Auction Results: The Modern Image, Photographs from an Important American Collection, April 5, 2013 @Sotheby's New York

The results from this single owner sale at Sotheby's last week are proof that if the overall Buy-In rate can be kept low, even if prices aren't particularly frothy, the Total Sale Proceeds will likely come in in an acceptable range. Roughly 35% of the lots that sold in this auction found buyers below their pre-sale estimates, but with a Buy-In rate of just under 17%, the aggregate proceeds fell right in the middle of the range.

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

Total Lots: 59
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $1943000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $2950000
Total Lots Sold: 49
Total Lots Bought In: 10
Buy In %: 16.95%
Total Sale Proceeds: $2544376

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

Low Total Lots: 21
Low Sold: 16
Low Bought In: 5
Buy In %: 23.81%
Total Low Estimate: $181000
Total Low Sold: $156875

Mid Total Lots: 25
Mid Sold: 21
Mid Bought In: 4
Buy In %: 16.00%
Total Mid Estimate: $598000
Total Mid Sold: $487126

High Total Lots: 13
High Sold: 12
High Bought In: 1
Buy In %: 7.69%
Total High Estimate: $2180000
Total High Sold: $1909375

The top lot by High estimate was lot 18, Edward Weston, Two Shells, 1927, estimated at $600000-900000; it was also the top outcome of the sale at $533000.

Only 65.31% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range. There were a total of 4 surprises in the sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 16, Edward Steichen, Anna May Wong, 1930, estimated at $7000-10000, sold at $25000
Lot 17, Edward Steichen, Douglass Lighters (for J. Walter Thompson), 1926, estimated at $40000-60000, sold at $203000 (image at right, top, via Sotheby's)
Lot 28, Walker Evans, Defensa Carniceria, Havana, 1933, estimated at $6000-9000, sold at $20000 (image at right, bottom, via Sotheby's)
Lot 55, Irving Penn, Nude Torso, Soaping, New York, 1978/1992, estimated at $15000-25000, sold at $59375 (image at right, middle, via Sotheby's)

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

Sotheby's
1334 York Avenue
New York, NY 10021

Auction: The Delighted Eye, Modernist Masterworks from a Private Collection @Christie's New York

I have never met Carlos Cruz, but having pored over the catalog of his breathtaking single owner sale coming up at Christie's next week, I have a deep respect and affinity for his underlying process as a collector. I have never been a particular convert to the spontaneous "buy what you love" school of photography collecting, so Cruz' methodical, systematic, patient approach to building his collection resonates fully with my structured brain. While serendipity and lucky hunting are certainly part of the game of collecting, I could only nod my head in agreement with the description of Cruz' activities in the front of the catalog: a rigorous study and pre-visualization of what he was looking for, a thoughtful logic and intellectual framework, a bounded period of time (roughly late 19th century to 1925), an emphasis on single, high quality examples, and a tireless adherence to this regimen. The fact that he was able to build this collection at a distance from the major art capitals (from Santiago, Chile) makes its breadth and quality all the more remarkable.

Nearly every single work in this catalog is a subtle wow moment of one kind or another; there is very little, if any, chaff in this bundle of exceptional Modernist/Futurist/Dada wheat. Perhaps what I like best is the sense of individuality in this collection, of not picking the best known or most highly regarded image by any of the masters in this parade, but of looking hard and long enough to uncover the gems that truly represent a photographer's particular innovation or originality. There are great, unexpected choices everywhere: a great Rossler abstraction, an elegant Sudek broken dish, a tactile textured sheet by Modotti, the looming De Meyer chrysanthemums, the layered Funke bottle shadows, all extraordinary but less than obvious. Overall, there are a total of 71 lots of photography available in the sale, with a total High estimate of $7564000. I'm very much looking forward to the preview.

Here's the statistical breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including $10000): 2
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): $16000

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between $10000 and $50000): 32
Total Mid Estimate: $868000

Total High Lots (high estimate above $50000): 37
Total High Estimate: $6680000

The top photography lot by High estimate is lot 7, Edward Weston, Nude, 1925, estimated at $400000-600000 (image at right, top, via Christie's.)

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

Man Ray (4)
Edward Steichen (4)
Eugene Atget (2)
Anton Bruehl (2)
Etienne-Jules Marey (2)
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (2)
Alfred Stieglitz (2)

In an astonishing sale like this, it's nearly impossible to single out just a few lots that are of particular interest. That said, here are two that had me shaking my head with amazement: lot 31, Alvin Langdon Coburn, Vortograph (The Eagle), 1917, estimated at $200000-300000 (image at right, middle, via Christie's) and lot 24, Edward Steichen, Bricks (West 86th Street), New York, c1922, estimated at $200000-300000 (image at right, bottom, via Christie's).

The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here.

The Delighted Eye: Modernist Masterworks from a Private Collection
April 4th

Christie's
20 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10020

Auction: Photographs, April 3, 2013 @Phillips New York

Phillips' upcoming various owner Photographs sale is a diverse mix, with a few eyecatchers and many more solid, middle of the road works by well known names to sift through. All in, there are a total of 141 photographs on offer, with a total High estimate of $3527500.

Here's the statistical breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including $10000): 37
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): $244500

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between $10000 and $50000): 91
Total Mid Estimate: $2073000

Total High Lots (high estimate above $50000): 13
Total High Estimate: $1210000

The top lot by High estimate is lot 177, Edward Steichen, Diagram of Doom - 2, c1922, estimated at $120000-180000 (image at right, top, via Phillips).

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

Robert Mapplethorpe (9)
Irving Penn (7)
Peter Beard (5)
Helmut Newton (5)
Henri Cartier-Bresson (4)
Andre Kertesz (4)
Hiroshi Sugimoto (4)
Diane Arbus (3)
Lee Friedlander (3)
Horst P. Horst (3)

Other works of interest include lot 205, Irving Penn, Poppy: Showgirl, New York, 1968/1989, estimated at $50000-70000 (image at right middle, via Phillips), and lot 206, Lee Friedlander, Galax, Virginia, 1962/1960s, estimated at $30000-40000 (image at right, bottom, via Phillips).

