DLK COLLECTION
Checklist 06/30/11
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New reviews added this week in red.
Uptown
ONE STAR: Moveable Feast: MCNY: July 10: review
ONE STAR: Night Vision: Met: September 18: review
ONE STAR: After the Gold Rush: Met: January 2: review
Midtown
TWO STARS: Henry Wessel: Pace/MacGill: July 8: review
ONE STAR: All the Young Strangers: Higher Pictures: July 9: review
TWO STARS: Rinko Kawauchi: Hermes: July 16: review
ONE STAR: Japan Today: Amador: August 19: review
TWO STARS: Elliott Erwitt: ICP: August 28: review
TWO STARS: Boris Mikhailov: MoMA: September 5: review
TWO STARS: Reinstalled Permanent Collection: MoMA: March 2012: review
Chelsea
ONE STAR: The Kate Moss Portfolio and Other Stories: Danziger Projects: June 30: review
ONE STAR: Roe Ethridge: Andrew Kreps: July 2: review
ONE STAR: Jo Ratcliffe: Walther Collection: July 15: review
ONE STAR: Clifford Ross: Sonnabend: July 29: review
SoHo/Lower East Side/Downtown
No current reviews.
Elsewhere Nearby
ONE STAR: Sam Taylor-Wood: Brooklyn Museum: August 14: review
TWO STARS: Lorna Simpson: Brooklyn Museum: August 21: review
From one photography collector to another: a venue for thoughtful discussion of vintage and contemporary photography via reviews of recent museum exhibitions, gallery shows, photography auctions, photo books, art fairs and other items of interest to photography collectors large and small.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Auction Results: Photographie, June 10, 2011 @Van Ham
The recent photography sale at Van Ham in Cologne didn't provide much in the way of fireworks. While there were a number of positive surprises (led by several prints by Albert Renger-Patzsch), they weren't enough to overcome a Buy-In rate over 55%. Overall, the Total Sale Proceeds fell well below the pre-sale estimate. (Van Ham does not provide an estimate range in many cases, just a single estimate number, so this figure is used as the High estimate in our calculations).
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The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):
Total Lots: 398
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: 793380€
Total Lots Sold: 172
Total Lots Bought In: 226
Buy In %: 56.78%
Total Sale Proceeds: 472228€
Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post, here):
Low Total Lots: 383
Low Sold: 165
Low Bought In: 218
Buy In %: 56.92%
Total Low Estimate: 626380€
Total Low Sold: 344578€
Mid Total Lots: 15
Mid Sold: 7
Mid Bought In: 8
Buy In %: 53.33%
Total Mid Estimate: 167000€
Total Mid Sold: 127650€
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 1146, Floris Neusüss, Sabine, 1961, at 16000-18000€; it did not sell. The top outcome of the sale was lot 1112, Jürgen Klauke, Konfrontation, 1977, at 41400€. (image at right, middle, via Van Ham)
71.51% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate. There were a total of 18 surprises in the sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):
Lot 1038, Max Burchartz, Lotte (Auge), 1928/1980, at 2760€
Lot 1045, Chargesheimer, Il Suono, 1950, at 2760€ (image at right, bottom, via Van Ham)
Lot 1054, Walter Dexel, Neue Wege der Photographie, 1928, at 6325€
Lot 1112, Jürgen Klauke, Konfrontation, 1977, at 41400€ (image at right, middle, via Van Ham)
Lot 1153, Albert Renger-Patzsch, Bergmannshauser in Essen-Stoppenberg, 1929, at 21850€
Lot 1158, Albert Renger-Patzsch, Eichenkamp bei Wamel, 1945, at 5520€
Lot 1159, Albert Renger-Patzsch, Schwarzwald. Elbingswald im Regen, 1940, at 8625€ (image at right, top, via Van Ham)
Lot 1160, Albert Renger-Patzsch, Winter, 1950, at 3450€
Lot 1187, August Sander, Soldaten der englischen Besatzungstruppen, 1924, at 2040€
Lot 1220, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Time Exposed, 1991, at 13800€
Lot 1222, Unbekannt, Action, 1970, at 3795€
Lot 1283, Karl Hugo Schmolz, Kolner Dom, 1947, at 2300€
Lot 1288, Eddie Adams, Execution in Saigon, 1968, at 1140€
Lot 1304, Felix Bonfils, Naher Osten, 1870s, at 2040€
Lot 1347, Heinirch Kuhn, Waschetrocknerin in den Dunen, 1906, at 1200€
Lot 1348, Heinrich Kuhn, Hamburger Hafen, 1911, at 1320€
Lot 1389, Nick Ut, South Vietnam War Napalm Bombing, 1972/1978, at 4025€
Lot 1390, George West & Son, Segelyachten, 1890s, at 516€
Complete lot by lot results can be found here.
Van Ham Kunstauktionen
Schönhauser Straße 10 - 16
D - 50968 Köln
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The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):
Total Lots: 398
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: 793380€
Total Lots Sold: 172
Total Lots Bought In: 226
Buy In %: 56.78%
Total Sale Proceeds: 472228€
Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post, here):
Low Total Lots: 383
Low Sold: 165
Low Bought In: 218
Buy In %: 56.92%
Total Low Estimate: 626380€
Total Low Sold: 344578€
Mid Total Lots: 15
Mid Sold: 7
Mid Bought In: 8
Buy In %: 53.33%
Total Mid Estimate: 167000€
Total Mid Sold: 127650€
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 1146, Floris Neusüss, Sabine, 1961, at 16000-18000€; it did not sell. The top outcome of the sale was lot 1112, Jürgen Klauke, Konfrontation, 1977, at 41400€. (image at right, middle, via Van Ham)
71.51% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate. There were a total of 18 surprises in the sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):
Lot 1038, Max Burchartz, Lotte (Auge), 1928/1980, at 2760€
Lot 1045, Chargesheimer, Il Suono, 1950, at 2760€ (image at right, bottom, via Van Ham)
Lot 1054, Walter Dexel, Neue Wege der Photographie, 1928, at 6325€
Lot 1112, Jürgen Klauke, Konfrontation, 1977, at 41400€ (image at right, middle, via Van Ham)
Lot 1153, Albert Renger-Patzsch, Bergmannshauser in Essen-Stoppenberg, 1929, at 21850€
Lot 1158, Albert Renger-Patzsch, Eichenkamp bei Wamel, 1945, at 5520€
Lot 1159, Albert Renger-Patzsch, Schwarzwald. Elbingswald im Regen, 1940, at 8625€ (image at right, top, via Van Ham)
Lot 1160, Albert Renger-Patzsch, Winter, 1950, at 3450€
Lot 1187, August Sander, Soldaten der englischen Besatzungstruppen, 1924, at 2040€
Lot 1220, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Time Exposed, 1991, at 13800€
Lot 1222, Unbekannt, Action, 1970, at 3795€
Lot 1283, Karl Hugo Schmolz, Kolner Dom, 1947, at 2300€
Lot 1288, Eddie Adams, Execution in Saigon, 1968, at 1140€
Lot 1304, Felix Bonfils, Naher Osten, 1870s, at 2040€
Lot 1347, Heinirch Kuhn, Waschetrocknerin in den Dunen, 1906, at 1200€
Lot 1348, Heinrich Kuhn, Hamburger Hafen, 1911, at 1320€
Lot 1389, Nick Ut, South Vietnam War Napalm Bombing, 1972/1978, at 4025€
Lot 1390, George West & Son, Segelyachten, 1890s, at 516€
Complete lot by lot results can be found here.
Van Ham Kunstauktionen
Schönhauser Straße 10 - 16
D - 50968 Köln
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Reinstallation of the Permanent Collection of Photography, 2011 @MoMA
JTF (just the facts): A group show consisting of a total of 214 black and white and color photographs from 141 different photographers, variously framed and matted, and hung against grey and white walls in a series of 6 connecting rooms on the third floor of the museum. The works on view span the entire history of the medium, ranging from 1841 to the present, and are arranged roughly chronologically. This reinstallation of the permanent collection of photography was curated by Sarah Meister.
The following photographers are included in the show, with the number of works and dates in parentheses. The names have been listed in their order of appearance around the galleries.
