Monday, March 30, 2009

AIPAD 2009 Booth Summary, Part 2

This review is the second post of our two part summary of the booths at AIPAD 2009, held at the Armory in New York this past week. Part one of the review is here, and you should likely start there for more context and background on the how and why of the format and approach we are using, if you haven't read it already. Since the show closed on Sunday, all of our comments will now be in the past tense; follow up on any of the images will need to go directly to the galleries or dealers (websites provided in parentheses when available).

Hans P. Kraus, Jr. (here): Hans Kraus had his usual assortment of top quality 19th century material on display, with a few images leaking over into the early 20th century. There were excellent portraits by Julia Margaret Cameron, Clarence White, and Gertrude Kasebier, as well as a pair by Edward Steichen. There was also an amazing Fox Talbot ladder scene. For our collection, the two Fox Talbot floral photoengravings from 1858 (Compound Leaf and Truncated Fern below, priced at $40000 and $25000 respectively) were the best fit. You had to really get up close to see the extreme detail captured in the prints.



Richard Moore Photographs (here): This booth contained a solid Walker Evans filling station from 1935 (1950s print), an Imogen Cunningham Triangles, and 2 Frank Eugene nudes among others and a pair of bins. The best picture was the Paul Strand below, Window Near Livarot, Calvados, France, 1950, a signed and dated print, priced at $40000.



Throckmorton Fine Art (here): Flor Garduno, Marilyn Bridges, and Edward Weston all got wall space (among many others) in the Throckmorton booth. I enjoyed seeing the Manuel Alvarez Bravo smokestacks from 1929 which I had not seen before ($5000, but already sold), but my favorite was the Tina Modotti Cactus from 1929 (below, priced at $75000) tucked around the corner on a small wall.



Stephen Daiter Gallery (here): Daiter had mix of artists, with multiple works by Andre Kertesz, Barbara Crane, Ken Josephson, Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Aaron Siskind, and Paul D'Amato on display. We continue to look for superior New York abstracted images by Kertesz for our collection, and this image below is a fine early one (Rooftop, New York, October 31, 1943, priced at $18000).


Robert Mann Gallery (here): Robert Mann was in a front and center location, with multiple interior and exterior walls covered with pictures. There were saturated color works by Jeff Brouws, Chip Hooper waves, striking color portraits by Res, and a bunch of black and white work (Joe Deal, Harry Callahan, Aaron Siskind, Alfred Steiglitz (Camera Work gravures), and Michael Kenna all represented by a few prints each). Our favorite was the Siskind below, Untitled, 1950.


Stepher Bulger Gallery (here): Bulger had a solid mix of Kertesz work among other items in a varied display: a distortion, some color Polaroids, and an interesting portrait of collector Andre Jammes on the table stand. Most memorable however were the works by Allison Rossiter (Untitled Lament, Kodak Velox f4, expires October 1940, 2008, below, priced at $2800 and already sold). Rossiter takes old, expired photographic papers (some as old as 1915 or so), and then uses developer in a painterly way to create unique abstract forms, including any random chance artifacts resulting from the aging of the medium.



Vintage Works (here): Vintage Works always has its signature room of bins for browsing, and this show was no different, with a small anteroom in the booth dedicated to bins; there were also some excellent Southworth & Hawes daguerreotypes hiding in this room. On the exterior walls, there was a dense mix of images, including work by Dorothy Norman, Josef Sudek, Ilse Bing, Andre Kertesz, Aaron Siskind, and Francois Kollar (among many others). Our favorite, which we have seen several times over the years, was the vintage Steichen Maypole, from 1932, a multiple image (below, with "price on request").


Galerie Johannes Faber (here): Johannes Faber had a tightly edited group of well selected pictures on display. Josef Sudek, Rudolph Koppitz (portraits), Frantisek Drtikol (nudes), Edward Steichen (fashion) and Drahomir Ruzicka were all represented by strong images. There were also three excellent Paul Wolff still lifes. The best image in the booth was the small, crisp Karl Struss flower from 1930 (below, $8500). Struss didn't make many flowers, so this print also has the advantage of being a scarce commodity.


Rick Wester Fine Art (here): Rick Wester went with a booth dominated by 5 big beautiful Irving Penn images, in a mix of platinum and silver. There were also two Meghan Boody color works on one exterior wall, and a large black and white Mapplethorpe calla lily on another. The other walls held a mix of work; the small Callahan multiple image dye transfer from Provincetown, 1979 (below, priced at $18000) caught our eye the most.


Deborah Bell Photographs (here): Deborah Bell's booth was a mix of her gallery artists, with Marcia Resnick, Mariana Cook, and Susan Paulsen getting much of the wall space. There was also a selection of terrific works by Louis Faurer, and a Blumenfeld and Kertesz or two thrown into the mix for good measure. The most memorable however were the Gerard Petrus Fieret 1960s images mounted together on one page (there were two sets of four, each set priced at $7500).


Hemphill Fine Arts (here): I never seem to tire of Hiroshi Sugimoto's long exposure movie screen images; they always seem fresh and exciting. Hemphill had 5 of these strong images (3 drive ins and 2 interior theaters; one of the drive-ins below) and they held their own well against a barrage of colorful floor to ceiling dots by Colby Caldwell on an adjacent wall. Other booth highlights included some William Christenberry images in a box, and works by Tanya Marcuse.