The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here.

Photographs
April 3rd

Phillips
450 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10022

Heinrich Kuehn and His American Circle: Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen @Neue Galerie

JTF (just the facts): A total of 105 photographs, variously framed and matted, and hung in a series of five rooms on the third floor of the museum. 76 of the works were made by Heinrich Kuehn, between the years of 1894 and 1929; the rest were made by other photographers. The exhibit was curated by Monika Faber. A catalog of the exhibition is available from the museum for $50 (here). (Installation shots at right, courtesy of the Neue Galerie.)

For each room of the exhibit, a list of photographers included is provided, followed by the total number of images on view, the print process and the print date information in parentheses:

Gallery 1

Heinrich Kuehn (1 gum gravure, 1911, 1 platinum print on Japanese paper, 1907, 1 collotype on Japanese paper, 1907, 3 platinum prints, 1904)

Frank Eugene (4 platinum prints, 1907)

Alfred Stieglitz (1 carbon print, 1893, 1 heliogravure, 1904)

 

Gallery 2

Heinrich Kuehn (3 platinum prints, 1894, 1895, 1904, 1 bicolored gum bichromate print, 1896, 1 tricolor gum bichromate print, 1897, 14 gum bichromate prints, 1898, 1899, 1900, 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1906, 1908, 1 ozotype, 1902, 2 gum gravures, 1905, 1909, 1 multiple oil transfer print, 1906)

Hugo Henneberg (3 gum brichromate prints, 1898, 1901, 1903)

Hans Watzek (1 multicolored gum gravure, 1901, 1 multicolored gum print, 1901, 1 gum bichromate print, 1900)

 

Gallery 3

Heinrich Kuehn (1 duplex half tone reproduction from Camera Work, 1911, 1 gum bichromate print, 1902, 1 Camera Work gravure, 1908, 1 multiple oil transfer print, 1908, 1 heliogravure, 1911)

Hugo Henneberg (2 Camera Work gravures, 1906)

George Henry Seeley (1 Camera Work gravure, 1907)

Edward Steichen (3 color half tone reproductions from Camera Work, 1906, 1 Camera Work gravure, 1906, 1 half tone reproduction from Camera Work, 1901)

Alfred Stieglitz (1 Camera Work gravure, 1905)

Hans Watzek (1 Camera Work gravure, 1906)

Clarence White (1 Camera Work gravure, 1905)

In glass case: 1 complete issue of Camera Work, 1 letter from Stieglitz to Kuehn

 

Gallery 4

Heinrich Kuehn (7 gum bichromate prints, 1906, 1907, 1908, 1912, 6 gum bichromate over platinum prints, 1905, 1906, 1908, 1909, 1911, 2 multiple oil transfer prints, 1913, 1920, 1 pigment print on tissue, 1920, 2 gelatin silver prints, 1912, 1920, 1 double oil transfer print on Japanese paper, 1915, 2 bromoil transfer prints on tissue, 1908, 1914, 1 multiple oil transfer print on watercolor paper, 1911, 1 carbon print, 1915, 1 bromoil print, 1929, 3 gum gravures, 1908, 1911, 2 platinum prints, 1906, 1907, 2 multiple oil transfer prints on Japanese paper, 1908, 1912, 1 bicolor gum bichromate print, 1909, 1 gum bichromate over platinum print on Japanese paper, 1913, 1 platinum print on Japanese paper, 1912)

Gertrude Kasebier (1 carbon print, 1902)

Edward Steichen (1 gelatin silver print, 1903, 2 waxed platinum and gum prints, 1901, 1902)

Clarence White (1 platinum print, 1902, 1 carbon print, 1903)

In glass case: paper samples, sketchbooks, technical manuals, color charts, photo micrographs

 

Gallery 5

Heinrich Kuehn (5 multiple oil transfer prints, 1907, 1914, 1915, 1924, 1 gum bichromate over platinum print, 1915, 2 platinum prints, 1906, 1913)

1 film, explaining Kuehn's autochromes

 

Comments/Context: Imagine reading this one line event listing in some current magazine: "Heinrich Kuehn at the Neue Galerie - carefully staged photographic portraits and landscapes, augmented by complex technical manipulations". Based on this description alone and without any clue that most of these images were made more than a century ago, it would be perfectly natural to assume the show contained cutting edge contemporary work, as our digital world is now full of staging and manipulation. Of course, these works were made in a turn of the century Pictorialist style that now seems dreamy and dated, but the parallels between the two time periods make a case for reconsidering just how relevant these works might be to our current dialogue.

 

This exhibition lies somewhere between a retrospective and a closely reasoned argument, tracing Kuehn's artistic development in a roughly chronological manner, intermittently tying in the influence of Stieglitz and Steichen. After an opening hallway of back and forth portraits among Kuehn and his famous contemporaries and handful of introductory images, the show moves on Kuehn's early work, almost all of it in colored gum bichromate, where rolling landscapes, cypress trees, and Italian villas are executed in intense atmospheric hues. Using textured papers with mottled surfaces, these images have the look of painterly blurred watercolors, tinted in various pigments from thick grey and warm brown to soft blue and rich orange. One wall in this room has recreated the show that Stieglitz installed in his gallery 291, showing Kuehn's work (as well as those of a few others in his Viennese avant-garde circle) against a light brown wall with a pleated green cloth curtain below (installation shot at right, second from the top). This was a time when photography was still struggling to secure its place as fine art, and these works (and the installation) did their best to strip away the mechanized reproduction of the camera and substitute in a more intimate, personal, hand crafted aesthetic, reminiscent of painting.

