William Klein: Paintings, etc. @Greenberg

JTF (just the facts): A total of 9 paintings and 13 photographs, variously framed and unmatted, and hung against light brown walls in the main gallery space, the book alcove, and the back transition gallery. All of the photographs are gelatin silver prints, taken between 1949 and 1962 and printed later. Physical dimensions range from 20x24 to 60x64; editions are either 15 or 30, except for the hand painted contacts which are unique. The paintings were made between 1948 and 1964 and range in size from 21x30 to 91x182. A monograph of this body of work was recently published by Contrasto Books (here). (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: While William Klein's brash street and fashion photography have already cemented their rightful place in photographic history, this show digs back to the very beginning of his career, where his transition from painter to photographer was taking place. It provides clues to Klein's evolving graphic sensibility and chronicles his early experiments using photography to achieve gestural, painterly results.

Klein's paintings from the late 1940s and early 1950s are full of stark lines and hard edged geometries. Still life objects and tabletops are pared down to abstract black and white forms, eventually giving way to layers of colored shapes and interlocked lines. His early photographs from the same period follow a similar trajectory. His pair of 1949 barn sides are a positive/negative inversion of high contrast black and white, reducing the structure to lines and edges. That same year, he began playing with light drawings, creating thick, loopy movements of black on white and more frenetic, squiggly compositions of white on black; both are reminiscent of Barbara Morgan's light drawings from the early 1940s, but are clearly part of Klein's ongoing investigations of how photography could be used for abstraction. Images from just a few years later find Klein using blurred multiple exposure squares to create movement and bright verticals to create high impact linearity. In the early 1960s, Klein returned to the light drawings, this time hybridizing them with fashion imagery, with models appearing to juggle balls and blow smoke rings made of gestural white light. And this mashup idea comes full circle in a selection of his recent contacts, where enlarged photographic sheets have been overpainted with vibrant, active marks.

I think this show provides an important backstory to the larger Klein narrative and helps to explain some of his later artistic decision making. These photographs are big and muscular, more loose than the paintings. They show Klein incorporating his learnings from painting and extending them into the vocabulary of photography, in the process, bringing fresh immediacy and vitality to the medium. With the intermediate steps now visible, his original sense for the bold and graphic now seems entirely understandable.

Collector's POV: The photographs in the show are priced between $14000 and $30500; the paintings are generally NFS, except for the huge mural, which is $105000. Klein's work is routinely available in the secondary markets for photography, particularly his later prints. Prices have ranged between roughly $1000 and $145000, with the top end of that range reserved for vintage prints of his most iconic images.

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

Transit Hub:

• Features: NY Times Lens (here), Interview (here)
• HackelBury exhibit, 2012 (here)

 

William Klein: Paintings, etc.

Through April 27th

Howard Greenberg Gallery
41 East 57th Street
New York, NY 10022

Photography in the 2013 Armory Show, Part 1 of 2

In what might sound like a contradiction, this year's Armory Show has both more and less photography than in previous years. "More", in that by my count, there were 97 booths showing something that might be called photography (out of a possible 214 not including the publishers). That's over 45% of the galleries, which must be some kind of record and is certainly an increase from what was on offer last year. But a glass half empty kind of person might characterize this show as quite a bit "less", in that eclectic mid-tier randomness seems to have replaced the parade of boldfaced names and highly saleable, contemporary material that we've come to expect at this kind of gathering. If you are looking for Sherman, Gursky, Prince, Gilbert & George, Ruff, Struth, Tillmans, and the like, you will wear out your shoe leather and generally come up empty handed.

This portion of my notes covers the Focus area and the long extending arm of Pier 94; the second part will cover the remainder of Pier 94 and all of Pier 92. The booths/galleries are arranged by my path through the fair, roughly up and back along the aisles. 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.

Galleria Continua (here): Carlos Garaicoa (2)

Higher Pictures (here): This booth contained three new works by Artie Vierkant. They're physically thinner than his last works (now on Dibond instead of thick Sintra) and more compositionally complex and multilayered ($17000 each). I think they're getting better.

