Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011), was one of the most famous American Abstract Expressionist painters and printmakers of the 20th century. Born to wealthy parents in New York, Frankenthaler studied at the Dalton School under the muralist Ruffino Tamayo and at Bennington College in Vermont.Frankenthaler’s creations are known for their spontaneous fluid style using abstract shapes and lyrical gestures. In a career spanning six decades, she is widely recognized for playing a vital role in the transition from Abstract Expressionism to Color Field painting.During the 1950s, which also marks the beginning of her professional career, Frankenthaler moved away from Abstract Expressionism and developed her unique style: pouring turpentine thinned oil paint onto unprimed canvases in a technique that she named "soak stain," which gave an entirely new look and feel to the surface of the canvas. This technique allowed the colors to permeate into the canvas, generating a liquefied, translucent impression that appeared like watercolor. Her invention gave rise to the Color Field art movement.By the 1970s, Frankenthaler had abandoned the soak stain technique entirely, preferring thicker paint, which allowed her to use bright colors. In addition to painting, Frankenthaler also produced ceramic works, welded steel sculptures, wood cuts and made color prints.Some of her notable works are “Mountain and Sea” (1952), and “Canyon” (1965).Here is a performance analysis of Helen Frankenthaler’s artworks in the auction market:1. Sales Trend in the Past 20 Years2015 was a prominent year for the artist when her sales reached a high of $15.8 million for 93 lots during the year 1998 through 2017. The works that bolstered her sale in that year were “Saturn Revisited,” which sold for $2.8 million at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art evening sale after being estimated at $600,000 to $800,000, and “Las Mayas,” which sold for $2.4 million at Christie’s Post-war and Contemporary sale.Her sales went down to $10.7 million in 2016, because more than 62 percent of her works sold for below $10,000 and just three artworks exceeded the $1 million mark. 2. Volume of Artworks on Offer vs. Bought-in RateA trend of artworks offered at auction and the bought-in rate can be observed in the graph below. Overall, the lots offered in the past decade for the artist, has shown a growth and reached a peak of 131 lots in 2016. However, while 2016 (131 lots) and 2017 (124 lots) had the highest number of lots offered during the 20-year period for the artist, the bought-in rates for those two years were also at their highest levels of at just over 41 percent.3. Bought-in by Auction HousesThe graphic below represents the artist’s lots and bought-in rates at the top two auction houses. It is interesting to note that in the past three years, all the lots that were offered at Sotheby’s were sold. Christie’s also maintained zero bought-in rates in 2015 and 2017, but in 2016, the bought-in rate hit 23 percent.Since 2015, however the artist’s works have been offered more at auction houses other than Christie’s and Sotheby’s combined, but around 50 percent of the artworks were left unsold.4. Average and Median Sale Price Trend in the Past 20 YearsThe average price for the artist remained very low in the period of 1998 to 2007. We further looked at her past sales and found that during this period, 80 percent of the artworks were sold for less than $50,000.As mentioned in section-1, the year 2015 registered the highest total sales for the artist so far, and it was also the same year the average sale price peaked at $169,472. The median price in between 2014 and 2017 remained at a humble $5,000 to $7,000, which reflects that most of artworks were sold in around these values.5. Highest-Priced ArtworksFrankenthaler’s all top three sold works occurred at Sotheby’s New York.Her highest ever sale was “Blue Reach,” an acrylic work on canvas, was signed and dated 1978 on the reverse, which sold for $3 million at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Day Sale on May 17, 2018.“Saturn Revisited” was her second highest sold work, when it brought in $2.8 million in May 12, 2015,at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening auction.“Under April Mood,” a mesmerizing acrylic work, soared above its high estimate of $800,000, and sold for $2.5 million at Sotheby’s New York on November 18, 2016.6. Price Band in Which Her Works Have Sold in the Past 10 YearsMany of her artworks, or 32.2 percent, were sold below $5,000, followed by 23.1 percent of artworks that were sold in the band of $5,000 to $10,000. Only 10 lots were sold for over $1 million in the past decade.7. Where Have Her Works Sold the Most in the Past 20 YearsChristie’s and Sotheby’s have together accounted for 87 percent of total share of sales for the artist. In terms of volume, although 59 percent of the artist’s works were sold at Christie’s and Sotheby’s, a significant 41.6 percent occurred at other auction houses.Geographical share is described below in the graph.8. Top Selling Media in the Past 20 YearsFrankenthaler mainly focused on canvas works and her acrylic medium works were her greatest achievements, achieving the sale of about $61 million for 158 lots over the past decade.9. Total Sales to date in 2018 (since January 1)This year her sales reached about $8 million (through July 31), bolstered by the sale of “Blue Reach,” which sold for $3 million, becoming the highest price paid for her work to date. Her 2018 sale value is very close to the last year sale of $11.3 million, so we can expect more in this year from upcoming auctions ahead in the fourth quarter.This year, more than half of the total in sales were at Sotheby’s, which registered a total so far of nearly $4.5 million for 3 lots.http://www.blouinartinfo.comFounder Louise Blouin
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