 

After a small room of images by Kuehn and others which were reproduced in Stieglitz' influential journal Camera Work, the show moves on to document Kuehn's evolution as an artist over the next decade or two, where his windy colored landscapes are entirely replaced by portraits of his children and their nanny, nudes, still lifes, and other carefully composed outdoor genre scenes. Led by Stieglitz and Steichen, Kuehn clearly started down a path toward Modernism, changing his camera angles and subject matter, only to ultimately reject the forward momentum of that movement, turning back and recommitting himself to the painterly perfection and compositional harmony he preferred.

 

In these works, Kuehn's control over all the elements of his photographic process is extremely rigorous, eliminating any chance elements or spontaneous moments. The images are entirely pre-visualized, often sketched out beforehand and then executed with methodical attention to detail, his models posed in custom color-coded clothing to ensure proper tonal matching and contrast, the light managed to avoid unwanted shadows. The resulting images have a timeless, peaceful, almost fairy tale quality, looking back to happier, better times, rather than forward. Many of the works are meticulous, nearly scientific studies of tonal values, catching the highlights on a white dress and contrasting them with the dark areas of a formal hat, or letting light dissolve into abstraction when seen through a drinking glass or still life vase. Outdoor scenes play with the balance of black and white smocks and dresses against the land, using them to manage the weights of a wider composition, and Kuehn's sensual nudes of Mary Warner use her long dark hair as a counterweight to the lightness of her skin. The final room displays a series of images of hikers on a hillside and beneath a tree, where Kuehn's total management of the process is reinforced; one scene waits for a certain cloud formation, another times specific distances between the individual subjects in the group, and a third retouches out a hiker who has strayed into the wrong place.

 

While the show does connect the dots between Kuehn's artistic evolution and the influences of Stieglitz and Steichen, what was most surprising to me was just how far Kuehn had taken his efforts to control the look and feel of his output. The show is a parade of different arcane print types and technical innovations, each one carefully optimized by Kuehn and then matched to certain pictorial circumstances and desired outcomes. And then each composition left nothing to chance, every single fold of a dress, tilt of a hat, or roll of a background meadow placed just so. If these works are not dreamy stolen moments from a bucolic, soft focus, 19th century childhood but instead premeditated scenes designed and built for particular effect, there is certainly an added dimension of exacting intent and thoughtful execution to be considered. I came away from this exhibit with an entirely different view of Heinrich Kuehn than I had previously had, one of an artist painstakingly struggling to bring forth his own vision of the best of photography, using every trick in the book, even when he defiantly knew that the world was passing him by.

 

Collector's POV: This is a museum show, so of course, there are no posted prices. Kuehn's work has been consistently available at auction in the past decade, with prices ranging from roughly $1000 (generally Camera Work photogravures) to $26000. There are two gallery shows of Kuehn's work on view in New York for those collectors interested in following up: one at Howard Greenberg (here, through August 3rd), and the other at Hans Kraus (here, through June 29th).

 

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

 

Transit Hub:

• Reviews/Features: NY Times (here), The Economist (here), Huffington Post (here)

Heinrich Kuehn and His American Circle: Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen

Through August 27th

 

Neue Galerie

1048 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10028

2012 AIPAD Review, Part 2 of 2

This is Part 2 of my 2012 AIPAD Review, covering the New York area galleries and a few others located in the larger Northeast (organized alphabetically). The rest of the galleries from around the world, as well as the background on the format I am using, can be found in Part 1 (here).

Bonni Benrubi Gallery (here): Matthew Pillsbury (2), Karine Laval (2), Massimo Vitali (1), Paolo Pellegrin (2), Abelardo Morell (4), Jim Marshall (3), William Gottlieb (2), Amalie Rothschild (1), Linda McCartney (2), Chris Payne (2), Simon Norfolk (1). In this intricate new work, Morell seems to be heading toward Sommer's cut paper collages. (priced at $5000)

Danziger Gallery (here): Robert Frank (8), Christopher Bucklow (1), Karen Knorr (2), Garry Fabian Miller (6), Hendrik Kerstens (2), Susan Derges (2), Chris Levine (1), Yuji Obata (4), Evelyn Hofer (4). My interest in Kerstens' portraits persists, and the two new images in the booth here hold the wall with authority. The aluminum hat is strangely lovely. (priced at $10000)

After seeing so much abstract work from Miller, I was surprised to discover these brand new photograms of flowers. They are small and delicate, in soft colors. (priced at $10000)

Keith De Lellis Gallery (here): Flip Schulke (1), Irving Penn (7), Horst P. Horst (2), Cecil Beaton (1), George Platt Lynes (1), Florence Meyer Homolka (1), Richard Avedon (1), Ruth Bernhard (3), Gleb Derujinsky (1), Margaret Bourke-White (3), Edward Steichen (4), Jorgen Roos (3), Eric Schaal (2), Nino Migliori (1), Herbert Matter (3), Brassai (2), Keld Helmer-Petersen (1), Arnold Newman (1), Weegee (1), Simpson Kalisher (2), Beauford Smith (3), Marvin Newman (1), Henri Cartier-Bresson (1), Alexander Rodchenko (1), Barbara Morgan (1). There was plenty of fabulous vintage work in this booth, anchored by a group of Steichens, with help from several Bourke-Whites and Bernhards. This 1925 Steichen boat (tucked on a side wall) was my favorite image in the entire fair. (priced at $125000)

Gitterman Gallery (here): Gita Lenz (2), Frederick Sommer (1), Edmund Teske (3), Arthur Siegel (1), Hiroshi Sugimoto (3), Adam Bartos (1), Ralph Eugene Meatyard (9), Saul Leiter (2), Robert Frank (1), Leon Levinstein (1), Nan Goldin (1), Edward Weston (1), plus 2 bins. A classic Weston industrial image - Middletown, OH steel smokestacks from 1922. (priced at $300000)

