His abstractions sold in record numbers in New York

The Sotheby's auction house held a triumphant auction of contemporary art in New York. Together they brought in $315 million - noticeably more than the highest preliminary estimate - and included the abstract artist Clifford Steele in the list of the most expensive artists in the world, whose canvas was sold for $61.7 million instead of $25-35 million. With details - TATYANA MARKINA.

The evening auction (which will be followed by daytime sales) brought Sotheby's the third largest result in the “contemporary art” category - $315.8 million, $45 million more than the most optimistic expectations. Two artists brought such a profit to the auction house - the living German artist Gerhard Richter and the American abstract artist Clifford Steele (the same age as Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko).

Four paintings by Clifford Steele from the heyday of abstract expressionism (one of the few art movements that the New World independently gave birth to) came from the Denver Museum. Together they showed how the artist gradually got rid of objectivity, form and space, eventually ending with “color field painting”, which has no boundaries and seems to be accidentally cut off by the frame of the picture.

The earliest painting in the group dates back to 1940 (sold for $1.2 million), the latest - to 1976 ($19.7 million). The peak of the artist’s career was marked by two paintings - 1947 ($31.4 million) and, finally, “1949-A-No.1”, painted in 1949. It was for the latter that a battle unfolded between four buyers, which ten minutes later ended in the amount of $61.7 million. In total, the four paintings gave $114 million.

Eight paintings by Gerhard Richter brought in $114 million, and a new record for the artist was $20.8 million for a 1997 abstraction in blue and purple. Works by minimalist artists (Donald Judd and Dan Flavin) were successfully sold, as usual, any works by Andy Warhol and Francis Bacon were in demand.

Clifford Steele brought triumph to Sotheby's