Serge Plantureux (here): Serge Plantureux had an eclectic mix of mainly 19th century material on view, with Marville, O'Sullivan and Renard all represented. There were also a group of Karl Struss images, as well as some Rodchenko portraits and crowd scenes. I like the small Wright Morris contact prints hanging on an outside wall best (one of the images below, sold as a group).


Sepia International (here): Sepia had a dense wall of work, with a mix of artists including Linda Connor, Koichiro Kurita, and some contemporary tintypes by Michelle Kloehn. I continue to be interested by the work of Raghubir Singh, and there was a busy image displayed on the exterior booth wall that I enjoyed (a posthumous estate print, below, priced at $9500).


Michael Shapiro Photographs (no website): Shapiro was showing Margaret Bourke-White, Lotte Jacobi, Minor White, and Mark Citret among others. The Ruth Bernhard Oval Nude, 1962 (1970's print, priced at $12000) would fit into our collection well, although I'd get rid of the oval mat.

Keith De Lellis Gallery (here): Keith De Lellis has been going for a higher volume approach for his booths of late, and this booth was again packed with work, floor to ceiling. There was an entire exterior wall of boxing images, and inside there were solid works by Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Doris Ulmann, Weegee, Mole & Thomas, and Eugene De Salignac (cyanotypes from the recent show). Paul Wolff's Crosses of Steel, 1936 was my favorite (below, priced at $3500) and would fit well with other city scenes we own.


Henry Feldstein (no website): Henry Feldstein's booth was mostly images by Weegee, and I particularly enjoyed the multiple image of Times Square from the 1950s (below, priced at $3500). There was also work by Les Krims, Brassai, and Andre Kertesz, among others, on view.


Bonni Benrubi Gallery (here): This booth was a mixed bag of gallery artists for the most part, with images by Abelardo Morell, Matthew Pillsbury, LeRoy Grannis, and Laura McPhee all getting significant wall space. I most enjoyed the Steichen foxgloves from 1926 (below, priced at $65000), hiding low on one wall.


Catherine Edelman Gallery (here): Catherine Edelman was showing mostly newer contemporary work from artists like Tom Baril (color still lifes), Julie Blackmon, Joel-Peter Witkin, Robin Bowman, and Shelby Lee Adams. The staged images by German photographer Achim Lippoth (below, Class of 1954, #4, 2006, priced at $4650) add an undercurrent of something unsettling to childhood cliches.


Yancey Richardson Gallery (here): Yancey Richardson's booth was a full mix of gallery artists, with Sharon Core, Alex Prager, Hellen Van Meene, Masao Yamamoto, Andrew Moore, Andrew Hilliard, Lisa Kerezi, Hiroh Kikai, Laura Letinsky, and Ken Josephson all on view. I always enjoy seeing the Kikai portraits, and the new Laura Letinsky (hung in the back alcove) takes her table top still lifes in a more minimalist, all-white direction. For our collection, the Ken Josephson below (Chicago, 1962, priced at $3500) was still the best, even though we had seen it before at the Armory.

Alan Klotz Gallery (here): Alan Klotz' booth was dominated by the works of Carolyn Marks Blackwood. Most of these images were color pictures of shattered and broken ice shards, with a pair of larger water reflection images hung in the middle (below, priced at $5500 each). There were also two large color images of refineries by Tetsugo Hyakutake, and additional prints by Sudek and Christenberry, among others.


Lee Marks Fine Art (here): While Mariana Cook's portrait of the Obamas was likely the most recognizable work in this booth, Nan Goldin, Jen Davis, and Lucinda Devlin (wind turbines and electric towers) were all on the walls as well. For our collection, I liked the Andrew Borowiec Under the Memorial Bridge, The Flats, 2002, the best (below, priced at $1500).


Robert Koch Gallery (here): Two large Amy Stein color images covered an entire exterior wall at Robert Koch, with a mixture of smaller, more European work hung inside. Drtikol, Henri, Koudelka, Ehm, and Sudek were all represented, along with one bin of prints for browsing. The Kertesz below, Macdougal Alley, Washington Square, 1950, would fit well with other Kertesz city images we own.


William Schaeffer Photographs (no website): There were a total of 6 bins for browsing at William Schaeffer, so you had to work a bit to see everything. On the walls were 19th century images by Adolphe Braun, Carleton Watkins, and Eugene Cuvelier, as well as 20th century gems by Walker Evans and Margaret Bourke-White. I enjoyed most the Giorgio Sommer sill life from the Napoli Museum from the 1870s (below).

Charles Hartman Fine Art (here): Charles Hartman was showing works by Issei Suda, Daido Moriyama, Aaron Siskind, and a group of Ansel Adams prints. There was also a color image by Corey Arnold of an ice covered ship. The Arthur Siegel abstract photogram from 1946 (below, priced at $6500) was the most memorable.



Galerie Daniel Blau (here): Daniel Blau was the only gallery we visited which refused to allow any pictures to be taken, so it wins the prize of the last slot in this booth summary. There were 19th century images on display by Paul-Emile Miot, Emile Gsell, and Fratelli Alinari, with a pair of NASA Orbiter images thrown in for good measure.

With 20 booths covered in Part 1, and another 25 reviewed here in Part 2, I think we canvassed the fair in enough depth to give other collectors who couldn't make it to the show a feel for what was on display. As always, if you think we missed something important, that's what the Comments section is for.

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