Every Booth at the 2013 AIPAD Photography Show, Part 4 of 6

Start here for Part 1 of this series. It provides some background and explanation for what's going on in these lists.

Weinstein Gallery (here): Vera Lutter, $12000. This image (and the others in the series on the wall nearby) has some visual kinship with Kertész' famous picture, but introduces Lutter's own signature reversed out aesthetic to the composition.

David Zwirner (here): James Welling, $20000. Welling was fortunate to receive a solo show in such a prominently placed booth, right in front of the fair entrance. A pair of these stark black and white abstractions (that look almost like industrial girders) hung on the outside wall.

Catherine Edelman Gallery (here): Keliy Anderson-Staley, $1000-4400 each. This installation of modern tintype portraits was striking and personal. Proof that the use of an antique process need not seem old timey or preciously retro.

Weston Gallery (here): Paul Strand, $65000. Down in the weeds Strand is always worth a deliberate inspection.

 

Charles Isaacs Photographs, Inc. (here): Julia Margaret Cameron, POR. An iconic portrait, one of the true greats in the history of the medium. Rich, haunting, and penetrating. I didn't need to ask the price.

Laurence Miller Gallery (here): Ray K. Metzker, $125000. While nearly all of Metzker's composites are astonishing, this car and lamp image layers light and shadow into a gentle rhythm.

Gallery 19/21 (here): Mario Giacomelli, $9000. This looking straight down image by Giacomelli recalls Moholy-Nagy, with buildings flattened into tiny squares.

Paul M. Hertzmann Inc. (here): Imogen Cunningham, $150000. This was the best Cunningham floral at the fair. Irises aren't always exciting, but this one has a richness and luminosity that is extraordinary.

Staley-Wise Gallery (here): Richard Avedon, $30000. How to add motion to an otherwise static composition - the lively poof of Jean Shrimpton's hair.

Contemporary Works/Vintage Works (here): Raoul Ubac, POR. I haven't seen many Ubac prints so it was a treat to see this clashing, overlapped, solarized nude, the bodies seemingly all cut up and smashed together in a chaotic muddle.

Stephen Bulger Gallery (here): André Kertész, $4800, $35000, and $4800. An important reminder to keep those artist greeting cards.

Brancolini Grimaldi (here): Heidi Specker, £10000. Rough rock walls, flattened into texture and edges, or a hint of Siskind in a modern form.

ClampArt (here): Mark Morrisroe, $27500. Morrisroe's sandwich negative tribute to Diane Arbus, a lonely bird in a murky fog.

Robert Mann Gallery (here): Mike Mandel, $4000 each. A fun series of car window portraits, full of goofy faces and genuine warmth.

Continue to Part 5 here.

Ray K. Metzker and Ruth Thorne-Thomsen, Two of a Mind @Laurence Miller

JTF (just the facts): A two artist show containing a total of 40 black and white photographs by the husband and wife pairing of Ray K. Metzker and Ruth Thorne-Thomsen. The works are framed in white or blond wood and matted, and hung against white walls in the entry space and main gallery area. All of the photographs by Metzker (there are 23) are from the series Pictus Interruptus and are displayed in the main gallery space. They are vintage gelatin silver prints made between 1976 and 1981, sized either 11x14 or 16x20, and available in editions of 5, 15, 20, 25, or 30. The works by Thorne-Thomsen (there are 17) are from four different series: Expeditions, Door, Prima Materia, and Songs of the Sea and are on view in the entry area. They are toned vintage gelatin silver prints, sized 4x5, and available in editions of 25. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: While the premise of this show is that there are connections and relationships between the photographs of Ray K. Metzker and Ruth Thorne-Thomsen, the reality is that these are two very different bodies of work and aesthetic sensibilities. Yes, the two artists are married to each other, and yes, both have placed objects in front of the camera in these particular images, but that's where the superficial similarities end I think.

Metzker's Pictus Interruptus series is a masterful study of flat, two dimensional abstraction. Starting with something vaguely identifiable (a street sign, a gutter, a parking lot, a city view, a set of stairs, a marble faced wall), he has then quickly waved a piece of paper, a face in a magazine ad, a folded edge, or some other perforated object through the image area, creating blurred frenetic forms that interrupt the compositions. When juxtaposed with the original views, lines and angles slash through the frame, bright white trapezoids and dark fields of dots cutting in front of the found shapes. The result is images that mix crispness and softness, hard edged geometry with the passing glance of a model's eyes. They're restlessly inventive, unexpected, and routinely engrossing.

