Photography in the 2013 ADAA Art Show

This year's ADAA Art Show wandered the stylistic line that it always does: somewhere between classy and snoozy. Only 12 booths out of a possible 72 had any photography in them, so photo collectors and enthusiasts can expect to travel along decent stretches of real estate without anything to tempt you. That said, each photography find is worthy of a closer look, so treat the whole thing like a treasure hunt and you won't be disappointed.

My notes from the fair are below, organized alphabetically by gallery name. For each booth, a list of photographers has been provided, along with the number of works on display, a highlight image or two, and the prices where appropriate.

Brooke Alexander, Inc. (here): John Baldessari (1 photogravure, $8500)

 

 

Alexander and Bonin (here); This entire booth was devoted to the work of Mona Hatoum, with a mix of photographs and sculptural objects. After expressing my interest in the flattened perspective severed fish head image ($6000), I was given a peek at the lovely cheese grater photograph tucked away in the very tiny closet ($12000).

 

Fraenkel Gallery (here): This booth was a solo showing of Robert Adams images from The New West. A total of 27 prints are on display.

 

 

Marian Goodman Gallery (here): This booth was filled with works by Tacita Dean (15 works, plus 1 glass box of overpainted postcards and 1 set of 3 sculptures). Most were gouaches over various 19th century photographic landscapes, where slivers of paint added a tree, a glacier, or a man perched on a rock outcropping. The work below is a Carleton Watkins Grizzly Giant image overpainted in misty white ($35000).

 

 

Sean Kelly Gallery (here): This booth contained a fine selection of Robbert Mapplethorpe's portraits of artists (20 in all). I enjoyed his image of De Kooning best, which of course was NFS (as was the portrait of Louise Bourgeois).

 

 

Barbara Krakow Gallery (here): This single work by Liliana Porter was the only photographic work in this booth ($10000). Notice the clever conceptual line that extends from the finger, travels across the photograph, jumps up on the mat, and eventually continues along the wall.

 

 

McKee Gallery (here): Two new Richard Learoyd prints were featured in this booth, one a portrait and the other this sculptural, fishing-lined pink flamingo ($65000). A show of Learoyd's new work is scheduled for this coming May.

 

 

Metro Pictures (here): This triptych of Louise Lawler images of a Degas sculpture was the focal point of this booth (there was one smaller Lawler on the outside wall, but that's all that was on display). The three versions have been alternately tinted in RGB (each $150000) and were surprisingly elegant close up. There were also 4 smaller Cindy Shermans hiding in the storage closet.

 

 

Laurence Miller Gallery (here): This booth was filled with Eadweard Muybridge collotypes from Animal Locomotion (a total of 33, individually priced between $3000 and $10000, plus 1 video, the leather case, cover plate, and supporting letter). I have to say that these seemed like an odd choice for this fair; perfectly fine to be sure, but I wonder whether a more contemporary choice might have been more powerful. There was also 1 Ray Metzker composite tucked away on a side wall.

 

 

Yossi Milo Gallery (here):  This booth contained a mix of gallery artists: Matthew Brandt (1), Chris McCaw (5), Sze Tsung Leong (5), and Alison Rossiter (12). These more angular Rossiters were fabulous and likely my favorites in the fair ($6500 each, these four all already sold!).

 

 

Pace/MacGill Gallery (here): This booth was smart mix of large and small prints: Paul Graham (1), William Eggleston (1 of the recent big prints), Richard Misrach (1), Vito Acconci (2 tiny prints), Irving Penn (1 small portrait), Hai Bo (2 huge full length portraits, apparently of his uncle), Andreas Gursky (1), Robert Rauschenberg (1), Harry Callahan (2 small light drawings). The image below is an up-close detail of the tiny colored spots in the Graham work from his Films series ($30000).

 

 

Skarstedt Gallery (here): Fitting that this summary should end with a blockbuster Cindy Sherman centerfold ($1300000), as what is an art fair without a bunch of Cindy Shermans? The booth also contained a Richard Prince cowboy and a large Cindy Sherman film still.

 

 

 

Auctions: Contemporary Art and Design Evening and Under the Influence, March 7 and 8, 2013 @Phillips New York

For its Armory week offerings, Phillips has paired an Evening sale with its broader, more eclectic Under the Influence sale. The vast majority of the photography available can be found in the Under the Influence auction on Friday, with a liberal sprinkling of mid range works by both bold faced and lesser known names to be uncovered there. All in, there are a total of 86 lots of photography available across the two sessions, with a total High estimate for photography of $2002000.