Howard Greenberg Gallery (here): Edward Steichen (2), Berenice Abbott (1), Jaromir Funke (1), Sid Grossman (5), William Klein (3), Bruce Davidson (4), Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1), Jerome Liebling (1), Martin Munkacsi (1), Robert Frank (1), Bill Brandt (1), Brett Weston (1), Dorothea Lange (1), David Goldblatt (1 diptych), Saul Leiter (7). This 1915 Steichen is one of the most iconic florals in photographic history; not to be missed. (priced at $275000)

Higher Pictures (here): George Dureau (5), Jessica Eaton (4), Emily Roysdon (12). I like that these new Eaton abstractions are getting more and more visually complex. (priced at $4000)

I hadn't ever heard of George Dureau until Kim gave me some background on him. Apparently, Mapplethorpe knew him in the early 1980s and admired his work. The aesthetic affinity is quite clear, especially in the made nudes of men with amputations. (priced at $4000)

Edwynn Houk Gallery (here): Joel Meyerowtiz (1), Vera Lutter (1), Robert Frank (1), Man Ray (1), Sally Mann (1), Bill Brandt (5), Alfred Stieglitz (1), Sebastiaan Bremer (1), Lee Friedlander (1), Dannyn Lyon (1), Herb Ritts (6), Stephen Shore (1), Robert Polidori (1). The series of close up Brandt eyes on the back wall of this booth was an unexpected treat.

Robert Klein Gallery (here): Jessica Backhaus (5), Francesca Woodman (8), Cig Harvey (4), Henri Cartier-Bresson (2), Walker Evans (2), Aaron Siskind (1), Mario Giacomelli (1), Brassai (1), Lee Friedlander (1), Berenice Abbott (2), Irving Penn (5), Harry Callahan (3), Edward Weston (2), Elliot Erwitt (1).

Hans P. Kraus Jr. Inc. (here): Louis-Emile Durandelle (2), Charles Soulier (2), Julia Margaret Cameron (3), Rufus Anson (1), William Henry Fox Talbot (6), Henri Courmont (1), Jospeh Vicomte Vigier (1), Eugene Cuvelier (1), Gustave Le Gray (1), Unknown (2), Edward Steichen (2), Guillaume Duchenne De Boulogne (1), Etienne-Jules Marey (1), Putnam & Valentine (1), Guillaume Duchenne De Boulogne and Adrian Tournachon (1), Andre Adolphe Eugene Disderi (1).

Robert Mann Gallery (here): Julie Blackmon (4), Leo Goldstein (1), Lisette Model (1), Dan Weiner (1), Weegee (1), Aaron Siskind (1), David Vestal (1), Fred Stein (2), Jorn Vahnhofen (1), Lewis Baltz (1), Robbert Flick (1), Henry Wessel (1), Richard Misrach (2), Jeff Brouws (1), Joe Deal (2), Michael Kenna (4), Chip Hooper (1), Minor White (1), Ansel Adams (1).

Yossi Milo Gallery (here): Sze Tsung Leong (1), Ezra Stoller (2), Lise Sarfati (2), Tim Hetherington (8), Doug Rickard (2), Alison Rossiter (3), Chris McCaw (2), Matthew Brandt (1), Pieter Hugo (1).

Yancey Richardson Gallery (here): Kenneth Josephson (4), Andrew Moore (1), Victoria Sambunaris (1), Laura Letinsky (1), Olivo Barbieri (1), Rachel Perry Welty (2), Bernd and Hilla Becher (1 set of 9), Sharon Core (4).

Julie Saul Gallery (here): Rineke Dijkstra (2), Justine Reyes (2), Charlotte Dumas (2), Jeff Chien-Hsing Liao (1), Reiner Gerritsen (1), Gonzalo Puch (1), Didier Massard (1), Sarah Anne Johnson (1), Miroslav Tichy (5), Gerard Petrus Fieret (2), Nikolai Bakharev (4).

Michael Shapiro Photographs (here): Irving Penn (3), Andre Kertesz (2), Josef Koudelka (1), Jaromir Funke (2), Henri Cartier-Bresson (1), Imogen Cunningham (1), Elmer Blew (1), Harry Callahan (1), John Gutman (1), Ansel Adams (2), Dorothea Lange (1), Edward Weston (2), Robert Frank (7), Walker Evans (1), Edward Steichen (1), William Klein (1), Minor White (4), and a wall covering selection of small Jefferson Hayman works. I thoroughly enjoyed the layered shadows in this cut paper Funke. (priced at $80000)

The crusted snow by White was an image I had never seen before and is apparently unique; I liked its sinuous figure/ground form. (priced at $18000)

Bruce Silverstein Gallery (here): Edward Weston (1), Lotte Jacobi (1), Edward Steichen (1), Robert Frank (1), Aaron Sikind (2), Lisette Model (4), Andre Kertesz (5), Constantin Brancusi (6), Trine Sondergaard (1), Ryan Weideman (6), Michael Wolf (2), Trine Sondergaard & Nicolai Howalt (5), Keith Smith (28). Bruce has a show of Brancusi photographs coming up, and from the looks of this small selection of prints, it's going to be a superlative exhibit. This shiny gem was priced at $250000.

While the idea is straightforward, I liked these enveloping snowstorm trees by Trine Søndergaard and Nicolai Howalt on the outside of the booth. The whiteout is supremely silent.

L. Parker Stephenson Photographs (here): Chris Killip (1), Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen (2), Walker Evans (1), John Cohen (4), Mike Disfarmer (1), Andre De Dienes (1), Erwin Blumenfeld (1), Claude Tolmer (1), Anton Bruehl (1), Gyorgy Kepes (1), Gordon Koster (2), W. Eugene Smith (2), Jan Yoors (3), Inge Morath (1). Parker spent some time giving me some further context on 1970s/1980s British photography and introducing me to the terrific early 1970s photographs of Byker by Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen. (priced at $2500/$3000)

Gallery 339 (here): Philip Toledano (1), Edward McHugh (4), Richard Kagan (2), Amanda Means (1), Ion Zupcu (4), Tetsugo Hayakutake (1), Martine Fougeron (2), Rita Bernstein (2), Yuichi Hibi (3), William Larson (2), Nadine Rovner (2).

