Friday, April 29, 2011

Chris Marker: PASSENGERS @Peter Blum Chelsea

JTF (just the facts): A total of 136 color photographs, hung unframed in an up and down pattern throughout the four rooms of the gallery space. All of the works are digital pigment prints mounted on white Sintra, taken between 2008 and 2010 and printed in 2011. Physical dimensions range from roughly 13x16 to 13x21, and all of the images have been printed in editions of 3. A monograph of this body of work has recently been published by the gallery (priced at $95) and a companion exhibit of additional works is now on view at the gallery's Soho space. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Between 1938 and 1941, Walker Evans made hundreds of images of passengers in the New York subways, using a hidden camera concealed in his coat. These images were later edited and sequenced into the famous book Many Are Called, with an introduction provided by James Agee. The project was ground-breaking for several reasons: it introduced an element of chance into the idea of portraiture, his sitters were caught unaware and therefore had no opportunity to put on a persona or otherwise compose themselves, and it created a collective snapshot of the diversity of the city at that time. The dark images of blank faces mix the up-close intimacy of the voyeur with the social distance of the stranger.
 
Celebrated French filmmaker Chris Marker has essentially made a remake of Evans' classic series in his new work PASSENGERS. He's substituted a watch camera, the Paris Metro, and the 21st century, but otherwise, the concept is exactly the same: make images of commuters on the train without their knowledge, catching them in those fleeting inward moments of privacy in a public place. Marker's pictures find the present world more crowded, more casual, and a more complicated melting pot of ethnicities and cultures (with a seemingly higher percentage of women). But even with the addition of the isolation inducing headphones of an iPod, we still behave in much the same manner as Evans' passengers did decades earlier: unfocused empty stares, careful silent distraction, looking away, or down, or off into the distance, in a kind of bored, personal reverie.
 
Stylistically, Marker has taken these rudimentary subway snapshots and then subtly reworked them in Photoshop, using filters of blurring and pixelation, creating a more impressionistic feeling. Some figures have an added aura of faint color, while others exhibit an exaggerated brightness or a slight fuzziness that feels like motion. These are not all-over effects, but localized splashes that take away photographic crispness and add an element of painterly texture or smudging, where a flash of red hair, the energy of a blue scarf, or the pattern of a dress becomes more moody or electric.
 
I'm not sure that many of these images can really stand on their own as individual photographs of durable merit. But when you see them displayed in massive groups, or gathered together in book form, the specific moments and anonymous individuals fade away, and Marker's pictures become a hypnotic, cinematic impression of both the commonality of our shared experience and the real separations and differences to be found in our jammed together overlapping lives. In this remake, the formality and honesty of Evans has been replaced by something altogether more fluid and chaotic.

Collector's POV: The works in this show are priced as follows. The first two prints from the edition are priced at $2800 and $3500 respectively, with the third print reserved to be sold as a full set. A group of 4 prints is also available in a larger size (I didn't get the dimensions) for $5800 each. Marker's work is not widely available at auction, so gallery retail is likely the only option for interested collectors at this point.

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:
  • Reviews: Flavorwire (here), Art Fag City (here), NY Photo Review (here), Spread Art Culture (here)
Through June 4th

Peter Blum Gallery
526 West 29th Street
New York, NY 10001

Thursday, April 28, 2011

The Checklist: 04/28/11

DLK COLLECTION

Checklist 04/28/11

New reviews added this week in red.

Uptown

ONE STAR: After the Gold Rush: Met: January 2: review

Midtown

ONE STAR: Max Kozloff: Higher Pictures: May 7: review
TWO STARS: The Mexican Suitcase: ICP: May 8: review
TWO STARS: Wang Qingsong: ICP: May 8: review
ONE STAR: Staging Action: MoMA: May 9: review

Chelsea

ONE STAR: Ruud van Empel: Stefan Stux: May 14th: review
ONE STAR: Andreas Gefeller: Hasted Kraeutler: May 14th: review
ONE STAR: Yuki Onodera: Yossi Milo: May 28: review

ONE STAR: Jo Ratcliffe: Walther Collection: July 15: review

SoHo/Lower East Side/Downtown

TWO STARS: Katy Grannan: Salon 94 Freemans: April 30: review
TWO STARS: Mark Morrisroe: Artists Space: May 1: review
TWO STARS: Ray Mortenson: Janet Borden: May 27: review

ONE STAR: Alvin Baltrop: Third Streaming: May 28: review

Elsewhere Nearby


ONE STAR: Sam Taylor-Wood: Brooklyn Museum: August 14: review
TWO STARS: Lorna Simpson: Brooklyn Museum: August 21: review

Yuki Onodera @Milo

JTF (just the facts): A total of 16 black and white photographs, alternately framed in black and blond wood and unmatted, and hung in the main gallery space and back alcove. All of the works are gelatin silver prints. The 8 images in the front room are from the Transvest series and were made between 2002 and 2009; these works range in size from 65x50 to 78x50, and have been printed in editions of either 5+3AP or 7+4AP. The other 8 images in the back are from the Eleventh Finger series and were made between 2006 and 2008; these works range in size from 24x24 to 69x48, and have been printed in editions of 7+3AP. Works from the Transvest series were collected in a monograph published by Nazraeli Press in 2004 (here). (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Japanese photographer Yuki Onodera's accomplished first solo show in the US brings together works from two recent projects and thoughtfully explores questions of identity via layers of intricate process. In both series, a straightforward idea is made more complex and nuanced by the introduction of an inversion, where what we expect is subtly undermined.

In the Transvest project, life-sized black silhouettes hover against lit grey backgrounds, offering easily identifiable stereotypes and clues: the cowboy, the sexy young girl, the mother and daughter, the urban youth, even Fred Astaire. From afar, they look like simple cut-outs of familiar outlines, but up-close, it becomes clear that each person is covered in mottled, shifting pinpricks of light. Get right next to the print and you can often identify a swirling mass of shadowy appropriated imagery, covering the bodies like dissolving tattoos: architectural interiors, flowers, a waterfall, trees, a chandelier, even a skeleton. It becomes clear that these figures are not types, but individuals with broader, more complicated stories made up of surprising component parts, many facets of their personalities hidden just on the edge of visual comprehension.

