Auction Results: Photographs, May 15, 2013 @Christie's London

The parade of Peter Beard prints in Christie's recent various owner Photographs sale in London held up well, pushing the Total Sale Proceeds for the auction solidly into the middle of the pre-sale estimate range. With an overall Buy-In rate under 30% and a number of positive surprises, the sale easily met expectations.

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

Total Lots: 108
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: £1159000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: £1678000
Total Lots Sold: 76
Total Lots Bought In: 32
Buy In %: 29.63%
Total Sale Proceeds: £1485375

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

Low Total Lots: 13
Low Sold: 11
Low Bought In: 2
Buy In %: 15.38%
Total Low Estimate: £51000
Total Low Sold: £65125

Mid Total Lots: 75
Mid Sold: 52
Mid Bought In: 23
Buy In %: 30.67%
Total Mid Estimate: £827000
Total Mid Sold: £722900

High Total Lots: 20
High Sold: 13
High Bought In: 7
Buy In %: 35.00%
Total High Estimate: £800000
Total High Sold: £697350

The top lot by High estimate was lot 19, Peter Beard, Giraffes in mirage on the Taru Desert, Kenya for the End of the Game, June 1960, 1960/1997, at £50000-70000; it sold for £85875. The top outcome of the sale was lot 25, Peter Beard, Tsavo National Park, founded April Fool's Day, 1948, 1968/1997, estimated at £40000-60000, sold at £103875.

97.37% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above their estimate. There were a total of nine surprises in the sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):
Lot 1, Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Nude on beach, California, 1948/1988, estimated at £5000-7000, sold at £16250
Lot 2, Javier Vallhonrat, Inner edge, the Possessed Space, 1991, estimated at £2000-3000, sold at £10000
Lot 8, Helmut Newton, Henrietta, beginning of the Big Nudes, Vogue Studio, Paris, 1981, estimated at £6000-8000, sold at £22500
Lot 15, Horst P. Horst, Narcissus, O.B., N.Y., 1992, estimated at £8000-12000, sold at £27500
Lot 30, Andy Warhol, Self-portrait, 1986, estimated at £10000-15000, sold at £30000 (image at right, bottom, via Christie's)
Lot 43, Josef Koudelka, Spain, 1979/later, estimated at £4000-6000, sold at £14375 (image at right, middle, via Christie's)
Lot 78, Francesca Woodman, Untitled, Providence, Rhode Island, 1977/2008, estimated at £3000-5000, sold at £13750
Lot 89, Nick Brandt, Elephant group on bare earth, Amboseli, 2008, estimated at £15000-20000, sold at £55875
Lot 93, Marcus Lyon, Exodus VI, West Lamma Channel, South China Sea, 2011, estimated at £5000-7000, sold at 5£2275 (image at right, top, via Christie's)

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

Christie's
8 King Street, St. James's
London SW1Y 6QT

Auction Results: Photographs, May 19, 2011 @Phillips London

The results of the recent Photographs sale at Phillips in London generally met expectations. The overall Buy-In rate was over 30%, but a large number of positive surprises and decent performance by the top lots helped push the Total Sale Proceeds right into the middle of the estimate range.

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

Total Lots: 188
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: £1177100
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: £1627600
Total Lots Sold: 125
Total Lots Bought In: 63
Buy In %: 33.51%
Total Sale Proceeds: £1420438

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

Low Total Lots: 82
Low Sold: 49
Low Bought In: 33
Buy In %: 40.24%
Total Low Estimate: £279100
Total Low Sold: £189125

Mid Total Lots: 97
Mid Sold: 69
Mid Bought In: 28
Buy In %: 28.87%
Total Mid Estimate: £980500
Total Mid Sold: £920413

High Total Lots: 9
High Sold: 7
High Bought In: 2
Buy In %: 22.22%
Total High Estimate: £368000
Total High Sold: £310900

The top lot by High estimate was lot 94, Leni Riefenstahl, Nuba Portfolio, 2002, at £60000-80000; it was also the top outcome of the sale at £85250.

97.60% 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 5, Albert Watson, Yvette, Berlin, 7th July, 1990, at £5000
Lot 46, Stephen Shore, Beverly Boulevard and LaBrea Avenue, Los Angeles, California, June 21, 1975/Later, at £16250 (image at right, bottom, via Phillips)
Lot 65, Robert Frank, New York City, 1947/Later, at £37250
Lot 88, Josef Koudelka, Invasion by Warsaw Pact Troops, Prague, August, 1968/2008, at £13750 (image at right, middle, via Phillips)
Lot 96, Nick Brandt, Elephants Resting, Amboseli, 2007, at £17500
Lot 111, El Lissitzky, Hans (Jean) Arp, 1924, at £55250 (image at right, top, via Phillips)
Lot 112, Alexander Rodchenko, Rodchenko Museum Series Portfolio #2: Portraits, Various/Later, at £32450
Lot 115, Irving Penn, Alfred Hitchcock, New York, May 23, 1947/Early, at £51650
Lot 117, Norman Parkinson, Pamela Minchin, Isle of Wight for Harper's Bazaar, 1939/Later, at £6875
Lot 138, Dan Holdsworth, Blackout 08, 2010, at £23750
Lot 173, Christer Strömholm, Lago di Maggiore, 1950, at £10625
Lot 184, Toni Schneiders, Untitled, December, 1956, at £3000

