Cape City-born Marlene Dumas has set a brand new public sale document, changing into the most costly residing feminine artist after her 1997 portray Miss January bought for $13.6 million (R246 million) at Christie’s on Wednesday night time.
The art work, a last-minute consignment from the Rubell Household Assortment, had been estimated between $12 million and $18 million, with a third-party assure in place.
Bidding opened at $9 million and shortly escalated, with the hammer coming down at $11.5 million (earlier than charges), prompting applause within the saleroom.
With charges, the ultimate value reached $13.6 million.
The successful bid got here from an nameless phone purchaser.
Deeply private
The big-scale portrait revisits themes deeply private to Dumas, now 71.
It attracts inspiration from Miss World, the primary identified drawing she created at age 10, and connects to her earlier works such because the 1988 Misinterpreted – broadly seen as a self-portrait – and her 1992 survey exhibition Miss Interpreted on the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.
This sale surpasses the earlier document for a residing feminine artist, held by Jenny Saville, whose Propped (1992) fetched £9.5 million ($12.4 million) at Sotheby’s London in 2018.
Earlier than this public sale, Dumas’s highest value was $6.33 million, achieved in 2008 for The Customer (1995) at Sotheby’s London.
Whereas her market has remained regular, solely a handful of her works have crossed the $1 million mark in recent times.
Between 2022 and 2024, 15 Dumas works had been bought at public sale, however solely 5 exceeded $1 million, and simply two surpassed their excessive estimates.
The sale was additionally notable as a result of rarity of deaccessions from the Rubell Household Assortment, some of the outstanding on the planet.
Based on previous statements, the Rubells have bought fewer than 20 items out of greater than 5 000 collected over 5 a long time.
Miss January was beforehand displayed at their non-public museum in Miami throughout Artwork Basel in December.
Dumas’s historic outcome reaffirms her international significance and locations her firmly on the prime of the modern artwork market.
Prime 10 public sale outcomes for Marlene Dumas
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