Auction: Under the Influence, April 11, 2013 @Phillips London

Phillips' Under the Influence sale tomorrow in London has a selection of mid range photographs worth a quick look. Overall, there are a total of 41 lots of photography available in the sale, with a Total High Estimate for photography of £318000.

Here's the statistical breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including £5000): 11
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): £51000

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between £5000 and £25000): 30
Total Mid Estimate: £267000

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

The top photography lot by High estimate is lot 122, Jitish Kallat, Cenotaph (A Deed of Transfer), 2007, at £18000-25000. (Image at right, top, via Phillips.)

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

Kim Joon (3)
Vik Muniz (3)
Youssef Nabil (3)

Other lots of interest include lot 39, Dash Snow, Untitled (Hell), 2005, at £4000-6000 (image at right, middle), and lot 126, Youssef Nabil, Not Afraid to Love, Paris, 2005, at £10000-15000 (image at right, bottom, both via Phillips).

The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here.

Under the Influence
April 11th

Phillips
Howick Place
London SW1P 1BB

Youssef Nabil @Milo

JTF (just the facts): A total of 16 color photographs, framed in white and matted, and hung in the main gallery space and back alcove. All of the works are hand colored gelatin silver prints, made between 1993 and 2010. Sizes range from roughly 15x10 (in editions of 10+2AP), to 20x29 (in editions of 5+1AP), and finally to 45x30 (in editions of 3+1AP). This is Nabil's first solo show in New York. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: In a time when many contemporary photographs are starting to look strangely alike in their perfect color sharpness, Youssef Nabil's images have a signature aesthetic that is unmistakably original. His black and white pictures have been tinted and cleaned up, hand colored in soft pastel tones that create an idealized air of mystery and nostalgia.

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The largest images in this show echo decades old Egyptian movie posters, where glamorous men and women lounge in exotic cinematic elegance. Women with marbled hair and red lips play cards and drink cocktails, a man in fez holds a rose, and a woman lies on the floor next to a ceramic cheetah. The scenes are both dreamily lethargic and highly charged. Amani by Window is a beguiling portrait of a young woman in a sparkling red wrap staged against a light blue background, and was my favorite image in the exhibit.

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Nabil has also applied this hand crafted mix of photography and painting to head shot portraits of celebrities and artists (like Catherine Deneuve and Rossy de Palma) and to self portraits. Seen from behind as only a bare torso and head, Nabil places himself in front of a pyramid, the beach in Rio, the Hollywood sign, and the sunny shores of Istanbul. These pictures mix an old-fashioned aesthetic with a modern looking man, playing with a sense of romantic, unreal, post-card timelessness.
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What I like best here is that Nabil has mixed a discarded process with unexpected subject matter and thereby created something entirely fresh and distinctive. With the renewed interest in artistic voices from the Middle East, Nabil seems well positioned to take us somewhere new.

Collector's POV: The works in this show are priced as follows. The smaller 15x10 prints start at $5400 and extend all the way up to $40400. The 20x29 and 45x30 prints are $32000 each. Nabil's work as begun to enter the secondary markets in recent years, both in Photographs auctions as well as in sales of Contemporary Arab Art. Prices have ranged between roughly $5000 and $30000.

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

Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)
• Feature: Photo Booth (here)
• Book: I Won't Let You Die, published by Hatje Cantz (here)

Youssef Nabil

Through December 23rd

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Yossi Milo Gallery

525 West 25th Street

New York, NY 10001

Auction: Film, June 24, 2010 @Phillips

Phillips continues its 2010 series of themed sales later this week with a selection of works entitled "Film". The sale includes mostly shots from film sets and celebrity portraits, with a heavy dose of Marilyn Monroe. Out of a total of 190 lots on offer, there are 128 lots of photography mixed in, with a total High estimate for photography of $564400. (Catalog cover at right, via Phillips.)

Here's the statistical breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including $10000): 123
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): $485400

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between $10000 and $50000): 5
Total Mid Estimate: $79000

Total High Lots (high estimate above $50000): 0
Total High Estimate: NA
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The top lot by High estimate is lot 108, Youssef Nabil, Rossy De Palma, Madrid, 20o2, at $18000-22000. (Image at right, via Phillips.)

The following is the list of the photographers represented by three or more lots in this sale:
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Ernst Haas (8)

Dennis Hopper (6)

Lawrence Schiller (6)

Ruth Orkin (5)

Gregory Crewdson (4)

Burt Glinn (4)

Horst P. Horst (4)

Bert Stern (4)

Firooz Zahedi (4)

Claude Gassian (3)

Allan Grant (3)

Yousuf Karsh (3)

Benn Mitchell (3)

The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here.

Film
June 24th

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