My first reaction to the works from the Eleventh Finger series in the back viewing area was that there was a strong echo of Baldessari in them, as both employ figures made anonymous by obscuring their faces with an unexpected, out of context blob, almost like a thought bubble. The difference here is that Onodera has used elaborate cut paper photograms that resemble lacy doilies to do her covering: intricate, graceful patterns of fish, flowers, and vaguely Asian geometric dots and dashes that subtly match their wearers. There's also an interesting contrast of textures going on, with the pure flatness of the cutouts juxtaposed with the graininess of the black and white photographs. What may sound like an odd combination is actually quite effective and elegant.

In both projects, it felt like Onodera was starting with images of empty human vessels and then filling and altering them with details introduced via various photographic processes. I liked this connection between the two series, even though they were executed in remarkably different ways. To me this is evidence of mature forethought, of starting with the underlying ideas and then developing original ways to articulate them, without regard to a common aesthetic framework. All in, I came away wanting to see more.

Collector's POV: The works in this show are priced as follows. The prints from the Transvest series are all $24000 each, although several are marked NA on the checklist. The prints from the Eleventh Finger series are either $7500, $9500, or $17500, based on size. A sprinkling of Onodera's prints have reached the secondary markets in the past decade, fetching prices between $1000 and $7000, but I wouldn't say this data is particularly representative of her more recent work. As such, I think gallery retail is likely the only option for interested collectors at this point.

My favorite image in the show was Rosa, 2009; it's the middle image in the middle installation shot. In this image, the sparkly details on the body are a bit more identifiable, with a string of riverfront lights and bunches of exotic jungle leaves running across her silhouette. I also thought it might be fun to pair one of these with a similar sized Robert Longo.

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:
  • Feature: Lens Culture (here)
Yuki Onodera
Through May 28th

Yossi Milo Gallery
525 West 25th Street
New York, NY 10001

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Jo Ratcliffe: As Terras do Fim do Mundo @Walther Collection

JTF (just the facts): A total of 55 black and white works, generally framed in blond wood and not matted, and hung in the main gallery space and the side book alcove. 52 of the images are platinum prints, taken in 2009 and 2010 and printed in 2011; while no dimensions were available, the prints look to be roughly 11x14, and they have been printed as a portfolio of 60 in an edition of 1 for the Walther Collection. The other three images come from an earlier series (Terreno Ocupado) and were taken in 2007 and printed in 2011; they are gelatin silver prints, roughly 20x30 in size, hanging on one side of a dividing panel in the center of the gallery space. Monographs of these two bodies of work have been separately published by Warren Siebrits and Michael Stevenson. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: If there is any single theme underlying my efforts on this site, it is that the informed voice of the typically silent private collector can actually be a valid one (not just an exercise in puffery and ego stroking), and that we collectors can make real and important contributions to the dialogue around contemporary art (particularly photography) if we find ways to insert those ideas into the larger discussion going on around us. So it was with much anticipation that I visited the new Walther Collection Project Space in Chelsea, where collector Artur Walther has opened a bright new gallery and inaugurated it with a solid show of recent work by South African photographer Jo Ratcliffe. Walther is particularly interested in African and Asian photography, two areas that are often overlooked and/or misunderstood in the normal flow of art through New York, and so this space promises to be a place where high quality, out of the mainstream visual ideas will be on view. It is exactly the kind of thing I wish more major collectors would do, so before we get to the work itself, a hearty standing ovation from me for the spirit of collector activism that this new venue represents.

Ratcliffe's images of the aftermath of the Angolan civil war employ a familiar technique from Greek tragedy, where most of the action actually happens off screen, and we are therefore left to primarily confront the effects and consequences of events that took place at another time, perhaps years in the past. Photographers as diverse as David Goldblatt, Robert Adams, and most recently Deborah Luster, have all used this approach to consider how tiny clues left in the landscape can lead us back to an understanding of failures and atrocities that still resonate profoundly in the present.

Ratcliffe's photographs have a silent emptiness to them, where the rocky desert and scrub forest stand mute in the face of history. Her pictures document mass graves, minefields, abandoned crops, ambush sites, improvised memorials, trench systems, and dusty battlefields, singling out some small marker or piece of evidence in the otherwise indifferent landscape. Her platinum prints further soften the harshness of the environment, their tonalities more gentle and forgiving; stands of swaying long grass hide a minefield, pockmarked murals lurk in quiet buildings, or lines of white stones call out the edges of a missle bunker.

While not every one of these images is eye-catchingly memorable, the aggregate effect of their dull weight is surprisingly heavy. The flat land does give up its secrets if you know where to look, and what is left behind is both powerful and ephemeral, an absence and a presence at the same time. These subtle pictures allow our imaginations to fill in the blanks, rather than pounding us over the head with the horrors of war. Instead, they highlight the traces that remain and the stories we pass down, reminding us that these imperfect memories are an integral part of who we are and who we can become.

Collector's POV: Since this is a non-commercial space, no prices were available for the works on view. Jo Ratcliffe is represented by Michael Stevenson Gallery in Cape Town and Johannesburg (here). Ratcliffe's work has not yet reached the secondary markets, so gallery retail is likely the only option for interested collectors at this point.

My favorite image in the show was On the road to Cuito Cuanavale I, 2009; it's on the far left of the right hand group of prints in the third installation shot from the top. I like the spindly angular form created by the intersection of the long sticks emerging from the carcass of a hulking armored vehicle.

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:
  • Review: La Lettre de la Photographie (here)
  • Features: ArtInfo (here), Artnet (here), Snapshots (here)
Jo Ratcliffe: As Terras do Fim do Mundo
Through July 15th

The Walther Collection
526 West 26th Street
Suite 718
New York, NY 10001

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Ray Mortenson: Full Scale / Meadowland Still Lifes @Borden

JTF (just the facts): A total of 9 large scale black and white works, framed in black and not matted, and hung against white walls in the main gallery space. All of the works are gelatin silver prints (with thin black borders) and were made between 2002 and 2003. The prints come in two sizes: 40x50 or 50x60, both in editions of 2; there are 2 images in the large size and 7 images in the small size on display. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: I'll bet if you did a quick study of the visitors to Ray Mortenson's new show, a decent percentage would exhibit the following behavior: drift in, scan the walls in one continuous circular movement (like being on a moving walkway), and then exit without registering much more than a cursory summary: big pictures of middle grey garbage. The reason I think this is happening is that these images defy a quick ADD reading, and only reveal themselves after slow, elemental looking, when this unruly mess of hard, dirty ugliness is quietly transformed into something astoundingly beautiful.