Here's the statistical breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including $10000): 31
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): $232000

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between $10000 and $50000): 46
Total Mid Estimate: $1040000

Total High Lots (high estimate above $50000): 9
Total High Estimate: $730000

The top photography lot by High estimate is lot 21, Richard Prince, Untitled (Massage), 1980-1981, estimated at $100000-150000 (image at right, top, via Phillips).

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

Andy Warhol (4)
Slater Bradley (3)
Nan Goldin (3)
Marilyn Minter (3)
Vik Muniz (3)
Doug Aitken (2)
Sophie Calle (2)
Roland Fischer (2)
Anthony Goicolea (2)
Andreas Gursky (2)
Paul McCarthy (2)
Shirin Neshat (2 )
Eleonore Nitzschke (2)
Richard Prince (2)
Thomas Ruff (2)
Cindy Sherman (2)
Stephen Shore (2)
Spencer Tunick (2)

Other works of interest include lot 184, Doug Aitken, Cul de Sac, 2004, estimated at $60000-80000 (image at right, middle) and lot 25, Louise Lawler, Going, 2001/2002, estimated at $50000-70000 (image at right, bottom, all via Phillips.)

The complete lot by lot catalogs can be found here (Contemporary Art and Design) and here (Under the Influence).

Contemporary Art and Design Evening
March 7th

Under the Influence
March 8th

Phillips
450 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10022

Louise Lawler: Fitting at Metro Pictures

JTF (just the facts): A total of 14 color photographs, hung against white walls in the entry and the three adjoining gallery spaces on the first floor. 10 of the works are made of an adhesive wall material (similar to vinyl) that has been stretched to different proportions and sizes based on the installation and mounted directly on the wall without any framing. These particular instances of the images range in size from roughly 10x7 to 150x397. The images themselves were made between 2005 and 2010 and printed in 2011. The other 4 works are more traditional photographs: 3 are cibachrome prints face mounted on Plexi on museum boxes, 1 is a Fujiflex print laminated on plywood. Physical dimensions range from 12x10 to 42x42, in editions of 5+1 or 10+2. These works are dated between 2008 and 2010. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Louise Lawler has made a long and successful photographic career out of thinking about art in context. She has explored how it is displayed and arranged in different settings, how it interacts with its environment and modifies the space around it, and how juxtapositions of artworks can add layers of intended and unintended meanings. Over the years, I have found her work alternately witty and a bit obtuse, but mostly subtle and surprisingly complex.

Prior to seeing this show, I was wondering whether Lawler had exhausted the fruitful avenues for exploring the relationships of art hung against white walls. What I found amazing about this show is that these new works actually explore not one, but three new conceptual lines of thinking within her defined playing field. She deftly introduces and incorporates the ideas of scale, flatness and distortion (all at the same time) in these images, while still riffing on many of the foundation art-about-art concepts that have made her justifiably famous.

In terms of scale, the images on display run the gamut from a few inches square to one room sized image larger than 30 feet on one side. In some cases, extremely large and extremely small are hung next to each other, both being out of proportion to their "normal" size and to the room that surrounds them. The effect is something like telescoping, where the viewer is forced to both move in close and stand way far back to engage with the works, changing the nature of their relationship to each other and the gallery space. There are even a few duplicates in different sizes and form factors, which create visual echoes across the rooms. The manipulation that is going on is overt, but powerful just the same.
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The adjustable works also have an unusual degree of flatness, in that they are applied directly to the walls (without any frames or implied thickness), making them extremely one dimensional, even though they depict the deeper space of artworks in galleries. This flatness is then combined with obvious horizontal and vertical stretching and compression, where the proportions are twisted and exaggerated. Placed in the context of their own gallery show, the distortions pile up, and the works self-referentially bend in on themselves.

While not every image in this show is completely compelling in and of itself photographically, when the pictures are executed and displayed in this extreme manner, the conceptual ideas they explore start to trump the specific content. As such, I found this show to be intellectually engrossing. What at first glance could be mistaken for a gimmick turns out to be something altogether more advanced and intriguing.
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Collector's POV: The photographs in this show are priced based as follows. The images on adhesive wall material are priced at $150000 each. The more traditional mounted photographs range from $12000 to $50000, roughly based on size. Lawler's work is generally available in the secondary markets, with a handful of lots coming up for sale in any given year. Recent prices have ranged between roughly $5000 and $125000.

