DALLAS, TX.- Andy Warhols light never fades. The artists iconic 1975 portrait of Mick Jagger, the irreplaceable Rolling Stone front man, took center stage on Tuesday, April 18 during
Heritages Prints & Multiples event. The Picasso-inflected screenprint, signed by Jagger, brought in $131,250, well above its estimate, in a carefully curated sale of significant works on paper by modern and contemporary greats. After a two-hour bidding scrum for only 91 lots, the auction closed past $1.5 million and proved the current strength of this art category with a number of works that admirably outperformed pre-auction estimates, and new auction records for Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat and David Hockney.
Warhol cleaned up, in fact, claiming six of the top ten spots in the auctions final results, which included three of his early Campbells Soup cans: 1968s Onion Soup, Pepper Pot, and Hot Dog Bean each went for $57,500. His 1983 screenprint Sidewalk sold for $32,500, and one of his indelible Electric Chairscreenprints (1971) brought $30,000.
Warhols friend and protégé, the beloved Keith Haring, was the artist behind the lot that realized the second biggest price for in the event and also set an auction record for a set from Haring: His four lithographs titled Pop Shop III, from 1989, sold for $125,000. The work is Haring at his sharpest and most prophetic: The panels tell a loose and rangy (and prescient) tale of humans struggling to control their machine.
Another strong American performer was Joan Mitchells large lithograph diptych titled Sunflowers, which sold for $93,750, outpacing its high estimate by more than $30,000. The Sunflowers series, published by Tyler Graphics, Ltd., was the last that Mitchell printed before her death in 1992.
Warhol, Haring
. Other artists whose last names say it all had a good day on the block: Picassos linocut Grande Tête de Femme, from 1962, sold for $62,500, and Dalís 11-lithograph portfolio Imaginations and Objects of the Future, 1975-76, went for $35,000.
A screenprint after Jean-Michel Basquiat titled Olympic (1983/2017) sold for $28,750 and set an auction record for a single print from this series. Another notable record popped up with David Hockneys 1965 lithograph titled A Picture of a Landscape in an elaborate Gold Frame, from A Hollywood Collection. It sold for $15,000, well above its estimate. Hockneys lithograph Two Pembroke Studio Chairs, from Moving Focus, from 1984, also sailed well past its high estimate and brought $18,750.
We are so proud of another great result this spring. Our top artists are breaking records, and some lots we havent seen on the market in a long time from Hockney and Chagall are getting the recognition they deserve, says Rebecca Van Norman, Heritage's Director of Prints & Multiples. These results show the print market is still strong and Heritage is in for a great year.
It was a truly satisfying afternoon for the category as well as its seasoned and new collectors.