Aisho Miura Arts (here): Shuhei Yamada (9)

Various Small Fires (here): Liz Magic Laser (2)

moniquemeloche (here): Joel Ross and Jason Kreps (4)

CONNERSMITH (here): Lincoln Schatz (1 set of 30, 1)

Anthony Meier Fine Arts (here): Roy McMakin (1 set of 6, 1 set of 4)

Francis M. Nauman Fine Art (here): Sherrie Levine (1 set of 18 postcards)

Pilar Corrias Gallery (here): Leigh Ledare (1)

Pekin Fine Arts (here): Kata Legrady (1), John Clang (2), Martin Parr (1), WassinkLundgren (4 diptychs). The photography duo of WassinkLundgren have taken to the streets of Tokyo, simultaneously taking two images of the same scenes from slightly different vantage points. The effect is Paul Graham's The Present meets Barbara Probst, highlighting the particular unmistakable flow of Tokyo ($2000 for each diptych). While discussing the fine Martin Parr auto show image on the outside wall, I heard that Parr is at work on a book of Chinese photobooks.

Kalfayan Galleries (here): Hrair Sarkissian (12)

Spaces Corners (here): Ed Panar (2), Andrea Galvani (1), Tim Hyde (5). These four photo collages by Tim Hyde were shown at the Philadelphia Museum of Art a few years ago. I like the way they break up the parking lot view into Cubist shards that are reassembled into abstract interruptions ($5000 each).

Andy Warhol Museum (here): Andy Warhol (5 modern enlargements)

Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (here): Cui Xiuwen (1)

Aperture (here): James Welling (1), Andrea Galvani (1), Enrique Metinides (1), Bill Armstrong (1), Doug Rickard (1), Michel Campeau (1), Sarah Moon (1), Richard Mosse (1), Silvio Wolf (1), Lars Tunbjork (1), Hank Willis Thomas (1), David Levinthal (1), Abelardo Morell (1), Rinko Kawauchi (1), Bruce Davidson (1), Michal Chelbin (1), Denis Darzacq

Whitechapel Gallery (here): John Baldessari (1), Roy Voss (1), Thomas Ruff (1), Zarina Bhimji (1), Rodney Graham (1), Peter Abrahams (1), Gerard Byrne (1)

Upstream Gallery (here): Frank Ammerlaan (1)

Baró Galleria (here): Ricardo Alcaide (2)

Bruce Silverstein Gallery (here): André Kertész (3 Polaroids), Max Neumann (6), Man Ray (1), Silvio Wolf (1 set of 30, 1), Trine Søndergaard (4), Bill Brandt (1), Shinichi Maruyama (3), Keith Smith (2), Constantin Brancusi (2), Michael Wolf (1), Todd Hido (2), Mark Cohen (1), Nicolai Howalt and Trine Søndergaard (1), Walker Evans (1), Aaron Siskind (1), Nicolai Howalt (1), Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1). This booth was a solid mix of both contemporary work and vintage gems. This 1930s Brandt nude was a particular surprise, as I hadn't previously seen one from earlier than the mid 1940s ($35000).

espaivisor - Galeria Visor (here): Nil Yalter (1 set of 10, 1 triptych, 1 set of 16), Sanja Ivekovic (1 set of 100)

ONE AND J. Gallery (here): Jung Lee (5). I suppose it was inevitable that the "pithy phrase in neon" so prevalent in contemporary art would finally make the jump to staged photography ($15000 each).

Galeria SENDA (here): Oleg Dov (2), Anna Malagrida (2)

Galerie Crone (here): Daniel Megerle (10), Adrien Missika (4)

Galerie Ron Mandos (here): Hans Op De Beeck (1)

Rhona Hoffman Gallery (here): Luis Gispert (1), Xaviera Simmons (1), Karthik Pandian (2), Vito Acconci (1), Robert Heinecken (3)

Ingleby Gallery (here): Garry Fabian Miller (1 set of 4)

Sies + Höke (here): Joao Maria Gusmao and Pedro Paiva (1), Daniel Gustav Cramer (1 set of 7)

Sprüth Magers (here): John Baldessari (1), David Lamelas (8), Cindy Sherman (5), Louise Lawler (1)

Goodman Gallery (here): Mikhael Subotzky (2), Alfredo Jaar (1), Hank Willis Thomas (1 set of 6), David Goldblatt (3)

Luciana Brito Galeria (here): Caio Reisewitz (1). Marina Abramović (2), Fyodor Pavlov-Andreevich (1), Regina Silveira (1 installation). This is a new work by Marina Abramović; I liked the tiny cracks climbing up the expanse of green and the unsettling blackened finger ($90000).

Cardi Black Box (here): Shirana Shahbazi (4). These are new works by Shahbazi, more active and overlapped than other abstractions I have seen by her.

