In recent years, the international art market has paid increasing attention to surrealist works. Over the past 5 years, the market share of surrealism has increased 2-fold. Surrealist artists such as Rennie Magritte, Ernst, Dalí, Miró, Donghi and Donati are in the spotlight. Among them, the largest increase was Rennie Magritte (1898-1967).
Rainey Magritte (1898-1967)
Magritte soaring in the art market
In 2017, after Magritte's works "Empire of Light" and "Banquet" achieved tens of millions of dollars in auction records, Magritte's market popularity jumped to a new height; After 2018, the rally was fierce and soon replaced Juan Miró as the dominant market for surrealism, a year when Magritte's "The Pleasure Principle" sold for a record $26.8305 million, an ultra-high valuation of $6.83 million, an auction record that still stands today.
Magritte's Pleasure Principle
Price realised: $26,830,500
The artist's personal highest auction record
Sotheby's New York, November 2018
In 2019, Magritte was even more successful, not only in terms of huge value additions and new records, but also in the growing attention paid to some late works. Magritte's "September 16th" sold for nearly $20 million, double the highest estimate; "Public Place" even approached the auction record with $25 million.
Magritte "Meeting with Happiness"
Price realised: £18,933,750 ($25.75 million)
The artist sold the second highest price for individual sales
Christie's, London, February 2020
In 2020, Magritte's "Meeting with Happiness" sold for $25.75 million, winning the artist's second highest price, and his 1962 work Arc de Triomphe sold for $24.21 million. In the end, in 2020, with a total turnover of 104.3 million US dollars, it ranked 11th on the TOP list of the world's top 500 artists. In 2021, Magritte's market continued its upward trend, and works such as "The Art of Dialogue" and "Harvest Month" once again recorded tens of millions of dollars in sales.
Magritte, "Public Place"
Price realised: £18,366,250 (approximately $25 million)
The artist sold the third highest price individually
Christie's, London, 27 February 2019
Empire of Light, a new benchmark in surrealist art?
In the upcoming London Auction Week in March, several Magritte pieces will be on sale. Among them, "Empire of Light" in Sotheby's London's "Modern and Contemporary Art Evening Sale", which will be held in the early morning of March 3 (Beijing time), is one of the most fascinating works of modern art in the private collection, and a wonderful example of surrealist art.
Rene Magritte, Empire of Light
Valuation on request
Sotheby's London "Modern and Contemporary Art Evening Sale"
March 2, 2022
Between 1949 and 1964, Magritte created 17 editions of oil painting, and another 10 were gouaches, which he called The Empire of Light. In the work, Magritte depicts the juxtaposition of night and day in a peculiar and straightforward way. "I have a precise idea of the landscape at night and the sky under daylight. The scenery is reminiscent of the night and the sky is reminiscent of the day. It seems to me that this depiction of day and night has the power to surprise and fascinate us. I call this power 'poetry.' ”
Magritte, Empire of Light, 1961
Price realised: $20,562,500
Christie's, New York, November 2017
Empire of Light was created in 1961 and originated from the collection of the artist's muse and one of the patrons, the Couvy family. At 114.5×146cm, it is the largest horizontal work. At the same time, this magnificent and bizarre image is also the most cinematic of Magritte's works, and it is also the inspiration for one of the scenes of the 1973 Golden Globe Award-winning classic film "The Exorcist", which is a testament to its charming charm.
Compared with the number of works sold at auction from 2000 to 2022, the demand for Magritte's works peaked in 2021 (©Artprice.com)
Since 2000, the price index of Magritte has increased by +353%. In 2021, Magritte's works sold a new record. This confirms that the demand for the work of this surrealist artist in the art market is stronger than ever. Against this very favorable backdrop, the auction of the Empire of Light, a prime example of surrealist art, is very promising to set Magritte's auction record. The work, which is now secured by a letter of guarantee, is expected to fetch £45 million (about $60 million), which would be more than double Magritte's current record for the highest auction and set a new benchmark for the surrealist painter.
It is foreseeable that in the future, the market popularity of the surrealist master Magritte will still maintain an upward trend.
Magritte's Arc de Triomphe
Price realised: £17,798,750 (approximately $24.21 million)
Christie's, London, July 2020
Then welcome the market "big test" of Magritte's blockbuster work
Christie's London's Surrealist Art Auction, which will be held on the evening of 1 March, will bring five works from different periods, including Magritte's Aurora, Memory, and Meditation (with a total estimate of £10 million to £13.8 million). In these works, Magritte revels in the unexpected juxtaposition that appears between strange shapes and familiar objects, repeatedly pondering the order and stability of perceptual reality, playing with the concepts of technique, illusion and representation to unravel and challenge our understanding of the world. In particular, the titles that Magritte gave to his paintings became an important addition to his paintings, creating each work as a "visual poem".