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

Phillips De Pury & Company
Howick Place
London SW1P 1BB

Auction Results: Fine Photographs & Select Photobooks, October 19, 2010 @Swann

The results of Swann's various owner photographs and photobooks sale last week were generally uneventful, with an overall Buy-In rate just under 35% and Total Sale Proceeds that missed the estimate range by a pretty decent margin. Over 38% of the lots that did sell came in below the low estimate.

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

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Total Lots: 363
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $1394700

Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $2037750
Total Lots Sold: 239
Total Lots Bought In: 124
Buy In %: 34.16%
Total Sale Proceeds: $1178042

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

Low Total Lots: 330
Low Sold: 214

Low Bought In: 116
Buy In %: 35.15%
Total Low Estimate: $1411750
Total Low Sold: $766922

Mid Total Lots: 33
Mid Sold: 25
Mid Bought In: 8
Buy In %: 24.24%
Total Mid Estimate: $626000
Total Mid Sold: $411120

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 91, Adam Clark Vroman, A Trip to Snake Dance, Moqui-Indian Towns, and Petrified Forests of Arizona, 1895, at $30000-45000; it was also the top outcome of the sale at $48000.

Only 61.51% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range, and 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 66, Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, Historique et Description des Procédés du Daguerréotype et du Diorama, 1839, at $3360

Lot 157, Josef Koudelka, France, 1973/1990, at $13200 (image at right, top, via Swann)

Lot 230, Herb Ritts, Wrapped Torso, 1989, at $15600

Lot 279, André Kertész, Washington Square (Winter), 1954/1967, at $22800

Lot 341, Bruce Nauman, Burning Small Fires, 1968, at $7800 (image at right, bottom, via Swann)

Lot 356, Keld Helmer-Petersen, 122 Favrefotografien, 1948, at $5040

Lot 361, Roger Livet and Frederic Megnet, Avant la Guerre, 1936, at $8400

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Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

Swann Galleries
104 East 25th Street
New York, NY 10010

2010 AIPAD Review, Part 2 of 4

Part 1 of this multi-part AIPAD post can be found here.

Robert Mann Gallery (here): Holly Andres (3), Michael Kenna (4), Robbert Flick (2), Joe Deal (5), Gail Albert Halaban (2), Mary Mattingly (1), Jeff Brouws (1), Wijnanda Deroo (1), Susan Rankatis (2), Aaron Siskind (2), Henry Wessel (1), Robert Frank (4), Ansel Adams (1), Alfred Stieglitz (2), Paul Strand (1), Paul Haviland (1), Elijah Gowin (1 set of 8). USC professor Robbert Flick was another discovery for me at the show. All of the individual images in the grid below were taken in the same concrete parking structure, with a mix of natural and fluorescent light slashing across the dark floors and walls. (Robbert Flick, SV# 034/81 - Inglewood Parking Structure #2, 1981, at $10000.)

Scheinbaum & Russek (here): Luis Gonzalez Palma (5), Manuel Alvarez Bravo (5), Beaumont Newhall (1), Henri Cartier-Bresson (2), Andre Kertesz (2), Flor Ganduno (1), Manuel Carillo (1), Brett Weston (1), Paul Caponigro (2), Walter Chappell (1), Edward Weston (1), Harry Callahan (3), Minor White (3), Aaron Siskind (2), Lynn Geesaman (2), Eliot Porter (6), plus 2 bins. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the Walter Chappell nude below, not only because it is a spectaular image that would fit well into our collection, but also because we took it out of the frame to see the notes on the back, which explain that the print was reversed for the cover of Aperture #79, at the request of Minor White. (Walter Chappell, Nude Armpit, Wingdale, NY, 1962/1969, ay $8500.)

Yossi Milo Gallery (here): Myoung Ho Lee (1), Loretta Lux (5), Youssef Nabil (4), Kohei Yoshiyuki (9), Sze Tsung Leong (11), Robert Bergman (2).

Robert Koch Gallery (here): Larry Schwarm (2), Ilse Bing (2), Eadward Muybridge (1), Francis Frith (1), Michael Wolf (3), Brian Ulrich (1), Amy Stein (1), Jeff Brouws (4), Josef Koudelka (2), Bill Owens (1), plus 1 bin. The Koudelka image below was not at all what I envision when I think of his work, but I very much liked the simplicity of the forms in this wide print. (Josef Koudelka, Dunkerque-Port, 1986/1991, at $18000.)

