1. The Reign of Ruscha
American pop artist Ed Ruscha set the record for the most expensive artwork sold at auction this week at $52.4 million and displaced his previous auction record of $30.4 million.
Hurting the Word Radio #2 (1964) is emblematic of his pop art that combined commercial products, typography and satire.
2. A New Record for Tamara de Lempicka
Although there is a long way to go before women have the same recognition as men in the art world, one of the art market's most expensive female artists set a new record.
The portrait executed in 1927 by the emblematic painter of the Roaring Twenties, Tamara de Lempicka, set the new world record for the artist by selling for $13.3 million. Little influenced by the feminine representations of classical painting, Lempicka mastered the art of painting women in a sexualized way while letting their personality and strength of character shine through. The model of The Pink Tunic is none other than Rafaëla, one of the artist's most famous muses and lovers.
3. Boccioni Quadruples High Estimate
Italian Futurist Umberto Boccioni set a new record for his symbolic sculpture, Unique Forms in the Continuity of Space, one of the greatest masterpieces of the Futurist movement.
The goal was to represent movement and fluidity by rejecting the traditional meaning of sculpture as a static representation: Boccioni broke the blocks to convert them into movement, reassembling them into a figure that marches forward, towards a brave new world. Boccioni's original work, from 1913, is at the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Paolo, Brazil, but several other casts were instead created in the following years from 1931 to 1972. Since few are in private hands, these casts are exceedingly rare at market and this one was hammered for $16.1 million, quadrupling the high estimate of $4.8 million.
4. Abstract Expressionism Triumphs
Abstract Expressionist masters like Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still all cracked the top 10 of most expensive artworks sold this week. De Kooning's large-scale Untitled XXII, Rothko's vibrant Blue Over Red and Still's dynamic PH-399 were all executed during seminal periods in their careers and achieved major prices between $20-30 million, though not records.
5. Spotlight on Minority Artists
African-American artists Kerry James Marshall, Rashid Johnson, Charles White and Alma Thomas all far exceeded their high estimates, with the the latter two setting world records.
A particularly meaningful work was White's Ye Shall Inherit the Earth (1953), which depicts Rosa Lee Ingram, an African-American woman, who was accused, along with her sons, of killing a white farmer in 1947 and became a civil rights icon. It achieved $1.7 million, a million over its high estimate, setting a new record for the artist.
