Legacy: Photographs from the Emily Fisher Landau Collection @Aldrich

JTF (just the facts): A total of 23 black and white and color photographs, variously framed and matted, and hung against white walls in a series of three connected rooms on the second floor of the museum. All of the works come from the collection of Emily Fisher Landau, and were made between 1980 and 2004. The exhibit also includes a camera obscura room. A catalog of the collection was published by Yale University Press in 2011 (here). There is no photography allowed in the galleries, so the installation shots at right are courtesy of the museum's Flickr page.

The following artists/photographers have been included in the exhibit, with the number of works and print details as background:

• Richard Artschwager: 1 sculpture/photographs mounted on wood, 2002
• Matthew Barney: 1 chromogenic print in self-lubricating frame, 2002
• Keith Cottingham: 1 digital chromogenic print, 2004
• Lynn Davis: 1 gold-toned gelatin silver print, 2000/2002
• Philip-Lorca diCorcia: 1 chromogenic print mounted on Plexiglas, 2000
• John Dugdale: 1 hand-coated cyanotype, 1994
• Nan Goldin: 1 silver dye bleach print, 1994
• Rodney Graham: 1 chromogenic print, 1990
• Robert Longo: 1 silver dye bleach print, 1980/1998
• Vera Lutter: 1 gelatin silver print, 1996
• Robert Mapplethorpe: 1 gelatin silver print, 1988
• Abelardo Morell: 1 gelatin silver print, 2003
• Shirin Neshat: 3 silver dye bleach prints, 2002
• Victoria Sambunaris: 1 chromogenic print mounted on aluminum, 2002
• Lorna Simpson: 2 gelatin silver prints in framed with plaque, 1991
• Kiki Smith, 4 chromogenic prints, 2000-2001
• Hiroshi Sugimoto: 1 gelatin silver print, 1994

Comments/Context: Back in 2010, long-time trustee Emily Fisher Landau made a major donation of 367 artworks to the Whitney Museum. Selections from that massive gift have toured around to many smaller museums in the United States in the past few years, and this particular show pulls out a very small subset, focusing on some of the photography to be found in the collection. If this group of works can be taken as any guide, Fisher Landau's approach to contemporary photography has been to employ the "solid example from key figures" method, gathering an impressive list of important names and singular works. While the show is loosely organized into rooms of images with people, those without, and a handful of works related to the camera obscura room that has been installed as part of the exhibit, in essence, it's really more of a parade of exemplary photographs from the 1990s and early 2000s.

 

If a collection is built without a rigid thematic or conceptual structure/system to connect the various artworks together (as most collections are), the only way to look at it critically is to ask, for each individual artist selection, "did the collector pick a superlative example of the artist's work"? In general, I think there are some terrific choices on view here, many which would be considered among the best work done by that artist. There as an enormous, wall dominating, upside down tree by Rodney Graham, smartly flanked by a large Vera Lutter of the Fulton ferry landing with the Twin Towers in the distance. Other standout choices include the late Mapplethorpe self portrait (with skull head cane), the Sugimoto wax museum royal family, the Longo jerking suited man from Men in the Cities, and the Morell camera obscura image taken in the Whitney itself.

 

There are also a few less obvious selections which point to some inspired risk taking. Nan Goldin's swarm of cherry blossoms in Tokyo isn't exactly representative of her work, but is still quietly enchanting. Matthew Barney's array of Chryslers from the Cremaster series lacks the bold originality of many of the scenes from that project, but is nonetheless subtly surreal. And Richard Artschwager's child in a high chair sculpture wouldn't necessarily be considered photography, except that its blocky form is constructed by straight on photographs from every angle, creating a smart multi-perspective portrait.

 

So while it's hard to draw a line that connects all of the works on view here into a coherent whole, this small show certainly delivers a respectable mix of recent photography. I'm sure the larger Fisher Landau collection did plenty of welcome hole filling in the Whitney's permanent collection (in photography and other mediums), and with the new building opening soon, I'm hoping we'll slowly get a chance to see even more of its photographic treasures.

 

Collector's POV: Since this is a museum show, there are, of course, no posted prices, and given the wide diversity of works on view, we will forego the usual discussion of secondary markets and price histories.

 

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

 

Transit Hub:

• Fisher Landau Center for Art site (here)
• Feature: New York Times, 2010 (here)

Legacy: Photographs from the Emily Fisher Landau Collection

Through September 2nd

 

Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum

258 Main Street

Ridgefield, CT 06877

Auction Results: Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening, Morning, and Afternoon Sales, May 15 and 16, 2013 @Christie's New York

While Christie's was busy setting auction records and selling nearly half a billion dollars worth of Contemporary Art in the evening sale alone last week, the photography buried in its three sales didn't offer any particular lightning strikes or frothy exuberance. Of the just under $600 million in sales across the three sessions, a little less than $6.5 million came from photography, or a fraction more than 1% of the total proceeds. From the vantage point of the photography on offer, the overall Buy-In rate was just under 30% and the Total Sale Proceeds fell in the middle of the range, a generally predictable result all things considered.