I found the scale of these works to be the key to their originality. Mortenson has carefully controlled the depth of field, choosing cross sections of decaying strata, all in generally the same plane so that everything is in crisp focus. He has then enlarged the images to make the objects life sized; a rusted shovel head, rubber tire, or soda can is shown in normal one-to-one proportions. As a result, the compositions have the feel of excavations, where layers of natural and manmade refuse are mixed into a dense bog of junk: railroad ties, rebar, the cover of an old oil drum, tree trunks, girders, a broken fan, pipes, roots, a ripped car seat, plastic bags, and scraggly weeds are deposited like sediments, in chaotic, messy, almost abstract formations. These gatherings of forgettable stuff are then photographed in a palette of muted grey, with very few contrasts of pure white, bringing juxtapositions of textures and surfaces to the forefront.

Given their large scale, the viewer is enveloped by this environment, and each image offers details to be deliberately unpacked and discovered. These specifics move at the pace of a geological dig: look over here between the vertical stripes of an old iron fence, brush away some dirt to see a slippery bag, prod further to get beneath the strands of weeds. It's easy to get lost in the small pieces, traversing the face of the pictures, seeing the fragments of a dark hole in a boiler or a pile of concrete chunks. This is one of the most consistent shows I have seen in quite a long time; every single image offers a surprisingly lyrical view of this swampland of gritty detritus.

I suppose this show will appeal most to that ever shrinking tribe of purists who find enchantment in the lushness of a masterfully executed gelatin silver print. But these pictures aren't a throwback to the 1970s. Their combination of scale and detail is altogether contemporary, but if you fail to invest the time in really looking at them, all you'll see is a heap of trash.
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Collector's POV: The works in this show have two prices: the larger 50x60 prints are $11000 each and the smaller 40x50 prints are $9500 each. Mortenson's work is largely absent from the secondary markets, so gallery retail is likely the only real option for interested collectors.

While I liked almost all of the images in this show, my favorite was UNTITLED (Chain Link), 2002; it's on the far right in the middle installation shot. I liked the waves of twisted chain link fence, punctuated by slashes of angled pipe, a line of rubber wire, and a shredded plastic bag. The fencing is furrowed and wiggled, like a thicket of manmade bushes.

Rating: ** (two stars) VERY GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:
  • Review: NY Photo Review (here)
Ray Mortenson: Full Scale / Meadowland Still Lifes
Through May 27th
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560 Broadway
New York, NY 10012

Monday, April 25, 2011

Ruud van Empel, Wonder @Stux

JTF (just the facts): A total of 11 large scale color works, hung unframed in the entry, the two main gallery spaces, and the upper viewing area in the back of the gallery. All of the works are chromogenic prints mounted to Dibond and Plexiglas. Physical dimensions range from 33x24 to 49x130 (yes, wider than 10 feet); the larger images are printed in editions of 7+2AP, and the smaller images are printed in editions of 10+2AP. All of the works on view were made in 2010. A catalog of the exhibition is available from the gallery. (Installation shots at right.)
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Comments/Context: This show gathers together a variety of fresh work from the Dutch photographer Ruud van Empel, and finds him both continuing down old paths and evolving new but related ones to explore. Process-wise, we are still in the realm of elaborate composite images, where thousands of visual fragments have been Photoshopped together into van Empel's signature otherworldly hyper-reality, full of unnerving children portrayed in a combination of perfect detail and odd flatness.

Three of the images on view extend his popular World series, where black kids sit submerged in verdant, idealized pools (complete with lily pads and tropical flowers), or stand in plaid sport coats and party dresses amidst the clean, leafy eden. His Generation series of children in the rigid rows of a traditional school picture also has a new member; this time the risers are populated with a majority of Jewish kids. Other new works seem to riff on existing ideas, but expand them in new directions. The Theatre series takes the night time palette of the Moon series and applies it to dark, wooded scenes (almost like the forbidden forest of fairy tales), thick with tree trunks edge to edge. Connection seems to jump off from the Dawn series, but in an up-close panorama format, while Wonder seems descended from the Generation pictures, but is exploded outward to cram faces together in a crowded all-over pattern of childhood diversity. Brothers & Sisters takes some of the formality of the paired portraits of World, and adds the simple idea of family resemblance.

As a result, this show has the feeling of something altogether familiar, of van Empel subtly tuning and editing, but not changing the overall formula much; if you liked his prior work, you'll probably like these images as well, and if you didn't, you'll probably feel like these are more of the same. These recent pictures are not radical, frame-breaking experiments, but more a consolidation of the artist's complex visual toolkit, or perhaps better, a lively sprinkling of nuanced iterations.

Collector's POV: The works in this show are priced between $25000 and $98000, depending on size and on the location in the edition. In the past year or so, Van Empel's prints have found secondary market buyers between roughly $16000 and $35000.

My favorite image in the show was Brothers and Sisters 3, 2010; it's the picture on the left in the bottom installation shot. I like the idea of moving away from the consciously exotic; here van Empel has traded the lush, succulent jungle of the World series for the Northern forest in spring, placing two pale skinned, red haired children in 3/4 pose among the leaves. Even with the dated turtleneck sweater, it has an almost Victorian quality to it that I found intriguing.

