Seven Opie figures go for five-figure sums and American sales attract stars of big and small screens
When seven Opie figures went for five-figure sums
Spring has brought with it a rash of sell-out exhibitions in London's galleries. The pulp fiction paintings of the Connor Brothers, for instance, previewed in this column last week, sold out before the opening at ￡25,000 each. Meanwhile, a group of seven small figures cast in an edition of 25 (ie 175 sculptures in all) by Julian Opie, currently showing as part of a multimedia show at the Alan Cristea Gallery in Pall Mall, have all sold, at ￡35,000 per set of seven.
Collectors have also flocked to the Grosvenor Gallery in St James's, where the first London exhibition by the young Pakistani artist Ghulam Mohammed opened last week. Mohammed is not a complete stranger to London: two years ago, he won the Jameel Prize (for contemporary art and design inspired by Islamic tradition) at the V&A Museum. Trained in traditional miniature painting techniques, he creates delicate collages of Urdu letters cut from second-hand books purchased in the markets of Lahore. Priced at ￡3,000 to ￡6,000 each, all six have sold, one to a museum in India.
And it's not quite a sell-out yet, but two thirds of the 103 surrealist drawings by 90-year-old zoologist Desmond Morris, on show until June 9 at the Redfern Gallery in Cork Street, have already sold, at prices from ￡500 to ￡2,500.
American sales attract stars of big and small screens
The 20th-century American art collection assembled by David and Peggy Rockefeller was one of the highlights of Christie's recent Rockefeller sales in New York, contributing over $100 million (￡74 million)to the proceeds.
The most expensive pieces of art ever sold
This week's American art sale at Sotheby's does its best to compete, with consignments from two stars of stage and screen - the comedy actor Steve Martin and soap star Patrick Duffy, better known as Bobby Ewing, the nicer, younger brother of the ruthless JR in the hugely popular Eighties TV series Dallas.
Duffy's wife, Carlyn, sadly died last year and he is selling a number of works by artists whom the Rockefellers also collected, including Milton Avery, Andrew and Jamie Wyeth, and Charles Burchfield.