The Week in Prints 17th - 23rd June 2024

Tracey Emin, the renowned bedmaker and powerhouse of the YBAs, was honoured with a damehood at King Charles III's birthday honours. Known for her poignantly personal, intimate, and confessional oeuvre, Emin's work has captured the art world since her seismic rise to fame in the 1990s with her fellow ’Sensations‘. Emin was awarded her CBE back in 2012, and this damehood further cements her position as a true British national treasure.

Since her diagnosis with bladder cancer in 2020, Emin has shown absolutely no sign of slowing her practice (and has since revealed to the BBC that she has received the “all clear”). If anything, her studio output seems to be growing exponentially. The past year alone has witnessed Emin creating new prints with Counter Editions, a show of new languid nudes in Brussels, and the unveiling of her bronze doors at the National Portrait Gallery. Emin is a force to be reckoned with in the landscape of British art and beyond, and her damehood brings recognition to her lifelong endeavour to push the boundaries of contemporary art.

Jean-Michel Basquiat's 1982 triptych, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Derelict, was estimated at $30 million when it was brought in by Christie's in 2022. Now in 2024, Sotheby's has valued the work between $15-$20 million, reducing the estimation by half in just two years. The lower estimation at Sotheby's has been attributed to collectors being more cautious than they were in recent years, with estimates across the board being adjusted to reflect a less frenzied pool of bidders. Following this trend, collectors are increasingly investing in works with a more considered approach - hence the general shift in preference towards private sales throughout 2024 thus far.

That being said, the triptych already has a guarantee and an irrevocable bid according to Sotheby's website, essentially meaning the work has already been sold. In their marketing material ahead of the sale, Sotheby's described the work as “an altarpiece to himself, honouring his rising success”, and it is prudent to recognise that the slashed estimate is not reflective of Basquiat's current market success. Rather, it is a reminder that the market we currently find ourselves in is undisputedly a buyer's market where there are, in essence, better deals to be made than the over-inflated arena of two years ago.

On the 18th June, London's Royal Academy opened their annual Summer Exhibition, which has commenced on the third Thursday of June since 1769. Coordinated by Ann Christopher (RA), the theme for this year's Exhibition is ‘space’. When the theme was announced and submissions for the exhibition opened, Christopher described the theme with the following: “I plan to explore the idea of making space, whether giving space or taking space. This can be interpreted in various ways: to make space can mean openness - making space for something or someone, also making space between things.”

The Exhibition unites the work of established Royal Academicians with that of the general public, and Christopher's theme provides fertile ground for interpretation of what ‘openness’ means in the often closed world of today. For centuries, the famed ‘hang’ of the Exhibition has exemplified the current zeitgeist, and revealed the structures which determine how - and why - art should be interpreted in the now: a trend this year's theme is certain to continue.

A rare sculpture by Yayoi Kusama, Phantom Polka Dots of Fate, Ordained by Heaven, Were the Greatest Gift Ever for Me, is currently on view at Sotheby's New Bond Street Gallery before being sold at Sotheby's Sealed. Sotheby's Sealed is the auction house's self-proclaimed “ultimate destination for luxury goods and services,” offering “an extensive selection of the finest items from the world's top designers, brands, and manufacturers.” This wing of the Sotheby's empire operates through an online only, private selling format. So-called ‘blind’ bids are submitted through the Sotheby's website, so no bidder is aware of competing offers, and the highest bidder acquires the item.

Typically, Sotheby's Sealed have sold luxury assets from the vintage car, wine, whisky, and memorabilia categories. The Kusama sculpture is the first ever work of fine art being sold through the auction house's Sealed service: a fact which says a lot about the tendency towards private sale, and the conflation of art with other luxury asset categories. The auction closes on 27th June at 2:00PM BST, with an estimate of £1,200,000-£1,800,000 and no reserves.