Women to the Fore: An Analysis of the Strong Performance of Female Artists in the New York Sales

Victoria Kleiner, Head of Art Due Diligence and Digital Art Expertise

Christopher Mann, MSc CEng MIET MIoP, Head of Data

Chen Chowers, Head of Operations

As ever, the New York November Marquee auctions provided much food for thought with regards to the most recent developments within the international art market. 2,045 lots were offered across Sotheby’s, Christie’s, Bonhams and Phillips, realising an approximate total of 2.146 billion USD. This marked an increase on the 1.8 billion USD total realised in May this year, ensuring that overall the results were more positive than could have been expected given current economic, cultural and political uncertainties.

Impressive performances were achieved for established ‘blue-chip’ artists such as, Pablo Picasso (who took the spot for top price of the auctions with a premium price of nearly 140 million USD at Sotheby’s), Claude Monet and Francis Bacon, who together formed the top three contributors to the overall value of the sales. However, of particular note this season was the impressive performance of women artists across the board, with a number of records being made and some strong prices well in excess of the estimates being achieved. Whilst women artists have been performing with increasing strength over the last few years as belated recognition is achieved for earlier pioneers, alongside a growing interest in the work of 21st Century female artists, the success rate of lots offered by women artists this season was striking and is evidenced by Overstone’s data analytics.

As an indication of the growing strength of the market for 21st Century women artists, 45% of the total for the Sotheby’s ‘Now’ Contemporary Evening sale on 15th November was achieved by women, whilst two of the three works which fetched a price above 10 million USD were captured by the female artists Jenny Saville and Julie Mehretu. Amongst the ‘Now’ sale alone, new auction records were set for artists Marina Perez Simao and Mehretu, who also achieved a new auction record for an African-born artist, whilst second highest prices were achieved for Saville, Elizabeth Peyton, Jadé Fadojutimi and Marlene Dumas. Fadojutimi in particular showed an impressive performance, with three new record prices achieved for her work over the course of the Marquee sales. Similarly, it was a stand-out series of sales for Joan Mitchell, who followed up on the success of her major retrospective in Paris and elsewhere last year with her two highest prices to date, with her record being set at Christie’s on 7th November whilst her second highest price was achieved at Sotheby’s on the 15th November, with a premium price of 29,160,000 USD and 27,910,500 USD respectively. Other very impressive records were achieved by Agnes Martin (18.7 million USD premium), Barbara Hepworth (11.56 million USD premium), Amy Sillman (984,000 USD premium) and Barbara Chase-Riboud (647,700 USD premium). Jaune Quick-to-see-Smith, Tamara de Lempicka, Howardena Pindell, Lynne Drexler, Charline von Heyl and Pam Evelyn all achieved their second highest prices.

Whilst these records and the number of works achieving their second highest price at auction is impressive, the results appear even more striking when we examine the hammer ratio of lots sold during the November sales, sorted by gender and price bracket.
 

Hammer Ratio by Gender and Price Bracket (Overstone Analytics)

The hammer ratio measures a lot’s hammer price against its presale mid estimate and is a key unit when assessing a lot’s auction performance. A high hammer ratio indicates a strong performance and, if consistent, can suggest a strengthening of the lot’s market. We can see from the colour distribution in the chart above that for every price bracket, female artists have a consistently higher hammer ratio than their male counterparts. This is illustrated further with the graph below, as the overall hammer ratio across all price brackets and categories is higher for female artists in comparison to male artists.

Hammer Ratio by Gender (Overstone Analytics)

As proof of a high hammer ratio, the graph below illustrates that the percentage of female artists selling above their high estimates was greater than the percentage of their male counterparts across the board. Indeed, some of the most impressive results already touched upon above were achieved far in excess of their high estimate. Of particular note were Agnes Martin’s Grey Stone, which achieved its 18.7 million USD premium price against an estimate of 6-8 million USD; Barbara Chase-Riboud’s La Musica/Amnesia which achieved the record price of 647,700 USD premium against an estimate of 80-120,000 USD and Pam Evelyn’s Assisted Step, which achieved the artist’s second highest price of 127,000 USD premium against an estimate of only 10-15,000 USD.

Proportion of Lots Sold above their High Estimate by Gender (Overstone Analytics)

Furthermore, it is also important to consider the proportion of lots selling below their low estimate as an indicator of performance. As the below chart reveals, far fewer lots by female artists sold below their low estimates than did lots by their male counterparts. Even when achieving a hammer price below what was expected by the auction houses, women artists still outperformed male artists, further illustrating their success in the November Marquee New York sales.

Proportion of Lots Sold below their Low Estimate by Gender (Overstone Analytics)

Overall, this was an impressively strong showing for women artists across the November Marquee sales in New York. Whilst this in many cases reflected the high quality of the works on offer – both of the Mitchells, for example, were large-scale and very fresh to the market, whilst Hepworth’s Family of Man: Ancestor II was one of the most important large-scale works by the artist to be offered at auction whilst also being very fresh to market – the abiding trend that can be taken away is one of particularly strong results for women artists despite the reported increased softening of the art market as a whole. Given the strength of this performance it seems likely that this is an element of the market which will see continued growth over the next few months.