Room 1
David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson (1, 1841-1848)
John B. Greene (1, 1855-1856)
William Henry Fox Talbot (1, 1844)
Bisson Freres (1, 1841-1846)
Felice Beato (1, 1860)
Samuel Bourne (1, 1864)
Robert Hewlett (1, 1857)
Carleton Watkins (1, 1889)
Gertrude Kasebier (1, 1907)
Robert Demachy (1, 1910)
Frederick Evans (1, 1903)
Edward Steichen (1, 1900)
Jules Janssen (2, 1885)
Adam Clark Vroman (1, 1902)
Jacob Riis (1, 1890)
Radio Corporation of America (1, 1926)
E.J. Bellocq (1, 1912)
Eugene Atget (1, 1899)
Unknown (2, 1923 and 1933)
Underwood and Underwood (1, 1910)
Automatic Camera/Photomaton (1, 1928)
Arthur Bedou (1, 1915)
Dornac (1, 1892)
Lewis Hine (1, 1908)
Seeberger Freres (1, 1912)
Jacques-Henri Lartigue (1, 1917)
Room 2
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Alfred Stieglitz (1, 1922)
Jospeh Cornell (1, 1933)
Imogen Cunningham (1, 1931)
Hugo Erfurth (1, 1926)
Edward Weston (1, 1925)
Alexander Rodchenko (2, 1924 and 1932)
Stanislaw Witkiewicz (1, 1911)
Edmund Kesting (1, 1928)
Man Ray (1, 1930)
Laszlo Mohloy-Nagy (1, 1923)
Tina Modotti (1, 1924)
Umbo (1, 1930)
Walker Evans (2, 1935 and 1936)
Ben Shahn (1, 1935)
Dorothea Lange (1, 1937)
Jack Delano (1, 1940)
Marian Post Wolcott (1, 1938)
John Vachon (1, 1938)
August Sander (2, 1927 and 1929)
Eugene Atget (2, 1921 and 1925)
Brassai (1, 1932)
Ilse Bing (1, 1932)
Bill Brandt (1, 1936)
Helen Levitt (1, 1941)
Antonio Reynoso (1, 1944)
Manuel Alvarez Bravo (1, 1934)
Henri Cartier-Bresson (1, 1934)
Paul Strand (1, 1920)
Ralph Steiner (1, 1929)
Berenice Abbott (1, 1936)
Lewis Hine (1, 1930)
Arkadii Shaikhet (1, 1930)
Room 3
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Barbara Morgan (1, 1943)
Weegee (2, 1942 and 1950)
Emmy Andriesse (1, 1945)
Ernst Haas (1, 1947)
US Army Signal Corps (4, 1944 and 1945)
Dmitri Baltermans (1, 1942)
Times World Wide Photos (1, 1941)
Unknown (1, 1953)
Neal Boenzi/New York Times (1, 1956)
Meyer Liebowitz/New York Times (1, 1957)
Unknown (14 panels of vernacular families)
Robert Rauschenberg (1, 1949)
Geraldo de Barros (1, 1949)
Aaron Siskind (1, 1949)
Minor White (1, 1964)
Frederick Sommer (1, 1961)
Guy Bourdin (1, 1956)
Clarence John Laughlin (1, 1941)
Josef Sudek (1, 1954)
Ansel Adams (1, 1932)
Eugen Wiskovsky (1, 1946)
Henri Cartier-Bresson (1, 1952)
Robert Doisneau (1, 1956)
Leonard Freed (1, 1954)
Lisette Model (1, 1942)
Roy DeCarava (1, 1952)
Room 4
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Rudy Burckhardt (4, 1940)
Philip Elliott (3, 1950)
Lola Alvarez Bravo (1, 1958)
Louis Faurer (1, 1949)
Leon Levinstein (1, 1952)
Robert Frank (1, 1956)
Garry Winogrand (1, 1962)
Christian Stromholm (1, 1959)
Paolo Gasparini (1, 1968)
Diane Arbus (1, 1965)
Unknown (1, 1957)
Lee Friedlander (1, 1970)
Jerry Schatzberg (1, 1964)
Arnold Newman (1, 1955)
Richard Avedon (1, 1965)
Irving Penn (1, 1979)
Harry Callahan (2, 1957)
Zeke Berman (1, 1979)
Kenneth Josephson (1, 1967)
Martus Granirer (1, 1964)
Otto Piene (1, 1964)
Shomei Tomatsu (1, 1960)
Daido Moriyama (1, 1970)
Miyako Ishiuchi (1, 1977)
Kohei Yoshiyuki (1, 1973)
Room 5
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Joseph Dankowski (20, 1970)
David Goldblatt (1, 1967)
Ernest Cole (1, 1960-1963)
Jeane Moutoussamy-Ashe (1, 1977)
Frank Stewart (1, 1981)
Geoff Winningham (1, 1971)
Candice Lenney (1, 1977)
William Gedney (1, 1975)
Martine Barrat (1, 1984)
Stephen Shore (1, 1973)
Frank Gohlke (1, 1973-1974)
Robert Adams (1, 1974)
Lewis Baltz (1, 1974)
Joel Sternfeld (1, 1979)
Nicholas Nixon (1, 1973)
Bill Owens (1, 1972)
Tod Papageorge (1, 1969)
Henry Wessell (1, 1972)
William Eggleston (1, 1980)
Sheron Rupp (1, 1984)
Room 6
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Jan Groover (1, 2006)
Michael Spano (1, 2003)
Bernd and Hilla Becher (18, 1959-1973)
Hai Bo (2, 1999)
Philip-Lorca diCorcia (1, 1981)
Vik Muniz (1, 2003)
Tina Barney (1, 1998)
William Christenberry (1, 2004)
Brian Rose (1, 2006)
Nicholas Faure (1, 1997)
Guy Tillim (2, 2008)
Leandro Katz (6 panels, 1978-1979)
Jiro Takamatsu (1, 1973)
Comments/Context: In between the special exhibitions and annual features like the New Photography series that usually populate the photography calendar at the MoMA, the curatorial team reinstalls the permanent collection of photography in the main series of galleries on the third floor. While this isn't a press release type event (or one that generally gets written about at all), it does offer an opportunity to peer into the minds of the organizers, mostly to see how new acquisitions are filling holes and to consider how the implied narrative arc of the history of photography is slowly evolving.
This is now my fourth year of covering the rehanging of the collection, and it's instructive to go back and remember what has been done in recent years (all the reviews are linked below). Three years ago, a grouping mechanism was used, where half a dozen images or so by a single photographer (from a related series) were chosen and hung in clusters, allowing a deeper dive into a smaller number of master photographers. Two years ago, the show was dominated by recent acquisitions (particularly 19th century) and peppered with lesser known works and artists, making the story more diffuse and harder to follow. Last year, the history of photography was seen through the prism of female photographers (known and unknown), providing a surprisingly different set of anchor points and references.
In prior years, these rehangings were "unsigned", in that they were tacitly meant to represent an institutional point of view rather than an individual one; therefore we could arguably read them as a monolithic perspective, an orthodoxy as to the "right" (or at least most recent) history of photography. What's different now is that MoMA has moved away from this approach and has begun to "sign" the reinstallations; this one was curated by Sarah Meister, and presumably the task (or opportunity) will rotate to someone else in the future. But make no mistake, this is now a new world, where a large number of alternate histories of photography are suddenly both acceptable and encouraged, and the process of identifying any one individual slice through the central mass of the collection could produce an unexpected and insightful outcome.
This selection of works sprinkles in a few more recognizable icons than the effort two years ago, and as a result, feels a bit more comfortably tied to a known line of thinking. The first room does a whirlwind tour of the 19th century (travel, scientific experimentation etc.), starting with the early masters and crossing over into Pictorialism, mixing artful images and vernacular shots with equal aplomb. The recently acquired Watkins still life of a box of peaches is the single best work in the entire exhibit; it is mind blowingly modern and lusciously crisp. It's the kind of picture that forces you to reevaluate everything you think you know about 19th century photography. (Carleton Watkins, Late George Cling Peaches, 1889, at right, top.)
The second room is the standard "between the wars" room, with bunches of European avant-garde and Surrealism, North American modernism, and FSA documentary reportage. To my eye, this group felt a little like "one of each", since there's one Brandt, one Brassai, one Weston, one Strand, one Man Ray etc., although never one of the better known images of the master identified on the wall label, presumably to keep things fresh. (Man Ray, Untitled, 1930, and Edward Weston, Nude, Mexico, 1926, at right, second and third from top.)
The next room follows chronologically into the 1940s and 1950s, bringing together a selection of professional press and vernacular photography with images from those working in a more fine art context where introspection, expressionism, and abstraction were taking hold(Siskind, Sommer, Sudek, Minor White et al.). The styles and approaches could hardly be more different, but their juxtaposition offers the first glimpses of multiple paths forward, of combination, dialogue, and confrontation. (Barbara Morgan, Use Litter Basket, 1943 and Aaron Siskind, Palm Springs, 1949, at right, fourth and fifth from the top.)
The fourth room continues a broad expansion of photographic paths forward, with 1950s hand held camera work (Frank, Winogrand, Levinstein, Faurer etc.), large format portraiture (Penn, Avedon, Newman), various forms of conceptual photography, and the arrival of the Japanese avant-garde (Tomatsu, Moriyama) in the 1970s. (Paolo Gasparini, Bello Monte, Caracas, 1968, and Zeke Berman, Still Life with Necker Cube, 1979, at right, sixth and seventh from top.)
Continuing into the other half of the divided space (which I have named the fifth room), the South Africans are added to the mix, along with the New Topographics photographers and the arrival of 1970s color. Again, many of the names will be familiar, but the specific image choices will keep you guessing. (Joel Sternfeld, Solar Pool Petals, Tuscon, Arizona, 1979, and William Eggleston, Untitled from Troubled Waters portfolio, 1980, at right, eight and ninth from top.)
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The last room in the show runs from roughly 1980 to the present, and it's here where I think the exhibit loses momentum a bit. Maybe a different way to say the same thing is that I was looking for a more definitive point of view on the current state of the world, and felt like I didn't get as sharp an opinion as I might have liked. The challenge is of course to make sense of the chaos, to follow both "contemporary art" and purely "photographic" progressions and to bushwhack a path through the thicket of competing aesthetics and mind sets, which is tough to do in a single room filled with a relatively small number of large pictures. That said, I did enjoy the Barney, the Tillim diptych, the Christenberry mess of kudzu and the multi-layered diCorcia. Perhaps a better way to look at this last room is to see it as simply a collection of new acquisitions that can tell us something about what the museum is interested in and continuing to follow closely, even if the thematic patterns are hard to discern. (William Christenberry, Kudzu Devouring Building, Near Greensboro, Alabama, 2004, and Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Catherine, 1981, at right, tenth and eleventh from top.)
In the end, I think this reinstallation of the permanent collection of photography makes a case for three distinct periods: the early period, from inception to roughly 1950, where the influence of vernacular photography and "history" is more pronounced and instructive, the middle period, from roughly Frank to Eggleston, where there is a flowering of bold experimentation in multiple directions, but mostly still connected to the existing photographic traditions, and the current period, where photography is stretching beyond its usual borders, crossing over into the context of contemporary art. In this realm, we're opening a dialogue beyond the confines of looking inward at photographic history and instead playing on a grander stage. While I'm sure this is an oversimplification of the nuanced ideas of the curators, I think this general framework has merit, especially if it can help to make the underlying forces tugging at contemporary photography more legible.
Collector's POV: Since this is a permanent collection exhibition, it seems only fitting to forego the prices and secondary market discussion that usually fills this section.
Rating: ** (two stars) VERY GOOD (rating system described here)
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Transit Hub:
Through March 2012
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Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd Street
New York, NY 10019
The following photographers are included in the show, with the number of works and dates in parentheses. The names have been listed in their order of appearance around the galleries.
