Female Artists are Full of Promise.
We cast an eye back to the ten most expensive artworks sold at auction in 2023 and rather shockingly, not one was made by a woman. Interestingly, UBS published a report saying that in 2023 female collectors spent an eve age of $72.5k on art whilst for men it was just under $60k on average per year.
Cecily Brown (b. 1969), Can Can, 1998. Oil on canvas. 75⅞ x 98 in (192.7 x 248.9 cm). Sold for £2,218,000 on 7 March 2024 at Christie’s in London.
Despite the headlines, the study found that at the high end, looking at collectors who spent more than 10 million USD per year on art, they actually had more works by women in their collection with an average of 54%. So the spending so far on female artists is very much present, it just isn’t so obvious.
Auction houses, dealers and art historians have realised this discrepancy and are now pushing more female artists to be included in the conversation.
Tellingly the Spring sales at both Christie's and Sotheby's sold some key pieces by the so called fairer sex. At Sotheby's auction records were set by Turner Prize nominee for Rebecca Warren, with her majestic bronze sculpture, Fascia III selling for over half a million pounds. Etel Adnan's abstract canvas sold for nearly three times the presale estimate fetching just shy of half a million pounds.
In the Christie's sale, Gagosian's second youngest star, Jadé Fadojutimi had a beautiful painting sell for one and a half million pounds, against a measly pre-sale estimate of half a million.
Christie's also sold a beautiful Cecily Brown (pictured above) for over 2 million, an Emin neon and some other key works by Caroline Walker, and Christina Quarles.
