Auction: Photographie, May 29, 2013 @Villa Grisebach

Villa Grisebach has its Spring various owner photographs sale in Berlin next week, with a diverse selection of lower priced vintage and contemporary material on offer, led by a dozen prints by Aenne Biermann. Overall, there are a total of 161 lots available, with a Total High Estimate of €654400.

Here's the statistical breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including €7500): 141
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): €416400

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between €7500 and €35000): 20
Total Mid Estimate: €238000

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

The top lot by High estimate is lot 2086, Martin Munkacsi, Brasilien erstickt im Kaffee, 1932, estimated at €15000-20000 (image at right, top, via Villa Grisebach).

Here is the complete list of photographers with three or more lots in the sale (with the number of lots in parentheses):

Aenne Biermann (12)
Peter Lindbergh (6 )
Albert Renger-Patzsch (6)
Thomas Struth (5)
Berenice Abbott (3)
Ilse Bing (3)
Andreas Feininger (3)
Jacques-Henri Lartigue (3)
Saul Leiter (3)
Herbert Matter (3)
Tom Wood (3)

Other lots of interest include lot 2030, Erwin Blumenfeld, Solarized nude, 1943, estimated at €10000-12000 (image at right, middle, via Villa Grisebach) and lot 2143, Ulrike Rosenbach, Art is a criminal action II, 1969/2008, estimated at €10000-15000 (image at right, bottom, via Villa Grisebach).

The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here.

Photographie
May 269th

Villa Grisebach Auktionen
Fasanenstraße 25
D-10719 Berlin

Erwin Blumenfeld: Vintage Fashion @Houk

JTF (just the facts): A total of 30 black and white photographs, framed in black and matted, and hung in the main gallery space. All of the works are vintage gelatin silver enlargement prints, made between 1937 and 1962. Physical dimensions range between 12x8 and 20x16 (or reverse). A wall of Blumenfeld's Vogue covers is on display in the entry area. (Installation shots at right.)
 
Comments/Context: Erwin Blumenfeld's fashion photography takes many of the visual motifs from Surrealism and Dada and mixes them together with stylish glamour in a manner driven by risk-taking experimentation. While his covers and spreads are full of the usual array of striking models in elegant designer clothing, it is his use of unexpected and unorthodox methods and manipulations that makes his images durably exciting.

This show is a parade of staged devices and darkroom machinations: multiple exposures layered and composited, mirrors used to multiply sitters, transparent screens used to veil bisected models, sideways and overhead camera angles, shadows and light in linear forms, and prints made extra graphic and contrasty. His ravishing silhouettes alternate between black and white like dancers in a line, and pure faces peer at each other or echo like matched twins, swaddled in folds of silk and loose jewels. Moments of classicism are simultaneously enhanced and undercut by Blumenfeld's twists on the usual; even the cliched cross hatched bars of the Eiffel Tower become fresh when paired with the billowy plaid patterns of a long dress blowing in the wind.

All of these images have the sense of the unconventional, of taking the agreed upon fashion formula and changing it up, pushing the edges of what the audience will find acceptable. The works also provide evidence for the beginning of an advertising-driven attention deficit (even in the 1940s and 1950s), of images that are trying hard to grab the viewer with something visually new, reacting against the noise in the background. As such, Blumenfeld's many striking innovations provide a bridge between the graceful beginnings of fashion photography and the explosion of extreme aesthetics that we now take for granted.

Collector's POV: The works in the show are priced between $22000 and $40000, with one print marked POR. Blumenfeld's photographs are often available in the secondary markets, with recent prices at auction ranging from $2000 to $58000.

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

Transit Hub:

• Features: Trendland (here), T Magazine (here)

Erwin Blumenfeld: Vintage Fashion
Through January 7th

Edwynn Houk Gallery
745 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10151

Auction Results: Photography, with Contemporary Art, December 2 and 4, 2010 @Lempertz

Three lots of winding towers from Bernd and Hilla Becher provided nearly half of the Total Sale Proceeds for photography at the recent sales at Kunsthaus Lempertz in Cologne (one photography auction and one contemporary art auction that included photographs). In an otherwise routine set of sales, these and other smaller surprises helped bring the results in over the Total High Estimate. (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).

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

Total Lots: 217

Pre Sale High Total Estimate: 541600€

Total Lots Sold: 128

Total Lots Bought In: 89

Buy In %: 41.01%

Total Sale Proceeds: 601500€
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Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post, here):

Low Total Lots: 205

Low Sold: 123

Low Bought In: 82

Buy In %: 40.00%

Total Low Estimate: 354600€

Total Low Sold: 298860€

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Mid Total Lots: 12

Mid Sold: 5

Mid Bought In: 7

Buy In %: 58.33%

Total Mid Estimate: 187000€

Total Mid Sold: 302640€

.