Room 1
David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson (1, 1841-1848)
John B. Greene (1, 1855-1856)
William Henry Fox Talbot (1, 1844)
Bisson Freres (1, 1841-1846)
Felice Beato (1, 1860)
Samuel Bourne (1, 1864)
Robert Hewlett (1, 1857)
Carleton Watkins (1, 1889)
Gertrude Kasebier (1, 1907)
Robert Demachy (1, 1910)
Frederick Evans (1, 1903)
Edward Steichen (1, 1900)
Jules Janssen (2, 1885)
Adam Clark Vroman (1, 1902)
Jacob Riis (1, 1890)
Radio Corporation of America (1, 1926)
E.J. Bellocq (1, 1912)
Eugene Atget (1, 1899)
Unknown (2, 1923 and 1933)
Underwood and Underwood (1, 1910)
Automatic Camera/Photomaton (1, 1928)
Arthur Bedou (1, 1915)
Dornac (1, 1892)
Lewis Hine (1, 1908)
Seeberger Freres (1, 1912)
Jacques-Henri Lartigue (1, 1917)
Room 2
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Alfred Stieglitz (1, 1922)
Jospeh Cornell (1, 1933)
Imogen Cunningham (1, 1931)
Hugo Erfurth (1, 1926)
Edward Weston (1, 1925)
Alexander Rodchenko (2, 1924 and 1932)
Stanislaw Witkiewicz (1, 1911)
Edmund Kesting (1, 1928)
Man Ray (1, 1930)
Laszlo Mohloy-Nagy (1, 1923)
Tina Modotti (1, 1924)
Umbo (1, 1930)
Walker Evans (2, 1935 and 1936)
Ben Shahn (1, 1935)
Dorothea Lange (1, 1937)
Jack Delano (1, 1940)
Marian Post Wolcott (1, 1938)
John Vachon (1, 1938)
August Sander (2, 1927 and 1929)
Eugene Atget (2, 1921 and 1925)
Brassai (1, 1932)
Ilse Bing (1, 1932)
Bill Brandt (1, 1936)
Helen Levitt (1, 1941)
Antonio Reynoso (1, 1944)
Manuel Alvarez Bravo (1, 1934)
Henri Cartier-Bresson (1, 1934)
Paul Strand (1, 1920)
Ralph Steiner (1, 1929)
Berenice Abbott (1, 1936)
Lewis Hine (1, 1930)
Arkadii Shaikhet (1, 1930)
Room 3
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Barbara Morgan (1, 1943)
Weegee (2, 1942 and 1950)
Emmy Andriesse (1, 1945)
Ernst Haas (1, 1947)
US Army Signal Corps (4, 1944 and 1945)
Dmitri Baltermans (1, 1942)
Times World Wide Photos (1, 1941)
Unknown (1, 1953)
Neal Boenzi/New York Times (1, 1956)
Meyer Liebowitz/New York Times (1, 1957)
Unknown (14 panels of vernacular families)
Robert Rauschenberg (1, 1949)
Geraldo de Barros (1, 1949)
Aaron Siskind (1, 1949)
Minor White (1, 1964)
Frederick Sommer (1, 1961)
Guy Bourdin (1, 1956)
Clarence John Laughlin (1, 1941)
Josef Sudek (1, 1954)
Ansel Adams (1, 1932)
Eugen Wiskovsky (1, 1946)
Henri Cartier-Bresson (1, 1952)
Robert Doisneau (1, 1956)
Leonard Freed (1, 1954)
Lisette Model (1, 1942)
Roy DeCarava (1, 1952)
Room 4
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Rudy Burckhardt (4, 1940)
Philip Elliott (3, 1950)
Lola Alvarez Bravo (1, 1958)
Louis Faurer (1, 1949)
Leon Levinstein (1, 1952)
Robert Frank (1, 1956)
Garry Winogrand (1, 1962)
Christian Stromholm (1, 1959)
Paolo Gasparini (1, 1968)
Diane Arbus (1, 1965)
Unknown (1, 1957)
Lee Friedlander (1, 1970)
Jerry Schatzberg (1, 1964)
Arnold Newman (1, 1955)
Richard Avedon (1, 1965)
Irving Penn (1, 1979)
Harry Callahan (2, 1957)
Zeke Berman (1, 1979)
Kenneth Josephson (1, 1967)
Martus Granirer (1, 1964)
Otto Piene (1, 1964)
Shomei Tomatsu (1, 1960)
Daido Moriyama (1, 1970)
Miyako Ishiuchi (1, 1977)
Kohei Yoshiyuki (1, 1973)
Room 5
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Joseph Dankowski (20, 1970)
David Goldblatt (1, 1967)
Ernest Cole (1, 1960-1963)
Jeane Moutoussamy-Ashe (1, 1977)
Frank Stewart (1, 1981)
Geoff Winningham (1, 1971)
Candice Lenney (1, 1977)
William Gedney (1, 1975)
Martine Barrat (1, 1984)
Stephen Shore (1, 1973)
Frank Gohlke (1, 1973-1974)
Robert Adams (1, 1974)
Lewis Baltz (1, 1974)
Joel Sternfeld (1, 1979)
Nicholas Nixon (1, 1973)
Bill Owens (1, 1972)
Tod Papageorge (1, 1969)
Henry Wessell (1, 1972)
William Eggleston (1, 1980)
Sheron Rupp (1, 1984)
Room 6
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Jan Groover (1, 2006)
Michael Spano (1, 2003)
Bernd and Hilla Becher (18, 1959-1973)
Hai Bo (2, 1999)
Philip-Lorca diCorcia (1, 1981)
Vik Muniz (1, 2003)
Tina Barney (1, 1998)
William Christenberry (1, 2004)
Brian Rose (1, 2006)
Nicholas Faure (1, 1997)
Guy Tillim (2, 2008)
Leandro Katz (6 panels, 1978-1979)
Jiro Takamatsu (1, 1973)
Comments/Context: In between the special exhibitions and annual features like the New Photography series that usually populate the photography calendar at the MoMA, the curatorial team reinstalls the permanent collection of photography in the main series of galleries on the third floor. While this isn't a press release type event (or one that generally gets written about at all), it does offer an opportunity to peer into the minds of the organizers, mostly to see how new acquisitions are filling holes and to consider how the implied narrative arc of the history of photography is slowly evolving.
This is now my fourth year of covering the rehanging of the collection, and it's instructive to go back and remember what has been done in recent years (all the reviews are linked below). Three years ago, a grouping mechanism was used, where half a dozen images or so by a single photographer (from a related series) were chosen and hung in clusters, allowing a deeper dive into a smaller number of master photographers. Two years ago, the show was dominated by recent acquisitions (particularly 19th century) and peppered with lesser known works and artists, making the story more diffuse and harder to follow. Last year, the history of photography was seen through the prism of female photographers (known and unknown), providing a surprisingly different set of anchor points and references.
This selection of works sprinkles in a few more recognizable icons than the effort two years ago, and as a result, feels a bit more comfortably tied to a known line of thinking. The first room does a whirlwind tour of the 19th century (travel, scientific experimentation etc.), starting with the early masters and crossing over into Pictorialism, mixing artful images and vernacular shots with equal aplomb. The recently acquired Watkins still life of a box of peaches is the single best work in the entire exhibit; it is mind blowingly modern and lusciously crisp. It's the kind of picture that forces you to reevaluate everything you think you know about 19th century photography. (Carleton Watkins, Late George Cling Peaches, 1889, at right, top.)
The second room is the standard "between the wars" room, with bunches of European avant-garde and Surrealism, North American modernism, and FSA documentary reportage. To my eye, this group felt a little like "one of each", since there's one Brandt, one Brassai, one Weston, one Strand, one Man Ray etc., although never one of the better known images of the master identified on the wall label, presumably to keep things fresh. (Man Ray, Untitled, 1930, and Edward Weston, Nude, Mexico, 1926, at right, second and third from top.)
The next room follows chronologically into the 1940s and 1950s, bringing together a selection of professional press and vernacular photography with images from those working in a more fine art context where introspection, expressionism, and abstraction were taking hold(Siskind, Sommer, Sudek, Minor White et al.). The styles and approaches could hardly be more different, but their juxtaposition offers the first glimpses of multiple paths forward, of combination, dialogue, and confrontation. (Barbara Morgan, Use Litter Basket, 1943 and Aaron Siskind, Palm Springs, 1949, at right, fourth and fifth from the top.)
The fourth room continues a broad expansion of photographic paths forward, with 1950s hand held camera work (Frank, Winogrand, Levinstein, Faurer etc.), large format portraiture (Penn, Avedon, Newman), various forms of conceptual photography, and the arrival of the Japanese avant-garde (Tomatsu, Moriyama) in the 1970s. (Paolo Gasparini, Bello Monte, Caracas, 1968, and Zeke Berman, Still Life with Necker Cube, 1979, at right, sixth and seventh from top.)
Continuing into the other half of the divided space (which I have named the fifth room), the South Africans are added to the mix, along with the New Topographics photographers and the arrival of 1970s color. Again, many of the names will be familiar, but the specific image choices will keep you guessing. (Joel Sternfeld, Solar Pool Petals, Tuscon, Arizona, 1979, and William Eggleston, Untitled from Troubled Waters portfolio, 1980, at right, eight and ninth from top.)
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The last room in the show runs from roughly 1980 to the present, and it's here where I think the exhibit loses momentum a bit. Maybe a different way to say the same thing is that I was looking for a more definitive point of view on the current state of the world, and felt like I didn't get as sharp an opinion as I might have liked. The challenge is of course to make sense of the chaos, to follow both "contemporary art" and purely "photographic" progressions and to bushwhack a path through the thicket of competing aesthetics and mind sets, which is tough to do in a single room filled with a relatively small number of large pictures. That said, I did enjoy the Barney, the Tillim diptych, the Christenberry mess of kudzu and the multi-layered diCorcia. Perhaps a better way to look at this last room is to see it as simply a collection of new acquisitions that can tell us something about what the museum is interested in and continuing to follow closely, even if the thematic patterns are hard to discern. (William Christenberry, Kudzu Devouring Building, Near Greensboro, Alabama, 2004, and Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Catherine, 1981, at right, tenth and eleventh from top.)
In the end, I think this reinstallation of the permanent collection of photography makes a case for three distinct periods: the early period, from inception to roughly 1950, where the influence of vernacular photography and "history" is more pronounced and instructive, the middle period, from roughly Frank to Eggleston, where there is a flowering of bold experimentation in multiple directions, but mostly still connected to the existing photographic traditions, and the current period, where photography is stretching beyond its usual borders, crossing over into the context of contemporary art. In this realm, we're opening a dialogue beyond the confines of looking inward at photographic history and instead playing on a grander stage. While I'm sure this is an oversimplification of the nuanced ideas of the curators, I think this general framework has merit, especially if it can help to make the underlying forces tugging at contemporary photography more legible.
Collector's POV: Since this is a permanent collection exhibition, it seems only fitting to forego the prices and secondary market discussion that usually fills this section.
Rating: ** (two stars) VERY GOOD (rating system described here)
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Transit Hub:
- Previous installations of the permanent collection of photography: 2010 (here), 2009 (here), 2008 (here)
Through March 2012
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Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd Street
New York, NY 10019
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Auction Results: Photography and Contemporary Art, May 30 and June 1, 2011 @Lempertz
The results from the recent Photography and Contemporary Art sales at Kunsthaus Lempertz in Cologne were generally on the soft side. The overall Buy-In rate was over 40% and the Total Sale Proceeds fell meaningfully below the estimate target. (Lempertz does not provide an estimate range in most cases, just a single estimate number, so this figure is used as the High estimate in our calculations). A pair of winding tower typologies from the Bechers helped to keep the sale above water.