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

Ruud van Empel, Wonder
Through May 14th
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Stefan Stux Gallery
530 West 25th Street
New York, NY 10001

Auction: Photographs, May 10, 2011 @Bonhams

Bonhams' various owner Photographs sale in two weeks has a deeper selection of Sugimoto prints than we've seen at auction anywhere this year. The top seven lots in the sale are all Sugimotos, including a solid mix of seascapes and blurred architecture images; another four Sugimotos can be found down the estimate list a little further. Overall, there are 170 photographs on offer, with a total High estimate of $1283600.
Here's the statistical breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including $10000): 139
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): $673600
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Total Mid Lots (high estimate between $10000 and $50000): 31
Total Mid Estimate: $610000

Total High Lots (high estimate above $50000): 0
Total High Estimate: NA

The top lot by High estimate is tied between two lots: lot 122, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Colors of Shadow C1018, 2006, and lot 123, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Colors of Shadow C1027, 2006, (image at right, top, via Bonhams), both at $30000-50000.
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Below is the list of photographers represented by 4 or more lots in the sale (with the number of lots in parentheses):

Ansel Adams (13)
Hiroshi Sugimoto (11)
Lee Friedlander (8)
Edward Curtis (7)
Alfred Eisenstaedt (6)
Joel Meyerowitz (5)
Richard Misrach (5)
Peter Beard (4)
Andre Kertesz (4)
Michael Light (4)
Irving Penn (4)
Sandy Skoglund (4)
Joel-Peter Witkin (4)

(Lot 89, Lee Friedlander, Stems, 1994, at $3000-4000, image at right, middle, and lot 131, Richard Misrach, Plate 4 from Desert Night Series, 1977, at $5000-7000, image at right, bottom, both via Bonhams.)
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The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here.

Photographs
May 10th
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Bonhams
580 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10022

Auction: New York Signature Vintage & Contemporary Photography, May 2, 2011 @Heritage

Heritage steps up next week with its various owner sale in New York, headlined by a few more high end lots than usual, but with plenty of later prints and lower priced work to sift through as well. Overall, there are a total of 188 photographs on offer, with a total High estimate of $1482000.

Here's the statistical breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including $10000): 168
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): $631000
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Total Mid Lots (high estimate between $10000 and $50000): 16
Total Mid Estimate: $406000

Total High Lots (high estimate above $50000): 4
Total High Estimate: $445000
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The top lot by High estimate is lot 74083, Irving Penn, Harlequin Dress, Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn, 1950/1979, at $150000-250000 (image at right, top, via Heritage).

Here's the complete list of photographers represented by four or more lots in the sale (with the number of lots in parentheses):

Berenice Abbott (12)
Ansel Adams (11)
Bill Owens (6)
Edward Weston (6)
Annie Leibovitz (5)
Irving Penn (5)
Sebastiao Salgado (5)
Mark Shaw (5)
Michael Kenna (4)
Jim Marshall (4)
Mark Seliger (4)
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(Lot 74059, Edward Weston, Pepper (No. 14), 1929, at $50000-75000, image at right, middle, and lot 74096, Slim Aarons, Mrs. F.C. Winston Guest and Son, Villa Artemis, Palm Beach, 1955/Later, at $3500-5000, image at right bottom, both via Heritage.)
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The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here.

New York Signature Vintage & Contemporary Photography Auction
May 2nd
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Heritage Auctions
The Fletcher-Sinclair Mansion
2 East 79th Street
New York, NY 10075

Auction Results: Post-War and Contemporary Art, April 20, 2011 @Christie's South Kensington

Gabriel Orozco provided a welcome boost to an otherwise ordinary outcome at the PWCA sale at Christie's South Kensington last week. The Orozco (at right) sold for £63650 against an estimate of £3000-5000, more than 12X its high estimate. The rest of the photography performed adequately, with an overall Buy-In rate over 30% and
the Total Sale Proceeds for photography coming in near the top of the estimate range.

The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):

Total Lots: 43
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: £222900
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: £328800
Total Lots Sold: 29
Total Lots Bought In: 14
Buy In %: 32.56%
Total Sale Proceeds: £310425

Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post, here):

Low Total Lots: 21
Low Sold: 15
Low Bought In: 6
Buy In %: 28.57%
Total Low Estimate: £68800
Total Low Sold: £114775

Mid Total Lots: 22
Mid Sold: 14
Mid Bought In: 8
Buy In %: 36.36%
Total Mid Estimate: £260000
Total Mid Sold: £195650

High Total Lots: 0
High Sold: NA
High Bought In: NA
Buy In %: NA
Total High Estimate: £0
Total High Sold: NA

The top lot by High estimate was lot 38, Robert Gober, Untitled, 1988, at £18000-22000; it sold for £37250. The top outcome of the sale was lot 35, Gabriel Orozco, Breath on Piano, 1993, at £63650 (image at right, top, via Christie's).

100.00% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range. There were a total of 4 surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate).

Lot 32, Marina Abramovic and Ulay, Relation in Space, 1977, at £39650
Lot 35, Gabriel Orozco, Breath on Piano, 1993, at £63650 (image at right, top, via Christie's)
Lot 57, Erwin Wurm, Cahors, Outdoor Sculpture, 2000-2001, £12500 (image at right, bottom, via Christie's)
Lot 224, Nan Goldin, Cookie in the NY inferno, 1985/1989, at £2375

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

Christie's
85 Old Brompton Road
London SW7 3LD

Friday, April 22, 2011

Andreas Gefeller, The Japan Series @Hasted Kraeutler

JTF (just the facts): A total of 20 large scale photographic works, alternately framed in white/black with no mats, and hung in the entry and all three rooms of the gallery space. 15 of the works (including 1 diptych) are from The Japan Series, taken in 2010. They are inkjet prints on Fine Art paper by Hahnemuhle and Innova, printed in editions of 8. Physical dimensions range from 39x39 to 51x88. The other 5 works are from Gefeller's earlier Supervisions series, taken between 2002 and 2007. They are Dibond-mounted digital chromogenic prints on Kodak Endura paper, also printed in editions of 8. Physical dimensions range from 39x59 to 49x108. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Back in the olden days of photography, when we would refer to the "construction" of an image, what we were talking about was where the photographer placed his or her camera, how he or she used the frame to define the edges and center of the composition, or perhaps how some staging was done to further heighten the overall effect. In our new digital age, "construction" has taken on a variety of new meanings, the most prominent being the use of PhotoShop and other tools to combine multiple source images into a single larger composition. Since we don't have a ready vocabulary for such newfangled craftsmanship, we have reverted to the language of needlework: sew, stitch, knit, quilt, and seam, as applied to the creation of digital photographic composites, as if the photographer was using a computer needle and thread to join together scraps of imagery.