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 tied between three lots. Each was a group of 4 winding tower prints by Bernd and Hilla Becher (each individual image titled by location): lot 308 from 1966-1973, lot 309 from 1967-1975, and lot 310 from 1966-1973. Each of the lots was estimated at 20000-25000€. Lot 309 was the top outcome of the sale at 138000€; lot 308 sold for 52800€ and lot 310 sold for 91200€.

80.47% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate. There were a total of 20 surprises across the two sales (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

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Lot 308, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Merthyr Vale Colliery, Shaft 2, Aberavan, South Wales, GB, and three others, 1966-1973, at 52800€

Lot 309, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Fosse L'Archevque, Aniche, France Nord, and three others, 1967-1975, at 138000€

Lot 310, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Glenrhondda Colliery, Treherbert, South Wales, GB, and three others, 1966-1973, at 91200€ (image at right, top, via Lempertz)

Lot 495, Gerhard Richter, Ohne Titel, 1989, at 5160€

Lot 496, Gerhard Richter, Abstraktes Foto, 1989, at 4080€

Lot 571, Rudolph Schwarzkogler, 3. Aktion, Wien, 1965, at 9000€

Lot 706, J. Pascal Sebah, Ohne Titel (Ansichten aus Agypten), 1870s, at 3360€

Lot 732, Willy Maywald, Ohne Titel (Stilleben), 1930s, at 1200€

Lot 748, Max Lohr, Ohne Titel, 1930, at 1320€

Lot 749, Max Lohr, Antike, 1930, at 1320€

Lot 762, George Platt Lynes, Ohne Titel, 1939, at 1680€

Lot 783, Erwin Blumenfeld, Ohne Titel, 1943, at 13200€ (image at right, bottom, via Lempertz)

Lot 798, Koichiro Yahagi, Ohne Titel, 1960s, at 1320€

Lot 821, Charlotte March, Gloria, Silberturban, 1966, at 3720€ (image at right, middle, via Lempertz)

Lot 825, Karl Hugo Schmölz, Ford-Werke, Köln, 1940s, at 1440€

Lot 826, Karl Hugo Schmölz, Drathaus, Düsselforf, 1952, at 1440€

Lot 854, Emmet Gowin, Ice Fish, Danville, Virginia, 1971/1973, at 1560€

Lot 868, Jeanloup Sieff, Bottom, 1969/Later, at 5040€

Lot 884, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Tasman Sea, Ngarupupu, and two others, 1982-1990, at 2880€

Lot 885, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Bay of Biscay, Bakio, and two others, 1991, at 3000€

.

Complete lot by lot results (for both Photography and Contemporary Art) can be found here.

Kunsthaus Lempertz
Neumarkt 3
D-50667 Köln

Auction Results: Photographs, December 2, 2010 @Bloomsbury London

Bloomsbury's various owner photographs sale in London last week struggled to find its bearings. With a Buy-In rate over 50% and Total Sale Proceeds meaningfully less than the Total Low Estimate, the auction house continues to search for the secrets of success in the lower end of the market. The vintage Erwin Blumenfeld prints on offer were generally a positive surprise, with 5 out 6 lots selling above their estimate ranges.

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

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Total Lots: 236

Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: £236680

Pre Sale High Total Estimate: £335620

Total Lots Sold: 109

Total Lots Bought In: 127

Buy In %: 53.81%

Total Sale Proceeds: £174899

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

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Low Total Lots: 227

Low Sold: 105

Low Bought In: 122

Buy In %: 53.74%

Total Low Estimate: £271120

Total Low Sold: £148059

.

Mid Total Lots: 9

Mid Sold: 4

Mid Bought In: 5

Buy In %: 55.56%

Total Mid Estimate: £64500

Total Mid Sold: £26840

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 tied between two lots: lot 176, Horst P. Horst, Corset, Paris, 1939/Later, and lot 177, Horst P. Horst, Round the Clock I, 1987/Later, both at £8000-10000; neither print sold. The top outcome of the sale was lot 91, Erwin Blumenfeld, Veiled Beauty, c1931, at £9510.
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88.99% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above their estimate. There were a total of 8 surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

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Lot 38, Melcher Berretty, The Lido Nightclub in Paris, c1950s, at £317

Lot 87, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Untitled, c1970, at £6710

Lot 90, Pierre Boucher, Untitled (Paris), c1940, at £671

Lot 94, Erwin Blumenfeld, Untitled, c1940, at £6710 (image at right, middle, via Bloomsbury)

Lot 95, Erwin Blumenfeld, The Girl with the Flaxen Hair, c1938, at £3416

Lot 96, Erwin Blumenfeld, Eyes Like the Sea, c1938, at £4636

Lot 97, Erwin Blumenfeld, Eyes of Youth, c1938, at £4880 (image at right, top, via Bloomsbury)

Lot 116, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin at the Lunar Module, 1969, at £1403 (image at right, bottom, via Bloomsbury)

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Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

Bloomsbury Auctions

24 Maddox Street

Mayfair

London WS1 1PP