The Hurricane Painting That Set Julie Mehretu's Auction Record
3 min read · 12 Feb 2025
Walkers With the Dawn and Morning. Image courtesy of Sotheby's
Julie Mehretu's Walkers With the Dawn and Morning (2008) sold for $10.74m at Sotheby's New York on November 15, 2023. The monumental ink and acrylic on canvas, which had a guarantee, had been traded once in the past.
Mehretu painted Walkers With the Dawn and Morning for Prospect 1, the inaugural New Orleans Biennial, which was launched in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The work is one of five large-scale paintings by the artist unveiled at the biennial in 2019. Its title makes a reference to a poem by Langston Hughes, a leading light of the Harlem Renaissance.
The sale set a new record for an artist born in Africa. Mehretu, who has Ethiopian and Jewish heritage, was born in Addis Ababa in 1970 before moving to the US as a child.
The painting was Mehretu's first major work to come to auction after her mid-career retrospective, which was co-organized by LACMA and Whitney Museum and toured US museums from 2019-21.
Untitled. Image courtesy of Sotheby's
The sale beat Mehretu's previous auction record by $1.42m, a 15% rise, which had been set only the previous month. Her previous record was set by Untitled (2001), which sold for $9.32m at Sotheby's Hong Kong on October 5, 2023. The work had been traded 5 times in the past.
A Brief History of Julie Mehretu at Auction
Sale Date | Title | Price | Record Increase | Venue | City |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2023-11-15 | Walkers With the Dawn and Morning | $10.74m | 15 % | Sotheby's | New York |
2023-10-05 | Untitled | $9.32m | 43 % | Sotheby's | Hong Kong |
2021-06-10 | Dissident Score | $6.5m | 15 % | Artsy | - |
2019-04-01 | Black Ground (deep light) | $5.64m | 22 % | Sotheby's | Hong Kong |
2013-05-15 | Retopistics: A Renegade Excavation | $4.6m | 50 % | Christie's | New York |
2013-04-22 | Rising Down | $3.08m | 32 % | Sotheby's | Doha |
2010-11-09 | The Seven Acts Of Mercy | $2.32m | 127 % | Sotheby's | New York |
2010-09-25 | Untitled 1 | $1.02m | 159 % | Sotheby's | New York |
2009-06-25 | Untitled (Dervish) | $394,000 | 82 % | Sotheby's | London |
2007-11-14 | White Plane | $217,000 | 45 % | Christie's | New York |
2006-11-15 | Untitled (module) | $150,000 | 127 % | Sotheby's | New York |
2005-05-12 | Untitled | $66,000 | 6 % | Christie's | New York |
2003-09-23 | Ringside | $62,000 | - | Christie's | New York |
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