Jean Dubuffet’s Cérémonie (Ceremony), a visceral portrait of cosmopolitan life from 1961, led the Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Auction in London, selling for £8,718,750 / $11,107,688 (including buyer`s premium). The sale totalled £45,179,450 / $57,558,619 — 94 per cent sold by lot and 99 per cent by value. For full results, see below. Channelling the currents of Pop Art, Abstract Expressionism and Tachisme, the top-priced work, which stands among the largest paintings in Dubuffet`s celebrated ‘Paris Circus’ series, was made just a few months after the artist`s return to Paris after six years in the countryside. Alive with kaleidoscopic texture and colour, it captures the newfound joie de vivre that swept the French capital during the early 1960s. The second and third highest prices on the night came for
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