While this year’s London Frieze Week will likely be remembered for Banksy’s viral auction-room stunt, there was lots of action taking place across town under the twin white tents in Regent’s Park, too. Frieze London and Masters—the former dedicated largely to contemporary work and the latter devoted to art from before 2000—saw a bevy of high-profile visitors, from Rose McGowan and Keira Knightley to collector Bob Rennie and curator Beatrix Ruf.
At the end of the day, however, art fairs are about sales. So how did dealers do? 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.
Nota bene: Sales reports are notoriously slippery in the art world. 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.
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.
Eddie Martinez, Florida #2 (2018). © Eddie Martinez, courtesy of Timothy Taylor.
PAINTINGS
$920,000: Georg Baselitz’s Schwarzes Pferd (Black Horse) (1986) at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac
$900,000: Lisa Yuskavage’s Couple in Bed (2017) at David Zwirner
$780,000: A painting by Bridget Riley at David Zwirner
$450,000: A painting by Cecily Brown, Shipwreck (Papillon) (2017) at Thomas Dane
$403,000 each: Three works by Günther Förg at Hauser & Wirth
$280,000 each: Works by Oscar Murillo at David Zwirner
$230,000: Adrian Ghenie’s Untitled (2018) at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac
$212,000: Daniel Richter’s Classic (2018) at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac
$200,000: Adrian Ghenie’s Untitled (2018) at Pace
$180,000: A painting by Suzan Frecon at David Zwirner
$173,000: Rose Wylie’s two-canvas painting, Black Rescue Horse with White Bird Truth, at David Zwirner
$150,000–200,000 each: Two works by the twin brothers behind OSGEMEOS, including The lyrical and Eclipse of the sun (2018) at Lehmann Maupin
$135,000: A large mylar wall work by Adam Pendleton at Pace. The artist’s current solo show at Pace in London has also sold works ranging from $15,000–540,000
$100,000: Keith Tyson’s Entangled Still Life (2018) at Hauser & Wirth
$90,000 each: Six large paintings by Eddie Martinez, who is the subject of a solo show at the Bronx Museum in November, at Timothy Taylor
$80,000: A work by George Condo at Sprüth Magers
$65,000–85,000: Firelei Báez’s Untitled (2018) at Kavi Gupta
$60,000: Brooklyn-based artist William Monk’s painting Three Clouds (2018) at Pace
$54,000: A painting by Bangalore-based artist Prabhavathi Meppayil at Pace
$41,000: Alvaro Barrington’s A Straight Face (2018) at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac
$40,000–60,000: Devan Shimoyama’s Weed Picker (2018) at Kavi Gupta
$36,000: Toxic (2018) by Mira Dancy at LA’s Night Gallery.
$35,000 each: Four paintings by Eddie Martinez at Timothy Taylor
$33,000: Claire Tabouret’s Duel in Sun (Bronze) at Night Gallery
$30,000 each: Two woven paintings by Brent Wadden at Pace
$10,000 each: Two paintings by Julie Curtiss at Various Small Fires Gallery—one to a Korean Foundation and one to the private M Woods Museum in Beijing
$9,500: Hayv Kahraman’s Pussy Donation Box (2018) at Jack Shainman
$8,000–9,200: Justin Fitzpatrick’s Blue Daisy: Whitman (2018) at Galerie Sultana, Paris
$8,000: William Monk’s Weekend III at Pace
$8,000 each: Two floral paintings by Miki Mochizuka at the Toyko-based gallery Misako and Rosen
$2,700–4,250: Petite geometric paintings by Yui Yaegashi at Misako and Rosen
Tatiana Trouvé’s The Shaman (2018). Copyright ADAGP Tatiana Trouvé. Courtesy kamel mennour.
SCULPTURES & INSTALLATIONS
$750,000: A work by Carol Bove at David Zwirner
$746,000: Tatiana Trouvé’s bronze tree trunk installation The Shaman (2018) at kamel mennour
$450,000: Antony Gormley’s cast iron sculpture FRONT (2016) at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac
$350,000: Another work by Carol Bove at David Zwirner
$300,000–400,000: Faith Ringgold’s storyquilt Marlon Riggs: Tongues Untied (1994) at ACA Galleries’ joint booth with Weiss Berlin
$200,000–225,000 each: Two of Jenny Holzer’s works at Sprüth Magers
$173,000: Wael Shawky’s Cabaret Crusades: Relief of the Siege of Antioch 1097–1098 (After Jean Colombe’s ‘After the Siege of Antioch’) (2018) at Lisson Gallery
$160,000: Tom Sachs’s Luggage (Rimowa) (2016) at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac
$150,000 each: Three of Nick Cave’s “Soundsuits” at Jack Shainman Gallery
$118,000: Ryan Gander’s stainless steel and marble resin work Retrospective Study for Dramatalurgical Framework (The fighting Gaul’s next step, with elongated armature) (2018) at Lisson Gallery
$60,000–80,000 each: Two sculptural works by Kaari Upson at Sprüth Magers
$59,000: Haroon Mirza’s Counterfeiting the counter fitters (2018) at Lisson sold to Fortress Contemporary Art Foundation