Rick Wester Fine Art (here): Richard Avedon (2), Ralph Eugene Meatyard (2), Cindy Sherman (1 diptych), Bill Brandt (3), Joni Sternbach (2), Christian Vogh (1), Marilyn Minter (1), Andres Serrano (1), Laurie Lambrecht (1, 1 diptych), Sharon Harper (1), Sandi Fifield (1), Ken Schles (2), Irving Penn (2), Stephen Shore (1). As collectors of Brandt nudes, we are always on the look out for vintage prints that come out of the woodwork. This was the best Brandt nude I saw at the fair. (priced at $24000)

Sasha Wolf Gallery (here): Andrew Borowiec (6), Peter Kayafas (4), David Nadel (4), Katherine Wolkoff (8), Tribble and Mancenido (1), Paul McDonough (4), Eleanor Carucci (4), TrujilloPaumier (8).

Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery (here): Edward Burtynsky (2), Ola Kohlemainen (1), Jim Campbell (1), Niko Luoma (1), Susanna Majuri (2), Shirley Shor (1).

David Zwirner (here): A solo booth show of the work of Philip-Lorca diCorcia (11). Glad to see Zwirner showing at AIPAD and embracing the photography world. This small sampler spanned many of diCorcia's projects, including a couple of newer works.

Stieglitz, Steichen, Strand @Met

JTF (just the facts): A total of 115 photographs, all drawn from the permanent collection, variously framed and matted, and hung in a series of three connected rooms on the second floor of the museum. A handful of images are exhibited on the exterior walls, showing work from each photographer plus additional detail on several photographic processes. In the main exhibit area, each photographer is given his own room. In the Stieglitz room on the left, there are a total of 42 individual photographs by Stieglitz (either framed or in cases), plus two cases of Camera Work and other books/plates and 4 portraits of Stieglitz - 1 by Steichen and 3 by Strand. The Steichen room in the center contains 36 photographs by Steichen, either framed and hung on the grey walls or laid out on tables. The Strand room on the right contains 24 works by Strand, with 1 portrait of Strand by Stieglitz and a case containing 3 Camera Work gravures. Overall, the works in the exhibit span the period from the early 1890s to the mid 1930s, and cover a wide range of processes, including gelatin silver, platinum, platinum-palladium, palladium, direct carbon, gum bichromate and autochrome. A catalog of the exhibition has been published by Yale (here) and is available for $35. A supporting group exhibit of 1910s photography entitled Our Future is in the Air continues in adjacent rooms. (Blurry, crowded installation shots of the main show at right.)

Comments/Context: The Stieglitz, Steichen, Strand show at the Met is exactly what its title suggests: three silos of star-power vintage work by contemporaneous master photographers, the connecting backstory provided by snippets of explanatory wall text. Given the Met's truly world class holdings in the work of these three influential artists, the show is a budget-friendly way for the museum to bring some of its treasures out of storage.

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The Stieglitz room is basically a mini-retrospective, with representative images from most of his major themes and subjects: late 1800s Pictorialist New York, Modernist nudes of Georgia O'Keeffe, cloud study Equivalents, views near Lake George, and later 1930s New York cityscapes. It's a solid, greatest hits summary of Stieglitz' career, with everything from Spring Showers and The Steerage to Spiritual America. While this room is densely packed with famous imagery, Stieglitz' nudes of O'Keeffe never fail to outshine everything else for me. There is a full wall of elegant fragmented body parts on display, pared down and thrillingly alive; few have done it better in the century since.

The Steichen room focuses on his turn of the century Pictorialist work, leaving out virtually all of his later career. Clustered at one end of the room are some of the gems of this era: moonlit landscapes, ethereal nudes, and haunting images of Rodin's Balzac. But shockingly, even these masterpieces fade into the background when hung near the set of three large exhibition prints of the Flatiron Building. Seen alternately in soft green, rich blue, and dark brown, the building's personality changes, looming out of the twilight. Together, they are a staggering example of tour-de-force printing.

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The Strand room centers on the first two decades of the photographer's career, and it is Strand's images from before 1920 that are the most relevant to the discussion of the interactions with Stieglitz and Steichen. His sparse, geometric abstractions from 1915-1917 really broke with the past and ushered in Modernism. The black rectangles of Wall Street, the arcs of bowls, the patterned shadows on a table, even laundry strung across city backyards are all transformed into pure lines and shapes, breaking with the fussiness of Pictorialism and leading the move to straight photography.

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With such an embarrassment of riches on display, it seems downright ridiculous to find fault with this show, and yet, I think it suffers from trying to do too many things, and ultimately fails to tell us anything particularly new about these three photographers. If the goal was to parse the intricate connections between these three (both artistically and as people), then a chronological ordering and timeline would have been much more effective in teasing out the influences; the current structure creates three distinct buckets, and the connections and overlaps between them aren't made particularly clear (the supporting exhibit of 1910s photography doesn't add much to the narrative either). And while the Stieglitz room has a retrospective feel, the other two are edited in ways that add more random and tangential elements into the conversation (Steichen's autochromes, Strand's Mexican portfolio). There is also an overlay of process instruction, begun on an exterior wall, but left unfinished and uncorrelated in the three gallery spaces.

In the end though, these quibbles are drowned out by the power of some of the iconic prints on view. While the scholarship ball may not have been moved forward much with this show, what I'll remember about this exhibit five or ten years from now is getting the rare opportunity to stand up close to those three Steichen Flatirons, and to see for myself just how spectacular they truly are.