The most recent works by German photographer Andreas Gefeller bear all the hallmarks of master digital tailoring; you have to look pretty closely to see the evidence of his handiwork. Most of the images on view depict the confluence of overhead telephone and electrical wires in the sky above the city, either during the day (white background) or at night (black background). Silhouetted wires have been done many times before, most notably by Harry Callahan, but Gefeller has used his technical skills to assemble heretofore impossible views: wires come together in layers of angles and plaids, but the pole itself has been magically removed, so the lines and junctions float untethered in pure open space. These manmade abstractions have the elegance of monochrome line drawings, but with the puzzling conceptual layer of apparent realism.

Gefeller has also applied this same technique to more natural forms, getting underneath grape arbors and pear espaliers, capturing the spindly lines of branches, trellises and support netting, but removing central trunks and thick stocks. His images transform the organic into something geometric and almost mathematical, as if the growth has been meticulously laid out on graph paper. These works blur the lines between natural and manmade, where visual fact and constructed fiction mix on a variety of mind bending levels, without degenerating into overly easy optical trickery and obvious gimmicks.

All in, regardless of subject matter, Gefeller's newest works have a futuristic, controlled formality, showing us a set of calculated patterns that lie beneath the surface of our normal perception. His sleight of hand is convincing enough to be thought provoking, and the best of the works on view satisfyingly erase the defining lines between real and unreal.
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Collector's POV: The prints in this show are priced as follows, and include the wooden frames. Individual images from The Japan Series are priced between $10600 and $15900, based on size; the diptych is $32000. 5% of the profits from these sales will be donated to the American Red Cross in support of Japan relief efforts. Prints from the Supervisions series range between $11800 and $22500, again based on size. Gefeller's work has only recently started to trickle into the secondary markets, so gallery retail is still the best option for interested collectors at this point.

My favorite image in the show was Poles 07, 2010; it's the middle image in the top installation shot. This particular work takes the ideas of this series and intensifies them, with even more wires, electrical transformers, and overhead light fixtures gathered in a dense, unruly tangle; it trades some of the simplicity of the other images for more muscular ordered chaos. (By the way, if you're specifically interested in wires and poles as subject matter, take a look at the relevant work of Osamu Kanemura and Frank Breuer). I also enjoyed Untitled (Runway), Hong Kong, 2004, in the back room; it's on the left in the bottom installation shot. What I like about this image is the disorienting sense of scale of the black landing area; the only clue to its actual size is the small tuft of grass in the bottom left hand corner.
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Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:
  • Artist site (here)
  • Feature: Time Light Box (here)
  • Review: New York Photo Review (here)
Andreas Gefeller, The Japan Series
Through May 14th
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Hasted Kraeutler Gallery
537 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011

Thursday, April 21, 2011

The Checklist: 04/21/11

DLK COLLECTION

Checklist 04/21/11

New reviews added this week in red.

Uptown

ONE STAR: Charles Traub: Gitterman: April 23: review
ONE STAR: After the Gold Rush: Met: January 2: review

Midtown

ONE STAR: Abstract Expressionist New York: MoMA: April 25: review
ONE STAR: Max Kozloff: Higher Pictures: May 7: review
TWO STARS: The Mexican Suitcase: ICP: May 8: review
TWO STARS: Wang Qingsong: ICP: May 8: review
ONE STAR: Staging Action: MoMA: May 9: review

Chelsea

ONE STAR: Stan Douglas: David Zwirner: April 23: review

SoHo/Lower East Side/Downtown

TWO STARS: Katy Grannan: Salon 94 Freemans: April 30: review
TWO STARS: Mark Morrisroe: Artists Space: May 1: review
ONE STAR: Alvin Baltrop: Third Streaming: May 28: review

Elsewhere Nearby

TWO STARS: Cindy Sherman: Bruce Museum: April 23: review
ONE STAR: Sam Taylor-Wood: Brooklyn Museum: August 14: review
TWO STARS: Lorna Simpson: Brooklyn Museum: August 21: review

Mark Morrisroe: From This Moment On @Artists Space

JTF (just the facts): A retrospective exhibit of roughly 190 photographs, variously framed and matted, and hung against grey partitions in a series of 6 adjacent rooms and their side walls. Given the large number and wide range of works on display, I have noted the details (as available) on a room by room basis:

Room 1: 11 gum prints, 1981
Room 2: 23 c-prints, 1979-1980; 1 glass case of collage pages
Room 3: 17 Polaroids, each roughly 3x4, some toned, 1985/undated
Room 4: 44 Polaroids, each roughly 3x4, interspersed with 7 larger toned gelatin silver prints, 1979-1989
Room 5: 31 prints in a variety of processes, including colorized/toned gelatin silver, c-print photograms, gelatin silver photograms, gelatin silver x-rays and other combinations, 1986-1987; 3 glass cases of magazines, cut-outs, collages, drawings, and journal pages
Room 6: 59 c-print negative sandwiches, some with ink, marker, or other residues along the border areas, hung in large grids, 1982-1988
Side wall of last room: 1 c-print, 1 c-print negative, 1 Polaroid, 1 gelatin silver print

Unfortunately, no photography was allowed in the galleries, so there are no installation shots for this review.

Comments/Context: First, let's start with an admission. Prior to walking into this show, I really hadn't ever heard of Mark Morrisroe. If you read the many features, reviews, and articles about this exhibit (several linked below), you'll find that nearly all of them lead in with a retelling of the back story of Morrisroe's life, a now seemingly mythical/tragic/nostalgic story of living fast and dying young. But I didn't steep myself in this cult of personality until after I saw the show, so what follows is really a response to the photography itself, irrespective of the trajectory of his famously short life (he died of AIDS at the age of 30 in 1989).

While Morrisroe's artistic output was surprisingly diverse, I think it is possible to synthesize it down into three major categories, with some intermixing and overlap between the three buckets: color candids, black and white Polaroids (primarily nudes, portraits, and self portraits), and process experiments. Morrisroe's color photographs are generally taken with a Nan Goldin-like snapshot aesthetic, most being casual portraits of people in and around his particular social scene, many preening and performing for the camera. Exuberance and self-consciousness are mixed in equal parts in his subjects' experimentation with different invented personas, genders, and personalities.

