A Nate Lowman inkjet print on canvas that sold online for $450 one year ago will be on offer today at Phillips de Pury & Company, London, with an estimate of £3,000-£5,000 (about $4,800-$8,000).
The 16-by-20-inch work, My Favorite Part of My Favorite Painting (2011), is number 36 of an edition of 50 created for Exhibition A, a website that sells editioned works by contemporary artists. The Lowman print sold to an unnamed private collector in Miami.
The work depicts the bosom of Marilyn Monroe, and represents a detail of a painting by Lowman based on Willem de Kooning’s canvases of the movie star, according to Exhibition A. Lowman created a series of them for his 2011 exhibition “Trash Landing” at Maccarone and Gavin Brown’s enterprise, in New York.
Talking to W magazine about his Warholian serialization of the image, Lowman said, “I imagine it’s why serial killers get a weird joy out of killing the same way every time. I just do it until I’m done with it.”
Paintings and sculpture by the artist, who is 33, currently range in price from $35,000-$250,000, according to New York’s Maccarone Gallery, which represents the artist.
Exhibition A is a project of New York dealer and “Bravo’s Work of Art” judge Bill Powers and his wife, fashion designer Cynthia Rowley.
“Anytime an edition sells out in 24 hours, as this print did during last year’s Art Basel Miami Beach, it’s not surprising to see it pop up on the secondary market,” sais Powers. “I could imagine them selling for twice the original price now, but the idea they’ve increased tenfold in value in just a single calendar year seems insane to me.”
Powers added, “That said, it remains one of my favorite Exhibition A editions.”
Lowman’s exhibition “I Wanted to be an Artist but All I Got was this Lousy Career” is on view through March 2013 at the Brant Foundation Art Study Center, in Greenwich, Conn. Peter Brant, founder and president of the foundation, is also chairman of Brant Publications, which publishes A.i.A.