The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):
Total Lots: 214
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: 540550€
Total Lots Sold: 123
Total Lots Bought In: 91
Buy In %: 42.52%
Total Sale Proceeds: 372370€
Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post, here):
Low Total Lots: 204
Low Sold: 118
Low Bought In: 86
Buy In %: 42.16%
Total Low Estimate: 315550€
Total Low Sold: 231370€
Mid Total Lots: 7
Mid Sold: 3
Mid Bought In: 4
Buy In %: 57.14%
Total Mid Estimate: 105000€
Total Mid Sold: 47400€
High Total Lots: 3
High Sold: 2
High Bought In: 1
Buy In %: 33.33%
Total High Estimate: 120000€
Total High Sold: 93600€
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The top lot by High estimate was tied between three lots, each estimated at 30000-40000€. Two of the lots were groups of 4 winding tower prints by Bernd and Hilla Becher (each individual image titled by location): lot 508 from 1974-1978, and lot 509 from 1966-1968; lot 508 sold for 38400€ and lot 509 was the top outcome of the sale at 55200€. The third was lot 590, Andreas Gursky, Furkapass, 1989; it did not sell.
78.86% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate. There were a total of 13 surprises across the two sales (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):
Lot 5, Wilhelm Schneider, Innenaufnahme Eines Salons, 1860, at 2640€
Lot 13, Rudolph Koppitz, Bewegungsstudie, 1925, at 7440€
Lot 18, Imre Von Santho, Weisses Shantung - Kostum und Weisse Seidenmousselinbluse, 1920s, at 1440€
Lot 23, Friedrich Seidenstucker, Ohne Titel (Zwei Madchen), 1920s, at 3360€
Lot 51, August Sander, Gruppe von Burgermeistern, 1928, at 9000€ (image at right, middle, via Lempertz)
Lot 52, August Sander, Lumpenball, 1920s, at 2640€
Lot 66, Josef Ehm, Akt (Solarisation), 1936, at 2160€
Lot 70, Germaine Krull, Ohne Titel, 1928, at 2160€
Lot 71, Germaine Krull, La Tour Eiffel - Paris, Detail, 1928, at 9600€ (image at right, bottom, via Lempertz)
Lot 83, Karl Hugo Schmolz, Ohne Titel, 1940s, at 1080€
Lot 108, Charlotte March, Op-Art-Mode Von Ungaro, Paris, Fruhjahr, 1963/Later, at 1320€
Lot 118, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Acapulco, Mexico, 1964, at 2640€
Lot 192, Catherine Opie, #20 from the series Freeway, 1994, at 3000€ (image at right, top, via Lempertz)
Complete lot by lot results (for both Photography and Contemporary Art) can be found here.
Kunsthaus Lempertz
Neumarkt 3
D-50667 Köln
Total Lots: 214
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: 540550€
Total Lots Sold: 123
Total Lots Bought In: 91
Buy In %: 42.52%
Total Sale Proceeds: 372370€
Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post, here):
Low Total Lots: 204
Low Sold: 118
Low Bought In: 86
Buy In %: 42.16%
Total Low Estimate: 315550€
Total Low Sold: 231370€
Mid Total Lots: 7
Mid Sold: 3
Mid Bought In: 4
Buy In %: 57.14%
Total Mid Estimate: 105000€
Total Mid Sold: 47400€
High Total Lots: 3
High Sold: 2
High Bought In: 1
Buy In %: 33.33%
Total High Estimate: 120000€
Total High Sold: 93600€
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The top lot by High estimate was tied between three lots, each estimated at 30000-40000€. Two of the lots were groups of 4 winding tower prints by Bernd and Hilla Becher (each individual image titled by location): lot 508 from 1974-1978, and lot 509 from 1966-1968; lot 508 sold for 38400€ and lot 509 was the top outcome of the sale at 55200€. The third was lot 590, Andreas Gursky, Furkapass, 1989; it did not sell.
78.86% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate. There were a total of 13 surprises across the two sales (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):
Lot 5, Wilhelm Schneider, Innenaufnahme Eines Salons, 1860, at 2640€
Lot 13, Rudolph Koppitz, Bewegungsstudie, 1925, at 7440€
Lot 18, Imre Von Santho, Weisses Shantung - Kostum und Weisse Seidenmousselinbluse, 1920s, at 1440€
Lot 23, Friedrich Seidenstucker, Ohne Titel (Zwei Madchen), 1920s, at 3360€
Lot 51, August Sander, Gruppe von Burgermeistern, 1928, at 9000€ (image at right, middle, via Lempertz)
Lot 52, August Sander, Lumpenball, 1920s, at 2640€
Lot 66, Josef Ehm, Akt (Solarisation), 1936, at 2160€
Lot 70, Germaine Krull, Ohne Titel, 1928, at 2160€
Lot 71, Germaine Krull, La Tour Eiffel - Paris, Detail, 1928, at 9600€ (image at right, bottom, via Lempertz)
Lot 83, Karl Hugo Schmolz, Ohne Titel, 1940s, at 1080€
Lot 108, Charlotte March, Op-Art-Mode Von Ungaro, Paris, Fruhjahr, 1963/Later, at 1320€
Lot 118, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Acapulco, Mexico, 1964, at 2640€
Lot 192, Catherine Opie, #20 from the series Freeway, 1994, at 3000€ (image at right, top, via Lempertz)
Complete lot by lot results (for both Photography and Contemporary Art) can be found here.
Kunsthaus Lempertz
Neumarkt 3
D-50667 Köln
Elliott Erwitt: Personal Best @ICP
JTF (just the facts): A total of 112 black and white photographs, framed in brown wood with cream colored mats, and hung throughout the galleries on the main floor and in a series of connected rooms on the lower level. The works on view were made between 1946 and 2009; overall dimensions and edition sizes were not available, but many of the prints have been enlarged to nearly poster size. The exhibit also includes 4 glass cases containing a total of 14 books, 3 contact sheets, 1 hand made album, and 2 magazine spreads. Another open table contains 5 additional books, and 3 films (from 1968, 1971, and 1973 respectively) can be seen in a separate projection room. The show was curated by Brian Wallis. Since photography is not allowed in the ICP galleries, the images for this show come via the ICP website. (Elliott Erwitt, Pasadena, California, 1963, at right, top.)
Comments/Context: Before seeing this expansive retrospective exhibition, I must admit to being guilty of underestimating Elliott Erwitt. My opinion going in was that Erwitt was a talented and well regarded photojournalist with a light touch and a humanist eye, who often found moments of humor in everyday life; in short, a stock characterization, derived from seeing a grab bag of his work in passing over the years. As with comedic actors at the Academy Awards, photographers who employ humor often get taken for granted, as if what they do is somehow easier or less important than those who take a more "serious" or "conceptual" path. And given Erwitt's history with dogs, kids, beachgoers, and other whimsical subjects, I guess it is not altogether surprising that his reputation might be unintentionally skewed toward simple joys and small giggles.
What impressed me most about this selection of images was their consistency; across more than 50 years, Erwitt has composed literally dozens and dozens of iconic photographs (many of which I hadn't actually attributed to Erwitt in my head). This doesn't happen by accident or luck; my big takeaway was that Erwitt's compositional skills were indeed significant, and that his powerful ability to organize the contents of the frame was really what makes his voice so durable and original. His signature style is broadly inclusive and approachable, full of warmth, compassion and shared experience; he makes it look easy. But most importantly, Erwitt clearly knew where to put his camera, working to get the exact juxtaposition of subjects that generated time and again a seemingly effortless visual joke or a perfectly timed wry observation. And while this particular group of images is heavy on 1950s Europe, many additional clusters and patterns emerge in Erwitt's subjects: families and couples, dogs, nudists, the art world, political figures, and plenty of street images from all over the world. (Elliott Erwitt, New York, 1974, at right, middle.)
In general, I enjoyed this show far more than I expected I would, and I came away with a much deeper appreciation and respect for Erwitt's work. It is nearly impossible to avoid a few chuckles and guffaws while strolling through these galleries, but don't let the absurdity of it all mask the undeniable craftsmanship required to capture these seemingly endless moments of wonder.
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Collector's POV: While this isn't a selling show, Erwitt's photographs are consistently available in the secondary markets and are generally quite affordable. Most have settled under $5000, with a few well known vintage works moving up to $10000. (Elliott Erwitt, Jacqueline Kennedy at John F. Kennedy's funeral, Arlington, Virginia, November 25, 1963, at right, bottom.)
Rating: ** (two stars) VERY GOOD (rating system described here)
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Transit Hub:
Through August 28th
International Center of Photography
1133 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036
Comments/Context: Before seeing this expansive retrospective exhibition, I must admit to being guilty of underestimating Elliott Erwitt. My opinion going in was that Erwitt was a talented and well regarded photojournalist with a light touch and a humanist eye, who often found moments of humor in everyday life; in short, a stock characterization, derived from seeing a grab bag of his work in passing over the years. As with comedic actors at the Academy Awards, photographers who employ humor often get taken for granted, as if what they do is somehow easier or less important than those who take a more "serious" or "conceptual" path. And given Erwitt's history with dogs, kids, beachgoers, and other whimsical subjects, I guess it is not altogether surprising that his reputation might be unintentionally skewed toward simple joys and small giggles.
What impressed me most about this selection of images was their consistency; across more than 50 years, Erwitt has composed literally dozens and dozens of iconic photographs (many of which I hadn't actually attributed to Erwitt in my head). This doesn't happen by accident or luck; my big takeaway was that Erwitt's compositional skills were indeed significant, and that his powerful ability to organize the contents of the frame was really what makes his voice so durable and original. His signature style is broadly inclusive and approachable, full of warmth, compassion and shared experience; he makes it look easy. But most importantly, Erwitt clearly knew where to put his camera, working to get the exact juxtaposition of subjects that generated time and again a seemingly effortless visual joke or a perfectly timed wry observation. And while this particular group of images is heavy on 1950s Europe, many additional clusters and patterns emerge in Erwitt's subjects: families and couples, dogs, nudists, the art world, political figures, and plenty of street images from all over the world. (Elliott Erwitt, New York, 1974, at right, middle.)
In general, I enjoyed this show far more than I expected I would, and I came away with a much deeper appreciation and respect for Erwitt's work. It is nearly impossible to avoid a few chuckles and guffaws while strolling through these galleries, but don't let the absurdity of it all mask the undeniable craftsmanship required to capture these seemingly endless moments of wonder.
