For this second edition, welcome to Midnight Art Club!

OUR SELECTION OF THIS WEEK’S NEWS

A much calmer week than the last one: Art Basel Miami opens this very morning, the modern and contemporary sales are over, and Thanksgiving has put everyone on pause. But despite the quiet, a few records still fell:

A gold pocket watch belonging to a passenger of the Titanic sold for £1.78M. It is now the most expensive “Titanic” object ever sold — more on that in a moment.

• Sotheby’s, Christie’s & Phillips: Between the records set in November and the strong recent sales, the New York season confirms a renewed confidence in the market’s blue-chip names.

• New records for artists who are often undervalued: a work by Cecily Brown at nearly $10M, and one by Dorothea Tanning above $3M.

• A gold pocket watch belonging to a passenger of the Titanic sold for £1.78M. It is now the most expensive “Titanic” object ever sold. More on that in a moment.

TO KNOW - From Abstract Expressionism to Cecily Brown

Take a second, or a little longer, to really look at this artwork. What do you see?

Cecily Brown, High Society, 1997–98. Courtesy of Sotheby’s.

To talk about Cecily Brown, I first need to talk about Abstract Expressionism.

You know those painters who move around the canvas, splashing, scraping, layering paint as if they were dancing? Let’s start there.

In the 1940s and 1950s in New York, an entire generation did not just break away from classical painting, but also from every other movements: Impressionism, Cubism, Surrealism. Artists wanted to paint pure emotion, the movement of the body, the urgency of the gesture. The canvas became a field of experimentation: Pollock dripping paint onto canvases laid directly on the floor, De Kooning attacking the surface layer after layer, Joan Mitchell letting color explode. It was a revolutionary moment, when painting became physical and instinctive.

And this is exactly the lineage Cecily Brown belongs to.
Except she adds her own twist, which is figuration. In her work, those swirls of color are never purely abstract. Look closer and you start to see fragments of bodies, scenes, animals, baroque touches and even little hidden dramas.

Yes, go ahead and look at the painting above again. It suddenly feels like an entirely different work, right?

So you might think (and you wouldn’t be the only one, though please do not say it out loud) “my three year old could have done that”. But in fact no. And here is why…

That seemingly spontaneous gesture is actually years of mastery, a deep knowledge of art history, and a sharp sense of movement, color and narrative. Nothing is accidental. From the balance between abstraction and figuration to the controlled gestures, from the intense Bacon like contrasts to the preparatory drawings that structure each scene. It is innovative because she breaks the rules of Abstract Expressionism by bringing story and meaning back into the painting.

This is what makes her works so alive and so sought after at auction.
The painting above, High Society, is the one sold for nearly $10 M at Sotheby’s.

THE GOSSIP - When the Titanic resurfaces (literally)

This week, an utterly improbable record was broken: an 18-carat gold pocket watch, recovered from the body of a Titanic passenger, just sold for £1.78 M at Henry Aldridge & Son in England.

I can already hear the skeptics: “That’s morbid, we’re really selling human tragedy to push prices now!”
But listen to the story behind the object.

It belonged to Isidor Straus, a New York magnate and cofounder of Macy’s. He was travelling with his wife, Ida Straus, after a holiday in Europe. When the Titanic began to sink, a crew member insisted that Ida get into a lifeboat, the famous “women and children first”. She refused. She would never leave her husband behind.

They offered her a seat another time. She turned to her husband and said:

“We have lived together for so many years. Where you go, I go.”

Witnesses later saw them arm in arm in their cabin, calmly waiting for the end together.

Ring a bell?

In Titanic, the scene of the elderly couple lying together in bed as the water floods their cabin, remember it? That was them. James Cameron based one of the film’s most iconic moments on their story.

The Straus from Hollywood VS The Straus from 1912

A few days after the sinking, Isidor’s body was found with the watch still in his pocket. It was carefully catalogued and returned to his family, where it remained for more than a century before resurfacing at auction for the price of a (very small) Basquiat.

So this watch is far more than 18 carats and far more than a simple fragment of tragedy. It is an heirloom, a piece of memory that, by reaching such heights, brings their story back into the light and extends their love, frozen in this stopped watch. As for me… I will admit I am not sure I would have spent £1.78 million on it...

The moral of the story: when certain objects fetch a fortune, it is often because they have lived a more romantic life than we have. Because yes, in the art world, provenance is very often where everything plays out.

If you want to know more, I’ll let you read this.

THIS WEEK’S RECS

New York:

• Museum:Ruth Asawa: Retrospective, at the MoMA until February 7, 2026. I especially recommend it for her vibrant prints, which catch the eye immediately. You also get to see her sculptures, where she plays with emptiness and the space around forms. Personally, they make me imagine their negative, see if they do the same for you…

• Gallery: Ali Banisadr: Noble/Savage, Olney Gleason (ex-Kasmin). The works become less and less abstract the closer you get. Strange creatures start to appear, like silhouettes escaping from Harry Potter… very Cecily Brown in a way ;) On view until December 20.

Paris:

• Museum: Minimal, Fondation Pinault - Bourse de Commerce. If you’ve never been, the building alone is worth the visit. As for the exhibition, it hides some real gems, including a Félix Gonzalez-Torres piece that I literally ate (yes, really) and another that only reveals itself if you look for it from the right angle. I hope my little riddles make you want to go see it… On view until January 19.

• Gallery: Jean-Michel Othoniel: New Works, Galerie Perrotin. A solo show of blown-glass pieces that are sensual, luminous and all about transparency, weight and color. It’s elegant, calming, almost meditative. On view until December 20.

To listen (podcasts):

• French: Ça a commencé comme ça, the episode on Dan Flavin (linked to the current Minimal exhibition). A Pinault Collection podcast, brilliant, engaging and short (only 14 minutes).

• English: Channel Connects. This episode features Julien Creuzet, one of the most exciting French artists today, in conversation with Alvin Li, curator at Tate Modern in London. If you are curious about this opaque world, it is a great way to get a better sense of how it really works behind the scenes.

See you next week… same day, same time.

Juliette,

For any questions: info.midnightartclub@gmail.com

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