Thorne-Thomsen's intimate pinhole photographs are dark and dreamlike, full of oversized surreal heads, floating airships, silhouetted figures, and broad sweeps of land. Female statues perch on columns engulfed in fog, a man made of dots stands on a rocky seashore, and a hot-air balloon hovers near the Leaning Tower of Pisa. While these fabrications are indeed fanciful and unreal, their mystery seems a little too obvious and self-conscious to me. They successfully conjure up a mythical world, but from my perspective, it was almost like the artist was trying a little too hard to be magical.

Overall, this show is a quirky pairing, held together by a simple bonds but largely non-competitive. I think the Metzker abstractions continue to be visually challenging and exciting (even three decades later), largely due to their smart understanding and manipulation of the way a camera sees.

Collector's POV: The works in this show are priced as follows. The Metzker prints range in price from $7500 to $25000, based on the place in the edition. The Thorne-Thomsen prints are $4000 each. Metzker's work has only been intermittently available in the secondary markets over the years; recent prices have ranged between $1000 and $23000. Thorne-Thomsen's prints have not yet reached the second markets, so gallery retail is likely the best option for those collectors interested in following up on her work.

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

Transit Hub:

• Review: New Yorker (here)

Ray K. Metzker and Ruth Thorne-Thomsen, Two of a Mind
Through November 17th

Laurence Miller Gallery
20 West 57th Street
New York, NY 10019

Photography at the 2012 ADAA Art Show

The more art fairs I go to, the more I am coming around to measuring their "success" on just how many times I see something surprising or unexpected, rather than the usual mind numbing parade of work I've seen elsewhere. My overall impression of this year's ADAA Art Show is that there was more interesting/new photography to see than in past years. As usual, the booths were either solo shows or thematic groups of work, displayed with careful editing and meticulous attention to detail.

My notes from the fair are below, arranged alphabetically by gallery name. For each booth, a list of photographers has been provided, with the number of works on display in parentheses. Additional commentary, prices, and pictures of the installation are also included as appropriate.

Cheim & Read (here): Adam Fuss (4). These brand new works are much larger than Fuss' last series of entrail photograms and the colors are much brighter and more psychedelic (generally pink and purple). They're eye poppingly gestural and swirly. (priced at $65000 each).

James Cohan Gallery (here): Yinka Shonibare (1)

CRG Gallery (here): Ori Gersht (7). These exploding florals are huge and enveloping. Apparently, the bouquets are flash frozen so the petals shatter when they are detonated. There were 4 large prints (97x73) and 3 smaller prints (16x12) on view; the large prints were $50000 and the small ones were $8500.

Crown Point Press (here): Darren Almond (5)

Tibor de Nagy Gallery (here): Rudy Burckhardt (27, plus 3 sets of 4 and 1 video showing 8 films). This was an entire booth of Burckhardt's work. One wall was covered with portraits of painters in their studios (De Kooning, Pollock, Mitchell etc.). I enjoyed these two prints best - the starburst dress ($7000) and the dress with circles echoing the circles on the sidewalk ($6000).

Fraenkel Gallery (here): Lee Friedlander (8), paired with paintings by Mel Bochner. I didn't find this pairing to be particularly compelling.

Marian Goodman Gallery (here): Francesca Woodman (20 gelatin silver prints, 2 diazotypes). The Francesca Woodman frenzy has begun, with the Guggenheim retrospective opening up later this week. I'm fascinated by these large diazotype prints (images printed on blueprint paper) which have started to surface; I think their texture and soft tonality make them something special. This print was priced at $200000, but already sold; the standard gelatin silver prints were $32000 each.

Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery (here): Xaviera Simmons (3). I really liked these bodies covered in pictures, fabrics, and all kinds of thematically arranged collaged items; they were both sculptural and rebus-like. (priced at $12000 each).

