Lise Sarfati, On Hollywood @Milo

 

JTF (just the facts): A total of 19 color photographs, framed in white and unmatted, and hung against white walls in the East and West gallery spaces. All of the works are digital c-prints, made in 2009 or 2010. The prints in the East gallery are sized 22x30, in editions of 5+2AP; the prints in the West gallery are somewhat larger (32x44), also in editions of 5+2AP. (Installation shots at right.)

 

Comments/Context: Lise Sarfati's images of Hollywood women are a far cry from anything that might be called glamorous. These aren't pictures of the already famous or the soon to be celebrities, they're spare photographs of the countless forgotten women who have set out to chase a dream and have found the path to stardom to be much harder and grittier than they ever imagined. Aspiration mixes with vulnerability, hope with despondency, frustration with weariness: these are some of the casualties in the heartless struggle for fame.

 

Sarfati has been making solitary images of men and women for years, often composed with indirect glances, empty settings, and an.adept eye for muted color. These new works certainly fall into this larger pattern, albeit with an even grimmer mood and a dirtier palette. The back gallery is filled with head shots taken from underneath, seen with city buildings and tired, rundown storefronts (drug stores, strip clubs) in the background. There is an echo of Callahan here, but with a more cinematic West coast mystery. The women alternate between quiet confidence and fragile despair, the sense of struggle apparent in everything from their body language to their blank expressions. A dreary cigarette is never far from view, taking the edge off on a random street corner or a washed out sidewalk.

 

The photographs in the front gallery step back a few paces, making the images into wider, more narrative scenes. A blond girl smokes a bored, languorous cigarette in a cheap poolside chaise, another lingers outside a convenience store next to a fluorescent-lit green wall, and a goth girl in black coolly poses outside a closed movie theater. Women stare into storefront windows, idle near chain link fences, and sit on seedy concrete stoops, always smoking, down on their luck and waiting for something that probably isn't going to arrive; a few might be credibly be mistaken for hookers, which makes the subtle desperation in the images even more discouraging.

 

Both sets of pictures have a quiet, downtrodden grace in the face of this unforgiving environment. In Sarfati's Hollywood, life on the fringes doesn't look too appealing, but there is a sense of moody perseverance in nearly every image, of making the best of it even if the self-delusions are wearing thin.

 

Collector's POV: The prints in this show are priced as follows. The 22x30 prints range from $6600 to $10600, while the 32x44 prints range from $9300 to $13200. Sarfati's work has only been sporadically available at auction in recent years, with secondary market prices ranging from roughly $3000 to $14000. This body of work was also on view at Rose Gallery in Santa Monica, CA (here) earlier this year.

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

Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)
• Magnum Photos page (here)
• Features: Time LightBox (here), Le Journal de la Photographie (here)

Lise Sarfati, On Hollywood

Through October 13th

 

Yossi Milo Gallery

245 Tenth Avenue

New York, NY 10001

Auction Results: Photographs, October 6 and 7, 2010 @Christie's

The results of Christie's various owner Photographs sale last week fell right in the heart of the estimate range, bringing in proceeds just over $5.5 million. Even though three out of the top six lots failed to find buyers, a large number of positive surprises across the auction helped generate momentum. The overall Buy-In rate came in just under 25%.

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

Total Lots: 349
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $4565500

Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $6795500
Total Lots Sold: 263
Total Lots Bought In: 86
Buy In %: 24.64%
Total Sale Proceeds: $5571538

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

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Low Total Lots: 189
Low Sold: 142
Low Bought In: 47
Buy In %: 24.87%
Total Low Estimate: $1193500

Total Low Sold: $1026938

Mid Total Lots: 137
Mid Sold: 104

Mid Bought In: 33
Buy In %: 24.09%
Total Mid Estimate: $3302000
Total Mid Sold: $2821100
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High Total Lots: 23
High Sold: 17
High Bought In: 6
Buy In %: 26.09%
Total High Estimate: $2300000
Total High Sold: $1723500
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The top lot by High estimate was lot 32, Diane Arbus, Identical Twins, Roselle, New Jersey, 1967, at $250000-350000; it did not sell. The top outcome of the sale was lot 12, Ansel Adams, Grand Tetons and the Snake River, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, 1942/1960s, at $338500.

