There is an old saying about stocks that applies to art collecting “Sell when they are buying and buy when they are selling”. Anything you are after can go up or down in value it is true, the difference between stocks and art being sometimes value is measured in centuries. Picking up a treasure on a whim can lead to a windfall or family heirloom as often or not as amassing more junk for the kids to go thru once you bite the dust.
There are a few irreplaceable rituals in the Los Angeles art world that you just have to try at least once and if you do, you will probably venture to it again. Santa Monica Auctions’ bi-annual day sales are one of these things that makes a great date for friends and lovers but also ups your “Art IQ” as the lots go by. Held at Bergamot Station by SMA proprietor, the auctioneer/gallerist Robert Berman, it makes for a combination of fun and art browsing in an unpretentious setting without the intimidation of the black-tie vibe at the bigger auction houses carrying art that is, well let’s be honest, totally out of your price range.
The event is a whirlwind of recent art history’s who’s who and who might be who next. The bidding is now online manifesting the chance to truly gauge an artist’s market beyond the hype that Sotheby’s and Christie’s can manufacture. Santa Monica Auctions is a slew of gems… it is sifting thru and finding your gem that is the fun in it. I love to visit Robert Berman’s space at Bergamot for the utter lack of pretense that he is storing wares to be auctioned – all art hanging and curating axioms are thrown to the wind in favor of cluttering up the space to impress visitors with quality amidst the quantity.
This edition has some amazing finds. There is the usual Shepard Fairey dreck, sure, but how about original Carlos Almaraz drawings? A John Valadez improvisational sketch of Carlos is up for bid too. Here is an intriguing one – a 1952 seascape of Wayne Thiebaud that has been in private hands so long it doesn’t have the estate’s involvement, but Thiebaud fans I know could tell both by the sophistication of the composition and the type of frame it carried that it was the real deal.
In the current market that has seen a glut of mediocre figurative painting at commercial galleries and trendy fairs, Santa Monica Auctions features lots like a dynamic Allison Saar sketch and a signed Francis Bacon litho, allowing collectors to stick to the big names and the great results they produced to make those names so big.
Here is a LINK TO SEE EVERYTHING AND BID ON IT and below are some highlights I picked out of the hundreds of lots that will be up for bid THIS Sunday!
The Santa Monica Auctions Spring Auction is This Sunday, May 15, 2022 at 1 PM at Bergamot Station in beautiful Santa Monica, California.
Online bidding via THIS ARTSY LINK has a few rules:
•In advance of the auction, browse lots and place max bids before live bidding begins on Sunday, May 15th at 1:00pm PDT (4:00pm EDT).
•When the sale opens, all pre-registered Artsy users can participate and watch the bidding unfold in real time.
•Registration for the live auction will close on May 15th at 10:00am PDT (1:00pm EDT) the day of the sale, so register now!