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Collector's POV: While this isn't a selling show, Erwitt's photographs are consistently available in the secondary markets and are generally quite affordable. Most have settled under $5000, with a few well known vintage works moving up to $10000. (Elliott Erwitt, Jacqueline Kennedy at John F. Kennedy's funeral, Arlington, Virginia, November 25, 1963, at right, bottom.)
Rating: ** (two stars) VERY GOOD (rating system described here)
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Transit Hub:
- Artist site (here)
- Magnum Photos page (here)
- Reviews: NY Times (here), New Yorker (here), Photograph (here), The Online Photographer (here)
Through August 28th
International Center of Photography
1133 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036
Monday, June 27, 2011
Auction Results: Oeuvres de Pierre et Gilles, May 30, 2011 @Christie's Paris
While it wasn't a white glove outcome, the results from Christie's recent single artist Pierre et Gilles sale in Paris were nonetheless quite strong. The Buy-In rate was under 15%, all of the top lots found buyers, and the Total Sale Proceeds came in above the range.
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The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):
Total Lots: 23
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: 465000€
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: 728000€
Total Lots Sold: 20
Total Lots Bought In: 3
Buy In %: 13.04%
Total Sale Proceeds: 797900€
Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post, here):
Low Total Lots: 0
Low Sold: NA
Low Bought In: NA
Buy In %: NA
Total Low Estimate: 0€
Total Low Sold: NA
Mid Total Lots: 16
Mid Sold: 13
Mid Bought In: 3
Buy In %: 18.75%
Total Mid Estimate: 373000€
Total Mid Sold: 486100€
High Total Lots: 7
High Sold: 7
High Bought In: 0
Buy In %: 0.00%
Total High Estimate: 355000€
Total High Sold: 311800€
The top lot by High estimate was lot 23, Pierre et Gilles, David et Jonathan - Jean-Yves et Moussa, 2005, at 35000-55000€; it sold for 56200€. The top outcome of the sale was lot 2, Pierre et Gilles, Le petit jardinier - Didier, 1993, at 157000€ (image at right, top, via Christie's)
100.00% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above their estimate. There were a total of two surprises in this small sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):
Lot 2, Pierre et Gilles, Le petit jardinier - Didier, 1993, at 157000€ (image at right, top, via Christie's)
Lot 19, Pierre et Gilles, Sans toi - Ariel, 2006, at 37000€
Complete lot by lot results can be found here.
Christie's
9 Avenue Matignon
75008 Paris
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The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):
Total Lots: 23
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: 465000€
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: 728000€
Total Lots Sold: 20
Total Lots Bought In: 3
Buy In %: 13.04%
Total Sale Proceeds: 797900€
Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post, here):
Low Total Lots: 0
Low Sold: NA
Low Bought In: NA
Buy In %: NA
Total Low Estimate: 0€
Total Low Sold: NA
Mid Total Lots: 16
Mid Sold: 13
Mid Bought In: 3
Buy In %: 18.75%
Total Mid Estimate: 373000€
Total Mid Sold: 486100€
High Total Lots: 7
High Sold: 7
High Bought In: 0
Buy In %: 0.00%
Total High Estimate: 355000€
Total High Sold: 311800€
The top lot by High estimate was lot 23, Pierre et Gilles, David et Jonathan - Jean-Yves et Moussa, 2005, at 35000-55000€; it sold for 56200€. The top outcome of the sale was lot 2, Pierre et Gilles, Le petit jardinier - Didier, 1993, at 157000€ (image at right, top, via Christie's)
100.00% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above their estimate. There were a total of two surprises in this small sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):
Lot 2, Pierre et Gilles, Le petit jardinier - Didier, 1993, at 157000€ (image at right, top, via Christie's)
Lot 19, Pierre et Gilles, Sans toi - Ariel, 2006, at 37000€
Complete lot by lot results can be found here.
Christie's
9 Avenue Matignon
75008 Paris
Auction Results: Photographies Modernes et Contemporaines, May 27, 2011 @Yann Le Mouel
The results of Yann Le Mouel's recent various owner photography sale in Paris were a decidedly mixed bag. While quite a few portraits of artists outperformed their estimates, the overall Buy-In rate was over 50% and the Total Sale Proceeds missed the range by a significant amount.
The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):
Total Lots: 342
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: 551600€
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: 744200€
Total Lots Sold: 158
Total Lots Bought In: 184
Buy In %: 53.80%
Total Sale Proceeds: 368112€
Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post, here):
Low Total Lots: 332
Low Sold: 155
Low Bought In: 177
Buy In %: 53.31%
Total Low Estimate: 592200€
Total Low Sold: 329112€
Mid Total Lots: 10
Mid Sold: 3
Mid Bought In: 7
Buy In %: 70.00%
Total Mid Estimate: 152000€
Total Mid Sold: 39000€
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 lot 32, Jaromir Funke, Composition a la bouteille, 1925, at 20000-30000€; it did not sell. The top outcome of the sale was lot 136, Irving Penn, Pablo Picasso a la Californie, Cannes, 1957, at 15360€.
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94.94% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range. There were a total of 12 surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):
Lot 63, Francois Kollar, Le port du Paris, 1931, at 4200€ (image at right, bottom, via Yann Le Mouel)
Lot 122, Alexander Calder, 6 portraits de l'artiste, 1958-1967, at 1800€
Lot 125, Hans Arp, Portrait de l'artiste, 1958, at 660€
Lot 136, Irving Penn, Pablo Picasso a la Californie, Cannes, 1957, at 15360€
Lot 156, Alfred Manessier, Portrait du peintre, 1952, at 660€
Lot 167, Marcel Duchamp, Marcel Duchap avant Grand Verre, 1961, at 1800€
Lot 171, Matta, 2 portraits de l'artiste, 1958, at 1020€
Lot 172, Alberto Giacometti, 4 portraits de l'artiste, 1963, at 2400€
Lot 173, Alexander Liberman, Portrait d'Alberto Giacometti, 1950, at 3240€
Lot 197, William Klein, Courreges Mini-robe et Panatalon, 1965, at 3480€ (image at right, top, via Yann Le Mouel)
Lot 211, Irving Penn, Duke Ellington, New York, 1955, at 6120€
Lot 223, Gisele Freund, Le Corbusier dans son atelier, 1961, at 2400€ (image at right, middle, via Yann Le Mouel)
Complete lot by lot results can be found here.
Yann Le Mouel
22, Rue Chauchat
75009 Paris
The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):
Total Lots: 342
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: 551600€
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: 744200€
Total Lots Sold: 158
Total Lots Bought In: 184
Buy In %: 53.80%
Total Sale Proceeds: 368112€
Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post, here):
Low Total Lots: 332
Low Sold: 155
Low Bought In: 177
Buy In %: 53.31%
Total Low Estimate: 592200€
Total Low Sold: 329112€
Mid Total Lots: 10
Mid Sold: 3
Mid Bought In: 7
Buy In %: 70.00%
Total Mid Estimate: 152000€
Total Mid Sold: 39000€
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 lot 32, Jaromir Funke, Composition a la bouteille, 1925, at 20000-30000€; it did not sell. The top outcome of the sale was lot 136, Irving Penn, Pablo Picasso a la Californie, Cannes, 1957, at 15360€.
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94.94% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range. There were a total of 12 surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):
Lot 63, Francois Kollar, Le port du Paris, 1931, at 4200€ (image at right, bottom, via Yann Le Mouel)
Lot 122, Alexander Calder, 6 portraits de l'artiste, 1958-1967, at 1800€
Lot 125, Hans Arp, Portrait de l'artiste, 1958, at 660€
Lot 136, Irving Penn, Pablo Picasso a la Californie, Cannes, 1957, at 15360€
Lot 156, Alfred Manessier, Portrait du peintre, 1952, at 660€
Lot 167, Marcel Duchamp, Marcel Duchap avant Grand Verre, 1961, at 1800€
Lot 171, Matta, 2 portraits de l'artiste, 1958, at 1020€
Lot 172, Alberto Giacometti, 4 portraits de l'artiste, 1963, at 2400€
Lot 173, Alexander Liberman, Portrait d'Alberto Giacometti, 1950, at 3240€
Lot 197, William Klein, Courreges Mini-robe et Panatalon, 1965, at 3480€ (image at right, top, via Yann Le Mouel)
Lot 211, Irving Penn, Duke Ellington, New York, 1955, at 6120€
Lot 223, Gisele Freund, Le Corbusier dans son atelier, 1961, at 2400€ (image at right, middle, via Yann Le Mouel)
Complete lot by lot results can be found here.
Yann Le Mouel
22, Rue Chauchat
75009 Paris
Friday, June 24, 2011
Clifford Ross: From Landscape to Imagination @Sonnabend
JTF (just the facts): A total of 10 photographic works and 1 video, generally framed in white and matted, and hung in the main gallery space and two of the smaller back rooms (one darkened for the video projection). All of the photographs are archival pigment ink on Japanese paper. 9 of the images are single prints, while 1 is a triptych. 6 of the single images are sized between roughly 24x42 and 27x55, in editions of 12+3AP. The other three single images are respectively 50x41 (edition of 6+2AP), 65x54 (edition of 20), and 76x135 (edition of 6+2AP). The triptych is 85x153 in total, in an edition of 6+2AP. All of the works were made between 2005 and 2011. Many of the images apparently come in additional larger or smaller sizes. (Installation shots at right.)
Comments/Context: Back in 2005, Clifford Ross made what seemed like a traditional landscape image of Mount Sopris in Colorado, complete with dense forests, a reflecting lake, and a lofty peak. What was original about this image was its staggeringly immense detail; using a specialized camera, Ross was able to pack in an enormous amount of visual information to every inch of the photograph, at all depths and locations, much like a Daguerreotpe. The viewer can get closer and closer to the image without losing any depth of detail; as a photograph, it's a bit of a technical marvel, taking realism in new directions.
Fast forward a few years, and Ross has taken that same mountain scene as a starting place for a journey away from realism toward complete abstraction. In both photography and video, he begins with the high density image and then proceeds to fragment it into small shards, particularly one small rectangle of the trees which becomes a motif that gets multiplied, tinted, and reversed into an explosion of hundreds of little squares. If you walk around the gallery in the right order, the color landscape is slowly transformed by this viral beast, strips and squares spun and manipulated, eventually covering the entire surface of the image like a textural blast of colorful confetti.
