Roy Lichtenstein's 1964 painting Ohhh...Alright... has been sold for a record $42.6 million (€31 million) at Christie's International in New York, soaring past his previous auction peak of $16.3 million.
The late Pop artist's comic-strip-inspired rendering of a pouty redhead, once owned by actor and art collector Steve Martin, was sold by casino magnate Steve Wynn. The painting comes from a series of breakthrough works Lichtenstein created using images from comic books.
Many of the paintings feature stock female types, often paired with a dialogue bubble. Though the work was an instant commercial hit, with the $4,000 canvases flying off the walls at New York's Leo Castelli Gallery, the artist's brazenly banal subject matter and mechanical Benday-dot style irked the mainstream.
In 1964, Life magazine ran an article about Lichtenstein headlined, "Is he the worst artist in the US?" Ohhh...Alright..., which had a presale estimate of $40 million, was among the earliest offerings in last night's 75-lot sale at Christie's. It's the third contemporary-art evening auction this week, following Phillips de Pury and Co. and Sotheby's, to fetch hefty prices for 1960s Pop art.
Just minutes after the Lichtenstein sold, Andy Warhol's six-foot tall painting of a red-and-yellow Campbell's vegetable soup can and opener sold for $23.9 million, below the $30 million to $50 million presale estimate.
The seller was Seattle-based collector Barney Ebsworth, who parted with his 1962 soup can to fund a chapel designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando. The Lichtenstein and Warhol works went to telephone bidders.
Bloomberg