Michael Kohn Gallery (here): Bruce Conner (1), Charles Brittin (1)

L&M Arts (here): John Baldessari (1 diptych, 1 set of 10, 1 set of 6, 1 set of 8, 1 set of 22). This entire booth was full of mid 1970s Baldessari conceptual works. In the image below, figures walking in various directions are led by overpainted red arrows indicating which way they are going. I thought it was fantastic. (priced at $725000).

Margo Leavin Gallery (here): William Leavitt (2 triptychs)

Lehmann Maupin (here): Mickalene Thomas (12 collaged photos)

Galerie Lelong (here): Catherine Yass (1), Rosemary Laing (1), Ana Mendieta (1 set of 6)

Jeffrey H. Loria & Co. (no website): Robert Mapplethorpe (1)

Luhring Augustine (here): Elad Lassry (5, plus 1 set of 3 and 1 sculpture)

McKee Gallery (here): Richard Learoyd (1)

Metro Pictures (here): Cindy Sherman (8 sets of 3, 1 set of 4, 2 sets of 6). This booth was entitled Cindy Sherman's Murder Mystery and gathered together a series of early cut-out collaged works. This was the kind of work I wanted to see more of in the MoMA retrospective. The little interconnected vignettes are quirky and melodramatic, with Sherman playing all the parts. (the sets of 3, 4, or 6 prints priced between $200000 and $400000).

Laurence Miller Gallery (here): Ray Metzker (15 composites). This booth was filled with an excellent range of Metzker composites (nudes, city/street scenes, abstractions, in various sizes). The image below is from a recent (2007) photogram series of florals, which I had never seen before, using interlocked strips; it was priced at $35000.

PPOW (here): David Wojnarowicz (1 set of 44, plus 3 on the outer wall)

Pace/MacGill Gallery (here): Robert Adams (1), Richard Misrach (2), Diane Arbus (1), Lee Friedlander (2), Paul Graham (1), William Eggleston (1), Alfred Stieglitz (3), Henry Wessel (2), Harry Callahan (1), Susan Paulsen (1), JoAnn Verburg (1). This booth was an ode to clouds.

Regen Projects (here): Elliott Hundley (8)

Skarstedt Gallery (here): Cindy Sherman (2)

Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects (here): Laurel Nakadate (1), Agnes Denes (1 group of 28 mounted together), Kunie Sugiura (1)

Donald Young Gallery (here): Rodney Graham (1), Moyra Davey (4)

Ray K. Metzker: Intimations @Laurence Miller

JTF (just the facts): A total of 45 black and white works, variously framed in black and white and matted, and hung in the entry space and main gallery area. 22 of the images are sized 8x10 and were taken between 1956 and 1981; these prints are a mix of primarily vintage and a few later prints, in varying edition sizes (unique, 2, 3, 5, 6, 10, 25). Another 8 of the images are printed slightly larger at 11x14, spanning the years 1964-1983; these are printed in editions of 3, 5, 20, 25, or 30. There are 6 composite works in the show, each with a date when the images were taken and another when they were assembled; the works on display come from 1964/1964, 1965/2002, 1964/2006 (2), 1963/2006, and 1965/2006. Most are unique, although one was made in an edition of 3; outside dimensions for these works range from 15x18 to 31x22. Finally, there are a group of 9 images each 16x20 from 1981-2004; they are printed in editions of 6, 10 or 25. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Congratulations for staying power and long term commitment are probably in order for Ray Metzker and Laurence Miller, who are partnering for an astounding 20th solo show at the gallery. This particular exhibit includes a dense sampler of images from Metzker's recent European retrospective Light Lines, which originated at the Musée de l'Elysée, Lausanne, in 2007, and traveled to a few additional locations.

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I've previously written plenty of times (see the links below) about Metzker's mastery of light and dark, the power of his blacks, his expert use of contrast, and the craftsmanship of his prints, so I won't rehash many of those same arguments and celebrations again here. What we have in this show is really "a little of this, a little of that": a few early urban images from Chicago, a couple of pictures from 1960s Europe, a few more from 1960s Philadelphia, a handful of composites and double frames, a few beach scenes, some 1970s New Mexico images, a Pictus Interruptus or two, some 1980s city scenes, and a handful of more recent landscapes and Philadelphia shots. As such, the exhibit steps back away from any particular project, and gives a more 50,000 foot view of the evolution of Metzker's photographic approach, highlighting both recurring themes (city sidewalks, solitary figures, shadows, multiple images) and new directions in appetizer-sized bites.

