Patrizia Koenig, Head of New Now.
New Now is all about discovery. Known for championing up-and-coming talent, the mid-season sale spans categories, presenting innovative artworks from a range of emerging and established artists. As she prepares for her first season as Head of New Now New York, we caught up with Patrizia Koenig to learn more about her background, approach, and what we can expect from the upcoming sale.
PHILLIPS: Going way back to the beginning, I was wondering where you grew up—did you grow up around art?
Patrizia Koenig: I was born in Germany and grew up mostly in Essen, which is a stone’s throw away from Dusseldorf and Cologne. I did live in the US for a few years (I’m half-American), but my formative years were really in the Ruhr and Rhein region–which, lucky for me, is full of some of the best museums and galleries. It's the cradle of post-war German art—think Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke, Günther Uecker—and has a rich history of contemporary art patronage, which the Museum Ludwig’s amazing Pop art collection is testament to. My family is very art-centric, so growing up I got an early art history education of sorts by visiting museums and painting myself—though I soon realized I was better in art history than painting. [laughs]
New Now installation view. Phillips Southampton.
P: This might be a hard question to answer, but I was wondering if you could remember the first work of art that really moved you?
PK: I remember seeing a blue Yves Klein sponge painting when I was like four years old at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt because we were tasked to create one ourselves. I think a decisive encounter was also seeing a show of Gerhard Richter’s work as a teenager. His 1960’s greyscale photo-paintings had a strong impact on me, both in their technical execution and just their many conceptual and historical underpinnings. And then obviously his abstract paintings were just amazing to experience in person.
P: What did you gravitate towards in your studies?
PK: I had an interest in the art market from the start, so I pursued a Liberal Arts degree in Maastricht, The Netherlands, since I could combine courses in Business, Law, and Art History. I’ve always been intrigued by questions of authenticity and replication, especially around conceptual or immaterial art. The art market back then was very focused on contemporary art from China, and I soon found myself focussing on Chinese art, specifically performance and photography, during my master’s at Oxford. My mom is Vietnamese and while I didn't focus on Vietnamese art, it’s certainly been an interest to look beyond the confines of Western art history.
Hernan Bas, Downhill at Dusk (The Runaway), 2008.
P: How did you get started at Phillips?
PK: I started at Phillips New York as a Researcher & Writer for the Evening Sale. I had been at the art gallery 1301PE in Los Angeles before that, working really just with contemporary artists, so this move was a true introduction to American stalwarts such as Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, but also Modern masters such as Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. As you know, our sales tie in both 20th and 21st century art so it was an amazing education on periods I didn’t have in-depth knowledge on. This was in 2017 and looking back it’s clear how ahead of the curve Phillips was in combining these categories.
P: What distinguishes New Now from some of the other sales?
PK: New Now is our mid-season sale and includes works by both up-and-coming talent and established artists, spanning a breadth of not just price categories, but also periods, genres and media. It’s a platform that allows you to take more chances–you’ll find more new media works, installations and also artists that may not have established secondary markets—and it's a space for innovation. We took the leap of taking our catalogue fully digital, which not only is better for the environment but also encouraged us to think of new ways to grow digital engagement. It’s truly the bellwether of the market at large, and many of the artists we introduce subsequently feature in Evening Sales.
P: Are there any artists coming up in New Now that you’re really excited about?
PK: There really are too many to list! I’m very excited about our two works by Matthew Wong—I still vividly remember visiting his show at Karma late 2019 and being moved by his incredible fusion of color and feeling. I’m also thrilled we have works by Stanley Whitney, McArthur Binion, and Hernan Bas. We also have an intimate painting by auction newcomer Jenna Gribbon, whose work I first got introduced to via Instagram and very much admire. I’m personally also very happy to be offering two works by Rirkrit Tiravanija, with whom I worked on a public art commission during my time in Los Angeles.
Rirkrit Tiravanija, Untitled (THE DAYS OF THIS SOCIETY IS NUMBERED), 2014. Estimate $40,000 - 60,000. New Now New York.
P: How have you started leveraging digital analytics & platforms like Articker in your own work?
PK: In today’s media-saturated age, I've found Articker to be a really helpful tool to aggregate some of the key art world news in one place. To me it also offers somewhat of a comparable experience of picking up art news snippets during informal chats at art fairs and exhibition openings, which of course have fallen away in the past year. The analytics gives us a good pulse of the art world at any given time, which is especially helpful for a sale like New Now that deals with emerging talent and provides an additional layer of information when assessing an artist's positioning in the art world and market.
P: What changes do you hope or expect to see for New Now in the coming seasons?
PK: I'd love to continue to build out our partnerships with organizations that benefit social justice and environmental causes. As an auction house, we're part of a broader ecosystem and I do think there are meaningful ways we can contribute, whether that be through raising funds by selling at auction or providing our communication platforms to amplify important causes. This season we're offering works to benefit important organizations such as RxART, the Cancer Research Institute and the World Wildlife Fund, with portions of our revenue benefitting the organizations, and I'm excited about what's next to come in September.
Contact
Patrizia Koenig
Associate Specialist, Head of New Now
pkoenig@phillips.com
+1 212 940 1279
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