So often, the women of Abstract Expressionism are overlooked. Painter Helen Frankenthaler is something of an exception. Even in her lifetime, she received the critical acclaim generally reserved for men like Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock. Still, it came as a surprise last week when a work by Frankenthaler nabbed the highest price across all mediums at the Christie’s Post-War to Present auction.
Her 1982 abstract Concerto, painted in mostly pale blue and violet hues, was expected to sell for $500,000 to $700,000. At $2,107,000, the winning bid was more than four times the low estimate. Art adviser Dane Jensen, one of the underbidders on the piece, told ArtNews that the sale price was “a bit of a mystery” and “definitely a new benchmark,” given that other Frankthaler works selling in that range have been far larger than Concerto, which measures only 53 by 39 ¼ inches.
Ed Ruscha’s Pressures, from 1967, was the second-most expensive artwork of the auction, bringing $1,986,000. Other top lots included the 1966 Diane Arbus photograph Identical twins, East River by Richard Estes, from 1989, and Bob Thompson’s 1965 La Gamme d’Amour.
