The design market’s strength continues to grow and pricing continues to grow

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Amid the sluggish art market, worrying about new tariffs, the design category continues to grow. Earlier this month, major auction houses held design sales that exceeded expectations, although most of the art world was in Basel.

Sotheby’s total design sales in New York were $37.5 million, while Christie’s totaled $23.6 million; Phillips made only one sale in this category, bringing $4 million. By comparison, Sotheby’s design sales last year were $19.5 million, Christie reported $15.5 million, and Phillips reported $5.1 million in two sales, with more sales. Of all three homes, this was a year-on-year increase of 62.3%.

Experts tell Artnews There are many factors behind the continued momentum of the category and the wide range of artists.

Lewis Wexler served as assistant vice president of 20th century decorative arts for Christie Artnews There is a “paradigm shift” where collectors buy designs in the same way.

“There is always a demand for lighting, benches, sofas and things,” said Wexler, who currently runs the gallery of the same name in New York and Philadelphia. “I think I’ve realized that you can get the same quality and caliber in the design world that you can find in paintings hanging on walls.”

Due to the large budget for interior design, well-known gallery exhibitions and agency acquisitions, larger auction data on the investment value of collectibles, and a re-evaluation of artists, such as Sonia Delaunay and Toshiko Takaezu, both of which were the subjects of last year’s major exhibitions in New York.

Claire Warner, co-founder of Chicago Volume Gallery, focuses on material-driven art practice and design Artnews The ongoing “technical revolution” has pushed collectors to “handmade” and “elaborate” items.

“People’s understanding of this work is becoming more and more fluid, not isolated,” Warner said.

Betsy Beierle, senior sales assistant at the Design Gallery Carpenters Seminar, told Artnews The collection design has “cross-market liquidity” that attracts buyers from multiple industries.

“It attracts people from art collectors, institutions, design, architecture, fashion and industrial design,” Beierle said.

Global interest in the category, especially from younger buyers, also helped many design projects surpass the overestimation at auction.

In the June 11 Sotheby’s design sales, 76% of the land sold were estimated to be higher than its overestimated. Christie and Phillips also noted that their sales volumes exceeded their overestimate estimates, including three-pane, six-foot-high Goddard Memorial Window Tiffany Studios is priced at $4.29 million, with an estimated $2 million, and an estimated $3 million. That was the second highest price in the artist studio window auction. These results are particularly noteworthy given the few homes and third-party guarantees offered by the sale.

The houses also attracted a wide audience this month, with Sotheby’s and Phillips reporting that more than 20% of major design sales buyers are newbies to homes. Sotheby’s reported a 64% increase in bidders and a 76% increase in buyers compared to last year. Phillips noted that millennials and Gen Z collectors accounted for 20% of bidders in this year’s design sales.

“At least half of the people I sell [Les Lalanne works] It was very encouraging to be younger than me last year. ” 56-year-old art dealer Ben Brown told Artnewsnoting that his London gallery has represented Les Lalanne since 2007 and the exhibition “Planète Lalanne” held in Venice, Italy last year, which has more than 150 works. Brown added that he was frustrated by Lalanie’s work being classified as design.

The success of designing objects at auctions is also evident, and even in addition to specialized sales, their cross-border appeal is emphasized. In May, Frank Lloyd Wright Double-layer lights The home from Susan Lawrence Dana sold for $7.5 million in Sotheby’s Modern Evening Sale, well over $3 million, and an estimated $5 million. However, the surge in design interest is the most obvious in the market for the works of François-Xavier and Claude Lalanne Artnews Reported April. Four of François-Xavier’s Toct 10 auction sales occurred last year and was on design sales on June 11 at Sotheby The Great Rhino II Sold for $16.4 million, he was the second highest in auction.

Meanwhile, the recent acquisition of the large Tiffany Windows was enhanced by the Met and Crystal Bridges American Art Museum, boosting the results of Christie’s for The Tiffany Studios window. Dealer tells Artnews These institutions are increasingly getting design works by established artists and emerging artists. For example, Beierle, the carpenter, placed Spanish artist Nacho Carbernell A concrete tree (2022) Together with the Cincinnati Museum of Art for its Outdoor Sculpture Garden and Marcin Rusak’s Van Florum 23 (Hybridae Florales) Last year at the Museum of Advanced Art in Atlanta.

According to Volume’s Warner, curators from multiple departments, including contemporary art, design, American art, fiber art and architecture, can all be used in different exhibitions when the gallery has worked with institutions like the Chicago Institute of Art and LACMA in recent years.

The strength of the design category is also reflected in projects priced under $500,000, many of which surpassed estimates and set a new artist record at this year’s auction.

American artist and furniture designer Judy McKie is the kind of person who has a bumpy market. The highest of her in Phillips Design Sales in New York on June 10 Fish benchsold for $406,400 and sold for $150,000 to $250,000 and set a new auction record. By comparison, another version of the same version of the bronze sculpture costs $327,600, and is estimated to be $100,000 for 2023. Other versions of the bench are in the Longhouse Reserve collection at Eastport Park in Boston, and a park park in Walnut Creek, California.

Although the auction prices and private sale prices at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, McKee are still relatively easy to access.

“Even with the tax, the price is still easier to digest than Les Lalanne,” Wexler said. “In fact, I just sold the monkey chair for $110,000 this week.”

Louis Cane, Maria Pergay and Jean Puiforcat also set other auction records for designs this year.

Expectations for future growth

Multiple dealers tell Artnews They expect the price of the design category to continue to rise as the buyer’s price gets from the highest names. As designing furniture, ceramics and textiles evolved, they would continue to move from craftsmanship to fine art; and with the expectation of masterpieces, they were recalibrated.

In addition to the Lalanie effect, the price of McKee’s bronzes could also be rising due to limited inventory, Wexler said. “I think that also increases the desire for collectors to buy their work,” he said.

Brown also believes that the auction estimates for Les Lalanne’s works are still too low, especially when comparing limited edition masterpieces The Great Rhino II For other works Muton Wool and concrete sheep sculpture.

“You can’t have a masterpiece that is ten times worth, ten times more than an artist,” Brown said. The Great Rhino IIwhich exists in 8th edition. “When there are 10 differences between your good and great work, something goes wrong.”

Brown said he hopes more people learn about Les Lalanne’s appeal through his gallery’s upcoming exhibition of French couple René Magritte and Surrealism, which will open in New York this fall.

“When you let Lalaney stand next to Magritte, stand up for yourself and look strong, I don’t think anyone doubts Magritte is a great artist,” Brown said.