Sotheby’s has secured the collection of Ralph Goldenberg, a financial trader who died in 2022, to offer at its London sales in June. Comprising about 80 works, these are estimated to be worth at least £13mn (guaranteed).
Goldenberg, a staple of the Chicago arts community from the 1960s, moved to London in 1999 and lived in a three-storey house in Mayfair’s Hay’s Mews. This property, designed by the minimalist architect John Pawson, served as a fitting backdrop to Goldenberg’s evolving taste, which retained a “very pure aesthetic”, says Oliver Barker, chair of Sotheby’s Europe. The Hay’s Mews home is also on the market for £6.75mn through Wetherell Estate Agents.
Goldenberg began collecting art while in the US, buying prints by avant-garde artists including Jean Cocteau and Serge Poliakoff, then moving into fields including American Abstract Expressionism, European Minimalism and the Young British Artists, such as Damien Hirst and Rachel Whiteread. Individual works from his estate include three by Robert Ryman (estimated up to £2mn); Agnes Martin’s late “Untitled” (2001, £400,000-£600,000) and Andy Warhol’s early Shipping Label work, “Fragile” (1962, £100,000-£150,000).
Though a trader by profession, Goldenberg’s collection “was more a byproduct of being in a position to afford art, rather than a way to make money,” Barker says, though he did change works during his lifetime. Sotheby’s will recreate the Hay’s Mews setting in its New Bond Street building from June 19, with the collection for sale on June 25 and 26.
The art market is in the thick of New York’s three-week season of fairs and sales, which kicked off with Frieze at the start of the month. This week’s activity includes the Tefaf and Independent fairs, while the city’s auction season begins on May 13 with Modern and contemporary art valued at more than $1bn on the block. “May is a marathon,” says the New York-based art adviser Amanda Schmitt.
At Frieze, she found, “there was a pace-yourself mentality, rather than buying more directly at the fair”, saying that her visit was “about starting new conversations with new galleries”. She remains in discussions (on behalf of a client) over a textile-based work by the late Paraguay-born artist Feliciano Centurión, who had an admired solo showing through Ortuzar Projects. Centurión’s works were priced between $75,000 and $250,000 with most reported sales from the fair made at this level.
At the coinciding 1-54 fair, Vigo Gallery sold 19 of 26 small-scale works made on pill packets by the Sudanese artist Ibrahim El-Salahi, priced up to $20,000 each. “We took the smallest booth at a specialist fair and the response was great, considering things [on the market] are quiet,” says gallery director Toby Clarke.
John Pawson’s minimalist design is also evident at Albion Jeune, a new(ish) gallery in London’s Fitzrovia, which had a soft opening in October but has now launched officially after the architect’s overhaul of its interior. The gallery’s name reflects the fact that its founder, Lucca Hue-Williams, is the daughter of Michael Hue-Williams, who ran Albion gallery in London between 2004 and 2009 and now operates an Oxfordshire gallery and sculpture park called Albion Barn and Fields. Lucca Hue-Williams says that she seeks her father’s advice on artist signings but otherwise her venture is separate.
Things have started well. Albion Jeune’s opening show of eye-catching work by the Saudi painter Alia Ahmad has already sold out (10 works priced at $40,000 each), Hue-Williams says, a reflection of her vision for her business: “I would never have opened a gallery without a strong programme.” About 14 artists have signed up, all well known in their own countries but less so on the international stage, she says, including Canadian performance artist Miles Greenberg, whose film will feature in Albion Jeune’s next show. Ahmad’s exhibition, Thought to Image, is organised by the independent curator Sacha Craddock and runs until June 12.
This week sees the launch of Queer Art, a comprehensive anthology of work produced by more than 170 LGBTQIA+ practitioners, written by the specialist curator Gemma Rolls-Bentley (not her real surname). The book is “long awaited” and “amplifies voices that have long been placed on the margins or silenced,” writes one featured artist, Isaac Julien, in the book’s foreword.
Rolls-Bentley notes that on the market, many LGBTQIA+ artists have been and are prized, notably Francis Bacon, David Hockney and Maggi Hambling, plus some of today’s rising stars, such as Jeffrey Gibson, Jenna Gribbon and Christina Quarles. “Some of these artists couldn’t be more queer, but I don’t think they have been seen through that lens. We are very good as a society at ignoring it,” Rolls-Bentley says.
The book also highlights how several artists didn’t get to enjoy their success, among them Félix González-Torres, Keith Haring and Peter Hujar, who all died from Aids-related complications. Plus, as Rolls-Bentley points out, “the challenges are still very real depending on where you live in the world”. Overall, she says, her book aims to show that “there isn’t one single version of queerness, it is a multi-faceted experience.”
Oluwole Omofemi rose to art-world fame in 2022 when his painting of Queen Elizabeth II graced the front cover of Tatler to mark her platinum jubilee, the same year that his auction record of $189,000 was reached at Christie’s. Now the Nigeria-based painter wants to give back to artists in Africa and has formed an agency called PieceUnique, as “a platform to help them realise their full potential and break into the art world,” he says.
Co-founded with the tech and media businessman Bayo Akande, their first project is an exhibition in London’s Cromwell Place, June 3-9, which has work by Omofemi (priced between £80,000 and £100,000) alongside emerging artists Elfreda Fakoya (£5,000-£8,000) and Blebo (£2,000-£3,000). Mentorship is a vital component of the agency, Omofemi says. “Knowing how to paint or draw doesn’t necessarily lead to a sustainable career. A lot of African artists aren’t really aware of the business side of art.”
Find out about our latest stories first — follow FT Weekend on Instagram and X, and subscribe to our podcast Life & Art wherever you listen
