Leaving decade has witnessed rapid growth of prices for works of Victor Vasarely, Bridget Riley, Jacob Agam, Naum Gabo and other classics of the optical and kinetic art

Kinetic art that originated about a hundred years ago, is the brainchild of the cult of progress and faith in the omnipotence of machines. The roots of this trend to be found in Europe, the United States and Latin America, where artists from different groups and trends aim was to overcome the static nature of art and creating a new abstract language capable of transmitting the motion (as unfolding in real time and space, and only in the perception of the viewer ).

In the past ten years, their product went up considerably: according Artprice.com , kinetic art price index rose by 128 percent.

first quarter of 2010 marked a new record for the master of optical illusions Victor Vasarely (Victor Vasarely). February 10 it now Altaï III (1955-1958) bought for 470,000 pounds (734,000 dollars). The work exceeded the lower estimeyt almost five times. However, this figure pales in comparison to the amounts that were brought at auction creations "heiress" Englishwoman Vasarely Bridget Riley (Bridget Riley) - June 1, 2008 its "Song 2" (1967) went to Christie's for 4.5 million dollars. In the period from 2006 to 2009 her work sought millions of results for seven times. Today, to buy a piece Riley, must have very substantial funds, but for 10-15 thousand dollars you can buy only a small gouache.

return to Vasarely. His success has been "fixed" yet another good sale - fabric Pâl-5 (1969-1970) brought to Sotheby's in Amsterdam 220 000 Euros (8 March this year). As Altaï III, then the painting found a buyer for selling collection Lenz Schönberg (arranged again house Sotheby's) . At the same bid was submitted a good selection of works by other Patriarchs of the kinetic art, artists from the pan-European association "Zero". These works are also in great demand. Of special note are the first seven-digit result Jan Shonhoven (Jan Schoonhoven), whose "White structural relief R-61" (1962) went to the buyer for 660,000 pounds (1,03 million dollars) in the evaluation of 150-200 thousand pounds.

the three months before the auction was set yet another important record. The work of Israeli artist Jacob Agam (Yaacov Agam) «The four themes, counterpoint," helped out at Sotheby's Nov. 24 270 000 USD, which is twice the previous record amount (and five times more than the preliminary assessment).

Another father of kinetic art, Naum Gabo (Naum Gabo) , first described the direction in his Realist Manifesto of 1920, also enjoys considerable interest in buying public. At Sotheby's on Feb. 5, 2007 its "Linear Construction in Space № 3 (with red)" (1957) was sold for 1.1 million pounds (2.1 million). Specialists of the auction house estimated the sculpture at 500-700 thousand.

first "kinetic" creation, the age at public auction in the amount of one million dollars, has become famous "Bicycle Wheel" (1913) Marcel Duchamp ( Marcel Duchamp) - Readymade, which served as a pedestal for a kitchen stool. In May 2002, Phillips de Pury sold this classic work for 1.6 million dollars. Duchamp, very interested in physics, also created the "Rotorelefy" from cardboard disks with pictures on the basis of a spiral, forming a rotating variety of illusory forms. Such works are now faced with 2,5-4,5 thousand dollars.

High on the art market are quoted motorized sculptures Tengeli Jean (Jean Tinguely) and mobilization of Alexander Calder (Alexander Calder). Metamatic#7 Tengeli (1959) sold for 920,000 pounds (1.8 million) at Sotheby's July 1, 2008, and "Small aircraft carrier" Calder (1946) has brought 4.2 million dollars at Christie's May 10, 2004 th. "Living Sculpture" of these classics can be seen at the exhibition "Movement. From movies to kinetic art, which is being held at the Museum Tengeli in Basel (until May 16).

In this decade, the general public to rediscover kinetic art by artists from Argentina and Venezuela. Their works were shown at major exhibitions such as "Inverted Utopias" (Arts Museum Houston, 2004), "Eye-engine: optical and kinetic art (Strasbourg Museum of Modern Art, 2005) and the Kinetic Utopia (Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid 2007). Of course, this affected the auction results of the authors. For example, a picture Venezuelan Alejandro Otero (Alejandro Otero) from the series "Color Rhythms" in 1990 brought the auction amount, about 20 thousand dollars, and now they go for 150-350 thousand. In 2008-2009, were also set price records for works of Jesús Rafael Soto (JesúsRafaelSoto), Carlos Cruz-Diez (Carlos Cruz-Diez), Julio Le Parc (Julio Le Parc) and Hugo Demarco (Hugo Demarco).

material prepared Yulia Maksimova, AI

Source: artprice.com , artinvestment.ru