The Abstract That Set Brice Marden's Auction Record
3 min read · 15 Sep 2025
Complements. Image courtesy of Christie's
Brice Marden's Complements (2004) sold for $30.92m at Christie's in New York on July 10, 2020. The oil on canvas work, which had a guarantee, had been traded once in the past.
The sale beat the artist’s previous auction record by $20m, a 175% rise.
Marden continually worked and re-worked Complement over a three-year period until the painting was, as he described it, "resolved".
The large-scale painting was unveiled at the artist's solo show in New York at Matthew Marks Gallery in 2007, the year it was completed.
Gary Garrel, the curator of the artist’s 2006 retrospective organized by MoMA in New York, wrote that Marden wanted his abstracts to be "something like an insect caught in amber".
The artist had abandoned monochrome paintings in favor of a more colorful, gestural style of painting in the 1980s, influenced by Chinese calligraphy. Marden traveled to Asia, starting in 1984, to discover the traditional artform first hand.
Number Two. Image courtesy of Sotheby's
The previous record was set by Number Two (1983), which sold for $10.92m at Sotheby's on November 14, 2019. The work had been traded once in the past.
A Brief History of Brice Marden at Auction
Sale Date | Title | Price | Record Increase | Venue | City |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2020-07-10 | Complements | $30.92m | 183 % | Christie's | New York |
2019-11-14 | Number Two | $10.92m | 0 % | Sotheby's | New York |
2013-11-13 | The Attended | $10.92m | 14 % | Sotheby's | New York |
2010-05-12 | Cold Mountain I (Path) | $9.6m | 123 % | Sotheby's | New York |
2008-05-14 | Glyphs | $4.3m | 62 % | Sotheby's | New York |
2006-05-09 | Elements V | $2.65m | 20 % | Christie's | New York |
2003-11-12 | 10 dialog 2 | $2.2m | 29 % | Sotheby's | New York |
2000-11-14 | For pearl | $1.7m | 21 % | Sotheby's | New York |
2000-05-17 | Rain forest | $1.4m | 4 % | Sotheby's | New York |
1998-11-17 | Yellows | $1.35m | 35 % | Sotheby's | New York |
1990-05-07 | Untitled | $1m | 92 % | Christie's | New York |
1989-11-08 | Untitled | $520,000 | 62 % | Christie's | New York |
1987-05-05 | Interrogatio | $320,000 | 88 % | Christie's | New York |
1986-11-10 | Miranda | $170,000 | 372 % | Sotheby's | New York |
1985-11-05 | Thira IIIIIIIVVVI 1975-76 | $36,000 | - | Sotheby's | New York |
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