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Apart from a few newly composed composites of repeated figures against deep black backgrounds, I'm not sure there is much here that will be haltingly new for experienced Metzker supporters; there are just wasn't enough space in this small gallery to give each of these separate bodies of work room to breathe. But this in no way diminishes the consistent quality of the work on view or the richness and variety of Metzker's meticulous graphic control. There is roughly 50 years of innovative monochrome experimentation on these walls, a succinct summary of the development of a striking and underappreciated photographic vocabulary.

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Collector's POV: The prices for the works in this show are as follows. The 8x10s range in price from $6000 all the way to $55000, with many intermediate prices along the way. The 11x14s fall between $7500 and $35000, and the 16x20s range from $5000 to $12000. The composites are available between $35000 and $50000.

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Metzker's work was much more available in the secondary markets in 2010 than in most recent years. Prices ranged between $1000 and $10000. The most recent composite to be found at auction sold for $22500 in 2009.

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My favorite image in this show was the multiple exposure building abstraction, Chicago Loop, 1957; it's the image on the far right in the second installation shot. While we would certainly enjoy having a composite in our collection, the slashing lines of this early city scene would fit well with other images we already own.

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

• Review: New Yorker (here)
• Exhibit: The Photographs of Ray K. Metzker @Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2011 (here)
• Past Gallery Shows: AutoMagic (review here), Wanderings (review here)
• Book: Light Lines (review here)

Ray K. Metzker: Intimations

Through February 26th

Laurence Miller Gallery

20 West 57th Street

New York, NY 10019

Auction Results: Signature Vintage & Contemporary Photography Auction, December 3, 2010 @Heritage New York

While Heritage was able to draw more consignment dollars to its recent photography sale than ever before, the auction house continues to suffer from poor outcomes. With more than 60% of the lots that sold selling below their estimate ranges and a Buy-In rate over 30%, it is no wonder the Total Sale Proceeds missed the estimate range by a wide margin.

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

Total Lots: 196
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $616650
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $916800
Total Lots Sold: 132
Total Lots Bought In: 64
Buy In %: 32.65%
Total Sale Proceeds: $411281

Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post, here):
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Low Total Lots: 187
Low Sold: 124
Low Bought In: 63
Buy In %: 33.69%
Total Low Estimate: $714300
Total Low Sold: $288494
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Mid Total Lots: 9
Mid Sold: 8
Mid Bought In: 1
Buy In %: 11.11%
Total Mid Estimate: $202500
Total Mid Sold: $122786

High Total Lots: 0
High Sold: NA
High Bought In: NA
Buy In %: NA
Total High Estimate: $0
Total High Sold: NA

The top lot by High estimate is lot 74040, Ansel Adams, Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941/1978, at $30000-50000; it was also the top outcome of the sale at $35850.

A troubling 62.88% of the lots that sold had proceeds below their estimate. There were a total of three surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 74068, Garry Winogrand, JFK, Democratic National Convention, Los Angeles, 1960/1983, at $2629 (image at right, bottom via Heritage)
Lot 74133 Michael Kenna, Gondolas I, Venice, Italy, 1980/1981, at $4780 (image at right, middle, via Heritage)
Lot 74138, Ray Metzker, 86 GB-6, Colorado, from Earthly Delights, 1986, at $3346 (image at right, top, via Heritage)
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Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

Heritage Auctions
The Fletcher-Sinclair Mansion
2 East 79th Street
New York, NY 10075

Auction: Selections from the Baio Collection of Photography, April 15, 2010 @Christie's

One of the fascinating things about using a subject matter genre to organize a collection of photography is that once the collection grows large enough, a startling number of subcategories and relationships become possible, many more than you would ever imagine. Take this group of images of children from the extensive Baio collection: look closely at the catalogue and unexpected patterns will start to emerge - children in nature, children on city streets, children in bed, children at the beach, children with their parents, children as silhouettes, children as babies, children in posed portraits - the list goes on and on. A seemingly simple organizing framework like "children" has enormous possibilities for exploring a broad spectrum of photographic approaches, styles, and pictorial languages, cutting across extended time periods and widely different artists with ease. There are a total of 120 lots on offer in this auction with a total High estimate of $1080500. (Catalog cover at right, via Christie's website.)

