Lot 18: HURVIN ANDERSON, “Country Club: Chicken Wire,” 2008 (oil on canvas). | Estimate $700,000-$1 million. Sold for $3,461,916 / £2,648,750 (including fees) RECORD
OVER THE PAST COUPLE OF DAYS, paintings by Hurvin Anderson were featured at Phillips, Sotheby’s, and Christie’s London auctions. The lots garnered record-breaking interest. On Oct. 6, Phillips sold “Peter’s Series: Back” (2008) for $2,387,880 including fees (£1,809,000), an artist record. The same evening over at Christie’s, Anderson’s “Country Club: Chicken Wire” (2008) shattered the fresh record. The 2008 tennis court painting was bid up to $3,461,916 including fees (£2,648,750), establishing a new benchmark for the British artist, according to Christie’s and prior sales results.
The artist’s previous auction record was set on July 1, 2014, when “Afrosheen,” a barbershop painting executed in 2009, sold at Christie’s London for £1,314,500 including fees (approximately $2.2 million).
Anderson is a finalist for the 2017 Turner Prize, the UK’s most prestigious award for artists. Hedging their bets on the market value of the recognition likely encouraged collectors to consign his paintings for sale and undoubtedly influenced their performance. In addition to the record breakers, two additional paintings by Anderson were auctioned at Sotheby’s and Christie’s this week.
British-born Anderson depicts lush landscapes and places of personal and cultural significance, scenes that capture singular moments that speak to history and family memories and experiences. A masterful mix of abstraction and figuration, Anderson’s works channel his British background and Jamaican ancestry.
“Country Club: Chicken Wire” sold for more than twice its estimate. One of Anderson’s most striking and iconic paintings, the green and red image is rife with cultural symbolism. In the exhibition catalog “Hurvin Anderson: Reporting Back,” Jennifer Higgie writes:
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“Chicken Wire” (2008), a painting from the Country Club series, could be read as a vivid study in red and green of an innocuous subject—a well-tended tennis court, surrounded by a garden and a chicken wire fence. It is, however, more complicated than that: membership of Jamaican country clubs in the colonial era was, of course, not for locals: the faint white grid of the fence acts as a very real reminder of the racial and social segregation that was, until very recently, so deeply part of Jamaica’s laws and which must have caused inestimable damage to the national psyche, the residue of which is still felt.
“‘Chicken Wire’ could be read as a vivid study in red and green of an innocuous subject—a well-tended tennis court, surrounded by a garden and a chicken wire fence. It is, however, more complicated than that.” — Jennifer Higgie, Reporting Back
Four artists are vying for the Turner Prize. The winner will be announced Dec. 5. In the meantime, the Turner Prize exhibition is currently on view at the Ferens Art Gallery in Hull through Jan. 7, 2018. CT
READ MORE about Hurvin Anderson in an interview with Culture Type
READ MORE about artist resale rights/royalties here and here.
BOOKSHELF
Michael Werner Gallery published a catalog to coincide with Hurvin Anderson’s recent “Foreign Body” exhibition. “Hurvin Anderson: Backdrop” accompanied the artist’s show at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. “Hurvin Anderson: Reporting Back” was published on the occasion of his survey exhibition at Ikon Gallery in Birmingham UK.
SOTHEBY’S London – Contemporary Art Evening Auction, Oct. 5, 2017
Lot 5: HURVIN ANDERSON, “Untitled (Beach Scene),” 2003 . | Estimate $661,500-$926,100. Sold for $1,178,462 / £890,750 (including fees)
PHILLIPS London – 20th Century & Contemporary Art Evening Sale, Oct. 6, 2017
Lot 6: HURVIN ANDERSON, “Peter’s Series: Back,” 2008 (oil on canvas). Estimate £600,000-£900,000. Sold for $2,387,880 / £1,809,000 (including fees) RECORD
CHRISTIE’S London – Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Auction, Oct. 6, 2017
Lot 20: HURVIN ANDERSON, “Mount Royal (Lac des Castors),” 1998 (oil on canvas). Estimate £400,000-£600,000. Sold for $2,050,356 / £1,568,750 (including fees)
READ MORE about artist resale rights/royalties here and here.
2 comments
John Davy says:
Jun 5, 2019
The guy is a genius. His art makes me cry with amazement.
Paula Fortin (nickname Toca) says:
Mar 10, 2018
Gorgeous paintings!