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Collector's POV: I'm going to forgo the usual discussion of prices for this show, not only because this is a museum exhibition, but because trying to accurately pin down prices for the rarities on display here is simply a fool's exercise. While the work of all three photographers is generally available in the secondary markets, if we focus on the "best of the best" prints (especially the large exhibition prints), there are few if any market equivalents. Undeniably, if some of these masterworks were to inexplicably come into the market now, they would easily fetch well into the millions. This isn't true for everything on display, but this exhibit has a stronger concentration of exceptionally valuable/expensive vintage photography than any other show in New York this year.

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

• Reviews: NY Times (here), New Yorker (here), Financial Times (here), Haber Arts (here)

Stieglitz, Steichen, Strand

Through April 10th

Metropolitan Museum of Art

1000 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10028

Auction Results: Important Photographs & Photobooks, December 9, 2010 @Swann

The results of Swann's various owner photographs and photobooks sale last week were generally soft, with an overall Buy-In rate over 37% and Total Sale Proceeds that missed the estimate range by a wide margin. As has become commonplace at Swann, a high percentage of lots (in this case, just over 32%) that did sell found buyers below the low estimate. While the material at Swann is always eclectic, I think there just wasn't enough firepower of offer here to really attract buyers at the end of the season.

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

Total Lots: 364

Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $1206100
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $1744700

Total Lots Sold: 228

Total Lots Bought In: 136

Buy In %: 37.36%

Total Sale Proceeds: $854877

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

Low Total Lots: 336

Low Sold: 215
Low Bought In: 121

Buy In %: 36.01%

Total Low Estimate: $1193700

Total Low Sold: $638682

Mid Total Lots: 28

Mid Sold: 13

Mid Bought In: 15

Buy In %: 53.57%

Total Mid Estimate: $551000

Total Mid Sold: $216195

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 145, Brett Weston, Twenty Photographs 1970-1977, 1978, at $30000-45000; it was also the top outcome of the sale at $33600.

Only 67.54% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range, and there were a total of 9 surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):
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Lot 29, W.D. Smithers, Pair of period lamps, 1950s, at $1800

Lot 31, N. Caple & Co, British Columbia Indians, 1894-1896, at $3120

Lot 41, Man Ray, Serge Lifor in Romeo and Juliet, 1926, at $16800 9image at right, bottom, via Swann)

Lot 71, Edward Steichen, Gloria Swanson, New York, for Vanity Fair, 1924/1960s-1971, at $26400 (image at right, middle, via Swann)

Lot 156, X-rays, Group of 18 photographs, 1896, at $6960

Lot 179, Yevgeny Khaldei, Raising the Soviet Flag over the Reichstag, Berlin, 1945/1990s, at $5280 (image at right, top, via Swann)

Lot 300, Walker Evans, Many Are Called, 1966, at $1200

Lot 319, Robert Capa, Death in the Making, 1938, at $3360

Lot 347, Eliot Porter, All Under Heaven: The Chinese World, 1983, at $2280

Complete lot by lot results can be found linked from here.

Swann Galleries

104 East 25th Street

New York, NY 10010

Auctions: Photographie and Selection from an American Collection, December 8, 2010 @Van Ham

Van Ham has has both a various owner Photographs sale and a single owner collection sale in Cologne later this week. The two sessions have a generous selection of lower end material, with plenty of work by Becher students (Gursky, Struth, Ruff, Höfer, Nieweg, Sasse, Ronkholz et al) and from the 1950s subjective photography movement (Schneiders, Keetman, Lauterwasser et al), and as usual, there are large groups of prints from Albert Renger-Patzsch and August Sander. Overall, there are a total of 443 lots on offer in this sale (across both sessions), with a Total High Estimate of 1120800€.

Here's the breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including 7500€): 424
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): 804800€

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between 7500€ and 35000€): 17
Total Mid Estimate: 231000€

Total High Lots (high estimate above 35000€): 2
Total High Estimate: 85000€

The top lot by High estimate is lot 1046A, Andreas Gursky, Cairo (General View), 1992, at 35000-45000€.

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

Albert Renger-Patzsch (20)
Karl Hugo Schmölz (11)
Robert Doisneau (10)
August Sander (10)
Harold Edgerton (9)
Elliott Erwitt (7)
Andreas Gursky (7)
Henri Cartier-Bresson (6)
Peter Keetman (6)
George Platt Lynes (6)
Paul Wolff & Alfred Tritschler (5)
Candida Höfer (5)
Inge Morath (5)

(Lot 1415, Edward Steichen, An Apple, a Boulder, a Mountain, 1921, at 30000-40000€ , at right, top, lot 1400, Albert Renger-Patzsch, Ruhrchemie, 1933-1934, at 2000-3000€, at right, middle, and lot 1224, Siegfried Lauterwasser, Eisen, 1950s, at 800€, at right, bottom, all via Van Ham.)

The complete lot by lot catalog for both sessions can be found here.

Photographie
December 8th

Selection from an American Collection
December 8th

Van Ham Kunstauktionen
Schönhauser Straße 10 - 16
D - 50968 Köln

Auction: Photographs, November 3, 2010 @Phillips London

The Fall photographs season moves to London next week with a various owner sale at Phillips on Wednesday. The auction contains an unusually broad mix of material, with another installment of Japanese photography from the Jacobson/Hashimoto collection, paired with a number of lots by Araki and Moriyama. Overall, there are a total of 192 lots available here, with a Total High Estimate of £1552600.

Here's the statistical breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including £5000): 106

Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): £351100

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between £5000 and £25000): 72

Total Mid Estimate: £656500

Total High Lots (high estimate above £25000): 14

Total High Estimate: £545000

The top lot by High estimate is lot 115, Edward Steichen, Charlie Chaplin, 1925, at £50000-70000. (Image at right, top, via Phillips.)

