Christie’s 21st Century Evening Sale in New York on May 14 may not have broken overall auction records, but it made history where it counts, by crowning Marlene Dumas as the world’s most expensive living female artist, per artnews.com. While this figure trails behind previous sales in the same category, the auction spotlighted the enduring strength and increasing value of works by female artists.
The evening pulled in $96.4 million, slightly above its low estimate of $79.5 million, in a market still recovering from economic jitters, stock volatility and global unrest. Despite a smaller catalogue of just 39 lots (compared to 57 last May), the sale posted a solid 81.4% sell-through rate.
Leading the night was Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Baby Boom (1982), which sold for $23.4 million including fees. But the biggest headline came from Dumas’s Miss January (1997), a haunting, nine-foot-tall feminist portrait that fetched $13.6 million with fees. Consigned by the Rubell Family Collection, it narrowly edged out Jenny Saville’s 2018 record of $12.4 million and marks a new peak in Dumas’s market.
“There’s still clearly activity, but it has to be at the right price levels,” said art adviser Abigail Asher. “To see an object of such raw power reach a world record was really exciting.”
Dumas’s provocative, emotionally charged portraits—often blending themes of race, gender, and death—have long captivated curators and collectors alike. Born in Cape Town and based in Amsterdam, the 71-year-old has remained a fixture of serious contemporary discourse, even as her market moved cautiously over the years.
Women continued to steal the spotlight throughout the sale. Simone Leigh’s monumental bronze Sentinel (2020) set a new auction record at $5.7 million, while Cecily Brown’s Bedtime Story (1999) brought in $6.2 million. Emma McIntyre’s Up bubbles her amorous breath (2021) exceeded expectations, selling for nearly three times its high estimate at $201,600.
Among the fresh faces, Danielle Mckinney’s The Fool sparked a bidding war, closing at $207,900—nearly triple its estimate—while Louis Fratino’s You and Your Things (2022) hit a record $756,000.
Ultimately, the Christie’s 21st Century sale highlighted a nuanced market landscape where established names continue to draw interest, but the ascendance of female artists is an undeniable and energising trend. As Asher aptly summarized, “It was women that carried the night, and that was very exciting.”
•Featured image: Marlene Dumas at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, 2008/Neilson Barnard/Getty Images.
