Topline
One of the larger-than-life spider sculptures by famed French-American artist Louise Bourgeois will likely become among the most expensive sculptures to ever sell at auction in Asia when it goes under the hammer in Hong Kong later this month, as the Asian market’s appetite for pricey contemporary Western art continues to grow.
Louise Bourgeois poses with "Spider IV," which could fetch as much as $20 million when it goes to ... [+]
Key Facts
“Spider IV,” which is nearly seven feet wide, is one of five sculptures of creepy arachnids Bourgeois created in the mid-1990s, and which the artist once compared to her own mother: “She was deliberate, clever, patient, soothing, reasonable, dainty, subtle, indispensable, neat, and as useful as a spider,” Bourgeois said, according to Sotheby’s.
The sculpture is expected to fetch between $15 million and $20 million, which the auction house said makes it the most valuable modern or contemporary sculpture ever offered for sale in Asia, “a market-defining moment” for the continent, according to Sotheby’s Asia modern and contemporary art chairman Alex Branczik.
The last time the piece sold at auction in 2017, it fetched $14.6 million and marked Bourgeois’ third-most expensive work ever sold publicly at the time.
Bourgeois' spiders rarely come to auction, and only five have been publicly sold over the past 10 years and have made up the artist’s most valuable works.
Casts of her spider sculptures are on display at museums – like London’s Tate Modern and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art – while others are owned by private collectors.
The performance of “Spider IV” at auction in Hong Kong this month will test the waters for future auctions of high-dollar Western sculptures in Asia, which continues to expand as an art market, especially for modern and contemporary work.
The sculpture is nearly seven feet wide and is meant to be attached to a wall.
Tangent
While Bourgeois is best remembered for her sculptures, she also worked in other mediums. The first comprehensive exhibition of Bourgeois’ paintings opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on Tuesday.
Key Background
The demand for 20th century art by Western artists in Asia has skyrocketed in recent years, and a larger share of high-end sales have been going to Asian buyers, according to industry reports. During the coronavirus pandemic, auction houses’ pivots to virtual auctions helped attract a record number of first-time customers, many from Asia. And while overall art sales plummeted in 2020, wealthy Asian buyers’ high-dollar art purchases held up surprisingly well, according to an annual report from Art Basel released the following year. Last year, a painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat sold in Hong Kong for nearly $42 million, breaking the record for the highest auction price for a work by a Western artist in an Asian market. Chinese crypto founder Justin Sun bought “Le Nez” – a characteristically creepy human-like sculpture by Alberto Giacometti – at auction last year for $78.4 million. In 2021, art dealers in Asia reported a 31% rise in aggregate sales over the previous year, according to the 2022 Art Basel report.
Further Reading
Art Market Surpassed Pre-Pandemic Levels In 2021 With $65 Billion In Sales, Report Says (Forbes)
$42 Million Basquiat Becomes Most Expensive Western Artwork To Sell At Auction In Asia (Forbes)