Rennie Magritte, Aurora, 1926-1927
Estimate: £5,500,000 - £7,500,000
Christie's London "Surrealist Art Evening Sale"
March 1, 2022
In Aurora, Chirico's influence can be felt in the disturbing, unsettling atmosphere created by Magritte, as well as in the sparse, vast, stage-like scene space. A pair of cracked, partially broken fashion models stand in a desert-like landscape. Behind them, a gloomy, ominous sky hangs over the threat of an impending storm, and thick gray clouds roll and fall above the two humanoid characters, whose purpose and presence in the scene remain unknown. Although the mannequins are hotly colored and depict the curved, curvy lines of the female body, they appear precarious because their extremely thin, shell-like exteriors are dramatically divided and shattered, creating huge cracks that offer a glimpse into the dark interior. During this period, Magritte's work was primarily concerned with the deconstruction of the human body, especially the female nude, while here the artist exploited fragmented bodies to explore the game between skill and reality, as seemingly real three-dimensional figures were revealed as an empty, empty shell.
Rennie Magritte, Meditation, 1936
Estimate: £2,200,000 - £2,800,000
Christie's London "Surrealist Art Evening Sale"
March 1, 2022
A subtle reversal of the traditional romantic theme of a seascape under moonlight, the light of the moon in the night sky has been replaced in Meditation by a team of three candles crawling alive on the beach. Painted in the summer of 1936, the work, like Magritte's portraits, is both a clever subversion of the traditional role played by light and shade in painting and one of a group of works from this period, reflecting the artist's concern for what he later defined as finding "selective affinity" between objects.
Rennie Magritte, Memory, 1948
Estimate: £1,200,000 - £1,800,000
Christie's London "Surrealist Art Evening Sale"
March 1, 2022
Originally painted in 1942, Memory is an oil painting version now in the collection of the Ixel Museum in Brussels. It is the most magical and mysterious of all René Magritte's works, and one of the most successful by the artist himself. Magritte also painted several versions. An early version of this gouache was painted in 1948, and like the 1948 painting, in this gouache the bloody sculptural head is now more poetically set in front of the sea. In the oil version, this background is separated by a curtain, while in the gouache, Magritte opens the scene completely and instead adds the image of a rose. Magritte once described the gouache in detail, echoing its title: "This painting will never leave your memory".
Rainey Magritte, The Beautiful Pagan, 1963-1964
Estimate: £700,000-1,000,000
Christie's London "Surrealist Art Evening Sale"
March 1, 2022
In this meticulously rendered gouache, Magritte returns to one of his favorite portraits, a seated coffin. These anthropomorphic objects, both fantastical and impossible, terrifying and humorous, have become a central part of Magritte's work. "I just wanted to show something different from those pictures and take advantage of it, and I didn't feel the need to laugh at death because laughing is a feeling and therefore invisible." How can a visible painting depict something invisible? Magritte said. Set against the backdrop of everyday places, he explores the concept of appropriation and playfully alludes to themes of life and death. The act of deformation or deformation fascinates the artist: bottles become carrots, shoes become feet; Figures flew into the sky; Or, as in this piece, put a deceased historical figure in a wooden coffin.
Rennie Magritte, Set (1965).
Estimate: £400,000-700,000
Christie's London "Surrealist Art Evening Sale"
March 1, 2022
Completed in 1965, Magritte transforms traditional portraiture into a highly dramatic composition with an Escherian, impossible sense of perspective to disturb viewer expectations. Only part of the sitting position is visible, and the left hand part of the model's face and shoulders is partially cut off from sight, providing an interesting twist to Magritte's familiar exploration of the tension between visible and hidden. "It seems to me that the art of painting is limited to describing inspired ideas that can be presented, that is, ideas that combine the visible things presented by the world in an order that conveys mystery." Here, the moonlit sea view is visible, while a rose appears in the foreground, as if it were thrown at Marianne by an invisible admirer. Thus, the mystery of the decorative Lundro depends not only on the fusion of figures and objects in the curtains, but also on how Magritte uses the concepts of illusion, perception and association to confuse and force the viewer in the same way.
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Pablo Picasso, Andy. Warhol, Vincent. Van Gogh Vincent Gogh, Henry. Matisse Henri Matisse, Frida Kahlo F.KAHLO, Gerhard Richter G. Richter, Wilhelm Adolf Bouguereau W A Bouguereau, Marc Chagall M. Chagall, Claude Monet C.Monet, Rembrandt Hallmansson van Rein, Guercino Guercino, Mattia Preti, U. Boccioni, Lucio Fontana L.Fontana, Francis Bacon F. Bacon, Jean-Michel. J. M. Basquiat, Rafael Sansi Raffaello, A. Canaletto, Paul Veronese, Pierre. August. Renoir P.A. Renoir, Paul. Cézanne P. Cezanne, Rennie Magritte R. Magritte, El Salvador. Dalí S. Dali, Amedeo. Modigliani A. Modigliani, Hieronymus Bosch H. Bosch, Francisco. Goya F.Goya, Peter. Paul. Rubens P.P. Rubens, Tintoretto Tintoretto, François Boucher F. Boucher, Antoine Van Dyck, Francisco de Subbaran F. Zurbaran, Yayoi Kusama, Kaws, Yoshitomo Nara, Zao Wou-Ki and others