Charles Ray's 'Fashions' Fails to Sell at Christie's Amid Cautious Spring Auctions
In 1996, Charles Ray produced 'Fashions', a 16mm film featuring a brunette in a red dress. This piece was showcased at Christie's on May 14, 2003, with an estimated value of $250,000, but it did not find a buyer. The catalog compared the outdated medium to a ship trapped in a bottle. Born in 1953, Ray had a retrospective in the US in 1998 and set a record in 2000 when 'Male Mannequin' sold for $2 million. Similarly, Felix Gonzalez-Torres's 'Fortune cookie corner' was estimated at $600,000 but also went unsold. A Gonzalez-Torres curtain fetched $1.5 million in 2000. Although Sotheby's had a strong sell-through rate, a 1954 Robert Rauschenberg work valued at $6 million did not sell. Christie's achieved a sale of Mark Rothko's 'White and black on wine' for $16.3 million, contributing to nearly $150 million in total contemporary art auctions.
Key facts
- Charles Ray's 'Fashions' (1996) failed to sell at Christie's evening sale on May 14, 2003, estimated at $250,000.
- Felix Gonzalez-Torres's 'Fortune cookie corner' (installation of 10,000 fortune cookies, estimated $600,000) also went unsold.
- A 1954 Robert Rauschenberg piece estimated at $6 million failed to sell at Sotheby's.
- Mark Rothko's 'White and black on wine' (1958) sold for $16.3 million at Christie's, from a Japanese collection.
- Yves Klein's sponge relief (1958) sold for $5.2 million at Christie's, from the Pinault collection.
- Takashi Murakami's 'Miss Ko' sculpture sold for $567,500 at Christie's.
- Total contemporary art auctions in New York brought nearly $150 million over four days.
- Charles Ray's 2000 sculpture 'Male Mannequin' sold for $2 million, a record for fiberglass sculpture.
Entities
Artists
- Charles Ray
- Felix Gonzalez-Torres
- Robert Rauschenberg
- Mark Rothko
- Yves Klein
- Takashi Murakami
Institutions
- Christie's
- Sotheby's
- Pinault collection
Locations
- New York
- United States
Sources
- artpress —