Here's the statistical breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including $10000): 98
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): $536500

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between $10000 and $50000): 21
Total Mid Estimate: $394000

Total High Lots (high estimate above $50000): 1
Total High Estimate: $150000

The top lot by High estimate is lot 171, Eugène Atget, Joueur d'Orgue, 1898-1899, at $100000-150000. (Cover lot, above.)

Below is the list of photographers with 3 or more lots in the sale (with the number of lots in parentheses):

Henri Cartier-Bresson (6)
Sally Mann (5)
Helen Levitt (4)
Harry Callahan (3)
Bruce Davidson (3)
Philip-Lorca DiCorcia (3)
Lee Friedlander (3)
Lewis Hine (3)
Ralph Eugene Meatyard (3)
Ray Metzker (3)
Yoshitomo Nara (3)
Garry Winogrand (3)

While images of children don't fit into any of our specific collecting genres, I like the surprise of the girl with the balloon in the lower right hand corner of this Metzker multiple. (Lot 212, Ray Metzker, 59AF-1 (Chicago), 1959/1992, at $7000-9000, at right, via Christie's website.)

The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here. The eCatalogue is here.

Selections from the Baio Collection of Photography
April 15th

Christie's
20 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10020

2010 AIPAD Review, Part 3 of 4

Parts 1 and 2 of this multi-part AIPAD post can be found here and here.
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Laurence Miller Gallery (here): Helen Levitt (22), Stephane Couturier (2), Barbara Blondeau (3), Ray Metzker (11), Jan Dziackowski (3), Bruce Wrighton (3), Denis Darzacq (1), Burk Uzzle (3), Fred Herzog (2), plus 2 bins. I never tire of Metzker composites, and this one of nude silhouettes was spectacular; his recent abstracted reflections in car windows and hoods aptly named "Autowackies" were also worth a closer look. (Ray Metzker, Nude Composite, 1966/1982, at $125000.)

Robert Klein Gallery (here): Paulette Tavormina (3), Henri Cartier-Bresson (5 plus a glass case of books), Helen Levitt (2), Mario Giacomelli (3), Mark Cohen (8), Diane Arbus (1), Harry Callahan (2), Francesca Woodman (2), Ilse Bing (1), Edward Weston (3), Robert Steinberg (3), Victor Schrager (1), Arno Minkkinen (1), Jeff Brouws (9), Sebastiao Salgado (2), Lewis Hine (4). This booth was a broad mix of vintage and contemporary material. The Levitt phone booth below, with the child wearing striped sport socks squished against the expanse of patterned dress, is likely my favorite of her color images. (Helen Levitt, Untitled, New York, 1988, at $15000.)

Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery (here): Susanna Majuri (2), Bruce Davidson (3), Pertti Kekarainen (3), Hannu Karjalainen (6), Kalle Kataila (2), Ola Kolehmainen (1), Jim Campbell (1 lightbox), Shirley Shor (1 lightbox), Niko Luoma (2). This booth had echoes of the gallery's Armory show booth and its current Helsinki school exhibit, but I was most intrigued by the works by Jim Campbell and Shirley Shor - two more examples of the bleeding edge of contemporary photography. Campbell's crosswalk image looks static, but soon shadows of cars and pedestrians stream across and disappear, adding an elements of time and movement to a single frame. Shor's work shows the continuous assembly and disassembly of a portrait, with millions of pixels changing frenetically.

Monroe Gallery (here): Eddie Adams (1 triptych, 5 others), Bill Eppridge (3), Steve Schapiro (4), Irving Haberman (3), Mark Shaw (2), John Filo (1), Charles Moore (1), Jurgen Schadeberg (1), Stanley Forman (1), Carl Iwasaki (1), Bob Gomel (1), Vivian Cherry (1), Ida Wyman (1), Stephen Wilkes (5), plus 2 bins. This booth was filled with top quality photojournalism, and the image below from the aftermath of the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy shows how a photograph can be tranformed into an amazing artifact - the only remaining original master print of this poignant moment has been ravaged by fire. (Bill Eppridge, Burned Master Shot of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Ambassador Hotel Kitchen, Los Angeles, CA, June 5, 1968, for museum consideration.)