The video on view takes this idea to another level, aided by a wide variety of computer animation tricks. The single piece of the forest becomes a 3D grid made of layers and towers, which is then spun into a rainbow colored tornado of little fragments, and on and on through various renderings; it's like the graphics department went a little wild and the turned the photographic image into a high tech TV advertisement using every cool visual tool in the toolbox.
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To my eye, these images work better as intellectual concepts than they do as photographs. The idea of taking one hyper realistic image and having it become the basis for a riff on abstraction is intriguing, and watching the image morph through various stages and patterns of evolution is perhaps entertaining in a sense of organic random growth, but in the end, the pictures didn't get beyond clever computer gimmickry for me. That said, for those who are interested in breaking down the edges of photographic visualization via computer rendering, this show is worth a visit for a deep dive into bleeding edge process.
Collector's POV: The works in the exhibit are priced as follows. The six smaller images are either $12000 or $15000 each, while the 50x41 and 65x54 images are $18000 each. Both the large image of Mount Sopris and the triptych are priced at $85000. Again, many of the images are available in additional sizes with alternate prices, so check with the gallery as appropriate. Ross' work has not been consistently found in the secondary markets in recent years, so gallery retail is still likely the best option for interested collectors.
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Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)
Transit Hub:
Through July 29th
Sonnabend Gallery (artnet page here)
536 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011
Comments/Context: Back in 2005, Clifford Ross made what seemed like a traditional landscape image of Mount Sopris in Colorado, complete with dense forests, a reflecting lake, and a lofty peak. What was original about this image was its staggeringly immense detail; using a specialized camera, Ross was able to pack in an enormous amount of visual information to every inch of the photograph, at all depths and locations, much like a Daguerreotpe. The viewer can get closer and closer to the image without losing any depth of detail; as a photograph, it's a bit of a technical marvel, taking realism in new directions.
Fast forward a few years, and Ross has taken that same mountain scene as a starting place for a journey away from realism toward complete abstraction. In both photography and video, he begins with the high density image and then proceeds to fragment it into small shards, particularly one small rectangle of the trees which becomes a motif that gets multiplied, tinted, and reversed into an explosion of hundreds of little squares. If you walk around the gallery in the right order, the color landscape is slowly transformed by this viral beast, strips and squares spun and manipulated, eventually covering the entire surface of the image like a textural blast of colorful confetti.
The video on view takes this idea to another level, aided by a wide variety of computer animation tricks. The single piece of the forest becomes a 3D grid made of layers and towers, which is then spun into a rainbow colored tornado of little fragments, and on and on through various renderings; it's like the graphics department went a little wild and the turned the photographic image into a high tech TV advertisement using every cool visual tool in the toolbox.
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To my eye, these images work better as intellectual concepts than they do as photographs. The idea of taking one hyper realistic image and having it become the basis for a riff on abstraction is intriguing, and watching the image morph through various stages and patterns of evolution is perhaps entertaining in a sense of organic random growth, but in the end, the pictures didn't get beyond clever computer gimmickry for me. That said, for those who are interested in breaking down the edges of photographic visualization via computer rendering, this show is worth a visit for a deep dive into bleeding edge process.
Collector's POV: The works in the exhibit are priced as follows. The six smaller images are either $12000 or $15000 each, while the 50x41 and 65x54 images are $18000 each. Both the large image of Mount Sopris and the triptych are priced at $85000. Again, many of the images are available in additional sizes with alternate prices, so check with the gallery as appropriate. Ross' work has not been consistently found in the secondary markets in recent years, so gallery retail is still likely the best option for interested collectors.
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Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)
Transit Hub:
- Artist site (here)
Through July 29th
Sonnabend Gallery (artnet page here)
536 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011
Thursday, June 23, 2011
The Checklist: 06/23/11.
DLK COLLECTION
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Checklist 06/23/11
New reviews added this week in red.
Uptown
ONE STAR: Moveable Feast: MCNY: July 10: review
ONE STAR: Night Vision: Met: September 18: review
ONE STAR: After the Gold Rush: Met: January 2: review
Midtown
ONE STAR: Herb Ritts: Edwynn Houk: June 25: review
TWO STARS: Henry Wessel: Pace/MacGill: July 8: review
ONE STAR: All the Young Strangers: Higher Pictures: July 9: review
TWO STARS: Rinko Kawauchi: Hermes: July 16: review
ONE STAR: Japan Today: Amador: August 19: review
TWO STARS: Boris Mikhailov: MoMA: September 5: review
Chelsea
ONE STAR: Ori Gersht: CRG: June 24: review
ONE STAR: Gillian Wearing: Tanya Bonakdar: June 24: review
ONE STAR: Ana Barrado: Deborah Bell: June 25: review
ONE STAR: Cao Fei: Lombard-Freid: June 25: review
ONE STAR: Florian Maier-Aichen: 303: June 25: review
ONE STAR: Jeff Merlmelstein: Rick Wester: June 25: review
ONE STAR: The Kate Moss Portfolio and Other Stories: Danziger Projects: June 30: review
ONE STAR: Roe Ethridge: Andrew Kreps: July 2: review
ONE STAR: Jo Ratcliffe: Walther Collection: July 15: review
SoHo/Lower East Side/Downtown
No current reviews.
Elsewhere Nearby
ONE STAR: Sam Taylor-Wood: Brooklyn Museum: August 14: review
TWO STARS: Lorna Simpson: Brooklyn Museum: August 21: review
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Checklist 06/23/11
New reviews added this week in red.
Uptown
ONE STAR: Moveable Feast: MCNY: July 10: review
ONE STAR: Night Vision: Met: September 18: review
ONE STAR: After the Gold Rush: Met: January 2: review
Midtown
ONE STAR: Herb Ritts: Edwynn Houk: June 25: review
TWO STARS: Henry Wessel: Pace/MacGill: July 8: review
ONE STAR: All the Young Strangers: Higher Pictures: July 9: review
TWO STARS: Rinko Kawauchi: Hermes: July 16: review
ONE STAR: Japan Today: Amador: August 19: review
TWO STARS: Boris Mikhailov: MoMA: September 5: review
Chelsea
ONE STAR: Ori Gersht: CRG: June 24: review
ONE STAR: Gillian Wearing: Tanya Bonakdar: June 24: review
ONE STAR: Ana Barrado: Deborah Bell: June 25: review
ONE STAR: Cao Fei: Lombard-Freid: June 25: review
ONE STAR: Florian Maier-Aichen: 303: June 25: review
ONE STAR: Jeff Merlmelstein: Rick Wester: June 25: review
ONE STAR: The Kate Moss Portfolio and Other Stories: Danziger Projects: June 30: review
ONE STAR: Roe Ethridge: Andrew Kreps: July 2: review
ONE STAR: Jo Ratcliffe: Walther Collection: July 15: review
SoHo/Lower East Side/Downtown
No current reviews.
Elsewhere Nearby
ONE STAR: Sam Taylor-Wood: Brooklyn Museum: August 14: review
TWO STARS: Lorna Simpson: Brooklyn Museum: August 21: review
Auction Results: Photographie, May 26, 2011 @Villa Grisebach
The results of the recent Photography sale at Villa Grisebach in Berlin were generally quite positive. With a the Buy-In rate just over 20% , a solid number of upside surprises, and Total Sale Proceeds that came in near the top of the estimate range, the sale performed well by most measures.
The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):
Total Lots: 190
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: 492200€
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: 673500€
Total Lots Sold: 151
Total Lots Bought In: 39
Buy In %: 20.53%
Total Sale Proceeds: 643489€
Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post, here):
Low Total Lots: 176
Low Sold: 139
Low Bought In: 37
Buy In %: 21.02%
Total Low Estimate: 442500€
Total Low Sold: 379969€
Mid Total Lots: 14
Mid Sold: 12
Mid Bought In: 2
Buy In %: 14.29%
Total Mid Estimate: 231000€
Total Mid Sold: 263520€
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 1409, Oskar Schlemmer/Kurt Bryner, Zwei Alben mit Photographien der familie Schlemmer und Freunden, 1937-1940, at 25000-30000€; it sold for 29280€. The top outcome of the sale was lot 1434, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Forderturme, Schuylkill County, PA, USA, 9-teilige Photoarbeit, 1974-1978, at 70760€ (image at right, top, via Villa Grisebach)
95.36% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate. There were a total of 12 surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):
Lot 1310, Ilse Bing, Self Portrait, 1931/1996, at 7320€
Lot 1316, Bill Brandt, Nude, Baie des Anges, France, 1958/Later, at 3416€
Lot 1325, Robert Doisneau, Le manege de Monsieur Barre, Place de la Mairie, Paris, 1925/Later, 10370€
Lot 1428, Paul Wolff, Ohne Titel (Frankfurt am Main: Hute im Waldstadion), 1929 at 3172€
Lot 1429, Paul Wolff, Ohne Titel (Start zum Segelfliegen), 1933-1945, at 3660€
Lot 1430, Paul Wolff, Ohne Titel (Frankfurt am Main, Blick auf den Burgersteig von oben), 1933-1945, at 3904€ (image at right, bottom, via Villa Grisebach)
Lot 1432, Yva, Vornehmer hut aus blauer Seide mit doppelter, weisser Krempe und schwal aus gleichem Material. Modell: Gurau-Friedrich, 1932, at 3172€
Lot 1433, Yva, Den Schuh schmuckt die schnalle, den Fuss der...Strumpf, 1934-1938, at 3294€
Lot 1434, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Forderturme, Schuylkill County, PA, USA, 9-teilige Photoarbeit, 1974-1978, at 70760€ (image at right, top, via Villa Grisebach)
Lot 1462, Ken Probst, Tattooed Twins, San Diego, 1989/2001, at 4880€
Lot 1468, Thomas Ruff, Interieur 1D (Tegernsee) aus der Serie "Interieurs", 1982, at 3050€ (image at right, middle, via Villa Grisebach)
Lot 1476, Michael Schmidt, o.T., 1998, at 1708€
Complete lot by lot results can be found here.