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

Nobuyoshi Araki (9)

Daido Moriyama (8)

Iwao Yamawaki (7)

Shikanosuke Yagaki (6)

Peter Beard (4)

Henri Cartier-Bresson (4)

Elliot Erwitt (4)

Horst P. Horst (4)

Irving Penn (4)

The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here.

Photographs

November 3rd

Phillips De Pury & Company
Howick Place
London SW1P 1BB

Auction: Photographs, October 6, 2010, @Sotheby's

Sotheby's is up first this auction season with its various owner Photographs sale on October 6th. The sale is heavy on vintage Ansel Adams, Edward Curtis, and Robert Frank (quite a few images from London and Paris), with much less standout contemporary/color work. All in, there are 265 lots on offer in this sale, with a total High estimate of $6512500.

Here's the statistical breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including $10000): 113

Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): $911500

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between $10000 and $50000): 128

Total Mid Estimate: $3066000

Total High Lots (high estimate above $50000): 23
Total High Estimate: $2535000

The top photography lot by High estimate is lot 29, Rufus Anson, Two Actors from the melodrama 'Robert Macaire', 1850s, at $250000-350000. (Image at right, top, via Sotheby's.) The next highest lot is lot 40, Edward Steichen, 'Wind Fire' Therese Duncan, Acropolis, 1921, at $120000-180000. (Image at right, bottom, via Sotheby's.)

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

Ansel Adams (28)

Edward Curtis (19)

Robert Frank (17)

Robert Mapplethorpe (13)

Berenice Abbott (12)

Edward Weston (10)

Harry Callahan (7)

Henri Cartier-Bresson (7)

Irving Penn (6)

The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here.

Photographs

October 6th

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Sotheby's

1334 York Avenue

New York, NY 10021

Auction Results: Photographs, April 16, 2010 @Phillips

The various owner Photographs auction at Phillips last Friday generally matched expectations, with a buy-in rate near 30% and total sale proceeds at the lower end of the range. I'd say it was a "good enough" outcome, with few in the way of meaningful surprises.

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

Total Lots: 349
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $3155400

Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $4488100

Total Lots Sold: 245
Total Lots Bought In: 104
Buy In %: 29.80%
Total Sale Proceeds: $3470675

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

Low Total Lots: 242
Low Sold: 169
Low Bought In: 73
Buy In %: 30.17%
Total Low Estimate: $1447100
Total Low Sold: $1058500

Mid Total Lots: 93
Mid Sold: 65
Mid Bought In: 28
Buy In %: 30.11%
Total Mid Estimate: $1911000

Total Mid Sold: $1389375

High Total Lots: 14
High Sold: 11
High Bought In: 3
Buy In %: 21.43%
Total High Estimate: $1130000
Total High Sold: $1022800

The top lot by High estimate was lot 216, Edward Steichen, Wheelbarrow with Flower Pots, France, 1920, at $150000-200000; it was also the top outcome of the sale at $194500 (image at right, top, via Phillips).

90.20% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range. There were a total of 7 surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

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Lot 1, Lillian Bassman, Blowing Kiss, Barbara Mullen, New York, c1958/Later, at $10625 (image at right, via Phillips)

Lot 174, Vik Muniz, Hands from Pictures of Soil, 1997, at $25000

Lot 238, Walker Evans, Display Sign, Birmingham, Alabama, 1936/Later, at $6875

Lot 256, Peter Beard, Hunting Cheetahs on the Taru Desert, Kenya, 1960/1998, at $50000

Lot 291, O. Winston Link, NW1103, Hot Shot Eastbound at the Iager Drive-In, West Virginia, 1956/1983, at $27500

Lot 297, Weegee, Twin Bed Distortion, c1950, at $6875

Lot 329, Shikanosuke Yagaki, Blinds with Sunlight, 1930s, at $10000

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

Phillips De Pury & Company

450 West 15th Street

New York, NY 10011

Auction: Photographie, November 26, 2009 @Villa Grisebach

Villa Grisebach opens the German photographs season with its sale in Berlin later this week. I'm always interested to see what will be available in this part of the auction season - in general, the German houses do a consistently good job of delivering an unusual mix of quality material at very reasonable prices. Those collectors who are entirely focused on the US and London markets certainly miss out. Overall, there are a total of 188 lots on offer in this sale, with a Total High Estimate of 662400€. (Catalog cover at right, via Villa Grisebach.)

Here's the breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including 7500€): 172
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): 456400€

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between 7500€ and 35000€): 16
Total Mid Estimate: 206000€

Total High Lots (high estimate above 35000€): 0
Total High Estimate: NA

The top lot by High estimate is lot 1382, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Sea of Galilee, Golan, 1992, at 24000-26000€.

In general, this is a well balanced sale, with many photographers represented by more than one lot. That said, here's the list of the photographers who are represented by three or more lots in the sale (with the number of lots in parentheses):

Wolfgang Tillmans (5)
Dieter Appelt (3)
Abe Frajndlich (3)
Edmund Kesting (3)
William Klein (3)
Joel Meyerowitz (3)
Arnold Newman (3)
Dorothy Norman (3)
Antanas Sutkus (3)
Herbert Tobias (3)

Images of interest for our collection include:

Lot 1208 Bernd and Hilla Becher, Forderturm bei Merthyr Tydfill, Sudwales, 1966
Lot 1304 Edward Steichen, The Maypole-Empire State Building, New York, 1932/Later (at right)
Lot 1324 Ludwig Windstosser, Pintsch Bamag, Gas Mitte, 1950s

The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here.

