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

Martin Munkacsi, Vitality @Greenberg

JTF (just the facts): A total of 25 prints, 17 vintage prints from the 1920s and 1930s in the book alcove, and another 8 later prints (mostly fashion) in one of the side viewing rooms. The images are framed in white and matted. (Installation shot at right.)

Comments/Context: Hungarian photographer Martin Munkacsi's images were, and still are, all about action. In this small show at Howard Greenberg (concurrent with the other Munkacsi exhibit now on view at the ICP here), models and subjects are running, swimming, skiing, dancing, and walking this way and that, constantly in motion. Two small wall texts with quotes by Richard Avedon and Henri Cartier-Bresson are reminders of Munkacsi's influence on a generation of photographers who came after him. Whether we categorize these images as fashion, portraiture, or sport, they all combine speed with glamour to create dynamic tension and moments of authentic joy.

Collector's POV: The vintage prints in this show are priced between $10000 and $40000; the later prints are either $1200 or $1500. Prices at auction have been very similar to these ranges, with later prints in large editions (40 or 50) consistently selling for under $2000, and vintage prints ranging from $10000 to nearly $50000. For our particular collection, the more recognizable Munkacsi fashion and motion images aren't a great fit; we'd like to find a simple Munkacsi nude (not the parasol nude), but so far, we haven't found just the right one.

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

Martin Munkacsi, Vitality

Through May 16th

Howard Greenberg Gallery

41 East 57th Street

Suite 1406

New York, NY 10022

Munkacsi's Lost Archive @ICP

JTF (just the facts): A total of 34 black and white images, often hung as groups of related images, installed in a single room on the lower level of the museum. The exhibit also includes 4 of the negatives on a light table, 3 glass displays containing magazines, and one window case holding a large number of stacked negative boxes, complete with handwritten titles/subjects. All of the negatives are from the 1930s and 1940s; the prints are modern. (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, [Peignoir in a light breeze], 1936, is at right.)

Comments/Context: The Hungarian photographer Martin Munkacsi died in 1963, and until recently, it was thought that his negative archive was lost. In an "only on the Internet" kind of story (uncorroborated by me by the way), the entire archive of his years at Harper's Bazaar supposedly came up for sale on eBay, and Brian Wallis, head curator at the ICP, went out to Connecticut and bought the boxes containing 4000 glass negatives in one fell swoop.

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The small exhibit that has been drawn from these negatives is very process focused. It highlights how Munkacsi selected a negative and then cropped it down in multiple forms before finally arriving at the image that would run in a magazine. In contrast to Steichen's stately controlled poses (shown in the adjacent galleries), Munkacsi often shot outdoors and emphasized movement, exemplified by a series of images of woman in a windy car, her hair blowing all over the place. His tight cropping helped make many of the images much stronger.

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Overall, this exhibit is a bit thin and loose, diluting the points about Munkacsi's contributions to fashion photography; perhaps more time is needed to dig out the gems hidden in all the boxes.

Collector's POV: Munkasci's work is generally available at auction, ranging anywhere from a few thousand dollars on the low end, up to nearly $50000 at the top. For our collection, we would be interested in finding a vintage Munkacsi nude (he made some terrific ones), but these works haven't been readily available in the past few years, so we're still out there looking.

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

Munkacsi's Lost Archive

Through May 3

International Center of Photography

1133 Avenue of the Americas

New York, NY 10036