Villa Grisebach Auktionen
Fasanenstraße 25
D-10719 Berlin
The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):
Total Lots: 190
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: 492200€
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: 673500€
Total Lots Sold: 151
Total Lots Bought In: 39
Buy In %: 20.53%
Total Sale Proceeds: 643489€
Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post, here):
Low Total Lots: 176
Low Sold: 139
Low Bought In: 37
Buy In %: 21.02%
Total Low Estimate: 442500€
Total Low Sold: 379969€
Mid Total Lots: 14
Mid Sold: 12
Mid Bought In: 2
Buy In %: 14.29%
Total Mid Estimate: 231000€
Total Mid Sold: 263520€
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 1409, Oskar Schlemmer/Kurt Bryner, Zwei Alben mit Photographien der familie Schlemmer und Freunden, 1937-1940, at 25000-30000€; it sold for 29280€. The top outcome of the sale was lot 1434, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Forderturme, Schuylkill County, PA, USA, 9-teilige Photoarbeit, 1974-1978, at 70760€ (image at right, top, via Villa Grisebach)
95.36% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate. There were a total of 12 surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):
Lot 1310, Ilse Bing, Self Portrait, 1931/1996, at 7320€
Lot 1316, Bill Brandt, Nude, Baie des Anges, France, 1958/Later, at 3416€
Lot 1325, Robert Doisneau, Le manege de Monsieur Barre, Place de la Mairie, Paris, 1925/Later, 10370€
Lot 1428, Paul Wolff, Ohne Titel (Frankfurt am Main: Hute im Waldstadion), 1929 at 3172€
Lot 1429, Paul Wolff, Ohne Titel (Start zum Segelfliegen), 1933-1945, at 3660€
Lot 1430, Paul Wolff, Ohne Titel (Frankfurt am Main, Blick auf den Burgersteig von oben), 1933-1945, at 3904€ (image at right, bottom, via Villa Grisebach)
Lot 1432, Yva, Vornehmer hut aus blauer Seide mit doppelter, weisser Krempe und schwal aus gleichem Material. Modell: Gurau-Friedrich, 1932, at 3172€
Lot 1433, Yva, Den Schuh schmuckt die schnalle, den Fuss der...Strumpf, 1934-1938, at 3294€
Lot 1434, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Forderturme, Schuylkill County, PA, USA, 9-teilige Photoarbeit, 1974-1978, at 70760€ (image at right, top, via Villa Grisebach)
Lot 1462, Ken Probst, Tattooed Twins, San Diego, 1989/2001, at 4880€
Lot 1468, Thomas Ruff, Interieur 1D (Tegernsee) aus der Serie "Interieurs", 1982, at 3050€ (image at right, middle, via Villa Grisebach)
Lot 1476, Michael Schmidt, o.T., 1998, at 1708€
Complete lot by lot results can be found here.
Villa Grisebach Auktionen
Fasanenstraße 25
D-10719 Berlin
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Auction: Photographies, L'Imaginaire du Nu, June 28, 2011 @Yann Le Mouel
Before the summer distractions set in, Yann Le Mouel has scheduled a single subject sale of generally low priced nudes next week in Paris. The vast majority of the lots are priced under 2000€, with a wide selection of female and male nudes, ranging from daguerreotypes and 19th century scenes to contemporary images. Overall, there are a total of 248 lots on offer, with a Total High Estimate of 350650€.
Here's the breakdown:
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): 284650€
Total Mid Lots (high estimate between 7500€ and 35000€): 6
Total Mid Estimate: 66000€
Total High Lots (high estimate above 35000€): 0
Total High Estimate: NA
The top lot by High estimate is lot 129, Peter Lindbergh, Milla Jovovitch, NYC, Italian Vogue, 1996, at 15000-20000€. (Image at right, top, via Yann Le Mouel.)
Here is a short list of the photographers who are represented by five or more lots in the sale (with the number of lots in parentheses):
Pierre Boucher (9)
Gaudenzio Marconi (6)
Guglielmo Pluschow (6)
Andre Steiner (5)
Lehnert & Landrock (5)
Pierre Molinier (5)
Monsieur X (5)
(Lot 30, Rene-Jacques, Royan, Charente-Maritime, 1927, at 2000-3000€, image at right, middle, and lot 239, Jeanluop Sieff, Nu en diagonale, 1964, at 1500-2000€, image at right, bottom, both via Yann Le Mouel.)
The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here.
Photographies, L'Imaginaire du Nu
June 28th
Yann Le Mouel
22, Rue Chauchat
75009 Paris
Always the Young Strangers @Higher Pictures
JTF (just the facts): A group show consisting of a total of 29 works by 17 different photographers, variously framed and matted, and hung against white walls in the small main gallery space and the viewing alcove. (Installation shots at right.)
The following photographers have been included in the show, with image numbers and details in parentheses:
A couple of years ago, I wrote a short essay on "digital craftsmanship" and the challenges faced by the increasing perfection offered by digital tools (here). As I reviewed the images in this show, I began to think that they can provide an unexpected answer to some of the questions raised by that discussion. If we take as a given that most photographers will no longer be able to differentiate themselves on printing craft alone, the "handmadeness" of the art, and the visceral touch of the artist, will need to come out in other ways. Nearly every image in this show turns on the process being used by the artist; I'm not talking about chemicals and print types (that's old school thinking), but the activity that takes place as part of (before, during, and after) the image making. A sense of brainy involvement pervades all of these works.
Many of the photographs on view are images of constructed environments, places for performances, or installations made solely to be photographed. Others employ analog, digital, and even physical processes to modify the nature of the imagery, moving it beyond the representational to the interpretive. Ideas are pushed and pulled and twisted back on themselves, blurring the definitional lines to which we have become accustomed. Terms like landscape, still life, portrait and even abstraction seem woefully inadequate as useful categorizations, since many of the works which might normally fall into one of those buckets actually function on multiple discrete levels.
While I can't say that every image hit the mark for me, this show is full of potential answers to the question of "where is photography headed?" These works are evidence of a growing rejection of the glossy, large scale, art object deadpan that has dominated contemporary photography for the past decade or two, and a potential return to the introspective, intellectual and personal. While no consensus has yet formed out of this swirling, chaotic multiplicity of competing ideas and hand crafted approaches, there are certainly enough data points to start to see a pattern emerging.
Collector's POV: The images in the show are priced as follows:
My favorite image in the exhibit was Letha Wilson's Bryce Canyon Cement Pour, 2011; it's on the far left in the top installation shot. I liked it's conceptual mixing of artistic genres, where photography meets sculptural plywood and poured cement, referencing both Land Art and Minimalism.
Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)
Transit Hub:
Always the Young Strangers
Through July 9th
Higher Pictures
764 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10065
The following photographers have been included in the show, with image numbers and details in parentheses:
- Erica Allen (2 digital c-prints, each 14x11, editions of 3, 2008)
- Cortney Andrews (2 videos with sound, editions of 3, 2010)
- Talia Chetrit (2 gelatin silver prints, 24x20 and 20x16, editions of 4, 2010)
- Jessica Eaton (1 archival pigment print, 40x30, edition of 3, 2010)
- LaToya Ruby Frazier (1 photolithograph/silkscreen, 17x14, 2011)
- Anna Krachey (1 archival pigment print, 18x25, edition of 4, 2010)
- Jessica Labatte (1 archival inkjet print, 71x59, edition of 5, 2010)
- Andrea Longacre-White (1 archival inkjet print, 36x24, unique, 2011)
- Aspen Mays (2 gelatin silver prints, 12x16 and 7x5, unique, 2011, with bag of buttons)
- MPA + Katherine Hubbard (6 polaroids, each 4x6, unique, 2010)
- Yamini Nayar (1 c-print, 36x48, edition of 5, 2010)
- Emily Roysdon (1 digital chromogenic print, paper litho, wood block, collage, 35x48, unique, 2010)
- Carrie Schneider (1 c-print, 40x50, edition of 5, 2011)
- Kate Steciw (1 c-print, 30x24, edition of 5, 2010)
- Letha Wilson 1 c-print, cheesecloth, cement, 24x20x7, unique, 2011, and 1 wood frame, glass, cement, c-print, plywood, 17x13x2, unique, 2011)
- Ann Woo (3 c-prints, each 14x11, editions of 5, 2009)
A couple of years ago, I wrote a short essay on "digital craftsmanship" and the challenges faced by the increasing perfection offered by digital tools (here). As I reviewed the images in this show, I began to think that they can provide an unexpected answer to some of the questions raised by that discussion. If we take as a given that most photographers will no longer be able to differentiate themselves on printing craft alone, the "handmadeness" of the art, and the visceral touch of the artist, will need to come out in other ways. Nearly every image in this show turns on the process being used by the artist; I'm not talking about chemicals and print types (that's old school thinking), but the activity that takes place as part of (before, during, and after) the image making. A sense of brainy involvement pervades all of these works.
Many of the photographs on view are images of constructed environments, places for performances, or installations made solely to be photographed. Others employ analog, digital, and even physical processes to modify the nature of the imagery, moving it beyond the representational to the interpretive. Ideas are pushed and pulled and twisted back on themselves, blurring the definitional lines to which we have become accustomed. Terms like landscape, still life, portrait and even abstraction seem woefully inadequate as useful categorizations, since many of the works which might normally fall into one of those buckets actually function on multiple discrete levels.
While I can't say that every image hit the mark for me, this show is full of potential answers to the question of "where is photography headed?" These works are evidence of a growing rejection of the glossy, large scale, art object deadpan that has dominated contemporary photography for the past decade or two, and a potential return to the introspective, intellectual and personal. While no consensus has yet formed out of this swirling, chaotic multiplicity of competing ideas and hand crafted approaches, there are certainly enough data points to start to see a pattern emerging.
Collector's POV: The images in the show are priced as follows:
- Erica Allen ($700 each)
- Cortney Andrews ($2000 each)
- Talia Chetrit ($3000 and $2500)
- Jessica Eaton ($3500)
- LaToya Ruby Frazier (NFS)
- Anna Krachey ($1600)
- Jessica Labatte ($8500)
- Andrea Longacre-White ($1500)
- Aspen Mays ($3500 and $3200)
- MPA + Katherine Hubbard ($1000 each)
- Yamini Nayar ($5000)
- Emily Roysdon ($6500)
- Carrie Schneider ($5000)
- Kate Steciw ($1500)
- Letha Wilson ($2500 and $1250)
- Ann Woo ($650 each)
My favorite image in the exhibit was Letha Wilson's Bryce Canyon Cement Pour, 2011; it's on the far left in the top installation shot. I liked it's conceptual mixing of artistic genres, where photography meets sculptural plywood and poured cement, referencing both Land Art and Minimalism.
Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)
Transit Hub:
Always the Young Strangers
Through July 9th
Higher Pictures
764 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10065
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Auctions: Contemporary Art Evening and Day Auctions, June 29 and 30, 2011 @Sotheby's London
Sotheby's finishes up the Spring Contemporary Art season with Evening and Day sales next week in London. The top photography lots include works by Gursky, Eliasson, and Gilbert & George. There is also a Gillian Wearing commission available as a benefit for Serpentine Sackler Gallery. Overall, there are a total of 40 photo lots available across the two sales, with a Total High Estimate of £2783000.