Rick Wester Fine Art (here): Sharon Harper (1), Irving Penn (4), Josef Sudek (1), Emmet Gowin (2), Jehsong Baak (3), Pinar Yolaçan (3), Harry Callahan (1), Frank Gohlke (1), Jeff Mermelstein (8), Meghan Boody (2), Louis Faurer (portfolio), Garry Winogrand (portfolio), Aaron Siskind (portfolio). I first saw Pinar Yolaçan's powerful portraits at the ICP Dress Codes show, and I continue to think they are among the most startling and memorable contemporary images I have seen recently. (Pinar Yolaçan, Untitled, 2007, at $5000.)

Deborah Bell Photographs (here): William Eggleston (1), Marcia Resnick (8), Geroge Gardiner (4), Vito Acconci (2), Robert Frank (1), Esther Bubley (1), August Sander (3), Susan Paulsen (4), Sid Kaplan (2), Louis Faurer (3), Harry Callahan (1), Tod Papageorge (1), Garry Winogrand (1), Gerard Petrus Fieret (4), Man Ray (1), André Kertész (1), Brassaï (1).

Stephen Daiter Gallery (here): Paul D'Amato (5), Helen Levitt (1), Joe Schwartz (1), Barbara Morgan (1), Marvin Newman (3), Lewis Hine (1), Sid Grossman (2), Andre Kertesz (5), Aaron Siskind (2), Art Sinsabaugh (1), Gyorgy Kepes (1), Harry Callahan (1), Frederick Sommer (1), Kenneth Jospehson (3), Walter Peterhans (1), Wayne Miller (1), Irving Penn (1), Ralph Eugene Meatyard (1), Heinrich Kuhn (1), Brassai (1), Barbara Crane (4), Lynne Cohen (1), Barbara Kasten (1). I think Art Sinsabaugh's thin panoramic landscapes and cityscapes have aged very well and are generally underappreciated; I liked the radiating lines of the tilled furrows in this particular work. (Art Sinsabaugh, Midwestern Landscape #34, 1962, at $25000.)

Stephen Bulger Gallery (here): Richard Harrington (1), Jean Louis Blondeau (1), Dave Heath (2), André Kertész (3, 1 group of 5, and 9 Polaroids), Helen Levitt (1), Lutz Dille (1), Sarah Anne Johnson (1 triptych and 1), Gilbert Garcin (2), Les Krims (1), George Zimbel (1), Henri Cartier-Bresson (1), Bertrand Carriere (1), Eliane Excoffier (3), Alison Rossiter (3), Fausta Facciponte (1), Harry Waddle (1), Erin O'Neill Haydn (1), Robert Bourdeau (2), Volker Seding (1), Scott Conarroe (1), Sanaz Mazinani (1), Jeff Thomas (1), John Vanderpant (1), Mark Ruwudel (1). This was a packed, "one of each" booth; I liked the concentric circles and shadows of the Vanderpant pipes best. (John Vanderpant, Untitled (Drainpipes), c1930, at $10000.)

Bruce Silverstein Gallery (here): Randy West (2), John Wood (3), Frederick Sommer (12), Nathan Lyons (5), Leonard Freed (6), Rosalind Solomon (6), Dorothea Lange (3), Barbara Morgan (3), Michael Wolf (1), Todd Hido (2), Edward Weston (3), Aaron Siskind (3), Brett Weston (1). The three variants of Sommer's portrait of Livia were the standouts in this booth.

Danziger Projects (here): Robert Mapplethorpe (1), Annie Liebovitz (2), George Tice (1), Viviane Sassen (3), Paul Fusco (1), Mario Sorrenti (1), Jim Krantz (1), Christopher Bucklow (1), Julia Margaret Cameron (1), Cosmo Innes (1), Edward Weston (2), Seydou Keita (2), Ezra Stoller, (2), Adam Fuss (1), plus 2 bins. With its elegant simplicity, this has always been one of my favorite Mapplethorpe nudes. (Robert Mapplethorpe, Lydia Cheng, 1987/1990, at $55000.)

