First Open: Summer Edition

The July 17 sale of First Open: Summer Edition achieved $5,832,125/£3,849,203/€4,432,415, selling 87% by lot and 95% by value. The auction’s top lot was Jack Hamilton Bush’s Red Side Right (Right Side Red),which realized $603,750, setting a world auction record for the artist.

Saara Pritchard, Associate Specialist, Head of the First Open sale, Post-War & Contemporary Art, remarked: “Across the board, the success of this sale was due to the extraordinary range of work on offer, with a particular focus on strong examples by artists underrepresented in the secondary market, including new artist records for Jack Bush, Ronald Davis and Ron Gorchov and exceptional results for Dorothy Dehner and Dan Christensen. Another driving factor in the sale was exceptional provenance—buyers responded enormously to works assembled by visionary collectors and tastemakers who targeted the best examples for their collections. We were particularly pleased with the performance of the four exceptional and rare ‘sash’ paintings that represented Jack Bush in the sale, all of which were met with tremendous enthusiasm, including the sale’s top lot, which sold for over 10x its estimate.”