Joseph Bellows Gallery (here): Bevan Davies (4), Terry Wild (2), Steven Salmieri (2), Randall Levenson (3), Wayne Lazorik (2), Enrico Natali (4), Nacio Jan Brown (2), Joanne Leonard (2), Jack Teemer (2), Joni Sternbach (6), Bill Arnold (1), Jay Boersma (4), Michael Light (4 large format books), plus 4 bins. This booth had plenty of unexpected and tempting work in it. I enjoyed both Joni Sternbach's atmospheric tintype surfers, as well as Michael Light's massive aerial scenes of Los Angeles highways and refineries. My favorite image in the booth was this small Terry Wild image below; I liked the stark contrast of adjacent black and white walls. (Terry Wild, Los Angeles, CA, 1969, at $5000.)

Project 5 (here): Jill Greenberg (6), Thomas Allen (8), Guido Castagnoli (7), Stuart O'Sullivan (1), Olaf Otto Becker (1). Project 5 brings together the work from five different New York galleries: ClampArt, Foley Gallery, Sasha Wolf Gallery, Daniel Cooney Fine Art, and Amador Gallery. The first portfolio from the group contains five prints: one each from a single artist from each gallery stable. I liked the contagious energy in this small booth, driven by three of the gallery directors collaborating to answer questions.

Catherine Edelman Gallery (here): Julie Blackmon (5), Gregory Scott (3), Lauren Simonutti (21), Joel-Peter Witkin (2), Keith Carter (1), Holly Roberts (2). I have recently been exploring some of the undefined edges of contemporary photography, where cameras are no longer used and traditional definitions of photography are hopelessly quaint. Gregory Scott's lightbox works in this booth have HD video embedded inside; stand and watch one for a while and a small portion of it will change and then stop again, turning the idea of a still frame on its head. It's not video art, nor is it exactly photography; it's something else, a 21st century mashup, with a hint of where we may see the medium go in the future. (Gregory Scott, Color Grid, 2009, at $22000.)

Gitterman Gallery (here): Alfred Stieglitz (2), Louis Faurer (1), Josef Breitenbach (1), Eugene Smith (1), Minor White (1), Edward Weston (1), Ferenc Berko (5), Kenneth Josephson (7), Roger Mayne (1), Allen Frame (4), Lewis Baltz (2), plus 2 bins. As always, there were good things to see in Tom Gitterman's booth. I enjoyed the two Baltz images, as well as the selection of Josephson prints (we'll visit the larger show on view at the gallery soon). Below is a Ferenc Berko from the late 1940s, a spare composition of thin lines and simple abstracted black shapes, almost like a Calder. (Ferenc Berko, Store Display, Chicago, 1947-48, at $5500.)

Bonni Benrubi Gallery (here): Massimo Vitali (1), Georges Dambier (2), Matthew Pillsbury (4), Andreas Feininger (3), Gillian Laub (3), Abelardo Morell (4), Josef Hoflehner (1), Laura McPhee (1 diptych), Jehad Nga (2).

Halsted Gallery (here): Irving Penn (1), Emmet Gowin (1), Harry Callahan (2), Walker Evans (4), Andre Kertesz (5), Ruth Orkin (3), George Tice (1), Larry Glazer (1), Berenice Abbott (2), Frederick Evans (2), Michael Kenna (2), Ansel Adams (2), Arnold Newman (1), O. Winston Link (1), Edward Weston (4), Imogen Cunningham (1), Bill Brandt (1), Morris Engel (1), William Christenberry (1), plus 3 bins. The Halsteds have been running their photo gallery for 40 years now, and there was a fun book on the table in the booth showing old pictures of various family members paired with famous photographers, interspersed with letters and other correspondence. In the booth, I liked the vintage Max Yavo from San Francisco best, with its overlapping layers of houses. (Max Yavno, Army Street, 1940s, at $4500.)

Higher Pictures (here): Barbara Crane (9), Issei Suda (3), LaToya Ruby Frazier (4), Alfred Gescheidt (10), Scott Peterman (3), Sam Falls (4), Jill Freedman (7). While I have written about Barbara Crane's repeats previously, I continue to find them original and exciting. (Barbara Crane, Dan Ryan Expressway, Chicago, 1975, at $7000.)

Beijing Jade Jar Fine Art (no website that I could find): Zhou Ning (3), Hu Wugong (3), Wang Shilong (3), Wang Yishu (2), Fu Yu (2), Yiming Jiang (9), Lu Houmin (6), Yu Deshui (6), Liu Tiesheng (1), Jin Hongwei (13). It was great to see a mix of vintage and contemporary Chinese photography in this booth; we need to see much more of this kind of work here in the United States to begin to make sense of the evolution of Chinese photography.
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Continue to Part 3 here.