Morrisroe's smaller black and white work is altogether more inward and personal, his search for identity captured in different facets of emotion. Shadows and blurs add a layer of romantic elegance to simple shots of Morrisroe and his friends and lovers, often seen in his bedroom or apartment staring into the camera in a variety of moods. These photographs are close in, the nudes both authentic and informal, running the gamut of the playful and provocative in his early days to the harrowing, emaciated decay of the later years. In some of the works, Morrisroe modified the surface of the picture, adding faint toning or washes of chemicals, further softening and obscuring the crisp reality. All of these images, and particularly the self-portraits, have a time capsule immediacy, where gritty, atmospheric moments are captured and then gone, the desires wispy and ephemeral.

I was most impressed with Morrisroe's wide ranging experiments with photographic process. He seems to have been a bit of a mad scientist, combining and recombining elements of collage and photogram in ever more complex compositions, adding layers of gay porn magazine cutouts and object silhouettes to both black and white and color designs. He even found a way to incorporate some of his own x-rays and dental records into these vivid inventions. The end result is somewhat reminiscent of a more intimate and personal Robert Heinecken, but with brighter, more acidic colors. His "negative sandwich" prints have a more indistinct, almost gestural quality, the nudes and still lifes darker and fuzzier, often with tone-matched scratchings and crude notations drawn all over the borders and edges like simplistic graffiti. The last two rooms of the show that house these process-centric works seem to have an almost manic quality, of an artist brimming with ideas and struggling to edit and make sense of them all. I would certainly enjoy seeing a deeper, more systematic exploration of these particular images, as I think they display the most raw, unchanneled, innovation.

All in, this expansive retrospective depicts Morrisroe as part social animal, part shape shifting searcher, and part lively artistic experimenter, and successfully places some order and context around his various bodies of work. Having seen this show, I think I can now more accurately categorize Morrisroe in the larger field if 1980s photography, and better understand his connections to Mapplethorpe and others. I also came away with the itching, unanswerable question of what unexpected surprises this man might actually have been capable of, had he been given more time to refine and evolve his artistic vision; there's undeniably a nugget of something unique here, it just hasn't been clarified and synthesized into something altogether more potent.
  
Collector's POV: Given that this is a museum-style exhibit, the prints in this show are obviously not for sale. Morrisroe's photographs haven't yet found their way to the secondary markets, so gallery retail is really the only option for interested collectors at this point. ClampArt (here) has a parallel show of Morrisroe's work on view through April 30th.

Rating: ** (two stars) VERY GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:
  • Feature: Art in America (here)
  • Reviews: New Yorker (here), Village Voice (here), Artnet (here), Photo Booth (here), T magazine (here)
Mark Morrisroe: From This Moment On
Through May 1st

Artists Space
38 Greene Street
3rd Floor
New York, NY 10013

(As an aside, this show is the year-to-date leader in the most unhelpful staff category. No, I could not carry my bag with me I must put it near the desk, no I could not take any photographs, no, there were no installation shots readily available, no, there was no catalogue, no, there was no detailed checklist with item by item information, just look at the wall labels sir, followed by an unfriendly annoying blank-eyed shrug. This isn't a major museum venue, and given the irksome reception, I was nanoseconds away from walking straight back out. So if my tone here is a bit more surly than usual, chalk it up to a piece that tried hard not to be written.)

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Max Kozloff: New York Means Business 1977-1984 @Higher Pictures

JTF (just the facts): A total of 25 color photographs, framed in white and matted, and hung in the small single room gallery space. All of the works are c-prints, taken between 1977 and 1984. The images have been printed in one of two sizes: 20x16 (or reverse) or 3x2 (or reverse); there are 13 of the large size and 12 of the small size in the show. Kozloff does not edition his prints, and as such, the works on view are a mix of vintage and later prints. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Max Kozloff is probably best known as a wide-ranging art historian, an exacting art critic, and a former editor of Artforum. That Kozloff is also a talented photographer in his own right was news to me, and this small show of his early work certainly helped to place his artistic output into the larger framework of 1970s color photography.

Kozloff's faded images of tired New York storefronts and window displays fall into a long subject matter tradition, reaching back to Atget and Abbott, and on to the crackling compositional experiments of Friedlander. While a few of Kozloff's storefronts follow in the traditional mode, providing elements of the surrounding architecture as context, most of his images have cropped out the framing, centering on the view through the glass itself and into the careful arrangements on display. His works feature the random marginalia of commerce: columns of twine, dusty curtains in various colors, a dense array of gold watches, triangular towers of fabric, and a parade of wigs. Other images add a layer or two of visual complexity, using mirrors to capture multiple angles, sunglasses to capture fleeting self-portraits, and reflections from the street to tell more dense and complicated stories. Placed in the context of the color experimentation going on in the 1970s, Kosloff's images show the beginnings of employing color as a primary and featured compositional tool.
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While I'm not sure I can detect a refined and original voice in these pictures, it is clear that Kozloff was working through the same visual challenges that were confronting photographers like Levitt and Callahan, trying to bridge from an accepted black and white methodology into an entirely different mode of visual thinking. Color for color's sake was becoming the new norm, and I see this body of work as yet another well-crafted example of a transitional effort to span the two sets of adjacent but competing aesthetic ideas.

Collector's POV: The prints in this show are priced as follows: the 20x16 prints are $3200 each, and the 3x2 prints are $2300 each. Kozloff's work is not widely available in the secondary markets; the few public sales results that I could find were all under $1000.
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My favorite image in the show was Zipper Shop, 1978; it's on the far right in the top installation shot. In it, strips of zipper ribbon hang from a sagging pair of wires, creating an eye-catching striped design, punctuated by the stenciled words on the window itself. The composition seems to have one foot in the old world and one in the new, using splashes of bright color as the focal point, enriching and rebalancing an otherwise standard view.
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Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:
  • Books: The Theatre of the Face, 2008 (here), New York: Capital of Photography, 2002 (here)
Max Kozloff: New York Means Business 1977-1984
Through May 7th

Higher Pictures
764 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10065

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Alvin Baltrop: Photographs 1965-2003 @Third Streaming

JTF (just the facts): A total of 58 black and white and color photographs, framed in black and matted, and hung in a single room gallery space with small dividing walls. The show contains 47 black and white images, 11 color images, a glass case with various photographs and ephemera, a portfolio, and a carousel of 35mm color slides projected on the wall. The black and white images are generally vintage gelatin silver prints, with a handful of modern prints (in editions of 15) mixed in. The color images are modern digital c-prints, also in editions of 15. All of the works were taken between 1965 and 2003. Physical dimensions of the prints range from 4x5 to 9x13. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Alvin Baltrop's photographs of the subculture of life on the abandonded West side piers in New York in the 1970s and 1980s mix danger and tenderness, public and private, in ways that brim with truthful, gritty energy. This broad retrospective show stretches from early images of his time in the military all the way to late pictures of hospital life, but it is the pier photographs that are his lasting and durable legacy.

