Death and Art

By Donna Rae Wisor
As published in the Beaumont Enterprise 2007

In the world of art, the big money is in death, to a salesman.

Three of the top auction houses in the country hit record sales with contemporary art this week just days after the death of one of the artworld's greats, according to Artinfo.com. Rauschenberg, a contemporary of Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol died Monday at his Captiva Island studio in Florida at 82.

Two days after his death, Rauschenberg's 1963 oil-and-silkscreen canvas “Overdrive,” sold for $14.6 million, according to Sotheby's Contemporary Art Evening Auction, New York, Website. “Red Body,” his pencil, gouache and solvent transfer on paper dated 1969, sold for $993,000, exceeding the estimated selling price of $500,000 to $700,000. And “Slug,” sold for $2.84 million, a 1961 combine painting estimated to sell between $3 and $4 million.

It's hard to say what that means when you consider that only three years ago in2005, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, purchased his 1955 masterpiece, "Rebus," for about $30 million from French billionaire Francois Pinault.

The sale of a billboard-scaled Andy Warhol, Detail of the Last Supper for $9.5 million, was reported as a "mild distraction" Wednesday, compared to a sizzling duel over a Francis Bacon which went to an anonymous European telephone bidder for a record $86.28 million. The gavel went down at Christies Tuesday, on a 1995 Lucious Freud for $33.64 million, making it the most expensive work by a living artist ever sold.

All of those record numbers do mean something.

"The contemporary art market is booming," said Beaumont local and internationally-known artist Keith Carter, whose works have also been sold at Southebys.

Carter chalks it up to the economy and said there is nowhere to put your money right now.

"If you invest in a piece with a good pedigree, the returns are staggering," he said.

This is almost always the case if an artist dies.

"Unless there was a price change really soon before the death, an artists' work begins to sell for more, usually because no more can be produced," said Catherine Couturier director of John Cleary Gallery on 2635 Colquitt in Houston.

"On past artists of his caliber, like Lichtenstein and Warhol and Picasso, obviously they all have increased many, many times over the years," said Jane Eckert, of Eckert Fine Art Gallery, who represents Rauschenberg in Southwest Florida, in an interview with Mary Wozniak in Newspress.com.

Even if an artist never sold their work in the first place, death may result in sales. Just look at Vincent Van Gough who hardly earned enough in his lifetime to rub two Francs together. His fame grew rapidly after his death in 1878, particularly following a show of paintings in 1901. Fastforward to 1990, when his Portrait of Doctor Gachet sold for $82.5 million at Christie's.

The latest Rauschenberg to hit the auction block in the wake of the artist’s death is his famous series “Anagrams ( A Pun).” Signed posters and prints ranging from $990to $9000 can be found on eBay today and do not appear to have changed much over the past weeks. But that doesnt mean much.

"A lot of people, including myself, like to hold on to the work until the market stablilizes. That creates a demand. Right now, like in the case of Rauschenberg, obituaries are being written. Everyone is paying attention, even those who don't usually pay attention ," said Couturier.

Most people are not likely to be able to afford art at these prices. Rauschenberg once quipped, "I can't afford me either."

But he could afford a lot more than Van Gough and more than most artists alive today. The New York Times Reported Tuesday that he had purchased a modest beach house on Captiva in the '70s, working out of a small studio. Before long he became the " island’s biggest residential landowner while also maintaining a town house in Greenwich Village in New York."

In fact, he ended up owning 35 acres and some 1,000 feet of beach front, nine houses and studios, and a 17,000-square-foot studio overlooking the bay.

On the other hand, Rauschenberg did not likely see a penny from the auction houses.

"The auction is what is known as a secondary market," said Carter, admitting he doesn't have much to do with that end of things. "Artists don't participate in the secondary market."

Rauschenberg founded Artists Rights Today (A.R.T.) to campaign for artists to receive a royalty on resales of their art and testified before Congress in favor of royalties. Congress has not yet responded with a law.Other Rauschenberg paintings sold recently:

A portion of the series, which includes 236 paintings created from 1995 to
2002, was sold for $825,000 yesterday at Sotheby’s, according to the auction
house Web site. The vegetable dye transfer art work called “Easel [Anagrams (A Pun)] is created on polylaminate and was expected to sell for between $500,000 and
$700,000.