Galerie Baudoin Lebon (here): Nadar (1), Adolphe Braun (1), Edouard Baldus (1), Louis-Alphonse Dauanne (1), Francois Merille (1), Eugène Atget (2), Autochromes (2), Paolo Gasparini (6), Leo Matiz (1), Alberto Korda (1), Sameer Makarius (1), Barbara Brandli (6), JB Greene (2), Jacques-Henri Lartigue (1), Constantin Brancusi (2). There was a terrific wall of black and white images from 1970s Caracas in this booth. There was also a nice Atget shopfront with ghostly figures bustling past on the sidewalk. (Paolo Gasparini, Car + Soto, Caracas, 1968, at $5000.)

Picture Photo Space (here): Kunihiko Katsumata (8), Issei Suda (4), Hiroshi Osaka (5), Nobuyoshi Araki (4), Diane Arbus (1), Eikoh Hosoe (1), Helmut Newton (1), Garry Winogrand (1), Sally Mann (2), and a few others that weren't marked.

Barry Singer Gallery (here): Brigitte Carnochan (1), Irene Fay (1), Berenice Abbott (1), Jack Welpott (2), Dave Heath (2), Eugene Smith (3), Lou Stoumen (2), Edward Weston (1), Weegee (1), Carlotta Corpon (1), Laura Gilpin (1), Marc Riboud (1), Minor White (1), Brett Weston (2), Clarence John Laughlin (1), Lloyd Ullberg (1), André Kertész (1), Wynn Bullock (1), Ansel Adams (1), Irving Penn (1), Anne Brigman (1), Jan Saudek (1), Don Jim (4), Michael Garlington (2), Gyorgy Kepes (1), Edmund Teske (1), Kenneth Josephson (1). This was another excellent Minor White that I hadn't seen before or had forgotten; the range of tonalities was masterful. (Minor White, Parking Lot, San Francisco, from Sequence 9, 1952, at $15000.)

Continue to Part 4 here.

Ray K. Metzker, AutoMagic @Laurence Miller

JTF (just the facts): A total of 52 black and white works, alternately framed in black and white and matted, and hung in the entry space and main gallery area. 32 of the images are 8x10s and were taken between 1958 and 1965; these prints are a mix of primarily vintage and a few later prints, in varying edition sizes (5, 20, 25). A small group of images (5) are printed slightly larger at 11x14, spanning a wider number of years (1960-1989); these are also printed in editions of 5 and 20. There are 3 composite works in the show: one from 1965, another from 1964/1984, and a third from 1965/2002; they are 32x24, 30x22, and 18x24 respectively. Finally, there are a group of 12 recent images printed 16x20 from 2004-2009; they are printed in editions of 10. A new limited edition book of this body of work (also entitled AutoMagic) has been published by Only Photography (here) and is available from the gallery for $200. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Ray Metzker is clearly one the masters of photographic contrast. His careful control of the interplay of dark and light, and his understanding of the power of deep shadow and blackness to create drama in an image have made his work distinctive and original for more than 50 years. This terrific show brings together Metzker's images of automobiles from across his long career. With this subject, Metzker uses the curves and lines of the cars to create exciting compositions and finds unexpected abstractions in the reflective surfaces of paint, glass and chrome.

The show is loosely divided into groups of common details: car fragments, snow covered cars, parking lots, cars on the street, people in cars, cars from the side, multiples of cars, architecture reflected in cars, etc. The early works from Chicago and Philadelphia are extremely dark (the night views are often noir-ish), punctuated by a few small lines of white, a simple silhouette, or small patches of glare from a street light. The thick blacks are velvety and enveloping, with only the highlights coming forth to define the pictures.

The more recent images (nicknamed Autowackies) stay in the middle grey tones a bit more, but explode with complex reflections and refractions; adjacent buildings become intersecting wallpapers of grids and windows, densely applied to windshields, hoods, and expanses of curved metal. The pared down simplicity of his earlier work has given way to more exuberant clashes and cacophony.
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Metzker's composites continue to be my favorite of his various projects. In two of the works on display in this show, the repetition of hundreds of tiny images (arrayed in strips) creates a fascinating all over patterning of black and white; only up close can the actual content of the variant images be grasped. The third composite uses multiple exposures to create layers of upside down geometries, ghostlike in their see-through overlaps.

