The Ab-Ex Gender Gap Is Still Wide Open

The New York School was a famously macho scene. Judged by the prices paid for works by Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning at the New York auctions in May, the market is as male dominated as ever, despite the rising demand for works by their female contemporaries.

Six works by Rothko were consigned to the major auction houses and the same number by Pollock with more than 20 by De Kooning on offer.

Pollock stole the show when his classic drip painting, Number 7A 1948 from S.I. and Victoria Newhouse's personal collection, sold for a record breaking $181.2m at Christie's on May 18. In total his works fetched nearly $191m in the sales.

The Rothkos totaled nearly $232m, led by another record breaking work, No. 15 (Two Greens and Red Stripe), a 1964 abstract purchased by Agnes Gund from the artist. It fetched $98.3m at Christie's on the same day.

Another Rothko, Brown and Blacks in Reds (1957), sold for $85.8m Sotheby's on May 14, along with a second work by the artist that belonged to the late dealer Robert Mnuchin, which went for $20.8m.

The De Koonings totaled nearly $76m, which was more than twice the combined total of Joan Mitchell's works, which fetched $33m. Her 1958 abstract Cherchez l’aiguille sold for $12.1m at Christie's evening sale while an untitled 1965 canvas by Mitchell led its day sale and fetched $5.38m.

Works by Helen Frankenthaler, whose late, large-scale works are on show at Gagosian in New York, totaled $18.4m at auction, most in day sales, while Lee Krasner's fetched $4.5m in total.

One standout work by a female Abstract Expressionist was a 1960 work by Pat Passlof, a former student of De Kooning who held her own in New York hangouts Cedar Tavern and The Club. Her work titled Fortune set her new auction record when it sold for $580,500 at Phillips.

The May sales showed that while female artists are finally getting their due, the market's male hierarchy still holds for the New York School.