Corkin Gallery (here): arbara Astman (5), Thaddeus Holownia (1 set of 100), André Kertész (3), Constantin Brancusi (1), Marion Post Wolcott (1), Frank Mädler (1)

Tang Contemporary Art (here): Wang Gongxin (2 videos), Ji Zhou (1), Yang Yong (1 diptych)

Galerie EIGEN + ART (here): Ricarda Roggan (3)

PPOW (here): Adam Putman (10)

Howard Greenberg Gallery (here): Joel Meyerowitz (2), Gordon Parks (1), Edward Burtynsky (1 diptych, 2), Imogen Cunningham (1), William Klein (4), Bruce Davidson (2), Robert Frank (2), Vivian Maier (4), Saul Leiter (4), Ted Croner (1), Caleb Cain Marcus (2). This lively diamond mural abstraction isn't what you might expect from William Klein ($19000).

Angles Gallery (here): Ori Gersht (5, 1 lightbox, 1 diptych) Soo Kim (5). This handcut inkjet print by Soo Kim is elegantly interwoven and delicate ($10000). Another example of a contemporary photographer playing with the surface/physicality of the print.

Haines Gallery (here): David Maisel (1)

Galerie van Gelder (here): Steven Parrino (1)

Leila Heller Gallery (here): Reza Aramesh (1 triptych)

Hales Gallery (here): Sebastiaan Bremer (1)

Vistamare (here): Mimmo Jodice (1)

Pierogi (here): Nadia Bournonville (1), Kevin Cooley (2)

Susan Inglett Gallery (here): Sarah Charlesworth (2)

Yossi Milo Gallery (here): Alison Rossiter (3), Simen Johan (1), Myoung Ho Lee (3), Mark Ruwedel (1 set of 15), Matthew Brandt (3), Doug Rickard (1), JD Okhai Ojeikere (2), Julie Cockburn (3). This new Matthew Brandt is more swirly and abstract than other works from this same series ($19000); the underlying lake drenched image is hardly recognizable.

Ignacio Liprandi Arte Contemporaneo (here): Jorge Pedro Nuñez (4). Square format Artforum ads projected into Albers-like layers of color ($4000 each).

Loevenbruck (here): Morgane Tschiember (1 set of 6)

Jack Shainman Gallery (here): Richard Mosse (1), Hank Willis Thomas (1), Barkley Hendricks (1). I was blown away by the electric contrast between the blue and the red/pink in this new Richard Mosse ($24000).

Corvi-Mora (here): Anne Collier (2)

Kukje Gallery (here)/Tina Kim Gallery (here): Kimsooja (1), Haegue Yang (2 sets of 4, 1 set of 3, 1 set of 2), Candida Höfer (1), Jenny Holtzer (1)

Part 2 of this post can be found here.

Auction Results: Photographies Modernes et Contemporaines, May 27, 2011 @Yann Le Mouel

The results of Yann Le Mouel's recent various owner photography sale in Paris were a decidedly mixed bag. While quite a few portraits of artists outperformed their estimates, the overall Buy-In rate was over 50% and the Total Sale Proceeds missed the range by a significant amount.

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

Total Lots: 342
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: 551600€
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: 744200€
Total Lots Sold: 158
Total Lots Bought In: 184
Buy In %: 53.80%
Total Sale Proceeds: 368112€

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

Low Total Lots: 332
Low Sold: 155
Low Bought In: 177
Buy In %: 53.31%
Total Low Estimate: 592200€
Total Low Sold: 329112€

Mid Total Lots: 10
Mid Sold: 3
Mid Bought In: 7
Buy In %: 70.00%
Total Mid Estimate: 152000€
Total Mid Sold: 39000€

High Total Lots: 0
High Sold: NA
High Bought In: NA
Buy In %: NA
Total High Estimate: 0€
Total High Sold: NA
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The top lot by High estimate was lot 32, Jaromir Funke, Composition a la bouteille, 1925, at 20000-30000€; it did not sell. The top outcome of the sale was lot 136, Irving Penn, Pablo Picasso a la Californie, Cannes, 1957, at 15360€.
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94.94% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range. There were a total of 12 surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 63, Francois Kollar, Le port du Paris, 1931, at 4200€ (image at right, bottom, via Yann Le Mouel)
Lot 122, Alexander Calder, 6 portraits de l'artiste, 1958-1967, at 1800€
Lot 125, Hans Arp, Portrait de l'artiste, 1958, at 660€
Lot 136, Irving Penn, Pablo Picasso a la Californie, Cannes, 1957, at 15360€
Lot 156, Alfred Manessier, Portrait du peintre, 1952, at 660€
Lot 167, Marcel Duchamp, Marcel Duchap avant Grand Verre, 1961, at 1800€
Lot 171, Matta, 2 portraits de l'artiste, 1958, at 1020€
Lot 172, Alberto Giacometti, 4 portraits de l'artiste, 1963, at 2400€
Lot 173, Alexander Liberman, Portrait d'Alberto Giacometti, 1950, at 3240€
Lot 197, William Klein, Courreges Mini-robe et Panatalon, 1965, at 3480€ (image at right, top, via Yann Le Mouel)
Lot 211, Irving Penn, Duke Ellington, New York, 1955, at 6120€
Lot 223, Gisele Freund, Le Corbusier dans son atelier, 1961, at 2400€ (image at right, middle, via Yann Le Mouel)

