Auction Season Prices A Lineage, Not A Painting

In short: Phillips' Modern & Contemporary Art sale on July 16, 2026 includes work by Sir Frank Bowling, a living 92-year-old gestural, color-driven abstractionist — a real, dated auction event a collector can actually use as a barometer. But art advisors and the artists themselves agree on one thing: an auction number prices a lineage's current standing, not what any one living painter's work is worth to buy directly, today, at the studio.

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What Is Phillips' July 16 Sale Actually A Barometer For?

Phillips' Modern & Contemporary Art sale, live in New York July 16, 2026, includes a work by Sir Frank Bowling alongside Isa Genzken, Chris Ofili, Carol Bove, and Rashid Johnson — a real, upcoming auction event, not a hypothetical. Bowling matters specifically here: British-Guyanese, based between London and New York since the 1960s, and still working at 92, he's one of the last living painters of the gestural, color-driven lineage that runs through Frankenthaler, Mitchell, and de Kooning. A strong result for his work this summer is a read on how that whole approach to color and gesture is being valued right now — not a price tag on any single living painter working in the same tradition.

Are Gestural, Color-Driven Painters Actually Undervalued Right Now?

According to the specialists closest to this exact category, yes — and not by a small margin. Dakota Sica, an art advisor and owner of New York's Leslie Feely Gallery, curated Phillips' own "Gesture — Second Generation Abstraction" offering this season and put it plainly: painters working in this vein "are all wildly undervalued compared both to their artist peers and their contributions to the history of painting." Sica's larger thesis is that the first generation of Abstract Expressionists is locked into museum and family collections, so "abstract painting did not end with the first generation — it was reinvented and built upon by the second generation of abstract painters. This group of artists is one of the last frontiers for excavating value at a relatively accessible price point." Ed Dolman, an art advisor who tracked this spring's marquee sales, points to the same underlying strength: the season's standout Rothko result, he said, was "proving the enduring demand for exceptional postwar material," in a market that has "corrected, stabilized, and moved on" from speculative pricing.

Does A Rising Auction Market Change What A Living Painter Should Charge?

Not according to the advisors watching the market most closely. Benjamin Godsill, an art advisor, described this season's real character as "collectors willing to spend the right price for the right work but not stretch beyond that" — a measured market, not a speculative one. Andrea Hazen, an art advisor who bid at the major spring sales, made a related point about where real activity actually happens: "uber-wealthy people are also buying things that cost $200,000" — the headlines chase the $80 million lots, but most real collecting happens well below them, at prices set by conversation and judgment, not a paddle war. Michael Duffy, Head of Art Planning for Merrill, adds the structural reason a rising auction market shouldn't set a living painter's price: "Auction houses owe contractual duties to sellers and limited duties to bidders, but they are not fiduciaries." An auction house is built to maximize what a seller gets for a resale — not to tell a buyer what a working artist's new painting should cost at the studio.

What Did Artists And Critics Say About Price Versus Value?

Long before this summer's sale calendar, the painters working in this exact tradition — and the critics who studied them — made the same point advisors are making today. Helen Frankenthaler, the painter whose soak-stain technique this whole lineage runs through, put it as directly as it can be put: "Art has a will of its own. It has nothing to do with the taste of the moment or what's expected of you." Sir Frank Bowling, whose work sits in Phillips' July 16 sale, has spent six decades saying the same thing about the work itself, not its price: "Colour plays an enormous part in my work, if not the most important part." Mark Rothko, writing in 1947, warned against treating a painting as a static asset at all: "A picture lives, by companionship, expanding and quickening in the eyes of the sensitive observer. It dies by the same token. It is therefore a risky and unfeeling act to send it out into the world." The critic John Berger named the exact mechanism auction headlines lean on, in Ways of Seeing: "Because it is nevertheless 'a work of art' — and art is thought to be greater than commerce — its market price is said to be a reflection of its spiritual value." Oscar Wilde had already named the failure mode a century earlier: "A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing."

Where Does This Leave Astral Thicket 8?

Astral Thicket 8 works in the same stain-and-gesture lineage this whole barometer conversation is about — walnuts harvested and boiled from Angela's own Nashville yard form the base stain, layered with crushed oil and wax pigment, lifted by dusty pastel. It's one of eleven Astral Thicket paintings currently in stock, priced at $4,850 — a studio price set by conversation with the artist, not a paddle war. See the full in-stock collection, or start a commission if the size or palette you need isn't sitting in inventory today.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Phillips' July 2026 sale actually relevant to buying from a living painter directly?

It's a useful barometer for how gestural, color-driven abstraction is being valued right now — not a price on any specific living painter's work. Advisors close to the sale describe the category as genuinely undervalued relative to its art-historical importance.

Are gestural, color-driven abstract painters undervalued compared to other postwar artists?

Yes, according to Dakota Sica, the advisor who curated Phillips' own Second Generation Abstraction offering this season — he calls the category "wildly undervalued" relative to both its peers and its art-historical contribution.

Does a rising auction market mean I should wait to buy, or buy now?

Advisors interviewed about this season's sales describe collectors buying at sensible, considered prices rather than waiting or speculating — and note that most real collecting activity happens well below the headline lots, at accessible price points.

Is Astral Thicket 8 available now?

Yes — it's in stock and ready to ship at $4,850, one of eleven currently available Astral Thicket paintings. View the in-stock collection.

Sources: Phillips, "In a Gesture: A 2026 Collector's Guide to Post-War American Art" (phillips.com); ARTnews, "Five Questions for Five Advisors on the May 2026 Marquee Sales" (artnews.com, May 27, 2026); Bank of America Private Bank / Merrill, "Art Market Update Spring 2026"; Helen Frankenthaler quote per A-Z Quotes/Wikiquote; Frank Bowling quote per his 1971 statement on colour (Tate/Brooklyn Rail); Mark Rothko, "The Romantics Were Prompted," Possibilities, 1947–48; John Berger, Ways of Seeing (Penguin, 1972); Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere's Fan (1892).