Auction: Photographs, May 8, 2013 @Phillips London

The spring auction season in London gets going next week, starting with Phillips' various owner Photographs sale Wednesday. It's a broad, primarily mid-range sale, with few major anchor pieces or unexpected treasures. Overall, there are a total of 123 lots of photography available in the sale, with a Total High Estimate of £1676500.

Here's the statistical breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including £5000): 49
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): £182500

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between £5000 and £25000): 59
Total Mid Estimate: £714000

Total High Lots (high estimate above £25000): 15
Total High Estimate: £780000

The top photography lot by High estimate is lot 32, Nobuyoshi Araki, 77 works, n.d., estimated at £100000-120000. (Image at right, top, via Phillips.)

Here is the short list of the photographers who are represented by four or more lots in the sale (with the number of lots in parentheses):

Robert Mapplethorpe (7)
Henri Cartier-Bresson (4)
Horst P. Horst (4)
David LaChapelle (4)

Other lots of interest include lot 39, Germaine Krull, Selected images, 1923-1927, estimated at £10000-15000 (image at right, middle), and lot 97, Adam Fuss, Untitled, 2006, estimated at £15000-20000 (image at right, bottom, both via Phillips).

The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here.

Photographs
May 8th

Phillips
Howick Place
London SW1P 1BB

Auction Results: Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening and Day Auctions, February 16 and 17, 2011 @Christie's King Street

Christie's had a generally positive response to the photography buried in its two Contemporary Art sales in London last week. While three of the top lots passed, the overall Buy-In rate was under 20%, and the Total Sale Proceeds covered the low end of the range. The high priced Gursky sold in its range, adding nearly £1 million to the overall results.

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

Total Lots: 41

Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: £2677000

Pre Sale High Total Estimate: £3920000

Total Lots Sold: 33

Total Lots Bought In: 8

Buy In %: 19.51%

Total Sale Proceeds: £2897800

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

Low Total Lots: 1

Low Sold: 1

Low Bought In: 0

Buy In %: 0.00%

Total Low Estimate: £4000

Total Low Sold: £10625

Mid Total Lots: 23

Mid Sold: 18

Mid Bought In: 5

Buy In %: 21.74%

Total Mid Estimate: £351000

Total Mid Sold: £330975

High Total Lots: 17

High Sold: 14

High Bought In: 3

Buy In %: 17.65%

Total High Estimate: £3565000

Total High Sold: £2556200

The top lot by High estimate was lot 17, Andreas Gursky, Untitled V, 1997, at £800000-1200000; it was also the top outcome of the sale at £937250.

100.00% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above their estimate. There were a total of four surprises in these sales (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 136, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Boden Sea, Uttwil, 1993, at £43250 (image at right, top, via Christie's)

Lot 138, Roni Horn, Still Water (The River Thames for Example), 1999, at £34850 (image at right, middle, via Christie's)

Lot 297, Tunga, A Vanguarda Viperina, 1985, at £22500
Lot 306, Nobuyoshi Araki, Untitled, 2007, at £10625 (image at right, bottom, 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

Provocateurs of Japanese Photography @Cullen

JTF (just the facts): A group show of 7 Japanese photographers, including films, books, and photographs, variously framed and matted, and hung in the single room gallery space. The show includes a total of 17 photographic pieces (some made up of multiple images), 1 group of 5 videos, and 5 books/ephemera in a glass case in the center of the gallery. (Installation shots at right.)

The following artists have been included in the exhibit; the number of works on display and their details are provided as background:

• Nobuyoshi Araki: 2 black and white works framed in black and matted; 1 diptych, 25x36 framed together as a single piece, from 1989, and 1 single image, 20x24, from 2004-2005.
• Tomoko Sawada: 2 works; 1 large c-print mounted on Plexi, 40x40, in an edition of 10, from 2007, and 1 group of 20 c-prints, framed together as one piece, in an edition of 30, from 2007.
• Ryoko Suzuki: 4 c-prints, framed in black with no mat, each 20x24, in editions of 10, from 1999/2001.
• Shuji Terayama: 2 Lamdba digital prints, framed in black and matted, each 14x17, in editions of 20, from 1976-1978, printed in 2009; also 1 video screen showing 5 films from 1964-1977; in the glass case, there is 1 book and a group of postcards (from a set of 20)
• Katsumi Watanabe: 4 gelatin silver prints, framed in grey and matted, each 12x10, from 1966-1972. In the glass case, there are two books.
• Miwa Yanagi: 4 c-prints hung together as one work, framed in black and matted, 32x24 overall, in an edition of 20.
• Kohei Yoshiyuki: 2 gelatin silver prints, framed in white and matted, each 16x20, in editions of 10, from 1971/1979. In the glass case, there are 2 books.

Comments/Context: This small group show has a simple but intriguing construct: take a handful of works from a selection of well known Japanese photographers from the 1970s/1980s era (all men in this case) and juxtapose these pictures with another sample of Japanese photography from contemporary times (all women in this case) to see how "provocative" artistic approaches and subject matter have evolved over the decades.

