gallery

$30,000–50,000: Claire Tabouret’s Together at Almine Rech

$30,000–50,000: Farah Atassi’s Woman in Sailor Top (2018) at Almine Rech Gallery

$30,000: A painting by Sanford Biggers at David Castillo Gallery

$28,000–72,000 each: Six paintings by Maryan in the solo-booth at Venus Over Manhattan in the Survey section.

$28,000 each: Two paintings by Pepe Mar at David Castillo Gallery

$20,000–30,000: Michael Hilsman’s Lemon Tree with Timepieces (2018) at Almine Rech

$25,000: A work by Vaughn Spann at David Castillo Gallery

$25,000: Markus Amm’s smoky magenta painting, Untitled (2018), at David Kordansky Gallery

$18,000: Armin Boehm, Susanne (2018) at Meyer Riegger Galerie

$14,000 each: Two satirical paintings of world leaders by Vincent Namatjira at This Is No Fantasy Gallery

 

MIXED MEDIA

Chiachio & Giannone, Sin título (2017). Courtesy of Ruth Benzacar Galeria de Arte.

$2 million: Louise Bourgeois’s Femme (2004) at Hauser & Wirth

$1.35 million: El Anatsui’s Almost at Mnuchin Gallery

$350,000: Beverly Pepper’s Black and White, Venice (1968) at Kayne Griffin Corcoran

$250,000: Lynda Benglis’s NAR 1980 at Cheim & Read

$245,000: Rashid Johnson’s mixed media Untitled Escape Collage (2018) at Hauser & Wirth

$235,000: Rashid Johnson’s Untitled Microphone Sculpture (2018) at David Kordansky Gallery

$150,000–200,000: Liza Lou’s beaded cirrus filiformis (2018) at Lehmann Maupin

$140,000–160,000: Nari Ward’s Molt’s Liquor Soul (2018) at Lehmann Maupin

$110,000: Peter Alexander’s I Remember When it was All Orange Groves (2017) at Pace

$108,400: Anselm Reyle’s untitled mixed media and acrylic glass work (2018) at König Galerie

$105,000: Yoan Capote’s Isla (Causa y Efecto II) (2018) at Jack Shainman

$103,000: A tapestry by Goshka Macuga visible through 3D glasses at Andrew Kreps

$100,000–150,000: Nicholas Hlobo’s Ingcambu yemvelo (2018) at Lehmann Maupin

$75,000–100,000: Dorothea Rockburne’s OD. #1 Bykert (1970), which includes paper, crude oil, and nails, at Van Doren Waxter

$75,000: Cecilia Vicuña’s Pongo la Mano al Fuega para ti (1969/72) at Lehmann Maupin

$66,000: Betty Woodman’s Table and Rug (2016) at David Kordansky

$60,000–70,000: Nicholas Hlobo’s Umkhono (2017) at Lehmann Maupin

$60,000: Rodney Graham’s lightbox work, Unused Prop: French Telephone (2018) at 303 Gallery

$50,000: Devan Shimoyama’s Nightshade Harvest (2018) at Kavi Gupta

$30,000–40,000: Mika Tajima’s Negative Entropy (TAE, Electric Arc Pulse Power, Full Width Quad) (2018) at Kayne Griffin Corcoran

$25,000–60,000 each: Eight works by Derek Fordjour at Josh Lilley Gallery

$20,000–45,000 each: Four hand-embroidered silk collages, all from 2018, by Billie Zangewa at blank projects

$12,000 each: Two paintings of women made from paper pulp by Natalie Frank (both 2018) at Rhona Hoffman Gallery, sold to 21c Museum Hotels

$1,500–3,000 each: 20 embroidery works by Chiachio & Giannone from Ruth Benzacar Galería de Arte

 

SCULPTURES & INSTALLATIONS

James Turrell, VARDA (03) (2017). © Richard Tuttle, courtesy Pace Gallery.

$1.6 million: Anish Kapoor’s Untitled mirrored installation at Galleria Continua

$1.2 million: Paul McCarthy’s White Snow Cake (2017–18) at Hauser & Wirth

$1 million: Shell Game (2014) by Martin Puryear, who will represent the US at the 2019 Venice Biennale, sold at Matthew Marks Gallery

$650,000: Alexander Calder’s Pierrot vollant (1976) at Hammer Galleries

$595,000: Robert Indiana’s LOVE (1966/96) at Kasmin Gallery

$550,000: Larry Bell’s glass sculpture Untitled (1967) at Hauser & Wirth

$500,000: John Baldessari’s Scissors (2015) at Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich

$470,000 each: Three editions of Sarah Lucas’s Jubilee (2017) at Sadie Coles HQ

$400,000: Rebecca Warren’s Fascia IV 2011 at Skarstedt Gallery

$400,000: Jaume Plensa’s Maria’s World (2018) at Richard Gray Gallery

$250,000: Larry Bell’s Untitled (1970) at Pace Gallery

$250,000: David Smith’s Menand III (1963) at Miles McEnery Gallery

$239,000: Jeppe Hein’s Parallel Sine Curve (2018) at König Galerie, Berlin

$230,000: Ugo Rondinone’s green pink blue yellow mountain (2018) at Sadie Coles HQ

$200,000: Jack Pierson’s POSITIVE VIBES (2018) at Cheim & Read

$185,000: Aaron Curry’s Multidimensional Dude Complex (2018) at David Kordansky Gallery