$52,400: Rana Begum’s No. 794 (2018) at Kate MacGarry
$52,000: A sculpture by Kevin Francis Gray at Pace
$37,000: Rana Begum’s No. 800 L Fold (2018) at Kate MacGarry
$14,000: Laure Prouvost’s mixed-media work, Early Work of Grandad, Found in the Tunnel of History 2 (2016), at Lisson
$12,000: Hugh Hayden’s Hangers #3 (2018) at Lisson
MIXED MEDIA & PRINTS & WORKS ON PAPER
$800,000: Robert Longo’s Untitled (Forever; Hydrangea, Beethoven’s Love Letter #9) (2018) at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac
$600,000: Toba Khedoori’s Untitled (2018) oil on waxed paper at David Zwirner
$375,000: Lorna Simpson’s Blue Earth/Sky (2018) at Hauser & Wirth
$215,000: Rashid Johnson’s mixed-media work Untitled Escape Collage (2018) at Hauser & Wirth
$175,000: An ink drawing by R. Crumb at David Zwirner
$86,000: Laure Provost’s tapestry Ahead of Us (2018) at Lisson Gallery
$86,000: John Akomfrah’s Transfigured Night (2013), a two-channel video installation, at Lisson Gallery
$85,000: Andrea Bowers’s work Believe Women (2018) at Andrew Kreps Gallery
$65,000: A photograph by William Eggleston at David Zwirner
$47,000: Helen Chadwick’s work on display at Richard Saltoun as part of the special “Social Work” section
$24,000: A watercolor by Spencer Finch, Falling Leaf (Oak) (2017), at Lisson
$20,000: Ryan Gander’s screenprint Separating Prototyping Experiences (Museum Selfie Tableau) (2018) at Lisson
$18,000: Derek Fordjour’s Tandem Green at Night Gallery
$12,000: Dom Sylvester Houédard’s helps get things (1968) at Lisson
$10,300: Walter Pfeiffer’s Untitled 1974 (2015) at Galerie Sultana, Paris in the Focus section
$10,000 each: Two works on paper by Loie Hollowell at Pace
$6,000: A work by the Egyptian Surrealist artist Ahmed Morsi at Gypsum Gallery
Lévy Gorvy / kamel mennour, Frieze Masters 2018. Photo by Mark Blower. Courtesy of Mark Blower/Frieze.
FRIEZE MASTERS
$8 million: Franz Kline’s Laureline (1956) at Van de Weghe
$3.5 million: An extremely rare Book of Hours, The Wedding Hours, at Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books of Basel
$1.6 million: Arshile Gorky’s Untitled (Head) (ca. 1936–1942) at Hauser & Wirth
$1.2 million: François Morellet’s Néons 0°, 45°, 90°, 135° avec 4 rythmes interférents, (1963), the artist’s first work in neon, at Lévy Gorvy‘s presentation with kamel mennour. Dominique Lévy said the work was sold to a European institution, and represented a new record price for the artist
$1 million: A plaster bust of Napoleon’s younger sister Caroline Bonaparte by Canova at Robilant + Voena
$850,000: Eric Fischl’s The Bed, the Chair, Crossing (2000) at Skarstedt
$784,000: Andreas Gursky’s Dolomites, Cablecar (1987) at Sprüth Magers
$750,000: Wayne Thiebaud’s Office (1985/87/99) at Acquavella Galleries
$750,000: Guillermo Kuitca’s Den Haag-Praha (1989) at Sperone Westwater
$690,000: An 18th-century painting by Tiepolo at Robilant + Voena
$650,000: Ed Ruscha’s Lemon Drops at Acquavella Galleries
$500,000: Concetto Spaziale Attese (1964) by Lucio Fontana at Robilant + Voena
$400,000: A Richard Diebenkorn work from the “Ocean Park” series from 1976 at Van Doren Waxter
$280,000–400,000 each: Four works by François Morellet at the joint presentation of Lévy Gorvy and kamel mennour
$209,000 each: Two works by Bridget Riley at Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert
$175,000: Richard Diebenkorn’s Untitled (1992) at Van Doren Waxter
$156,000: A group of nine prints by Bernd and Hilla Becher from the “Water Tower” series (1973–2009) at Sprüth Magers
$155,000: Lee Ufan’s painting Correspondance (1993) at Pace’s booth curated by Adam Pendleton
$155,000: An ink-on-paper work by Lucien Freud, The Painter’s Mother (1940), at Hauser & Wirth
$125,000: Richard Diebenkorn’s watercolor from 1958–1964 at Van Doren Waxter
$120,000: Thomas Schütte’s Kleine Geister (1996) at Skarstedt
$100,000 each: Drawings by Georg Baselitz from 1982 at Skarstedt
$86,000: A porcelain wall sculpture by Yin Xiuzhen at Pace
$85,390: A stately sculpture of a seated lion from the mid-second century at Sam Fogg
$85,390: A work of ivory by a south German carver at Colnaghi
$65,000–85,000: Four drawings on graph paper by Lenore Tawney at Alison Jacques Gallery
$65,000: An installation by Song Dong at Pace
$65,000: A pen-and-ink work by Henry Moore titled Portrait of Stephen Spender (1934) at Hauser & Wirth
$60,000: A small Richard Diebenkorn work at Van Doren Waxter
$40,000–80,000: A group of four drawings by Sergei Eisenstein drawn on hotel stationary in 1931 at the joint booth of Alexander Gray & Associates and Matthew Stephenson
$34,600–46,100 each: A few smaller-scale photographs by Andreas Gursky at Sprüth Magers
$3,300–10,000 each: Seven Japanese vases at Oscar Humphries