Many of Baltrop's photographs capture the backgdrop of the pier environment itself: the exposed steelwork, the rotting wood, the slabs of pavement, and the dark open spaces punctuated by shafts of light streaming through cracks and broken windows. There is a sense of expansive emptiness in these pictures, of vast uninhabited areas, a few carved up by the artistic experiments of Gordon Matta-Clark and others. It is a world of crumbling disintegration, only a few steps from utter ruin.

The cast of characters that passed through this collapsing world included a spectrum of New York's forgotten and marginal: runaways, homeless people, criminals, prostitutes, and men looking for gay sex. Baltrop captures these people in intimate portraits and everyday nudes, and often in the stolen moments of fleeting encounters, hasty couplings standing up against the backdrop of grime. While the lazy images of sunbathing make the scene seem open and accepting, a few images of covered corpses and lingering policemen attest to the rough violence lurking just underneath the surface.

While not every one of these pictures is particularly memorable, the body of work on the whole has an immediacy and authenticity that keeps it fresh after many passing years. The images mix on-your-guard tension with brief moments of understanding, documenting an invisible strata of individuals searching for connection and acceptance.
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Collector's POV: The prints in this show are priced as follows. The modern prints, either color or black and white, are $2000 each. The vintage gelatin silver prints were all marked "price on request" and I didn't ask for more information. Baltrop's work hasn't yet made it to the secondary markets, so gallery retail is likely the only option for interested collectors at this point.

My favorite image in the show was Untitled, 1975-1986; it's the middle image in the third column from the right in the top installation shot. I like the slashing intersection of the steel girders and the layers of angles and shadows created by the decaying structure.
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Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:
  • Artist site (here)
  • Review: New Yorker (here)
Alvin Baltrop: Photographs 1965-2003
Through May 28th
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Third Streaming
10 Greene Street
2nd Floor
New York, NY 10013

Monday, April 18, 2011

After the Gold Rush: Contemporary Photographs from the Collection @Met

JTF (just the facts): A group show consisting of 25 photographic works from 15 different photographers, variously framed and matted, and hung in a single room gallery space with a main dividing wall. The prints were made between 1979 and 2010, using multiple processes (gelatin silver, chromogenic etc.). (Installation shots at right.)
 
The following photographers have been included in the exhibit, with the number of images on view in parentheses:
 
Gretchen Bender (1)
James Casebere (1)
Moyra Davey (1 grid of 100)
Philip-Lorca diCorcia (4)
Robert Gober (2)
Katy Grannan (3)
Hans Haacke (1 diptych)
An-My Lê (1 group of 5)
Curtis Mann (1)
Trevor Paglen (1)
Adrian Piper (1 triptych)
Laurie Simmons (1)
Wolfgang Tillmans (5)
Jeff Wall (1, distractingly large given the narrowness of the space by the way)
Christopher Williams (1)
 
Comments/Context: If you've spent some time trolling through the contemporary photography galleries in New York in the past couple of years, the odds are you've run across many of the works on display in this new group show of contemporary photography at the Met. Roughly half the works in the exhibit are recent acquisitions (look for the little blue logos on the wall labels), so it's a terrific chance to try to extrapolate how the curators and the members of the Photography committee are approaching the addition of new work to the permanent collection.
 
This particular installation puts these photographs in the specific context of cultural interchange, and makes an argument for a pattern of contemporary work that is addressing and responding to the social, economic, and political environment that surrounds us, either as direct commentary or as indirect undercurrents and glimpses of prevailing mood and emotion. It then goes on to dig additional images out of storage from the 1980s and 1990s that fit this overall thematic construct, connecting the dots between different time periods and commonalities of upheaval or uncertainty in society at large.
 
My analytical brain can think of three different ways this show might have come to pass:
 
1.) The Met identified ("top-down") a certain type of photography to look for or that it was interested in (cultural response), and then went out and systematically acquired works that fit those specifications
2.) The Met acquired recent works (of all kinds) that it thought were important and discovered later ("bottom-up") that a real and identifiable pattern was occurring in part of the contemporary artistic environment; the curators followed that trail and then created a show that highlighted those discoveries and placed them in context
3.) The Met acquired recent works (of all kinds) that it thought were important and then shoehorned some of them into a theme so that it could find a rational way to display them and tie them into other existing holdings
 
While we'll probably never know which of three it actually was (unless one of the principals involved weighs in with an answer), I think the theme of art as a reflection of the issues of the times seems like an awfully broad and all-encompassing umbrella under which to stand; apart from abstract, inward-looking, or highly conceptual work, almost anything else might logically fit into such a framework. As such, this show lacked the tightness of vision I'd like to see in a group show; yes, all the pieces fit into the right general bucket, but the selection and juxtaposition of images (walls of economic hardship, subtleties of military might, economic satire, snippets of racism, sexism etc.) wasn't as hard hitting or consistent as I would have expected it to be if you were really trying to make a powerful point about the engagement of contemporary art photographers in current events; the thread was there to be sure, but it was just too diffuse to really grab my attention.
 