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Overall, the quality of the work in this show is consistently high. The installation effectively sets up sub themes and allows the work to show wide ranges of variation and experimentation within these constructs. They're all cars, but as fodder for Metzker, this routine subject seems limitless.
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Collector's POV: The prices for the works in this show are as follows. Most of the vintage 8x10s are priced at $6000, although there are a few in this size that range higher: $9500, $10000, $15000, $18000, and even $45000; the later prints are $4000. The 11x14s are priced between $4000 and $10000. The three composites are $75000, $48000, and $50000. The recent 16x20s are $5000 each.

Metzker's work is not consistently available in the secondary markets, and as such, the price history is spotty. While a range for the past few years does exist (approximately $1000 to $8000), I don't think it is particularly representative of the real market for his under appreciated work. This past fall, a Metzker composite was sold at Christie's for $22500; this was the first quality Metzker I had seen at auction in quite a long time. We continue to consider Metzker a photographer that belongs in our collection, and there are plenty of works in this exhibit that could be made to fit into our collecting genres, given their level of abstraction.

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

Transit Hub:

• Light Lines: DLK COLLECTION review (here), 5B4 review (here)

Ray K. Metzker, AutoMagic
Through January 9th

Laurence Miller Gallery
20 West 57th Street
New York, NY 10019

Auction: The Miller-Plummer Collection of Photographs, October 8, 2009 @Christie's

While certainly any collector's definition of a good auction is one that includes the specific material that interests him/her, I must admit that beyond our personal affinities, I thoroughly enjoy single owner sales. I think that this is because I am intensely interested in the process of collecting, of how collectors weigh options and make choices, how they search, and hunt, and look, and educate themselves, eventually culminating in laying down their hard earned money for those certain images that move them the most. Every single collection is a unique gathering, the objects often connected by less than obvious ideas and emotional responses. I also think there is a lot to be learned from collectors who have been at it for decades; this is why we are always searching out experienced collectors who will talk with us, and tell us their secrets, even if our tastes for work are entirely different. The parallels are not in the end points, but in the thinking in between.

This collection was put together over a period of about 20 years, starting in 1973, culminating in an exhibition called Particulars at the George Eastman House in 1983. As far as private collections go, I haven't seen too many as diverse and nondogmatic as this one; how many collections can you name that include unknown daguerreotypists, a heavy dose of known and unknown 19th century material, Moholy-Nagy photograms, and 1970s Robert Heinecken? I like this unconventional heterogeneity; it says that the two collectors were not unnecessarily bound by convention or fashion, but sought out the exceptional or extraordinary (in their eyes) in whatever form it might take.

The sale itself has more 19th century material than we normally see in the main flow of the New York auction season; more than 45% of the lots on offer are dated before 1900. Overall, there are a total of 118 lots up for sale, with a total High estimate of $1746200. (Catalog cover at right.)

Here's the breakdown:

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Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including $10000): 74

Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): $444200

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between $10000 and $50000): 35

Total Mid Estimate: $672000

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

Total High Estimate: $630000

The top lot by High estimate is lot 547, a complete set of Camera Work, Numbers 1-49/50, 1903-1917, at $90000-120000.

Given the eclectic nature of this sale, there are quite a few unexpected surprises buried amidst the lots, many of which would fit well with our own collection. Here are a few we found of interest:

Lot 506 Anna Atkins, Polypodium Dryopteris, 1850-1854

Lot 560 Baron Adolph De Meyer, Water Lilies, c1906
Lot 564 Circle of Anna Atkins, Paris Arguta, from The Hatton Fern Album, c1850 (cover lot)

Lot 581 Margaret Bourke-White, The Bridge, Russia, 1930

Lot 582 Karl Struss, Metropolitan Life Insurance Tower, New York, 1909 (at right, middle)

Lot 583 Berenice Abbott, Downtown Manhattan from West Street below Rector, Manhattan, August 12, 1936

Lot 586 Daguerreotypist Unknown, Draped nude, c1860

Lot 597 A. Aubry Bodine, Steel and Shadows, Abstraction, c1951 and Baltimore Train Yard, c1946

Lot 614 Ray Metzker, Untitled, 1983-1984 (at right, bottom)
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The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here. The eCatalogue is located here.

The Miller-Plummer Collection of Photographs

October 8th

Christie's

20 Rockefeller Plaza

New York, NY 10020