Market Reports
At Shannon’s we specialize in middle-market ($5,000 to $500,000) fine art. We have established a worldwide audience of buyers over the past 20 years augmented by our targeted online marketing program. Online bidding in both our major sales and online-only sales has increased tremendously. Our sales attract a broad group of collectors, and we have met many new collectors who we have enjoyed educating about the artists and their works, as well as the art market as a whole.
Our April 2018 fine art auction realized an 85 percent sale rate, a very encouraging figure for us and the auction market in general.
Top examples by well-known artists have been selling very well, with increased popularity in modern and contemporary art. Freshness to the market and condition of the works are both crucial factors for our clients, so we concentrate on taking works in on consignment that are not overly exposed and in “ready to hang” condition.
Our top genres in the April auction were American modernism and American impressionism. We had remarkable results for modernist paintings by George L.K. Morris, Alice Mattern and Emil Bisttram— prices that we would not have expected as recently as three years ago. The market for modernism continues to rise and we expect to see it continue to perform well in our fall auction.
In the American impressionist market, we continue to see quality works bring outstanding results. For instance, in our last auction, we sold a stellar John Joseph Enneking of children in a sunlit field.
The painting was estimated at $5,000 to $7,000 and achieved a remarkable $68,750. It was a beautiful fresh-to-the-market composition, with strong provenance, housed in a period frame and in very good condition. Our top lot in the sale was Colin Campbell Cooper’s View of
New York City from Brooklyn. Again, a fresh-to-the-market painting, with strong provenance, a compelling subject matter and beautifully painted.
We have been very successful with works by Alice Mattern over the past two years, topping our world records for the artist with each sale ($31,200 in 2016, $55,200 in 2017 and $81,250 in 2018). In each of these cases the paintings were from private homes and in their original condition. Mattern was a student of Rudolf Bauer, a master of non-objective painting and his influence is in evident in her work. Overall, we are encouraged and excited for the upcoming fall season.