The 1970s works on display all address the issues of conservatism and conformity as they are rigidly imposed by Japanese society, and how certain individuals challenge these tacit codes of conduct by deviating from the conventional norms, oftentimes in ways that seem perverse to the masses. Yoshiyuki voyeuristically captures illicit liaisons in the park at night, Watanabe chronicles the lives of gang members and drag queens in Kabukicho, and Araki documents his bondage fetishes for women.

The more recent work touches on many of these same themes, but with a more feminist perspective. Yanagi examines women's roles and traditional occupations in her Elevator Girls (leaving a pool of blood behind in this instance), Suzuki harshly binds herself with ropes soaked in her own blood and covers her face with waxy silicone, and Sawada takes on a dizzying array of freakishly girly personas. In all three, the element of performance and role playing comes through clearly, where the women are trapped (mockingly or seriously) in established behaviors imposed by society. Having recently seen the big Pictures by Women show at the MoMA, any one of these three photographers would have fit into that exhibit seamlessly.

Taken together, the show does a nice back and forth between the two groups of artists, surveying the many responses both men and women have employed to fight the sometimes stifling brittleness of Japanese society, showing how different artists have reacted against these ties, exposed thier flaws, and tried to break free from the uniformity.

Collector's POV: The works in this show are priced as follows:

• Nobuyoshi Araki: the diptych is $11500, the single print is $7000
• Tomoko Sawada: the large piece is $5200, the smaller array is $4500
• Ryoko Suzuki: $1500 each
• Shuji Terayama: the prints are $2500 each; the book is $750; the postcard set is $80; I didn't get prices for the films
• Katsume Watanabe: either $4500 or $6500 each; I didn't get prices for the books
• Miwa Yanagi: $20000 as one piece
• Kohei Yoshiyuki: $9975 each; the books are $300 or $350 each

Of these artists, only Araki and Yanagi have any kind of consistent secondary market history. Araki's works are often available at auction, usually pricing between $1000 and $5000, though there have been some individual works as high as $45000; multi image collections/arrays have reached much higher. Yanagi's prints have been more scarce and have ranged in price between $4000 and $18000.

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

Transit Hub:

• Ryoko Suzuki artist site (here)
• Miwa Yanagi artist page (here)

Provocateurs of Japanese Photography

Films, Books, and Photographs

Through June 30th

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Kathleen Cullen Fine Arts
526 West 26th Street
New York, NY 10001

Auction Results: Photographs, May 20, 2010 @Phillips London

The results for the Photographs sale at Phillips in London last week were generally solid, if somewhat unremarkable. The buy-in rate was just over 30% and the total sale proceeds covered the total Low estimate.

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

Total Lots: 127
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: £842500
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: £1166500
Total Lots Sold: 86
Total Lots Bought In: 41
Buy In %: 32.28%
Total Sale Proceeds: £901375

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

Low Total Lots: 57
Low Sold: 40
Low Bought In: 17
Buy In %: 29.82%

Total Low Estimate: £173500
Total Low Sold: £143000

Mid Total Lots: 61
Mid Sold: 40
Mid Bought In: 21
Buy In %: 34.43%
Total Mid Estimate: £628000
Total Mid Sold: £464575

High Total Lots: 9
High Sold: 6
High Bought In: 3
Buy In %: 33.33%
Total High Estimate: £365000
Total High Sold: £293800

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The top lot by High estimate was lot 54, Robert Mapplethorpe, X, Y, Z Portfolios, 1977/1978, at £60000-80000; it was also the top outcome of the sale at £73250.

93.02% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above their estimate. There were a total of 7 surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 1, Sebastiao Salgado, Dinka man at cattle camp of Kei, Southern Sudan, 2006, at £16250

Lot 14, Terry O'Neill, Michael Caine and Bob Hoskins, Reynold's Revue Bar, London, 1985/Later, at £10000

Lot 22, Nobuyoshi Araki, Untitled, 1986/2003, at £6875 (image at right, top, via Phillips)

Lot 58, Andre Kertesz, Untitled, 1979, at £8125

Lot 86, Julius Shulman, Case Study #22, Los Angeles, Pierre Koenig, Architect, 1960/Later, at £4875

Lot 115, Rene Burri, Sao Paolo, Brazil, 1960/2000, at £6000

Lot 121, Cornell Capa, Bolshoi Ballet School, Moscow, 1958/2001, at £5250

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Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

Phillips De Pury & Company
Howick Place
London SW1P 1BB

Nobuyoshi Araki, A/Film @Yoshii

JTF (just the facts): A single large work, made up of 1050 transparent color positives, each approximately 2x3 inches with black borders, displayed together edge to edge in a large 2 panel array, between two panes of glass and framed in stainless steel. The work was made in 2007. The array is displayed in a very small, windowless, single room gallery. While I didn't get exact dimensions, the piece is approximately 6x10 feet, and viewable from both sides. (Installation shot below.)

Comments/Context: Nobuyoshi Araki is undoubtedly one of the most prolific photographers in the history of the medium. Given his propensity to expose roll after roll, it is perhaps not unexpected that at some point he would move beyond the single picture and explore new ways to display multiple images simultaneously. Rather than composite them digitally, Araki has used a decidedly old school approach: take the color positives themselves and sandwich them between glass.

