Price Check! Here’s What Sold—and for How Much—at Frieze Los Angeles 2020

Here’s what dealers say they sold (though watch out for number-fudging and other kinds of general sneakiness).

Artnet News, February 18, 2020

FRIEZE Los Angeles on Saturday, February 15, 2020 in the Paramount Pictures Studios in Hollywood. Photograph by Casey Kelbaugh
A child delights in Will Boone’s sculpture P-22 (2020), presented at Frieze Projects by David Kordansky Gallery at Frieze Los Angeles on February 15, 2020. Photograph by Casey Kelbaugh.

The sales reports from the sophomore edition of Frieze Los Angeles, which opened last week to well-heeled collectors and hangers-on at Paramount Pictures Studios, are in. And though the figures need to be taken with a hefty spoonful of salt, indications at the top end of the market point to a lucrative event for dealers and their artists.

Among the notable attendees this year were A-Rod and J. Lo, art-fair regular Leonardo DiCaprio, singers Usher and The Weeknd, and tennis star Maria Sharapova.

And included in the group of wealthy buyers were people like Ari Emanuel, the Hollywood super-agent who co-founded Endeavor, the megalith company that owns a 70 percent stake in the Frieze fairs (he bought a painting by Jordan Casteel at Casey Kaplan); and Kendall Jenner, who bought a James Turrell work, perhaps on the advice of her brother-in-law, Kanye West.

Below, we rounded up some figures from dealers willing to disclose sales.

Nota bene: Sales reports are notoriously slippery in the art world. Some purchases may have been finalized long before the fair, while others might only be handshake deals, still waiting on paperwork and cash. But prices themselves are more reliably telling, providing a snapshot of where individual artists stand in the matrix of the art market today.

Even here, of course, there is room for slippage: Some dealers occasionally offer inflated figures, while others prefer to report ranges or the “asking price” to obscure the actual selling price, or to cover up favorable treatment that one buyer may have received over another. (We did not include reported sales unaccompanied by a price or price range in our list, so the galleries that tend to disclose figures are disproportionately represented here.)

PAINTINGS

Ali Banisadr, The Serpent and the Key (2019). Photo: Jeffrey Sturges, courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac.

Ali Banisadr, The Serpent and the Key (2019). Photo: Jeffrey Sturges, courtesy Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac.

$3.7 million: A painting by Keith Haring at Gladstone Gallery

$2 million: Neo Rauch, Aprilnacht (2011) at David Zwirner

$1,350,000: Robert Rauschenberg, Bowery Parade (Borealis) (1989) at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac

$866,000: Georg Baselitz, Schwarzes Pferd [Black Horse] (1986) at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac

$650,000: A painting by Carroll Dunham at Gladstone Gallery

$600,000: A new painting by Mark Grotjahn at Blum & Poe

$550,000: Alex Katz, Ada (2018) at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac

$500,000 each: Two new paintings by Jonas Wood at David Kordansky

$420,000: Tracy Emin, There was only The Truth (2019) at White Cube

$350,000: A work by Oscar Murillo at David Zwirner

$350,000: Sterling Ruby, WIDW at Xavier Hufkens

$350,000: Stanley Whitney, Angels on Sunday, Maids on Monday (2019) at Lisson

$310,000: A work by Mary Weatherford at David Kordansky

$254,000: Imi Knoebel, Bild 06.03.2015 (2015) at White Cube

$200,000: A painting by Harold Ancart at David Zwirner

$200,000: A painting by Lucas Arruda at David Zwirner

$175,000: A painting by Ugo Rondinone at Gladstone Gallery

$145,000: Allora & Calzadilla, Electromagnetic Field (2019) at Lisson

$120,000–$1 million each: Five paintings by Lisa Yuskavage at David Zwirner

$100,000: A painting by Richard Aldrich at Gladstone Gallery

$100,000–$120,000 each: Several paintings by Henry Taylor at Blum & Poe

$100,000: A Josh Smith painting at Xavier Hufkens

$100,000: Ali Banisadr, The Serpent and the Key (2019) at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac

$85,000–$495,000 each: All five of Avery Singer’s new works shown at Hauser & Wirth

$75,000: A painting by Anicka Yi at Gladstone Gallery

$52,000: Darren Almond, Night Snow at Tsukahara (2020) at White Cube

$50,000: A painting by Thomas Houseago at Xavier Hufkens

$16,500–$18,500 each: Gabriela Sanchez’s works at Charlie James

$14,000–$30,000 each: All of painter Calinda Rawles’s works at Various Small Fires

SCULPTURES, INSTALLATIONS, & MIXED MEDIA

Installation view of James Turrell at the joint presentation of Pace and Kayne Griffin Corcoran, Frieze LA 2020.

Installation view of James Turrell at the joint presentation of Pace and Kayne Griffin Corcoran, Frieze LA 2020.

$910,000: Anish Kapoor, Mirror (Gold / Magenta) (2019) at Lisson

$520,000: Antony Gormley, GUT XVIII (2018) at White Cube

$500,000 each: Two works by Carol Bove at David Zwirner

$275,000: Liza Lou, Shelter from the Storm at Lehmann Maupin

$175,000 each: A sculpture by Thomas Houseago in an edition of three sold at Xavier Hufkens

$150,000: A work by Isa Genzken at David Zwirner

$100,000: Theaster Gates, Afro (2018) at White Cube

$76,000: Bram Bogart, Het maartse (1994) at White Cube

$65,000: David Altmejd, Codebreaker (2020) at White Cube

$65,000: Ibrahim Mahama, LET THEM SAY (2019) at White Cube

$45,000 each: Four ceramic pieces by Sterling Ruby at Xavier Hufkens

$13,000: Laure Prouvost, IDEALLY HERE WOULD BE A DOOR TO YOUR GRANDMA’S LEAVING ROOM (2019) at Lisson

PHOTOGRAPHS, PRINTS, & WORKS ON PAPER

Julie Mehretu, Codex Monotypes (2018). Courtesy of White Cube.

Julie Mehretu, Codex Monotypes (2018). Courtesy of White Cube.

$360,000: Julie Mehretu, Codex Monotypes (2018) at White Cube

$200,000–250,000 each: Works by Paul McCarthy at Xavier Hufkens

$120,000: Robert Longo, Study of Grey Wolf (2019) at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac

$110,000: A work on paper by Amy Sillman at Gladstone Gallery

$100,000: A work on paper by Matthew Barney at Gladstone Gallery

$120,000: A painting on paper by Carmen Herrera from 2015 at Lisson

$40,000: TJ Wilcox’s photography at Gladstone Gallery

$25,000: Jessica Rankin, Being Matter Ignited (2020) at White Cube

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