The Gold-Leaf Painting That Set Agnes Martin's Auction Record
3 min read · 29 Jan 2025
Grey Stone II. Image courtesy of Sotheby's
Agnes Martin, Grey Stone II (1961), sold for $18.72m at Sotheby's in New York on November 8, 2023. The oil, gold leaf and pencil on canvas work had been traded twice in the past.
Martin created this monumental "grid" painting early in her career. It is one of only four works for which she used gold leaf. She would soon focus on more “humble” materials, such as ink, colored pencil and acrylic.
She painted Grey Stone II soon after she had moved to New York from New Mexico at the urging of her dealer, Betty Parsons. The artist was in her 40s when she established a studio in a former sailmaking loft in lower Manhattan. In the huge, unheated space, she reduced her painting to the simplest of mark making.
Grey Stone II was among the works acquired by Emily Fisher Landau, a New Yorker who began collecting contemporay art voraciously with an insurance settlement from a jewel heist in her apartment in 1969. "The theft was one of the best things that ever happened to me,” Fisher Landau said.
Untitled #44. Image courtesy of Sotheby's
The sale beat Martin’s previous auction record by $989,700, a 5% rise. Her previous record was set by Untitled #44 (1974), which sold for $17.73m at Sotheby's on November 15, 2021. The work had been traded 3 times in the past.
A Brief History of Agnes Martin at Auction
Sale Date | Title | Price | Record Increase | Venue | City |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2023-11-08 | Grey Stone II | $18.72m | 6 % | Sotheby's | New York |
2021-11-15 | Untitled #44 | $17.73m | 66 % | Sotheby's | New York |
2016-05-10 | Orange Grove | $10.69m | 63 % | Christie's | New York |
2013-11-13 | The Beach | $6.55m | 38 % | Sotheby's | New York |
2007-05-16 | The Desert | $4.74m | 106 % | Christie's | New York |
2003-11-12 | Leaves | $2.3m | 77 % | Sotheby's | New York |
2000-05-18 | Drift of summer | $1.3m | 174 % | Phillips | New York |
1996-05-08 | The Tree | $475,000 | 6 % | Sotheby's | New York |
1990-11-07 | The peach | $450,000 | 29 % | Christie's | New York |
1990-05-07 | Untitled 14 | $350,000 | 17 % | Christie's | New York |
1989-11-07 | Bones 2 | $300,000 | 25 % | Christie's | New York |
1989-05-03 | Untitled 5 | $240,000 | 50 % | Christie's | New York |
1989-05-02 | Untitled #13 | $160,000 | 33 % | Sotheby's | New York |
1987-05-05 | Orange Grove | $120,000 | 26 % | Christie's | New York |
1983-11-09 | Trumpet | $95,000 | 90 % | Sotheby's | New York |
1981-05-13 | Happy Valley | $50,000 | 18 % | Christie's | New York |
1977-05-12 | White rose | $42,500 | - | Sotheby's | New York |
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