Here's the usual statistical breakdown:
Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including £5000): 1
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): £5000
Total Mid Lots (high estimate between £5000 and £25000): 23
Total Mid Estimate: £378000
Total High Lots (high estimate above £25000): 16
Total High Estimate: £2400000
The top lot by High estimate is lot 39, Andreas Gursky, Engadin II, 2006, at £500000-700000. (Image at right, middle, via Sotheby's.)
Here is a list of the photographers who are represented by more than one lot in the two sales (with the number of lots in parentheses):
Gilbert & George (4)
Andreas Gursky (4)
Vik Muniz (3)
Cindy Sherman (2)
Thomas Struth (2)
Hiroshi Sugimoto (2)
(Lot 288, Gilbert & George, Black Buds, 1980, at £150000-200000, at right, top, and lot 290, Rashid Rana, What Lies Between Skin and Flesh, 2009, at £50000-70000, at right, bottom, via Sotheby's.)
The complete lot by lot catalogs can be found here (Evening) and here (Day).
Contemporary Art Evening
June 29th
Contemporary Art Day
June 30th
Sotheby's
34-35 New Bond Street
London W1A 2AA
Here's the usual statistical breakdown:
Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including £5000): 1
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): £5000
Total Mid Lots (high estimate between £5000 and £25000): 23
Total Mid Estimate: £378000
Total High Lots (high estimate above £25000): 16
Total High Estimate: £2400000
The top lot by High estimate is lot 39, Andreas Gursky, Engadin II, 2006, at £500000-700000. (Image at right, middle, via Sotheby's.)
Here is a list of the photographers who are represented by more than one lot in the two sales (with the number of lots in parentheses):
Gilbert & George (4)
Andreas Gursky (4)
Vik Muniz (3)
Cindy Sherman (2)
Thomas Struth (2)
Hiroshi Sugimoto (2)
(Lot 288, Gilbert & George, Black Buds, 1980, at £150000-200000, at right, top, and lot 290, Rashid Rana, What Lies Between Skin and Flesh, 2009, at £50000-70000, at right, bottom, via Sotheby's.)
The complete lot by lot catalogs can be found here (Evening) and here (Day).
Contemporary Art Evening
June 29th
Contemporary Art Day
June 30th
Sotheby's
34-35 New Bond Street
London W1A 2AA
The Kate Moss Portfolio and Other Stories @Danziger
JTF (just the facts): A total of 37 black and white and color photographs, variously framed without mats, and hung against white walls in the two room gallery space. (Installation shots at right.)
The Kate Moss portfolio consists of 11 signed pigment prints, each 30x24 (or reverse), packaged in a box. Each of the images in the portfolio is framed in white and displayed in the front gallery space, in chronological order from left to right. The portfolio is available in an edition of 30. The photographers included and relevant dates are listed below:
Mario Sorrenti (1993)
Glen Luchford (1994)
Terry Richardson (1997)
Bruce Weber (1999)
Annie Leibovitz (1999)
Juergen Teller (2000)
Chuck Close (2005)
David Sims (2006)
Inez Van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin (2007)
Mario Testino (2008)
Mert & Marcus (2008)
The back gallery space contains additional images of Moss not included in the portfolio. Details on these images are below, as available:
Gene Lemuel (9 black and white images, each 11x14, in editions of 9, from 1988)
Glen Luchford (3 black and white images, 30x40, in editions of 10+2AP and 2 black and white images, 20x24, in editions of 15+4AP, all from 1994)
Herb Ritts (4 gold toned gelatin silver prints, in editions of 3, from 1997)
Mary McCartney (3 color images, in editions of 10, from 2004)
Peter Blake (5 images, from 2010)
Comments/Context: This review of the collected images of Kate Moss now on view at Danziger Projects desperately wanted to write itself with the painfully obvious "model as muse" story line, placing the celebrity supermodel at the center of it all for the better part of two decades, with the photographers who made the images in her shadow, paying tribute to her unforgettable, easygoing beauty. Such is the power of massive fame that its force sucks all the air out of the room.
What struck me most, however, about this new 11 image portfolio (and the supporting images in the adjoining room) was just how diverse the pictures really were, given that they are all variations on the same subject. Circling the walls, Moss is alternately quietly vulnerable, playfully brash, classically innocent, confidently elegant, deadpan blunt, low-down trashy, fashionably seductive and just plain glamorous. Depending on your perspective, this might be attributed to Moss' substantial range, her ability to shape shift, or her flexible talent for looking fantastic whatever the circumstances. On the other hand, perhaps the recognition ought to lie with the photographer's themselves, and their ability to successfully imprint their own artistic vision on such a wildly famous face.
While paring down to Moss' simple natural beauty is perhaps the most straightforward approach taken here, in a few cases, particularly the works by Juergen Teller, Terry Richardson and Chuck Close, the fact that the model is Kate Moss is almost incidental to the overall visual statement, so strong and recognizable is their control of the aesthetics. In these cases, there is a kind of ironic inversion that goes on (is that really Kate Moss?), where the fact that Moss has been taken so far outside the norms of how we typically see her plays with our now well ingrained expectations of how she is supposed to look. This acknowledgement of her role as a cultural icon makes this exhibit less a parade of glamour shots and more a layered picture of the evolution of a public persona over twenty years. She starts out as a certain young type, and the proceeds to both reinforce and play against that type over the succeeding decades, to the point where she has become both all of them and none of them at the same time.
This changeable morphing is at the heart of this show. Beauty is where it starts, but in the hands of so many talented photographers, that simplistic image of Kate Moss diverges, leaving behind something both durably memorable and oddly ephemeral. Fragments of personalities, both real and imagined, hang in the air, with the unseen Kate Moss hiding somewhere in between. And the underlying question with which I began remains stubbornly unanswered: is that a Mario Testino or a Kate Moss up there on the wall?
Collector's POV: The images in the Kate Moss portfolio are not available individually; the entire 11 print portfolio starts at $75000 and will ratchet to $100000 and $125000 as the portfolio sells. The other images in the show are priced as follows:
Gene Lemuel: $3500 each, with set of 9 for $22500
Glen Luchford: $7500 each for 20x24 prints, $15000 each for the 40x30 prints
Herb Ritts: either $8000 or $10000
Mary McCartney: $3000 to $4000
Peter Blake: $2500 to $4000
Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)
Transit Hub:
Through June 30th
Danziger Projects
527 West 23rd Street
New York, NY 10011
The Kate Moss portfolio consists of 11 signed pigment prints, each 30x24 (or reverse), packaged in a box. Each of the images in the portfolio is framed in white and displayed in the front gallery space, in chronological order from left to right. The portfolio is available in an edition of 30. The photographers included and relevant dates are listed below:
Mario Sorrenti (1993)
Glen Luchford (1994)
Terry Richardson (1997)
Bruce Weber (1999)
Annie Leibovitz (1999)
Juergen Teller (2000)
Chuck Close (2005)
David Sims (2006)
Inez Van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin (2007)
Mario Testino (2008)
Mert & Marcus (2008)
The back gallery space contains additional images of Moss not included in the portfolio. Details on these images are below, as available:
Gene Lemuel (9 black and white images, each 11x14, in editions of 9, from 1988)
Glen Luchford (3 black and white images, 30x40, in editions of 10+2AP and 2 black and white images, 20x24, in editions of 15+4AP, all from 1994)
Herb Ritts (4 gold toned gelatin silver prints, in editions of 3, from 1997)
Mary McCartney (3 color images, in editions of 10, from 2004)
Peter Blake (5 images, from 2010)
Comments/Context: This review of the collected images of Kate Moss now on view at Danziger Projects desperately wanted to write itself with the painfully obvious "model as muse" story line, placing the celebrity supermodel at the center of it all for the better part of two decades, with the photographers who made the images in her shadow, paying tribute to her unforgettable, easygoing beauty. Such is the power of massive fame that its force sucks all the air out of the room.
What struck me most, however, about this new 11 image portfolio (and the supporting images in the adjoining room) was just how diverse the pictures really were, given that they are all variations on the same subject. Circling the walls, Moss is alternately quietly vulnerable, playfully brash, classically innocent, confidently elegant, deadpan blunt, low-down trashy, fashionably seductive and just plain glamorous. Depending on your perspective, this might be attributed to Moss' substantial range, her ability to shape shift, or her flexible talent for looking fantastic whatever the circumstances. On the other hand, perhaps the recognition ought to lie with the photographer's themselves, and their ability to successfully imprint their own artistic vision on such a wildly famous face.
While paring down to Moss' simple natural beauty is perhaps the most straightforward approach taken here, in a few cases, particularly the works by Juergen Teller, Terry Richardson and Chuck Close, the fact that the model is Kate Moss is almost incidental to the overall visual statement, so strong and recognizable is their control of the aesthetics. In these cases, there is a kind of ironic inversion that goes on (is that really Kate Moss?), where the fact that Moss has been taken so far outside the norms of how we typically see her plays with our now well ingrained expectations of how she is supposed to look. This acknowledgement of her role as a cultural icon makes this exhibit less a parade of glamour shots and more a layered picture of the evolution of a public persona over twenty years. She starts out as a certain young type, and the proceeds to both reinforce and play against that type over the succeeding decades, to the point where she has become both all of them and none of them at the same time.
This changeable morphing is at the heart of this show. Beauty is where it starts, but in the hands of so many talented photographers, that simplistic image of Kate Moss diverges, leaving behind something both durably memorable and oddly ephemeral. Fragments of personalities, both real and imagined, hang in the air, with the unseen Kate Moss hiding somewhere in between. And the underlying question with which I began remains stubbornly unanswered: is that a Mario Testino or a Kate Moss up there on the wall?
Collector's POV: The images in the Kate Moss portfolio are not available individually; the entire 11 print portfolio starts at $75000 and will ratchet to $100000 and $125000 as the portfolio sells. The other images in the show are priced as follows:
Gene Lemuel: $3500 each, with set of 9 for $22500
Glen Luchford: $7500 each for 20x24 prints, $15000 each for the 40x30 prints
Herb Ritts: either $8000 or $10000
Mary McCartney: $3000 to $4000
Peter Blake: $2500 to $4000
Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)
Transit Hub:
- Feature/Interview: New York Times T Magazine (here)
Through June 30th
Danziger Projects
527 West 23rd Street
New York, NY 10011