$150,000–200,000: Aaron Curry’s Cosmic Bather (2017) at Almine Rech Gallery

$150,000: Huma Bhabha’s GM (2018) at David Kordansky Gallery

$150,000: James Turrell’s Untitled (XXXII G) October 2014 at Pace

$125,000: Evan Holloway’s Shoots of an Inverted Tree (2018) at David Kordansky

$125,000: Peter Alexander’s Time Flies By (2018) at Pace

$120,000–160,000: Kader Attia’s Untitled (2018) incorporating broxen mirrors, ebony powder, and an antique Songhye mask at Lehmann Maupin

$120,000–160,000: Tracy Emin’s I can feel your smile (2005) neon sculpture at Lehmann Maupin

$110,000: Sheila Hicks’s Pockets 1982 at Alison Jacques Gallery, sold to a European museum

$100,000 each: Two 2018 maquettes by Larry Bell at Hauser & Wirth

$86,000: Alicja Kwade’s Formation (2018) at 303 Gallery

$65,000: Isabel De Obaldia’s Metate of the Golden Jaguar at Mary-Anne Martin Fine Art

$55,000: Shahryar Nashat’s Mother on Wheels (Oro Grigio) (2018) at David Kordansky

$58,000: Ricky Swallow’s Hanging Bow with Pegs #2 (2018) at David Kordansky

$50,000: Analia Saban’s Woven Grid as Warp and Weft at Sprüth Magers

$50,000: Mai-Thu Perret’s ceramic headless figurines, Niki (Group of 4) (2015) at David Kordansky

$45,000: Ruby Neri’s Sun Disk ceramic (2018) at David Kordansky

$45,000: Gehard Demetz’s sculpture 21 Grams at Jack Shainman

$45,000: Radcliffe Bailey’s mixed media installation Black Flight (2018) at Jack Shainman

$40,000: Lauren Halsey’s that fuss wuz us (2018) at David Kordansky

$32,000: Brad Kahlhamer’s Survival Chandelier 1 (2018) at Jack Shainman

$28,000: Valentin Carron’s Low low, Lorraine aimless (2013) at David Kordansky

$15,000–60,000 each: Ceramic works by the Haas brothers, who are currently showing at the Bass Museum, sold at Marianne Boesky Gallery

 

WORKS ON PAPER, FILM, PRINTS, & PHOTOGRAPHS

Richard Gray Gallery at Art Basel in Miami Beach. Courtesy of Art Basel.

$750,000: Robert Longo, Untitled (First Amendment) 2018 at Metro Pictures, NY

$600,000: Robert Longo’s charcoal on paper Untitled (Snow Trees) (2018) at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac

$575,000: Mark Grotjahn’s Untitled (Cream Butterfly514 (2004) sold at Hauser & Wirth

$500,000: Robert Mapplethorpe’s Hands (1981) at Mai 36 Galerie, Zurich

$350,000: David Hockney‘s Inside It Opens Up As Well (2017) at Richard Gray Gallery

$350,000: Louise Bourgeois’s UNTITLED (2004) at Cheim & Read sold to a European museum

$240,000–260,000: Teresita Fernandez’s charcoal-based work Untitled (Specter) (2018) at Lehmann Maupin

$200,000: Adrian Piper’s Race Traitor (2018) at Levy Gorvy

$155,000–225,000: A photograph by Theaster Gates at White Cube

$160,000: Man Ray’s gelatin silver print La Prière (1930) at Edwynn Houk Gallery

$150,000: Louise Bourgeois’s SPIRAL at Cheim & Read

$150,000: Walid Raad’s Appendix 137 at Sfeir-Semler Gallery

$100,000: Louise Bourgeois’s Spider work on paper (2003) at Hauser & Wirth

$95,000: Kara Walker’s graphite and pastel on paper White Space (2010) to a private US institution at Sprüth Magers

$85,000: Painting on paper by Richard Pousette-Dart at Miles McEnery Gallery

$65,000 each: All 100 editions of KAWS’s triptych Last Time, Alone Again & Far Far Dawn at Pace Prints; the works were so in demand that the gallery had to offer them via lottery

$55,000: Hank Willis Thomas’s screenprint The St. Augustine Movement (En Masse) at Jack Shainman Gallery

$50,000: Robert Mapplethorpe’s Cock and Gun (1982) at Alison Jacques Gallery

$48,000 each: Two works from Matthew Brannon’s Concerning Vietnam series at David Kordansky Gallery

$32,000 each: Watercolor on paper works by Camille Henrot at Metro Pictures, NY

$30,000: The first edition of Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña’s 75-minute stop-motion feature film La Casa Lobo (2018) at Upstream Gallery

$28,000: Torbjørn Rødland‘s Look What You Did! (2017) at David Kordansky

$19,000: Nancy Burson’s diptych of vintage gelatin silver prints, Method and Apparatus for Producing an Image of a Person’s Face at a Different Age (1976) at Paci contemporary, sold to a foundation in Chicago

$18,000: Kind of Blue #3 (2018) by Paul Anthony Smith, the newest addition to Jack Shainman’s roster

$18,000: Polly Apfelbaum’s The Planet Drawings (2018) at Galerie nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder to a US collector

$6,800: Gareth Nyandoro’s Huku Pano (2018) at Van Doren Waxter

$5,000–13,000 each: 24 prints by Zanele Muholi at Stevenson Gallery’s Kabinett booth.

$4,000–10,000 each: Ten works by Willa Nasatir at Chapter NY

 


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