At Christie’s, Women Commanded the Market While Rewriting Records

Marlene Dumasâs painting Miss January displayed on screen as the top lot.” width=”970″ height=”546″ data-caption=’Auctioneer Yü-Ge Wang sells Miss January by Marlene Dumas for $13.6 million. Christie's’>

Women dominated Christie’s 21st Century Evening Sale on May 14. Led by auctioneer Yü-Ge Wang and largely powered by phone bids with female specialists, it brought in $96.5 million, with a 92 percent sell-through by lot and 97 percent by value. The sale landed squarely within the revised presale estimate of $77 to $114 million, lowered slightly after four of the forty-three lots were quietly withdrawn. Earlier projections had hovered higher, at $82 to $121 million. As anticipated, guarantees shouldered much of the weight: more than half the works were backed, with seven underwritten by Christie’s itself and eighteen secured by third parties. All told, the result brought Christie’s marathon marquee week total to $626.5 million.

The fireworks on female voices culminated in the sale of one of the evening’s top lots, Marlene Dumas’ Miss January (1997), which realized $13.6 million with fees. Although it sold almost immediately on the phone (likely to its guarantor), the result marked the world record for a living female artist at auction. The piece came fresh to market from the taste-making Rubell Collection.

That momentum continued throughout the auction, with energetic bidding and robust results for contemporary women artists, while activity around male artists proved more muted—save for the other record of the night: Louis Fratino’s You and Your Things (2022), fresh from his recent exhibition at Centro Pecci in Italy, which hammered after several increments at $600,000 ($756,000 with fees).

Jean-Michel Basquiatâs large triptych painting Baby Boom (1982), featuring skeletal figures, halos, and graffiti-inspired linework on raw canvas.” width=”970″ height=”709″ data-caption=’Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Baby Boom sold for $23.4 million. Christie's’>

The evening’s top lot, Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Baby Boom (1982) from the collection of Peter M. Brant, performed as expected—or rather, exactly as prearranged. The large painting, depicting a sacred family trio of the artist and his parents, opened at $14 million and was quickly hammered at $20 million to a phone bidder on the line with Alex Rotter, Christie’s global president. With the room notably subdued, the work sold to what was likely its third-party guarantor, the gavel dropping without fanfare.

Overall, there was plenty of momentum last night, marked by spirited bidding primarily from Europe and the U.S. from the very first lot. Kicking off the sale, an Elizabeth Peyton from the Tiqui Atencio & Ago Demirdjian collection surged to $600,000 in a brisk exchange between women on the phones. It eventually hammered at $1.3 million ($1,623,000 with fees), topping its $1.2 million high estimate.

Just one lot later, Roni Horn’s poetic condensation Opposite of White, v.2 (2007) also found its buyer swiftly, hammering at $900,000 ($1,165,500 with fees) after opening at $500,000. Close behind, Carmen Herrera’s work reached a hammer price of $850,000 ($1,071,000 with fees). Another standout was Cecily Brown’s Bedtime Story (1999), which opened at $3 million and sold for $6.2 million with fees to a woman in the room, following a tense, drawn-out battle with a phone bidder.

Interestingly, and unusually, Christie’s revised the presale estimates of two lots ahead of the auction. Louise Bourgeois’s signature existential fabric head in a vitrine sold for exactly its new low estimate of $1 million, up from its original $600,000. Despite a lackluster result for a similar work the night before, the estimate for Richard Prince’s 2016 Untitled (Cowboy) photograph was also raised, from $600,000 to $700,000, and managed to sell for $1.5 million.

One of the evening’s most electrifying bidding wars, however, unfolded around the archetypal elegance and primordial force of Simone Leigh’s bronze Sentinel IV (2020), an iconic sculpture by the artist, with two others from the same series currently on view at MoMA and the National Gallery in D.C. After swiftly surpassing its $3.5 million low estimate in a flurry of phone activity, the pace slowed to $50,000 increments. The piece ultimately hammered at $4.7 million ($5,737,000 with fees), setting a new auction record for Leigh.

Other pockets of deep bidding emerged around more conceptually rigorous, institutionally proven works. Francis Alÿs’s Untitled (a series of five works) hammered at its high estimate of $350,000 ($441,000 with fees), pursued by multiple phone bidders. Not all fared as well: Félix González-Torres’ iconic light bulb installation was a pass at a $320,000 final bid, and Mike Kelley’s installation, estimated at $500,000-700,000, also failed to sell. The Damien Hirst that followed met the same fate, while the macabre cow head in formaldehyde was sold on the phone to a lone bidder working with Ana Maria. Another of Hirst’s more pointillist works, Veil of Life Everlasting (2017), did sell after auctioneer Wang pushed the pace, quipping, “You can hang it on both sides if you like.”

The Ugo Rondinone Tree also sold instantly on the phone for $567,000 after fees, likely through pre-arrangement. Arthur Jafa’s black-and-white Hulk figure LeRage (2017), which boasts a long institutional resume that includes ICA Miami (2019), LUMA Arles (2022) and MCA Chicago (2023), sold yesterday for $100,800.

Several female artists continued to outperform. Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s painting opened at $400,000 and hammered at $640,000—surpassing its low estimate of $600,000 and selling just above its high with fees. Lisa Brice’s Midday Drinking Den, After Embah I and II (2017), acquired from her Salon 94 show and exhibited in both of her museum retrospectives, was chased by multiple phones to $2.4 million ($2,954,000 with fees). Jenny Saville, who was until last night the auction world’s top-selling female artist with a $12.4 million record from 2018, achieved a mid-estimate result at $1.8 million with fees. Danielle Mckinney brought in $207,000 with fees after a drawn-out bidding stretch. Other strong results came for Julie Mehretu ($3.4 million), Gego ($201,600) and Sarah Sze ($819,000).

European bidders, particularly from Germany and Switzerland, were highly active throughout the evening, most notably on Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Net, which ignited an energetic bidding war and sold for $3 million ($3,680,000 with fees) to a phone bidder with Alex Rotter. Auctioneer Yü-Ge Wang even thanked the buyer in German.

Emma McIntyreâs abstract painting Up bubbles her amorous breath (2022), with swirling pastel strokes, layered color fields, and gestural energy.” width=”970″ height=”854″ data-caption=’Emma McIntyre’s Up bubbles her amorous breath sold for $201,600. Christie's’>

In the final stretch of the evening, Rudolf Stingel’s lot was a pass, but Emma McIntyre’s Up bubbles her amorous breath (2021) reignited the room with a burst of gestural energy. The explosive abstract painting, closing out the sale, drew multiple bidders both online and by phone. Debuting at auction with an opening bid of $30,000—roughly in line with her primary market prices—it ultimately sold for $201,600 with fees, setting a new record for the young artist. The New Zealand-born, Los Angeles-based painter is currently presenting her debut exhibition at David Zwirner, following the gallery’s announcement last year of her representation in collaboration with Château Shatto.

If there’s one takeaway from the evening, there’s not only a shift in taste happening but also the emergence of a broader structural correction. The art world is finally advancing its long-overdue reckoning with the gender gap. Women artists—and the women buying, bidding and leading these sales—are now positioned far closer to the center of the system, especially in the realm of contemporary art.

The May marquee auction marathon continues tonight with Sotheby’s The Now and Contemporary Evening Auction and Im Spazio: The Space of Thoughts.

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