An untitled work by Wade Guyton was the headline of Christie's First Open sale on March 6 in New York, achieving $1m - an increase of 192.8% on a $350,000 estimate.
 Guyton's work is created with an inkjet printer |
The piece dates to 2005 and was created with the use of an Epson Stylus inkjet printer. Guyton designs his works using standard image editing software before passing the canvas through the machine multiple times, leading to the build-up of layers of ink.
The results suggests an advance in Guyton's price point. His auction record was set at $2.4m in Christie's unprecedented $692m contemporary art sale in November last year.
The sale was also of note for its inclusion of a selection of early works by the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Controversy dogged proceedings as the Basquiat's sisters filed a lawsuit against Christie's, claiming that only a handful of the works had been authenticated by the artist's estate.
Despite this the event went ahead with only one work, a radiator painted with the word "Milk", withdrawn from the sale - but the contention appears to have affected the results.
Famous Negro Athletes, a door painted with acrylic and ink, sold for well below its $800,000-1.2m estimate at $773,000.
Untitled (Olive Oyl), a work painted on a swatch of wallpaper, performed slightly better with a final bid of $569,000. It was estimated at $400,000-600,000.
Basquiat has gone from strength to strength of late, and it is unusual for his work to perform poorly. The row over the authenticity of the work highlights the value collectors place on provenance.
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