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

Yann Le Mouel
22, Rue Chauchat
75009 Paris

Auction: The Feminine Ideal: An Important Private Collection of Photographs, April 7, 2011 @Christie's

Christie's opens its spring Photographs season with a single owner collection of photographs of women. The sale brings together an edited mix of mid range fashion images, portraits and nudes. Overall, there are a total of 79 photographs on offer, with a total High estimate of $881500.

Here's the statistical breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including $10000): 59
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): $346500

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between $10000 and $50000): 18

Total Mid Estimate: $415000

Total High Lots (high estimate above $50000): 2

Total High Estimate: $120000

The top lot by High estimate is tied between two lots: lot 36, Philippe Halsman, Marilyn Jumping, 1950, (image at right, top, via Christie's) and lot 72, Irving Penn, Balenciaga Mantle Coat (Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn), Paris, 1950/1988, both at $40000-60000.

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

Norman Parkinson (6)
Irving Penn (5)
Tomio Seike (5)
Jeanloup Sieff (5)
Lillian Bassman (4)
Erwin Blumenfeld (4)
Louise Dahl-Wolfe (4)
Stephane Graff (4)
Brett Weston (3)
Kurt Markus (3)

(Lot 11, Irving Penn, Woman with Umbrella (Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn), New York, 1950/1984, at $30000-50000, at right, bottom, and lot 72, William Klein, Dorothy + feathered hat + coffee, Rome, 1962, at $7000-9000, at right, middle, both via Christie's.)

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

The Feminine Ideal: An Important Private Collection of Photographs

April 7th

Christie's

20 Rockefeller Plaza

New York, NY 10020

Photography at the 2011 ADAA Art Show

As always, this year's ADAA Art Show was characterized by its consistent quality from booth to booth and its extraordinarily high production values. Even though there is a wide spread of work on display in this show, the ratio of wheat to chaff is generally much higher than the other fairs. Once again, many of the exhibitors opted for solo shows or tightly edited groups of work, meticulously hung against colored walls or linen wallpaper. It's a thoroughly sophisticated approach to an art fair; the challenge is that without a few jolts of roughness or energy, this hushed environment can lull you to sleep.

This post is organized by my path through the fair, starting to the left from the entrance, and winding back and forth before returning to the front to exit. Like our Armory posts, 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 where specific images stood out.

Marian Goodman Gallery (here): Gabriel Orozco (2)

McKee Gallery (here): Richard Learoyd (1). Learoyd's portraits are growing on me as I see them more. This one was priced at $35000.

Robert Miller Gallery (here): Diane Arbus (11)

Jill Newhouse (here): Anonymous (13). This booth was filled with Rodin sculptures and drawings, as well as quite a few photographs of his sculptures. It wasn't clear who the photographer of record was for these images, as many were signed by Rodin himself. I particularly liked this set of three variant images. In general, the prints were reasonably priced, between $800 and $4500 each.

Zabriskie Gallery (here): Paul Strand (16). This booth was devoted to Strand, and aside from one industrial image and one Taos church, all of the works were from his garden in Orgeval, France. I very much enjoyed these two florals (look for the bees in the second one), both of which were priced at $24000.

Cheim & Read (here): Diane Arbus (1), William Eggleston (2), Walker Evans (1). The contrasts in this Evans were spectacular; however, it wasn't for sale.