83.27% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range. There were a total of twenty surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 16, Irving Penn, Lorry Washers, London, 1950, 1967, at $128500

Lot 17, Irving Penn, Child of Florence, 1948, at $74500

Lot 35, Man Ray, Madame Xupery, 1935, at $62500

Lot 45, Irving Penn, The Palm of Miles Davis (New York), 1986/1992, at $146500 (image at right, bottom, via Christie's)

Lot 65, William Eggleston, Untitled, 1971/1996, at $74500

Lot 78, Joel Sternfeld, Fiesta de Quince, 94th Street and Jackson Mill Road, East Elmhurst, Queens, August, 2004/2005, at $23750 (image at right, top, via Christie's)

Lot 100, Lise Sarfati, Suzannah #23, Hillsboro, OR, 2003, at $13750 (image at right, middle, via Christie's)

Lot 117, Wim Wenders, Lounge Painting, Gila Bend, Arizona; and Sundries, Las Vegas, New Mexico, 1983-1989, at $7500

Lot 129, Alec Soth, Fairway Motor Inn, 2005/2006, at $10000

Lot 140, Todd Hido, Untitled #2690, 2000, at $23750

Lot 142, Robert Adams, Berthoud, Colorado, 1976/1989, at $68500

Lot 146, Stephen Shore, 5th Street & Broadway, Eureka, CA, September 2, 1974/2003, at $7500

Lot 174, Robert Frank, Billie Holiday, St. Nicholas Arena, NYC, 1954/1960s, at $30000

Lot 176, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Malcolm X, 1961/1968, at $22500

Lot 213, Irving Penn, Rag and Bones, London, 1950/1976, at $104500

Lot 274, William Eggleston, En route to New Orleans, 1971-1974, at $50000

Lot 309, Berenice Abbott, El at Columbus Avenue and Broadway, Lincoln Square, NY, 1929, at $30000

Lot 325, Levy and Cohen, Views of Richmond, 1865, at $21250

Lot 326, John Moran, Portico, Construction of the Bank of Pennsylvania, 1867, at $32500

Lot 345, Minor White, Two Barns, Dansville, New York, 1955/Later, at $7500

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Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

Christie's

20 Rockefeller Plaza

New York, NY 10020

Lise Sarfati, Rough, Cold, and Close: A Russian Poem @Yossi Milo

JTF (just the facts): 27 C-prints, all 11x16, framed in white and hung in the main gallery. (Installation shot at right.) Negatives from 1992 through 2002, printed in editions of 10.

Comments/Context: Lise Sarfati is a French photographer working for Magnum who has spent most of her career in Paris, with project stints in Russia and the United States. Her most recent body of work (and the one that might be familiar to most New York collectors) is called The New Life, a series of portraits of American teenagers from across the country, full of the sullen, anxious and solitary emotions of adolescence.

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This shows goes back a step to a series of images Sarfati made in the 1990s in post-Soviet Russia. There are interior portraits, barren landscapes, and architectural shots of vernacular buildings, together painting a dreary picture of decay, destruction, and grim existence. It is a smothering and suffocating environment, where the people are struggling desperately to find some hope. And yet within this depressing and isolating world, there is just a tiny glimmer of promise and optimism buried underneath the rubble.

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Irrespective of this compelling mood setting, the real reason to see this show is for Sarfati's use of color and light, especially in the interior portraits. In these images, the subjects are photographed indirectly, with careful composition echoing the muted colors of the rooms. There are washed out blues, pinks, greens, and greys, dulled and dampened by age, softened by clear and quiet morning light. The use of color is subtle and measured; there are no acidic colors shouting at you in these pictures. The muffled hues match the overall stillness of these pictures.

Collector's POV: The images in this show are priced between $4500 and $6500. Sarfati has virtually no secondary market at this point, so this is the only place you will find these images in the short term. While they don't fit our particular collection, if color photography is your passion, then one of Sarfati's interiors would be a terrific buy.

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

Lise Sarfati, Rough, Cold and Close: A Russian Poem

Through December 6th

Yossi Milo Gallery

525 West 25th Street

New York, NY 10001