ARTHOUSE AUCTION’S WONDER MOMENTS
It took off on a promising note. Fancy Lot 1 – Segun Aiyesan’s acrylic on textured canvas “Oyin Momo” – going for an impressive hammer price of N950, 000! Usually the auction has this unwritten custom of starting on a less exciting note only to hit a climax somewhere close to the middle. Then, it tends to dip towards lower prices at the end.
Not this edition. After the “Seeing is Believing” charity segment –driven by Standard Chartered Bank – the proceedings revved up to higher expectations and ended with exciting hammer prices of N1.2 million. Surprisingly, Diseye Tantua’s acrylic on canvas painting “Man Must Wark” (Lot 4) and Fidelis Odogwu’s metal sculpture “Say It Loud” (Lot 7) sold for N800, 000 and N1.3 million, respectively.
Equally astonishing were the hammer prices for Francis Uduh’s fiberglass work (Lot 8), Alex Shyngle’s oil on canvas painting, “Before the Gate” (Lot 10) and Ablade Glover’s oil on canvas painting “Market Scene” (Lot 12), which notched N900,000, N1.3 million and N3.6 million respectively.
Really, it was no use trying to wring coherence from out of it all. The bidders’ paddles kept moving up and down, as the English-born auctioneer John Dabney egged them on. The high bidders, in any case, seem intent on upping the prices. “One million against you all,” Dabney was saying from his table poised with his auctioneer’s hammer. “Selling for one million….” But the work, Peju Alatishe’s acrylic on canvas “When Dawn Breaks” (lot 27) finally sold for N1.8 million!
A parade of high-selling lots flitted by in a blur. It was indeed easy to lose count of the works that sold for almost or even above the million naira mark. It was almost expected that Rom Isichei’s mixed media on board “Body Language I” would sell for N1.6 million and Gerald Chukwuma’s mixed media “To Let…For Sale” for N2 million.
Of course, wouldn’t one expect the masters to do well under the prevailing circumstances? Ben Osawe’s wood sculpture “Bust of a Woman” (Lot 48) sold for N1.8 million and Bruce Onobrakpeya’s plastocast on board “Images (Panel of Three)” (lot 51) for N2.5 million. But the real point here is that the masters grabbed the five bestselling slot. Anyone in the hall would have guessed that El Anatsui’s wood panels “Zata” (lot 95), displayed behind the auctioneer, would be the highest-selling work. But the price – N14 million – was eye-popping.
Surely, no aficionado in the hall would begrudge Yusuf Cameron Grillo’s oil on board “Truly Hijab?” (Lot 77) of its enviable position as the second bestselling work at N10 million! How else would one acknowledge his masterly position? Perhaps, it was also in that spirit that a bidder bought El Anatsui’s wood panel “Tror” (Lot 72) for N6.8 million. No habitué at the auction would have expressed surprise that Ben Enwonwu’s fibre glass sculpture “Head of Caroline” (Lot 78) and wood sculpture “The Boxer” (lot 76) sold for N6 million and N5 million, respectively.
Meanwhile, kudos to the Beninese artist Dominique Zinkpe, whose untitled wood sculpture (Lot 62) sold for N1.1 million. It was also a success story for the Togolese-born Samuel Tete Katchan’s irreverent version of “The Last Supper” (Lot 41), which sold for N1 million and for Ghana’s Amon Kotei, whose oil on board “Scenery” (Lot 84) sold for N1.1 million.
Good for the international image of the auction! Isn’t it now obvious? The biannual event is increasingly becoming more than just a Nigerian thing. Of course, the auction house ArtHouse Contemporary has always made its pan-African vision clear. And this 14th edition has made it loud and clear.
Now, here is the big question: would this auction continue this essentially unprecedented trend?
- The ArtHouse auction held last Monday at The Wheatbaker Hotel in Ikoyi, Lagos