Photographie
November 26th

Villa Grisebach Auktionen
Fasanenstraße 25
D-10719 Berlin

Edward Steichen, 1915-1923 @Greenberg

JTF (just the facts): A total of 46 prints: 31 vintage images in the main gallery space, 8 fashion images in the small side gallery, and 7 later prints (city/bridges and fashion) in one of the viewing rooms. All of the images in the main room are from the period 1915 to 1923. Various printing processes were used by Steichen during this period: gum over platinum, toned/regular palladium, palladium and ferroprussiate, and toned/regular gelatin silver. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Concurrent with the big show now on at the ICP chronicling Steichen's Condé Nast years (here), Howard Greenberg is showing a group of images from Steichen's transitional period (1915-1923) just prior to joining the world of fashion and publishing. In these prints, Steichen was moving away from soft focus Pictorialism and experimenting with the sharper style of Modernism, borrowing portions from both in a satisfying combination.

This exhibit includes some truly astounding prints, several shown as pairs (the same negative using alternate printing processes, producing markedly different results). Most of the prints combine a simple, spare composition (often a still life) with a lovely warm toned patina (a holdover from Pictorialism).

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Nearly all of the works in this show have strong formal qualities: round pears artfully composed on a plate, ribs and seeds of a sunflower, windows and fire escapes of a brick building, arched petals of white flowers against dark backgrounds, head shot portraits, hands and arms among long grasses. Up close, the prints have a tactile, object quality. For those interested in fine gradations of print tonality, these are prints not to be missed.

Collector's POV: There were no prices on the information sheet for the main show (a pet peeve of mine, discussed here). This reality was not however particularly surprising, given the rarity of these prints and their undeniably sky high prices. That said, we have not seen a gathering of such beautiful prints of flowers in a very long time (there are seven staggering images, hung together in a group, at right); congratulations to the folks at Greenberg for scouring up such a strong group. The White Clymitis, 1921, and Lotus, 1915, were our two favorites, fitting snugly into our flower genre. As an aside, the later prints in the viewing room are priced at $3000 each.

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While I think this show missed an opportunity to tie the entire Steichen narrative together more crisply and with a bit more scholarship, there are some sublime prints here, well worth savoring.

Rating: ** (two stars) VERY GOOD (rating system defined here)
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Edward Steichen, 1915-1923

Through May 16th

Howard Greenberg Gallery
41 East 57th Street
Suite 1406
New York, NY 10022

Edward Steichen: In High Fashion, The Condé Nast Years, 1923-1937 @ICP

JTF (just the facts): A total of 168 images, all silver prints except for a handful of color prints in one room, matted/framed and displayed on alternating red and grey walls in 5 adjoining rooms on the lower level of the museum. Additional items include a short video in the entry and 4 glass cases spread throughout the exhibit, holding magazines (both black and white and color), spreads, collages, and retouched prints. There is also a 288 page catalogue of the exhibition available. (Unfortunately, there are no installation shots for this exhibit; ironically, no photography is allowed at the ICP. Only a handful of thumbnail images can be found on the ICP website below; one of the images, Model Marion Morehouse and unidentified model wearing dresses by Vionnet, 1930, is at right.)

Comments/Context: While Edward Steichen is probably best known for his Pictorialist images in conjunction with Alfred Steiglitz and the Photo Secession, his early Modernist images, or later for his role as curator of the Photography department at MoMA (think The Family of Man), in between he turned to the dark side (much to the chagrin of his artist friends) and worked as a commercial photographer for Condé Nast to pay the bills, making fashion and glamour images for Vogue and Vanity Fair. This exhibit brings together for the first time a wide sampling of these images, drawn from the Condé Nast archives and the collection of the George Eastman House.

Since so much time has passed since Steichen took his images, many of the famous celebrities of that period have drifted into relative obscurity, forgotten or generally unknown by new generations. So whether Steichen's subjects were fashion models or celebrities hardly seems to matter now, except for the most recognizable of the faces (Marlene Dietrich, Gary Cooper, Anna May Wong, etc.). They were all beautiful people, and these are gorgeous, sumptuous portraits.

Most of the images have an old Hollywood glamour and patina, lots of artfully sculpted hair, backless flowing dresses, and extravagant hats. There are long gowns with graceful lines, and coolly elegant poses, often with an Art Deco set or background. What was most startling for me were many of the head shot close-ups of famous actresses of the time (Sylvia Sidney, Joan Bennett, Pola Negri, Norma Shearer, Katharine Cornell, Gertrude Lawrence, Greta Garbo and Gloria Swanson among many others). In these images, Steichen has captured seductive and sophisticated looks, coy smiles, and smoldering stares, single handedly defining the actress as "siren". In picture after picture, Steichen consistently found beguiling magic.

In walking through this exhibit you will be amazed by just how many superior portraits there are; just when you thought you had seen a dozen great ones, there's another room to enjoy. Again and again, the quality and craftsmanship is top notch, the compositions meticulously perfect. While I would never have predicted it going into this show, given our collecting focus on other subjects, this is clearly one of the best shows we've seen this year. I actually sat down and took a rest during the middle of my visit, to ensure I had enough energy to savor each and every picture.

NY Times art critic Roberta Smith found less to enjoy at this Steichen show. She called it a "trifle dull" and "musty". I couldn't disagree more, but here's her review of all the ICP fashion exhibits, so you can decide for yourself (here).

For some lively commentary on the images and some extremely helpful gossipy background on many of the forgotten stars portrayed, listen to the C-MONSTER audio guide podcast for the show, found here.

Collector's POV: Steichen's work is widely available in the secondary markets, from low priced Camera Work gravures to one of a kind masterpiece images; as a reminder, The Pond - Moonlight sold for just under $3 million dollars in 2006. Howard Greenberg Gallery (here) has just opened a show of Steichen's work from 1915-1923 (the period just preceding the Condé Nast years) which highlights his transition from Pictorialism to Modernism (a show we will certainly see and review at some point soon). As an aside, Steichen also made some amazing flowers that would fit well with our collection, if we could only afford them.

Rating: *** (three stars) EXCELLENT (rating system described here)

Edward Steichen: In High Fashion, The Condé Nast Years, 1923-1937
Through May 3

International Center of Photography
1133 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036