So rather than drawing any crisp conclusions about the overall trends in contemporary photography, I came away ticking down a checklist: Grannan, Casebere, , Mann, Davey, Tillmans, all high-quality work that was recently (or still is) in local galleries, now part of the prestigious permanent collection of the Met. Let's agree that these are all solid choices. But still, for the purposes of collection building (a topic in which I have infinite interest), it's intriguing to think about what drew the curators and accessions committee members to these particular works. Why these photographers and not others? Why these specific images and not others from the same project or series (especially for an artist like Tillmans)? What long-term historical significance did they ascribe to these photographs? What holes were they trying to fill? How did they convince each other that these were the ones that money should be spent on? The answers of course are unknown, but thoroughly fun for an afternoon of speculation.
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Collector's POV: Given this is a museum show, there are obviously no posted prices for the works on display. That said, given that many of these photographs have recently been in local NY gallery shows, an intrepid collector could search through the archive here for the relevant reviews and likely piece together a decently current price list for roughly half of the prints in the exhibit.
 
My favorite work in the show was Moyra Davey's Copperhead Grid, 1990/2009; it's on the right in the bottom installation shot. While I have seen variations on these Davey copperheads before (in different sizes), I continue to be enthralled by their tactile surfaces. Chemical residues of orange and green swirl across the profile of Abraham Lincoln, the coins sometimes scratched and covered to the point that his head is almost indecipherable. Her subtle commentary about the insignificance of the penny, the deterioration of money, and the loss of meaning in the financial system are all wound together into a memorable set of eroded symbols.
 
Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)
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Transit Hub:
  • Review: Village Voice (here)
After the Gold Rush: Contemporary Photographs from the Collection
Through January 2nd

Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10028

Auction Results: BRIC, April 14 and 15, 2011 @Phillips London

The results of the BRIC sale at Phillips in London last week were generally uneventful, with the two Rashid Rana lots bringing in nearly half of the photography proceeds. The overall Buy-In rate was nearly 40% and the Total Sale Proceeds for photography came in just under the low end of the estimate range. With no positive surprises, there were no individual outcomes really worth mentioning, and thus no accompanying images for this results review.
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The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):

Total Lots: 56
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: £722000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: £971000
Total Lots Sold: 34
Total Lots Bought In: 22
Buy In %: 39.29%
Total Sale Proceeds: £719600
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Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post, here):

Low Total Lots: 18
Low Sold: 13
Low Bought In: 5
Buy In %: 27.87%
Total Low Estimate: £73000
Total Low Sold: £55625
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Mid Total Lots: 32
Mid Sold: 16
Mid Bought In: 16
Buy In %: 50.00%
Total Mid Estimate: £318000
Total Mid Sold: £150125
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High Total Lots: 6
High Sold: 5
High Bought In: 1
Buy In %: 16.67%
Total High Estimate: £580000
Total High Sold: £513850

The top lot by High estimate was lot 25, Rashid Rana, Veil IV, 2007, at £250000-300000; it was also the top outcome of the sale at £301250.
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97.06% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range. There were no surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate).

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

Phillips De Pury & Company
Howick Place
London SW1P 1BB

Auction Results: Photographs, April 13, 2011 @Bonhams Dubai

Bonhams' recent Photographs sale in Dubai didn't generate much notable momentum. The overall Buy-In rate was up over 33% (more than a third of the lots failing to find a buyer) and the Total Sale Proceeds missed the low end of the estimate range by a significant margin on both a dollar basis and as a percentage. With no positive surprises, there were no individual outcomes really worth highlighting, and thus no accompanying images for this results roundup.
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The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):

Total Lots: 85
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $570000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $757900
Total Lots Sold: 56
Total Lots Bought In: 29
Buy In %: 34.12%
Total Sale Proceeds: $394920
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Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post, here):

Low Total Lots: 72
Low Sold: 49
Low Bought In: 23
Buy In %: 31.94%
Total Low Estimate: $430900
Total Low Sold: $253920
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Mid Total Lots: 13
Mid Sold: 7
Mid Bought In: 6
Buy In %: 46.15%
Total Mid Estimate: $327000
Total Mid Sold: $141000
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High Total Lots: 0
High Sold: NA
High Bought In: NA
Buy In %: NA
Total High Estimate: $0
Total High Sold: NA
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The top lot by High estimate was tied between two lots: lot 33, Shirin Neshat, Mystified, 1997, and lot 70, Halim Al-Karim, Goddess of the Desert, 2010, both at $35000-45000. The Al-Karim didn't sell. The Neshat sold for $36000, and was tied with lot 41, Camille Zakharia, Cultivate Your Garden, 1998, also at $36000, for top outcome of the sale.
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91.07% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range. There were no surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate).
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Complete lot by lot results can be found here.
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Bonhams
Royal Mirage Hotel

Villa No. 23
Beach Road
Jumeirah 1
Dubai, UAE

Friday, April 15, 2011

Auction: Post-War and Contemporary Art, April 20, 2011 @Christie's South Kensington

On the heels of the spring Photograph auctions and before the main event Contemporary Art sales in New York in mid May, Christie's has jammed in a low end Post-War and Contemporary Art sale at its South Kensington office in London, scheduled for the middle of next week. It's an eclectic mop-up of contemporary art photography, with a variety of lesser known and more affordable images. I was particularly happy to see the abstract photographs by John Chamberlain (better known for his massive sculptures of swirled together car parts), which don't tend to surface much at auction. Mixed in with works from other mediums, there are a total of 43 lots of photography on offer, with a Total High Estimate of £328800.
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Here's the statistical breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including £5000): 21
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): £68800

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between £5000 and £25000): 22
Total Mid Estimate: £260000

Total High Lots (high estimate above £25000): 0
Total High Estimate: NA

The top lot by High estimate is lot 38, Robert Gober, Untitled, 1988, at £18000-22000. (Image at right, top, via Christie's.)

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

John Chamberlain (3)
Candida Höfer (3)
Nobuyoshi Araki (2)
Dan Graham (2)
Gabriel Orozco (2)
Wolfgang Tillmans (2)
James Welling (2)
Erwin Wurm (2)

(Lot 87, Sean Scully, Santa Domingo Facade No. 2, 1999, at £7000-10000, image at right, bottom, and lot 150, John Chamberlain, Untitled, 1997, £2000-3000, image at right, middle, both via Christie's.)

The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here. The eCatalogue is located here.

Post-War and Contemporary Art
April 20th

Christie's
85 Old Brompton Road
London SW7 3LD