Scottish Contemporary Art Fares Fantastically at Auction in Glasgow!

After another great Scottish Contemporary Art Auction at McTear’s (Sunday 22nd March, 2pm) it’s a pleasure to report back to you with the afternoon’s ‘hammer highlights’.

Where better to start than at the very beginning? Lot 2147, ‘Lost Lucie’ by Peter Howson, is a most candid painting in oils; never one to shy away from controversial or difficult subject matter, here the artist revisits a dark day in his life as a father. As heart-breaking in its honesty as it is immaculate in its execution, an opening bid of £5,000 soon transformed in to an excellent hammer price of £7,000 after a bit of fierce competition between an absentee and a room bidder.

Interest in Peter Howson’s work sustained from start to finish: Lot 2163, ‘Samson’ sold for £950 hammer; lot 2353, ‘The Sink’ sold for £2,600 hammer; and lots 2505 and 2506, ‘Jekyll’ and ‘Hyde’ sold for £2,200 and £1,800 respectively.

John Bellany supporters were out in their droves, too; represented in both oils and pencil, the artist’s work was well-admired throughout the view. As predicted, there was good bidding for all of the Bellany lots with a hammer ‘high’ of £7,000 for lot 2317, a large figurative oil painting entitled ‘Violet of Nairn’.

‘So There You Go’, lot 2161, was the sole example of Alexander Millar’s work in oils to be offered in The Scottish Contemporary Art Auction. Achieving a hammer price of £3,200, here is more proof that figurative, contemporary art is very much ‘en vogue’.

Further proof comes from the hammer prices achieved by Muriel Barclay, Joe Hargan and Gerard Burns oil paintings: 2451, ‘Circling’ by Muriel Barclay, sold for £3,400 hammer; lots 2186 and 2187, ‘The Happening’ and ‘Flower Girl’ sold well at £1,800 and £1,400 hammer respectively; and lot 2406 by Gerard Burns brought not only ‘The Promise of Spring’ but an excellent hammer price, too!

And to finish this report on The Scottish Contemporary Art Auction at McTear’s, how about a little English Contemporary Art? As an auctioneer, it is good fun to be able to say that an original painting by Damien Hirst has gone under your hammer! Lot 2171, a rare heart-shaped spin painting by the crowd-pleasing/crowd-splitting artist, attracted plenty of interest from international and Southern bidders. A few grumbles were heard in the room as a hammer price of £6,500 was achieved…like I said, the notorious artist is known to split crowds as readily as he pleases them!

From Howson to Hirst (with a bit of everything in between!) Sunday’s Scottish Contemporary Art Auction was as interesting as ever. With May’s auction shaping up nicely already, it would be fantastic to see you then, so join us at McTear’s on May 3rd at 2pm to witness auction highlights as they unfold.