• John P. O’Sullivan
  

• 
  Spring 2024
  Volume 41. No. 1

• Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin

The highest price paid for an artwork at auction in 2023 was $58,000,000 for Jean-Michel Basquiat’s El Gran Espectaculo at Christie’s, New York. The feted and ill-fated New Yorker’s reputation has waxed and waned since his premature death in 1988, but these days he’s on top of the world. Meanwhile, the highest price paid for work by an Irish artist last year was £900,000 for Sean Scully’s monumental (243.8 x 243.8cm) Wall of Light Red at Sotheby’s in London. This was one of ten works by Scully that yielded more than ₤500,000 in 2023. He is one of our few internationally recognised artists and you can find his work at auction in New York, London, Paris, Hong Kong and Munich. With all those hot markets out there to choose from, it was heartening to find a major work by the Inchicore-born artist consigned to Morgan O’Driscoll in Skibbereen. It is perhaps a confirmation that, on the evidence of recent years, Ireland has plenty of people not averse to spending six figures on art. Raval Rojo (Red Place) was painted in 2004, when Scully lived in Barcelona. He had a studio in the old town there that inspired a series of warm and expressive paintings, such as this one. It sold for €580,000 at Morgan O’Driscoll’s April sale – exactly twice the next-highest sale price at an Irish auction house in 2023 (€290,000 for Glory to the Brave Singer).

The late Barry Flanagan achieved the second-highest price overall for an Irish artist in 2023, when his sculpture Large Troubador (inevitably a hare) went for ₤550,000 at Christie’s in London in March. Those who quibble about Flanagan’s Irishness should be aware that he took Irish citizenship in 2000 and lived in Ireland for lengthy periods – including from 2000 until his death in 2009. Another notable price for an Irish artist in 2023 was the £150,000 paid for Portal by Genieve Figgis at Christie’s in London in March. Like Scully, Figgis operates in the international market and is as likely to sell in Hong Kong or New York as in London or Dublin. She rarely exhibits locally and is represented by the prestigious Almine Rech Galleries, where Jeff Koons is a stablemate. The Wicklow-based artist may have been a flower born to blush unseen if she hadn’t been discovered on Twitter in 2013 by the influential American artist Richard Prince, who bought her work and introduced her to an international market. Such is the random, even whimsical, nature of art fame and, of course, it confirms the importance of social media. Instagram and other platforms are now being used by an increasing number of artists to promote their work and to reach out to an international audience.

Many of the usual suspects were next in line behind Scully in 2023, albeit at a respectful distance. These included Jack B Yeats, Paul Henry and John Lavery. Yeats’ highest price was ₤300,000 for The Donkey Show at Sotheby’s in November. Coincidentally, John Lavery sold at the same price for Ariadne and for A Moorish Harem, both, again, in November at Sotheby’s. (Incidentally, looking outside the British and Irish auction houses, John Lavery achieved $290,000 for The Beach Deauville, Morning at Pook & Pook in the unlikely environs of Downingtown, Pennsylvania.)

There were plenty of Paul Henrys on the market, but none came close to the €500,000 he achieved in 2021 for Mountains and Lake, Connemara. His best price in 2023 was €155,000 for Dooega, Achill Island, County Mayo at Whyte’s. Henry’s Killary Harbour, Connemara also achieved six figures, selling for €110,000 at Bonhams. Also at Bonhams, Margaret Clarke’s winsome portrait of her husband, Harry Clarke, sold for €40,000 – her second-best price ever.

It was a quiet year for both William Scott and William Orpen. Both artists are much in demand, but there were few substantial works on offer. Scott’s best was An Orchard of Pears at De Veres in June, which went under the hammer at €135,000, and Orpen’s Portrait of Yvonne Aupicq as a Nun (Sister X) sold for €125,000 at Adam’s in March. This latter work is given an added piquancy by the knowledge that Aupicq was Orpen’s lover during World War I, when he worked as a war artist in France. She was also his model for many nude paintings. While Scott’s more substantial oils were thin on the ground, there were plenty of his popular prints available. The most notable sale was a silkscreen: Cup, Bowl, Pan – Brown and Ochres, which sold for €9,500 at Adam’s in May.

There were a couple of eyecatching sales at Morgan O’Driscoll in the second half of the year. O’Driscoll had remarked on the phenomenon of people actually queuing outside the RDS in October to view Harry Clarke’s stained-glass work Titania and Bottom at the Irish and International Art auction. The small but exquisite work sold for €160,000 – just €10,000 below Clarke’s world record. But O’Driscoll did achieve a world record with Nano Reid’s watercolour Sailing on the Boyne. It sold for a remarkable €48,000 in July – more than seven times her previous best price for a watercolour, and twice her previous highest for an oil. The painting shows parts of Drogheda that have since been obliterated by development.

Another notable result was the €60,000 paid for Patrick Scott’s delicate tempera work Gold Painting 36 at Sotheby’s in Paris. Only two other works by Scott have achieved more than this.

For Irish artists who are still active, John Shinnors, Donald Teskey and Hughie O’Donoghue continue to do well. Teskey’s top price was €46,000 for Docklands VII at Whyte’s in March and Shinnors’ Morning Interior sold for €38,000 at Adam’s in May. At a more modest level, the elderly and reclusive Waterford-based impressionist Arthur K Maderson continues to sell well. His best result was €14,000 for Dawn Haze Clearing, Study near Dromana, River Blackwater, County Waterford at Whyte’s in October, and most of his many paintings at auction surpassed their guide prices.

In discussions of living Irish artists at auction, West Cork-based John Kelly is often forgotten. This artist, born in England (to Irish parents), schooled in Australia and resident in Ireland for more than 25 years (he lives near Union Hall), is a major figure on the Australian circuit. His painting Blocking In sold for AU$90,000 at the auction house Menzies Art Brands in Victoria in 2023. However, he barely registers on the Irish scene, except for an occasional print sold at Morgan O’Driscoll and a small sculpture sold at the Sotheby’s Irish sale.

Overall results in the Irish art market in 2023 are consistent with the global art market, which has seen a steadying after the heady days of 2021 and 2022. There were good, solid prices for work at the high end, but few records were broken (Nano Reid was an outlier). The post-Covid splurge in the previous two years can be attributed to pent-up demand – both in terms of works released for auction and of buyers keen to get back in the game. If prices have been less spectacular this year, there has been a marked increase in the number of works sold and the general feeling is of a healthy and vibrant scene.

John P O’Sullivan