David Hockney Painting Snags $90.3 Million in New York; Bidder Wants to Whitewash Banksy He Bought in LA
- November 15, 2018 23:02
David Hockney's sensual pool painting with two male figures became the most expensive work by a living artist to be sold at auction. An unidentified phone bidder won the artwork after a drawn-out bidding war on Thursday night at Christie's in New York.
From 1972, the British artist's “Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)” beat out the previous record for a living artist, the $58.4 million that a Jeff Koons "Balloon Dog" fetched.
The Hockney sale, a "differnet kind of trophy," shows a "new demand for living artists," notes The New York Times.
In other auction news, CNN reports that "artist Ron English has vowed to whitewash an artwork by Banksy that he bought for $730,000, in protest of the market in street art." English purchased Banksy's "Slave Labour," depicting a young child sewing Union Jack bunting, at Julien's Auction in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
