Auction: Photographs, November 14, 2009 @Phillips

Phillips has switched the order of its New York and London photographs sales this year, putting the London photographs sale right next to Frieze (and generally in line with the New York photographs season earlier in October) and the New York photographs sale later this week, right on the heels of the main New York Contemporary Art season. Both moves reinforce the house's positioning of photography away from the traditional vintage crowd and more toward the world of contemporary art.

This sale has echoes of Phillips' other recent photographs sales, as it is bookended by a further installment of Mapplethorpe prints from Lisa Lyon's collection, as well as another sampler of vintage Japanese work from the Jacobson/Hashimoto collection. In the middle, a selection of images (many celebrity/fashion) by Albert Watson can be found. There are a total of 294 photography lots on offer, with a Total High Estimate of $3461100. (Catalog cover at right, via Phillips.)

Here's the breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including $10000): 203

Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): $1121100

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between $10000 and $50000): 81

Total Mid Estimate: $1655000

Total High Lots (high estimate above $50000): 10

Total High Estimate: $685000

The top lot by High estimate is lot 105, Thomas Ruff, Nude ox03, 2006, at $60000-80000.

Here is a short list of the photographers who are represented by three or more lots in the sale (with the number of lots in parentheses):

.

Robert Mapplethorpe (14)

Albert Watson (11)

William Eggleston (10)

Iwao Yamawaki (8)

Horst P. Horst (7)

Shikanosuke Yagaki (7)

Ansel Adams (6)

Nobuyoshi Araki (5)

Diane Arbus (5)

Peter Beard (5)

Larry Clark (5)

Patrick Demarchelier (5)

Yasumasa Morimura (5)

Koyo Okada (5)

Minayoshi Takada (5)

George Tice (5)

Joel-Peter Witkin (5)

Bill Brandt (4)

Nan Goldin (4)

Irving Penn (4)

Sebastiao Salgado (4)

Wolfgang Tillmans (4)

Berenice Abbott (3)

Helena Almeida (3)

Edward Burtynsky (3)

Henri Cartier-Bresson (3)

Emmet Gowin (3)
Sally Mann (3)

Thomas Ruff (3)

Flip Schulke (3)
.

For our particular collection, there are a few lots that caught our eye. They include:

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Lot 210 Dennis Hopper, Double Standard, 1961

Lot 244 Edward Weston, Nude, 1927 (at right, bottom)

Lot 289 Iwao Yamawaki, On the street, Germany, 1930s (at right, middle)

The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here.

Photographs
November 14th

Phillips De Pury & Company
450 West 15 Street
New York, NY 10011