On 19 May, the New York Times quoted Tony McNerney, Director of Contemporary art at Gurr Johns, in their article on the major New York auctions. Tony reflected on the result of Peter Doig’s ‘Rosedale’ which sold at Phillips for $28.8 million, a record price for the artist.
“Earlier in the evening, Phillips held its latest auction in its newer format of 20th-century and contemporary art. At that sale over half the 37 lots carried guaranteed minimum prices, emphasizing sellers’ reluctance to consign to auction without a definite sale.
Peter Doig’s 1991 canvas, “Rosedale,” of a Toronto snowfall, which was guaranteed for $25 million, sold for $28.8 million to a telephone bidder, an auction high for the artist. As Phillips pointed out before the auction, the Scottish-born Doig, whose grand, painterly landscapes are prized by collectors, is one of just five living artists who have sold for more than $25 million at auction.
The estimate “was aggressive, but it was fresh to the market and had been in a major show,” said Anthony McNerney, director of contemporary art at Gurr Johns, an art advisory and valuation company based in London. Mr. McNerney was referring to the inclusion of the painting in a one-man show at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London in 1998.
“Early landscapes with that wintry feel is what people want. It deserved the record price,” Mr. McNerney added.”
