Surrealist mood…

The market data is clear: René MAGRITTE (1898-1967)  is currently the top-selling painter of the Surrealist movement. In the last three years, demand for works by the Belgian artist has been unprecedented with record after record in the auction rooms, and 2019 was a historic year for his market with more than $128 million hammered (excluding fees). At Christie’s The Art of the Surreal sale on 5 February, Magritte was very much the dominant artist with no less than seven works (out of 24 lots), most of them expected to fetch multi-million results. All seven paintings sold this Wednesday generated $39 million, being 68 % of the sale’s turnover.

The sale’s star lot – A la rencontre du plaisir – had never been sold before and had remained in the same family for over 50 years after being acquired directly from Magritte in 1962. It presents many of the key elements of Magritte’s visual language, notably the moon and a man with a bowler hat. For Olivier Camu, Vice-President of Christie’s Impressionist and Modern Art Department, “It is probably the most realistic and poetically striking Magritte I have ever had the honour to work with”.

Estimated between $10 and 15 million, it won the highest bid of the evening at $ 24.6m, verging on its all-time auction record of $ 26.8 million hammered in 2018 (Le principe du plaisir, Sotheby’s New York). Among the artist’s other masterpieces in the sale two paintings double their estimates brackets: Le somnambule gone for $ 2.2 million, a million above the high estimate, and Le roman populaire sold for $ 1.5 million ($900.000 – 1,3 million).

Another star artist in Christie’s sale was Max ERNST (1891-1976), also well-represented with no less than five works at auction. His finest auction sales reward Tâches de soleil for $227,600 (estimated $91,000 – $130,000) and Jeune homme traversant une rivière… for $701,000 (estimated $390,000 – 520 00 $), while Paysage-effet d’attouchement does not exceed its $3.2 million high estimate for a first sale.

Those two works by Salvador DALI sold well, nothing more: Bateau à voiles dans la baie de Port Lligat in its average estimate at $2.3 million and Ballerine en tête de mort  $764,000 ($391,800 – 653,000). The only work by Francis PICABIA,  Ligustri, fetched $4.2 million which ranks in the artist’s Top 10 most beautiful auctions.

In total Christie’s The Art of the Surreal sale took some $57 million, an identical result to that of last year’s (when the equivalent sale also contained seven works by René Magritte and five by Max Ernst) and $46.8 million in 2018.

Less surreal Sotheby’s

Sotheby’s opted for a different strategy, mixing genres in the same catalogue. But, if the sale did not have a heavy focus on Surrealist works – a sort of session within a session – that was simply because it didn’t have enough material. Prestigious works of this type are increasingly difficult to find and Sotheby’s only had eight to offer, compared to 24 for its rival. The Surrealist works by Yves Tanguy, Kay Sage, Oscar Dominguez, Julio Gonzales, Max Ernst, Joan Miro and Pyke Koch were therefore included in the general catalogue of Impressionist, Modern, Surrealist & Contemporary Art. Among the 10 surreal works included in the sale, only two exceed one million:Personnages et oiseau devant le soleil by Joan MIRO passes the $ 3.1m high estimate and PICABIA’s Sous les oliviers sold in the range of estimate for $ 2.3 million. Another work by Miro, Groupe de personnages , remains unsold.

Magritte & Miro at their best

MAGRITTE is at the top of the auction ranking of Surrealist artists having generated seven of the ten best results in 2019. “Le principe du plaisir”, which fetched the 3rd highest price ever hammered for a Surrealist works, exceeding its low estimate last year by more than $10 million, compared with a price of $74,000 some 40 years ago. Magritte is in demand and his prices are soaring: $100 invested in his work 20 years ago is today worth an average of $379, representing positive growth of 279%. In 2019, this success elevated the Belgian artist to 11th place in our global ranking of artist’s by annual auction turnover (all periods and categories combined).

Joan MIRO is also one of the highest-priced artists on the international art market. In 36th place in our global ranking (by annual turnover), he still holds the absolute record for a Surrealist work since his Peinture (Etoile Bleue) (1927) fetched $36.9 million in 2012 (Sotheby’s, London). This unequalled record shows that, apart from Miro, few Surrealist artists get past the $20 million threshold. However, international enthusiasm for his work is far from waning, with no less than 32 of his works being offered in auction rooms around the world in February 2020 alone.

Far behind these two giants, Dali, Ernst and Picabia are still among the top-selling Surrealist artists over the past 10 years.

Top works of art surrealism (2010-2019)

Top works of art Surrealism (2019)