3 Eye-Opening Facts About the Life and Work of the Beloved, Tormented, and Widely Misunderstood Painter Francis Bacon
French writer Yves Peyré has published new information about his artist friend in a recent monograph.
English painter Francis Bacon, January 1984. Photo: Ulf Andersen/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images.
Fans of Francis Bacon, rejoice: a new publication by the French poet and author Yves Peyré,
Francis Bacon Or the Measure of Excess, out now from ACC Art Books, offers a touching and intimate tribute to the Irish-born English painter who has become one of the most sought-after artists in history.
Bacon’s torqued figurative depictions of close friends, lovers, animals, and historical figures clearly struck a nerve with collectors early on, and the desire for his work has only increased over the decades. Many of the artist’s top prices have been realized in the past decade alone, including one of the top-selling works of 2020, Bacon’s
Die teuersten Kunstwerke in internationalen Auktionen 2020
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© Sotheby’s
It’s been a tough year for auction houses. The “big three” – Christie’s, Sotheby’s and Phillips – suffered a combined 79% drop in revenue for the second quarter of 2020 compared with the same three months in 2019, according to art market analytics firm Pi-eX. Spring is usually a busy period on the art-market calendar, but the dearth was hardly surprising given the pandemic. The first wave saw art fairs and galleries around the world close, while hammers fell silent as auction sales retreated online. But therein lay the silver lining. Sotheby’s says its online sales grew “a staggering” 540% year-on-year in the seven months to August, while the average lot value at online sales has “more than doubled” to $20,000 compared with last year.
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What a $32m dinosaur can tell us about this yearâs art auctions
Although the top of the auction market is never a great indicator of how the art market is doing.
By James Tarmy, Bloomberg
20 Dec 2020 00:38
A Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur fossil know as Stan is displayed in a gallery at Christie s auction house in New York on September 17, 2020. Image: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
During a lovely spring week in May 2019, in what now feels like the halcyon days of pre-Covid life, seven paintings and three sculptures sold for a brisk $605 million.
Flash forward to this year, when it took 12 months and a 67-million-year-old dinosaur to amass top 10 results that still only managed to total $408 million.
Specialists bidding in New York during Sotheby s Contemporary evening sale in June © Julian Cassady Photography LTD
Sotheby’s year end revenue has edged ahead of Christie s, reporting total global sales of over $5bn compared to Christie s $4.4bn (£3.4bn). But as both auction houses are now private companies, their profit margins are not known.
Somewhat remarkably for a year ruptured by a global pandemic, Sotheby s total sales are up from $4.8bn in 2019, (though likely still lower than its $5.3bn tally in 2018). Meanwhile, Christie’s turnover is $600m lower than its rival at $4.4bn, 25% lower than last year, which it attributes to a drop in live auction sales. Christie’s chief executive Guillaume Cerutti has described 2020 as “a shock and a catalyst”.
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