Flash News: Tatiana Trouvé – Christie’s and comics – Piotr Uklanski

[20.03.2015]

 

Every fortnight, Artprice provides a short round up of art market news: Tatiana Trouvé gaining popularity – Christie’s and comics – Piotr Uklanski at the Met

Tatiana Trouvé gaining popularity

The singular work of Tatiana TROUVÉ has been featured in prestigious, trend-setting galleries, Perrotin and Gagosian Galleries, as it happens. This 46-year-old Franco-Italian artist, flush with literary influence, made her artistic debut in 1997. At that time, she was looking for work and started archiving the CVs sent, projects that never came to be, and stereotypical responses of companies. This raw material, built on rejection and refusal, is structured within what is known as the B.A.I., the Bureau d’Activités Implicites (Bureau of Implicit Activities). The artist reconstructs spaces and places from memory, compiling a sound bank with the places she had “awaited.” She ultimately proposes solid work on outstanding things and situations, affirming that “the forgotten have a creative force.” This complex autobiographical work, very rooted in the contemporary world, enabled her to earn the Marcel Duchamp prize in 2007, an important reward that immediately boosted her popularity… The day after her prize was announced, one of her collages doubled its estimate at Cornette de Saint-Cyr, Paris (Harnais (2004), sold for EUR 7,500, or USD 10,730). In 2011, Phillips de Pury & Company sold a first work in New York: it was a huge drawing that eclipsed its estimate to finish at USD 22,000 (Intranquility (N 19) (2007), on 23 September 2011). It’s ultimately at London that a record was set on 13 February 2015. Phillips sold it for more than USD 53,000, an installation previously exhibited at Musee d´Art Moderne et Contemporain de Genève (Untitled (ref: cable 9), sold for GBP 35,000). Tatiana Trouvé’s work is currently being exhibited at the Gagosian Gallery on Park Avenue (the Studies for Desire Lines exhibit runs through 25 April 2015).

Christie’s and comics

After a first sale dedicated to comics in April 2014, Christie’s persists and thrives this year. A long sale has just been organised, in two parts, on 14 March 2015. The first part centred around the theme of Bande Dessinée & Illustration (Comics & Illustration), the second being reserved for the world of Tintin. Result: Christie’s saw global sales figures of 6 million euros including fees. The leading lot was an original plate from 1978, created for the album Le Lotus Bleu (The Blue Lotus). Estimated at EUR 350,000 –EUR 400,000, it was ultimately sold for EUR 480,000 (more than USD 507,000). A good score for this work in Indian ink. It is also the fifth greatest result for HERGÉ at the auctions, the first still holding at EUR 2,265m (more than USD 3m) by the sales company Artcurial, leader of the genre in France (with the sale of Pages de garde bleu foncé, or Dark Blue Cover Pages, on 24 May 2014).

Christie’s has not had any million-dollar bids yet, but the company already holds a few records, including that of the Belgian cartoonist Edgar P. JACOBS, newly signed on 14 March, with an original plate for Blake et Mortimer (sold for EUR 170,000, or nearly USD 180,000). Other good results were seen for Enki BILAL (whose La foire aux immortels, or The Fair of the Immortals handsomely doubled its high estimate to reach EUR 95,000, or EUR 115,500 including fees), and for Enki BILAL, alias Moebius, whose original drawing L’Incal, Ce qui est en haut (The Adventures of John Dilfool) also leaped to double the predictions. Likewise, Moebius also just passed the EUR 100 ,000 threshold for the first time (bid of EUR 125, 000, or EUR 151,500 including fees). Christie’s, who has found its public in this new sales segment, should repeat the experience each year.

Piotr Uklanski at the Met

A Piotr UKLANSKI exhibit just opened at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (through 14 June 2015). Titled Attraction Fatale (Fatal Attraction), it shows a selection of photographic works from the famous museum’s collections. Eros and Thanatos are summoned here in conversations between the artist of Polish descent and other works of the Metropolitan photography department. We recall that Piotr Uklanski is a photographer by training, even if he has opened up the range of possibilities, now expressing himself with widely varied means, including sculpture, collage, performance or video.
Fatal Attraction also underscores the photographic aspect of Piotr Uklanski, who has re-envisioned famous images with a good dose of irony and irreverence. His most celebrated series, titled The Nazis, contains 164 images from the film, reuniting portraits of actors impersonating Nazis. While the work sparked a scandal when it first appeared in 1998, it can reach a million dollars on the market (was bought for USD 1,05m including fees from Phillips de Pury & Company London in 2006). Today it is rare for sales to be proposed for less than USD 5,000 in auction rooms. Allow for a budget of USD 10,000– USD 50,000 for a significant piece of his work.