CRG Gallery (here): Lyle Ashton Harris (1), Joel-Peter Witkin (1)

Hans P. Kraus Jr. Fine Photographs (here): Bisson Freres (1), Jean Laurent (2), Felix Teynard (1), Auguste Salzmann (1), Louis-Remy Robert (2), Louis-Emile Durandelle (2), William Henry Fox Talbot (7), James Nasmyth (2), Anna Atkins (2), Louis Pierre Rousseau (1), Dr. Alfred Donne (1), Unknown (2), Edward Steichen (1), JB Greene (2), Andre Adolphe Eugene Disderi (2), James Ross and John Thomson (1), Nevil Story-Maskelyne (1), Duchenne de Boulogne and Adrien Tournachon (1), Circle of Charles Simart (1), Julia Margaret Cameron (1), Charles Marville (2). As usual, Kraus' booth was a smorgasbord of 19th century photographic treasures. I had seen the two Atkins cyanotypes previously, so I was more intrigued by the Robert negative image, with its intersecting lines made by the cart and tools. It was priced at $60000.

Skarstedt Gallery (here): Cindy Sherman (2), Richard Prince (group of 4)

Fraenkel Gallery (here): Carleton Watkins (7), Robert Adams (10). This booth featured a smart pairing of Watkins and Adams, where echoes of land forms (rivers, masses of boulders, horizon lines, etc.) were matched together. I liked the Adams on the top left below, with its jagged shadow contrast and the hidden train track running below. The Adams images were priced between $12000 and $18000; the Watkins images were between $45000 and $190000.

Donald Young Gallery (here): Jeanne Dunning (2), James Welling (5), Rodney Graham (1 + 1 diptych), Mark Wallinger (stills on video screen)

Howard Greenberg Gallery (here): William Klein (20 + 1 video + 4 books). A brash booth full of Klein photographs was a bit of a surprise from Greenberg, which has often opted for a selection of iconic highlights in this kind of fair setting. I thought it was fresh and fantastic.

James Cohan Gallery (here): Katie Patterson (4)

Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects (here): Laurel Nakadate (12)

Pace/MacGill Gallery (here): Irving Penn (20). This booth contained a selection of Penn's innovative corner portraits, where his famous subjects have been pushed into a narrow confining space. I enjoyed the two portraits of Georgia O'Keeffe on the inside wall of the booth, but perhaps my favorite was the Truman Capote on the front wall; I liked the way the space is taken up by the chair and Capote's large coat, and I think the introduction of the vertical line of the wall opens up the strict formula of the composition. The Capote portrait was priced at $95000.

Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery (here): Mika Rottenberg (2), Barney Kulok (1). I liked the jumble of spaces and volumes in this large Kulok image; it was priced at $6000.

Regen Projects (here): Catherine Opie (3). There is certainly an echo of Hiroshi Sugimoto or Renate Aller in these Opie seascapes and sunsets, but there's no denying the serene lushness of the pure blue images. These were priced at $30000 each.

William Klein Book Signing @Greenberg

Last evening, I went to a small book signing event for William Klein at Howard Greenberg, focused on his new painted contact sheets, appropriately called Contacts. Signing books for strangers is an odd ritual, where the photographer has tiny fragments of conversations with each visitor while signing each book, with a bunch of other hangers on milling around and listening. Klein is now in his early 80s, but I was surprised to find him engaging and funny, flirting and joking with all of the women. (Klein at the signing table at right.)

Just in front of me in line was a serious young Korean photographer with his Japanese girlfriend. Of course, you need to tell the signer your name so he can write it in the book, and so there was much back and forth with this man about his name, how to spell it, etc, until finally a business card was produced that Klein could read from. Klein then asked "are you Chinese?" and a detailed explanation of the nationalities of these two occurred. At the end, the man asked if he could take a picture with Klein. Klein laughed and said how about one with the girlfriend. The man didn't quite know what to say to that, and so he asked again. Klein didn't relent, but finally gave in to having a picture with both of them.

As I walked up, his first question to me was "are you Chinese?" which was completely ridiculous, since I am quite tall, with light hair and light skin, generally German or Dutch in my overall appearance, but entirely appropriate given the previous customers. When I told him that I wanted him to sign the book to by wife, he proceeded to write her name and then two large hearts as part of the inscription. His parting shot to me was: "is she a blond?" My takeaway was that Klein is still unexpected and cool, even in his 80s.

The book itself (cover at right) follows up on a project Klein began a few years ago, where short films were made of photographers discussing their contact sheets (these are well worth seeing on video if you haven't found them already). Klein then took this idea a step further, blowing up his contact sheets and exchanging his grease pencil for enamel paints in bright primary colors. The result is a combination of the contact sheet editing exercise with vibrant, swirling, gestural X-outs, underlines and bracketing.

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The book was published in 2008 by Contrasto and includes short essays by Klein and Robert Delpire. There are 38 images, including the cover, in this large format paperback volume.