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

Total Lots: 57
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $5178000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $7340000
Total Lots Sold: 40
Total Lots Bought In: 17
Buy In %: 29.82%
Total Sale Proceeds: $6440750

Here is the 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: 28
Mid Sold: 20
Mid Bought In: 8
Buy In %: 28.57%
Total Mid Estimate: $900000
Total Mid Sold: $730000

High Total Lots: 29
High Sold: 20
High Bought In: 9
Buy In %: 31.03%
Total High Estimate: $6440000
Total High Sold: $5710750

The top photography lot by High estimate was lot 3, Andreas Gursky, Klitschko, 1999, estimated at $800000-1000000; it was also the top outcome of the sales at $1323750.

90.00% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range and there were a total of only two surprises (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 424, Rodney Graham, Can of Worms, 2000, estimated at $15000-20000, sold at $47500 (image at right, bottom, via Christie's)
Lot 487, Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still #54, 1980, estimated at $250000-350000, sold at $723750 (image at right, top, via Christie's)

Complete lot by lot results can be found here (Evening), here (Morning), and here (Afternoon).

Christie's
20 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10020

Rodney Graham @303

JTF (just the facts): A total of 4 large scale color works, mounted in painted aluminum light boxes, and hung against white walls in the single room gallery space. Each of the works is one or more chromogenic transparencies (single image, diptych, or triptych), made in 2012 and 2013. Individual panel sizes range from 93x60 to 120x72, and the works are available in editions of 4+1AP or 5+1AP. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: The characters in Rodney Graham's most recent self-portraits have a going-through-the-motions world weariness that softens the wry comedy of his carefully staged scenes. While Graham's works have always had an underlying edge of ridiculousness, these new single frame stories capture their subjects at moments when their years seem to be catching up with them, when tedium, ennui, and what-might-have-been are weighing more heavily.

Graham's interest in the reinterpretation of images from art history continues here, with two works that reference famous paintings. Echoing Eakins' The Champion Single Sculls, Graham replaces the wiry oarsman in the painting with his own bearded frame in a preciously fancy wooden canoe, the active boaters and arched viaduct in the painting replaced by a rusty trestle bridge and an industrial park in the distance. Graham's scene finds a much different mood, a futile, trying-too-hard effort to capture lost glory. His Cactus Fan is a similar recasting, taking Spitzweg's original The Cactus Enthusiast and placing it in a science lab context, replacing the bowing windowsill examination of specimens with an aging professor gloomily staring at a jolly gift basket arrangement of a cactus and some attached balloons. In Graham's scene, the cactus almost seems to be mocking the scientist, an almost incomprehensible third place prize for not-quite success.

The other two works on display follow this same pattern of past-their-prime protagonists. While hanging drywall might normally be a young man's task, Graham poses himself up on metal stilts, taking a smoke break while the tape and spackle dry behind him, the seen-it-all boredom palpable in his stance. And Graham's too old punk, his hair gelled into a mohawk and sporting a studded leather jacket, uses a graffiti-covered payphone, a left behind throwback in a world that has moved on.

Graham's humor is full of self-deprecating realism, a quiet acknowledgement of the small absurdities of these aging characters. These newest pictures are stronger than the last batch, their emotional context much more nuanced and less overtly ironic. Graham's teasing and spoofery is still there, but its arrows hit closer to home. In these works, his gibes mix with a deeper sense of plausibly authentic emotion, making the vignettes more rounded than just quick caricatures.

Collector's POV: The works in this show are priced between $250000 and $650000, based on size. Graham's photographs are only intermittently available in the secondary markets, with recent prices ranging from roughly $5000 to $185000; with so few lots to chart, these prices may not be entirely representative of the market for his work.

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

Transit Hub:

• Features/Reviews: New York Times (here), GalleristNY (here)

Rodney Graham
Through June 15th

303 Gallery
507 West 24th Street (new location)
New York, NY 10011

Auctions: Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening, Morning, and Afternoon Sales, May 15 and 16, 2013 @Christie's New York

Christie's bats second in the Spring Contemporary Art season, with a series of three sales next week. Gursky, Sherman, Prince, Wall, and Baldessari hold the top slots. Overall, there are a total of 57 lots of photography available in the three sales, with a Total High Estimate for photography of $7340000.

Here's the statistical breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including $10000): 0
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): $0

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between $10000 and $50000): 28
Total Mid Estimate: $900000

Total High Lots (high estimate above $50000): 29
Total High Estimate: $6440000

The top photography lot by High estimate is lot 3, Andreas Gursky, Klitschko, 1999, estimated at $800000-1000000 (image at right, top, via Christie's.)