My favorite image in the show was Marie (Adjusted to Fit), 2010/2011; it's on the right in the top installation shot. I like the idea of distorting/fragmenting this iconic Degas sculpture, where something easily recognizable is reformulated and transformed.

As an aside, as a collector, I'm not sure I follow the logistics of these adjustable images. If I buy one, can I have it resized once a year if I rehang my collection, indefinitely? Is that included in the price? Are the previous instances destroyed (I assume so)? If I lend it to a museum for an exhibition, and they resize and install it particularly well (somehow optimizing the distortion), when I take it back, is that "good" version forever lost? In 50 years, if adhesive vinyl is no longer around, can I have it printed on something else? Do I get a digital file? I'm sure there are answers to these questions - it just seems like the details would be complicated.

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

Transit Hub:

• Reviews: New York (here), TimeOut New York (here)
• Feature: Frieze (here)

Louise Lawler: Fitting at Metro Pictures
Through June 11th

Metro Pictures
519 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011

Auction Results: First Open Post-War and Contemporary Art, March 10, 2011 @Christie's

Christie's has to be happy with the results for the photography in its First Open sale last week. The overall Buy-In rate was under 10%, and every price range brought in more proceeds than its aggregate high estimate. Even without a lot of positive surprises, the auction performed well from top to bottom.

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

Total Lots: 42
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $757000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $1100000
Total Lots Sold: 38
Total Lots Bought In: 4
Buy In %: 9.52%
Total Sale Proceeds: $1158875

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

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Low Total Lots: 13
Low Sold: 11
Low Bought In: 2
Buy In %: 15.38%
Total Low Estimate: $99000

Total Low Sold: $113500

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Mid Total Lots: 24
Mid Sold: 22

Mid Bought In: 2
Buy In %: 8.33%
Total Mid Estimate: $531000
Total Mid Sold: $541875

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High Total Lots: 5
High Sold: 5
High Bought In: 0
Buy In %: 0.00%
Total High Estimate: $470000
Total High Sold: $503500

The top lot by High estimate was lot 117, Thomas Struth, El Capitan (Yosemite National Park), California, 1999 at $100000-150000: it was also the top outcome of the sale at $206500.
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94.74% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range, and there were a total of three surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 34, Louise Lawler, Chandelier, 2007, at $52500 (image at right, top, via Christie's)

Lot 130, Gregory Crewdson, Untitled (Family Dinner), 2001-2002, at $43750 (image at right, middle, via Christie's)

Lot 131, Peter Doig, Untitled, 2000, at $17500 (image at right, bottom, via Christie's)

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Complete lot by lot results can be found here.
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Christie's

20 Rockefeller Plaza

New York, NY 10020

Auction Results: Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening and Day Sales, February 11 and 12, 2010 @Christie's King Street

The photography in Christie's recent Post-War and Contemporary Art sales in London generally performed in line with expectations, with the total sale proceeds for photography falling solidly within the estimate range.

The summary statistics for the photography lots in the two sales are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):

Total Lots: 22

Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: £839000

Pre Sale High Total Estimate: £1143000

Total Lots Sold: 16

Total Lots Bought In: 6

Buy In %: 27.27%

Total Sale Proceeds: £971050

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

Low Total Lots: 0

Low Sold: NA

Low Bought In: NA

Buy In %: NA

Total Low Estimate: £0

Total Low Sold: NA

Mid Total Lots: 12

Mid Sold: 9

Mid Bought In: 3

Buy In %: 25.00%

Total Mid Estimate: £193000

Total Mid Sold: £153750

High Total Lots: 10

High Sold: 7

High Bought In: 3

Buy In %: 13.33%

Total High Estimate: £950000

Total High Sold: £817300

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87.50% of the photo lots that sold had proceeds in or above their estimate. There was only one surprise in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate): lot 162, Louise Lawler, Musée de Nantes, 1987, at £30000. (Image at right, via Christie's.)
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The top lot by High estimate was lot 50, John Baldessari, Former Site of Duck Pond Bar, 3003 National City Blvd, National City, Calif, 1996, at £300000-400000; it sold for £265250. The top photo outcome of the two sales was lot 4, Gilbert & George, Cherry Blossom no. 9, 1974, at £325250. (Image at right, top, via Christie's.)

Complete lot by lot results can be found here (Evening) and here (Day).

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