2024 saw incredible highlights for Heather James Fine Art.
Our Year in Review
In our nearly thirty-year history, we have placed over 6,500 works with collectors. In the last 12 months, we were proud to have placed works by some of history’s biggest names, including an important Paul Signac pointillist painting, an early Vincent van Gogh work, and many drawings by Pablo Picasso. As experts on the art of Winston Churchill, we were honored to help collectors in acquiring four of his paintings.
Other significant works we placed include monumental examples of Pop Art by Tom Wesselmann and Robert Indiana, rare images by Ansel Adams, landscapes by Thomas Hart Benton and Alfred Sisley, a beautiful oil by Frederick Carl Frieseke, and a monumental painting by contemporary artist Katharina Grosse, among others
The year also saw the gallery expand our reach by mounting historically important exhibitions and facilitating a loan to the landmark Wesselmann retrospective in Paris, all while building strong relationships with our clients and lending our expertise within the art market.
A highlight of our exhibition program was Sir Winston Churchill: Making Art, Making History which showcased works from the largest private collection of Churchill paintings outside of the UK. Many of these paintings have not been exhibited publicly. Outlets covered the exhibition including Smithsonian Magazine, Daily Art, Artnet News, and many others. You can watch gallery founder Jim Carona speak about the exhibition on NBC Palm Springs.
At Heather James, we pride ourselves in building lasting relationships with our clients. Chip Tom, Senior Curator and Director of Museum Relationships, has worked closely with the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in shaping their art collection and installations within their offices across the United States. 2024 also marked the first year of our specialized art advisory division, serving the unique needs of collectors at every level of experience.
As experts in the art market, we shared our knowledge with clients and with a wider audience. Jim Carona was featured in Artsy’s article “How Interest Rates Impact the Art Market” sharing insights into art market dynamics within the context of the broader economy.
Selection of Recently Sold Works
A Year of Exhibitions
The past year was an exciting time for exhibitions, covering everything from the periodic biennials to celebratory anniversaries to critical re-appraisals.
2024 marked both the 150th anniversary of the first Impressionist exhibition and the 100th anniversary of the birth of Surrealism. This occasion was celebrated by shows at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. (Paris 1874: The Impressionist Moment), the Musée d’Orsay in Paris (Paris 1874: Inventing Impressionism), and the Centre Pompidou (Surrealism), among other anniversary exhibitions.
Within these commemorative shows, there were re-approaisals of several important artists that propelled these enduring movements. The Philadelphia Museum of Art mounted Mary Cassatt at Work which showcases the artist’s mastery beyond her beloved paintings of women and children; the Musée d’Orsay breathed new life into an overlooked body of work by Gustave Caillebotte (Caillebotte: Painting Men).
Other artists received important retrospectives and exciting re-evaluations. There is new demand and new appreciation of Tom Wesselmann and his contribution to Pop Art (Pop Forever, Tom Wesselmann & … at the Fondation Louis Vuitton). Olga de Amaral received a blockbuster exhibition at the Fondation Cartier and the New York works by Georgia O’Keeffe stepped into the spotlight at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Finally, 2024 saw critical acclaim for the 60th Venice Biennale, the Whitney Biennial 2024, and the 15th Gwangju Biennale.
Notable Exhibitions
Auction Highs
New and continuing trends emerged at auction in 2024 alongside new records for artists running the gamut from blue-chip to ultra-Contemporary.
In the recent New York sales in November, new artists records were achieved. Ed Ruscha’s Standard Station, Ten-Cent Western Being Torn in Half sold for $68 million while René Magritte’s L’empire des Lumières sold for $121 million. Magritte’s sale was just one of many by Surrealist artists that reached new heights as collectors and museums clamor for their work. This was not just a sudden interest but a growing wave gaining momentum from 59th Venice Biennale showcasing women Surrealists and our own exhibition, The Female Gaze: Women Surrealists in the Americas and Europe. One of the most celebrated sales this year was Leonora Carrington’s Les Distractions de Dagobert, which sold for $28 million, more than twice its low estimate and a new record for the artist.
Other artist records set in November include a high for a work on paper by Jean-Michel Basquiat (Untitled, almost $23 million). Works by Ana Mendieta broke her record twice in 2024 with Untitled (Sandwoman Series) selling for $567,000 in May and Untitled selling for $756,000 in November.
Mendieta’s sales were indicative of the continuing desire for works by important but marginalized artists. Other examples include Faith Ringgold (Dinner at Gertrude Stein’s: The French Collection Part II, #10, $1.5 million) and Miyoko Ito whose works broke her own record four times in the last year with Kachina setting the current high mark at $560,700.
Blue-chip artists continued with strong results at auction. Claude Monet’s water lily painting Nymphéas sold from the Sydell Miller collection for $68 million while Vincent van Gogh’s Coin de Jardin avec papillons sold for $33 million. Collectors and museums are still seeking works by women artists as evidenced by the sale of Joan Mitchell’s Noon sold for $22 million and Georgia O’Keeffe’s Red Poppy sold for $16 million.
While there was some turbulence for ultra-Contemporary artists, the demand was still strong for those who may make important contributions to art history including Firelei Báez (Josephine Judas GOAT, $567,000, new artist record). And what was once thought as a contracting market, Old Master works were creating major splashes with a Sandro Botticelli painting selling for $12 million (more than four times the low estimate) and Jean Siméon Chardin’s Le Melon entamé selling for $28 million (more than three times the low estimate and a new artist record).
But perhaps no other auction news captures 2024 as well as Maurizio Cattelan’s Comedian which sold for over $6 million, more than six times the low estimate, and won by a cryptocurrency investor.
Notable Auction Results
If you’d like to learn more about Heather James Art Advisory and our holistic approach to collecting and managing art, visit us at https://www.heatherjames.com/advisory/ or email us at [email protected].