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

Cindy Sherman (7)
Vik Muniz (6)
Louise Lawler (4)
Barbara Kruger (3)
Richard Prince (3)
Thomas Struth (3)

Other photographs of interest include lot 236, Gerhard Richter, Untitled, 1992, estimated at $35000-45000 (image at right, middle, via Christie's) and lot 406, Rodney Graham, Welsh Oak #1-7, 1998, estimated at $90000-150000 (image at right, bottom, via Christie's).

The complete lot by lot catalogs can be found here (Evening), here (Morning), and here (Afternoon).

Post-War and Contemporary Art (Evening)
May 15th

Post-War and Contemporary Art (Morning)
May 16th

Post-War and Contemporary Art (Afternoon)
May 16th

Christie's
20 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10020

Auctions: Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening and Day Auctions, February 13 and 14, 2013 @Christie's London

An early black and white Gilbert & George leads the photography offerings in Christie's Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening and Day auctions in London next week. Other top lots include works by Wall, Gursky, and Sherman. Overall, there are 43 photography lots available across the two sales, with a Total High Estimate for photography of £3182000.

Here's the statistical breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including £5000): 3
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): £10000

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between £5000 and £25000): 19
Total Mid Estimate: £267000

Total High Lots (high estimate above £25000): 21
Total High Estimate: £2905000

The top lot by High estimate is lot 11, Gilbert & George, Dead Boards No. 11, 1976, at £350000-450000. (Image at right, top, via Christie's.)

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

Andreas Gursky (4)
Cindy Sherman (4)
Gilbert & George (3)
Hiroshi Sugimoto (3)
Diane Arbus (2)
Gabriel Orozco (2)
Gerhard Richter (2)

Other lots of interest include lot 69, Jeff Wall, The Arrest, 1989, at £250000-350000 (image at right, middle) and lot 240, Rodney Graham, Oak, Kaggevinne, 1989, at £60000-80000 (image at right, bottom, both via Christie's.)

The complete lot by lot catalogs can be found here (Evening) and here (Day).

Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Auction
February 13th

Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Auction
February 14th

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

Rodney Graham, Music and Dance @303

JTF (just the facts): A total of 5 large scale color works hung in the single room gallery space. Each of the works is one or more chromogenic transparencies displayed in painted aluminum lightboxes. (Installation shots at right, via 303 website.)

The image details are as follows:

• Lighthouse Keeper with Lighthouse Model, 1955, diptych, each 113x72, in an edition of 4, from 2010
• Good Hand Bad Hand, diptych, each 35x29, in an edition of 6, from 2010
• Three Musicians (Members of the Early Music group "Renaissance Fare" Performing Matteo of Perugia's Le Greygnour Bien at the Unitarian Church of Vancouver, Late September, 1977), triptych, each 142x62, in an edition of 4, from 2006
• Dance!!!!!, diptych, 107x138 overall, in an edition of 4, from 2008
• Dead Flowers in My Studio, single image, 52x41, in an edition of 5, from 2009

Comments/Context: Rodney Graham's recent lightbox works are infused with a clever playfulness that is built up in layers of self-referencing, sometimes circular logic. As an actor is his own carefully staged scenes, Graham is often the central character in an elaborate and cinematic reenactment, his witty performances referencing art history and music with a subtle sense of wry comedy and underlying ridiculousness.

In Three Musicians, Graham portrays an earnest 1970's era musician, playing a period recorder in a Renaissance ensemble, complete with long hair and historically accurate costumes. The over-serious pretentiousness of this group is palpable (and quite amusing as a result), and the layers of time (a recreation of a recreation of the original) sharpen the satire. In other works, Graham is a solitary lighthouse keeper, warming his feet in the stove while reading about lighthouses (his scale model lighthouse project displayed in the background), a poker player in a Hawaiian shirt and sunglasses giving away his "tell", and a sweaty suited man in a top hat forced to dance by jig while being shot at by drunk cowboys in a Wild West saloon. Each vignette is a self-contained almost allegorical narrative, rich in implied humor and irony.

Given the complex stage sets and the presentation in large lightboxes, it would be hard not to draw a connection to the work of fellow Canadian Jeff Wall. I think it is also possible to see conceptual parallels to some of Cindy Sherman's work. By using photography, Graham has given his scenes a sense of hyper-reality or "truth", even though it is clear that they are operating on many levels. But what I saw most in this handful of pictures was an echo of the compositional and story-telling conventions of the masters of painting, of packing dense layers of ideas and allusions into a single controlled frame. When he gets it right, Graham's whimsy can't help but make you smile.

Collector's POV: The works in this show are priced between $100000 and $400000. Graham's photographs have come up for auction from time to time in recent years, with prices ranging from roughly $5000 to $170000. A parallel exhibition of Graham's work is on display this summer in London at Lisson Gallery (here).

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

Transit Hub:

• Interview: Art in America, 2010 (here)
• Exhibitions: MACBA, 2010 (here), ICA Philadelphia, 2005 (here)
• Reviews: NY Times, 2005 (here)

Rodney Graham, Music and Dance

Through July 2nd

303 Gallery

547 West 21st Street

New York, NY 10011