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The individual images themselves span the range of Araki's signature subjects: nudes, geishas, bondage scenes, flowers, and lizards, mixed together with Tokyo city scenes, nights of karaoke, and cloud filled skies. The effect of seeing all of these pictures crammed together is to conclude that Araki's approach borders on the manic, an endless repetition of similar ideas coursing through his head. The sequencing creates waves and rhythms, where the dozen or so subject matter types cycle past over and over, all in vivid color.

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Overall, this work left me conflicted. On one hand, Araki's artistic vision is so unique and unusual, this kind of object could not possibly be made by anyone else. It is provocative and challenging and often beautiful. On the other hand, I had the uneasy feeling that Araki has fallen into a rut, taking the same pictures he's been taking for years now, without many new explorations or innovations. We've seen this Araki before, only now it's been multiplied by 1000.

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One practical problem with this work is that, as installed, the images at ankle level and below are nearly impossible to see without sitting down on the floor (which I eventually did). Similarly, if one were to suspend it in the air so the lower images were more visible, the higher images would then be out of reach. Since the work doesn't resolve into anything but a mosaic of pixels at any kind of distance, one needs to get up close to inspect the individual images, but somehow the sizing isn't quite right to make that easy.

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One additional side note: the Yoshii Gallery website has no mention of this exhibit (and seems dated/unmaintained), but don't be confused by this. The work is indeed on display, even if it is poorly advertised.

Collector's POV: The work on display in this show is priced at $450000. A similar though smaller work from the same series, A/Film #2, 2006, sold at Phillips London in 2008 for £90500.

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

Transit Hub:

• Review of this show: ArtSlant (here)
• NY Times T Magazine video interview with Araki (here)
• 2009 show at Anton Kern, review by DLK COLLECTION (here)

Nobuyoshi Araki, A/Film

Through June 26th

Yoshii Gallery
980 Madison Avenue

New York, NY 10075

Nobuyoshi Araki @Kern

JTF (just the facts): A total of 305 black and white prints from three different projects, displayed in the main gallery space. Ginza (1963-1972) is comprised of 212 prints, each 14x17 or reverse, pinned directly to the wall, shown in three large grids. Subway (1963-1972) includes 80 prints, each 8x10, pinned behind plexiglass but not framed, arrayed in small series and groups along one wall. Untitled (1970) is made up of 13 small prints (5 1/2x4 1/2), framed in brown and lined up on an interior wall. (Installation shots at right: Ginza, top, Subway, middle, Untitled, bottom.)

Comments/Context: Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki has been making provocative and challenging pictures for nearly 40 years. His erotic nudes and bondage photographs, along with his sensual painted flowers, have often been called shocking and outrageous, sometimes even pornographic. He is one of the most productive and prolific photographers of all time, producing literally hundreds of books of his tantalizing work.

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The exhibit of Araki's work currently on view at Anton Kern goes back to the beginning of his career and examines some of his first projects from the 1960s and 1970s, before he fully embraced his mature style. Here we find him shooting roll after roll on the streets and in the subways, testing framing techniques and camera angles. The Ginza series, taken on the streets of the fashionable shopping district, are mostly contrasty head shots and tight close ups, dark and indirect. He captures his subjects in both traditional and Western dress, with a sense of style that is reminiscent of William Klein. There are plenty of shadows, but these streets are not gritty, they are glamorous. And while not every shot is a winner on its own, as a group, the images show an evolving working style and energetic eye, telling a well rounded story of this particular place and its people.

In the Subway pictures, Araki follows in the footsteps of Walker Evans, shooting multiple frames of bored travelers and commuting salary men riding the crowded trains. These pictures have more narrative to them, displayed in groups of several images, allowing the viewer to watch a scene unfold over a short time window. The Untitled images show us the beginnings of Araki's more erotic vision. In these pictures, the same thin framed woman, with an oval face and big round eyes reminiscent of an anime character, is photographed in various nude poses, from demure to direct.

This exhibit broke many of my preconceived notions and pigeon holes for Araki's work and made a compelling argument that his talents are much broader than generally perceived. Even if you are not a fan of Araki's more recognizable images, this is a well constructed show that brings forth some thought provoking historical precedents for his later work.

The artist's website (in Japanese) can be found here.

Collector's POV: The Ginza images in the show are contemporary prints, retailing for $4400 each. The Subway series images are also contemporary prints and are $2800 each, sold individually and/or in groups of up to 8. The Untitled images are unique prints, $3300 each. Given that Araki has been so prolific, his work is readily available in a variety of secondary markets. At auction, his larger works are generally selling for under $10000, most for less than $5000. We have even seen Araki's one off Polaroids of nudes and flowers on EBay, going for under $500. Many of his books have become collector's items as well, fetching $1000 and up for the rarer titles. For our particular collection, we have been tempted to put together a small grid of Araki's painted flowers, especially those in wild colors.

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

Araki

Through February 7

Anton Kern Gallery

532 West 20th Street

New York, NY 10011

More Araki at Modern Art Obsession here.