Auctions: Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening and Day Auctions, June 28 and 29, 2011 @Christie's King Street

The photography found in Christie's upcoming Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening and Day auctions at King Street next week follows a now familiar pattern: a high priced Cindy Sherman headlines the sales, with additional top lots on offer from Sherman, Struth, Baldessari, and Gursky. Overall, there are 33 photography lots available across the two sales, with a Total High Estimate for photography of £3786000.

Here's the breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including £5000): 2
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): £9000

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between £5000 and £25000): 15
Total Mid Estimate: £262000

Total High Lots (high estimate above £25000): 16
Total High Estimate: £3515000

The top lot by High estimate is lot 16, Cindy Sherman, Untitled, 1983, at £1000000-1500000. (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):

Thomas Ruff (3)
John Baldessari (2)
Thomas Demand (2)
Idris Khan (2)
Vik Muniz (2)
Cindy Sherman (2)
Thomas Struth (2)
Hiroshi Sugimoto (2)
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(Lot 22, Thomas Struth, Art Institute of Chicago I, 1990, at £250000-350000, image at right, middle, and lot 160, Idris Khan, Every...Bernd and Hilla Becher Spherical Type Gasholders, 2004, at £18000-25000, 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
June 28th
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Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Auction
June 29th
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Christie's
8 King Street, St. James's
London SW1Y 6QT

Auctions: Contemporary Art Evening and Day Sales, June 27 and 28, 2011 @Phillips London

Phillips begins the June Contemporary Art season in London next week with a pair of Evening and Day sales. It's a generally straightforward selection, with few notable or unexpected standouts. Overall, there are a total of 53 lots of photography available across the two sales, with a Total High Estimate for photography of £1736000.

Here's the statistical breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including £5000): 5
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): £24000

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between £5000 and £25000): 35
Total Mid Estimate: £437000

Total High Lots (high estimate above £25000): 13
Total High Estimate: £1275000
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The top lot by High estimate is lot 5, Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still #4, 1977, at £250000-350000.

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

Ryan McGinley (3)
Doug Aitken (2)
Thomas Demand (2)
Nan Goldin (2)
Gordon Matta-Clark (2)
Marilyn Minter (2)
Zhang Huan (2)

(Lot 145, Walead Beshty, The Phenomenology of Shopping, 2001-2003, at £10000-15000, image at right, middle, lot 293, Elger Esser, Ameland Pier IX, 2000, at £20000-30000, image at right, bottom, and lot 296, Gordon Matta-Clark, Splitting, 1974, at £12000-18000, image at right, top, all via Phillips.)

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

Contemporary Art Evening Sale
June 27th
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Contemporary Art Day Sale
June 28th

Phillips De Pury & Company
Howick Place
London SW1P 1BB

Boris Mikhailov: Case History @MoMA

JTF (just the facts): A total of 19 large scale photographs, unframed and pinned directly to the wall, and hung in a single room space on the 3rd floor (the normal divider wall has been removed). While exact dimensions were not available, the prints are larger than life size and have additional white strips at the top and bottom. The images were made between 1996 and 1997 as part of a much larger series, and a monograph of this body of work was published by Scalo in 1999. The exhibit was curated by Eva Respini. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context:  Boris Mikhailov's photographs of homeless people in Kharkov, Ukraine, in the aftermath of the post-Soviet collapse are tough, often disturbing images. Taken in the late 1990s, the images depict worn down men and weary women as they stand in the snow in dirty winter overcoats or huddle in forgotten grubby parklands, often exposing their naked sagging flesh with bored indifference or a twinkle of wry complicity. The images are a sad parade of down trodden vulnerability, punctuated by black eyes, skin welts, dirty toilets and explicit flashing.

What's different about Mikhailov's portraits is just how involved he is with the sitters; it's almost as if he's in the frame himself. While the pictures have the patina of documents (the interiors often flash lit), there is plenty of mannered posing and collaboration going on here, which absolutely crosses the line into performance, voyeurism and exploitation. In many of the portraits, the sitters seem to treat the exercise like a joke or a lark, as if this one last humiliation of pulling down their pants or vamping with a dead fish is no worse than whatever else has come before. There is a palpable sense of theater in the works, as if allegorical stories are being played out by these unlikely actors.

Compositionally, several of the images reference Christian iconography or art historical precedents, adding a layer of painterly control to seemingly loose snapshots. A man in a snowy coat stands with outstretched arms as though on the cross, while another slumps shirtless in a classic pieta. Given the size of the prints, I was often drawn to connections to classic paintings of portraits and nudes across the ages, and then roughly ripped back to reality by the dingy grime or abject craziness of the settings and lives on display. A bearded man pretends to sleep in the snow with a rock as his pillow, with the fallen glory of a hulking mansion in the background; he seems like the perfect symbol for the new world order. Another wields an ax while wearing an old army uniform; it could easily be a portrait of a former general or hero, and yet, it's clear that unbalanced delusion is really at work.

This exhibit had me torn, in that I found several of the images to be mesmerizing and spectacular, while plenty of others left me cold or just unmoved by their blunt staginess. This isn't an easy show to like, but one that I think is worth the investment of time to read carefully.

Collector's POV: As this is a museum show, there are of course no posted prices. Mikhailov's work has only been intermittently available in the secondary markets in recent years; prices have ranged between roughly $3000 and $30000, but the number of lots available has been small. As a result, gallery retail may still be the best option for those collectors interested in his work. Mikhailov is represented by Pace/MacGill Gallery in New York (here) and Galerie Barbara Weiss in Berlin (here).

As an aside, after I had spent some time with this show, I stood and watched the stream of casual visitors as they entered the gallery, to see how they reacted when they were confronted by the images on display. A meaningful number had an aghast reaction and decided that they didn't need to see any more, quickly making a detour or reversing course. For the random tourist taking in a sampler of artistic delights at the museum, this exhibit was clearly a splash of cold water, and one which many just didn't have the stomach to engage with.
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Rating: ** (two stars) VERY GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Reviews: NY Times (here), Wall Street Journal (here)
• Features: Time LightBox (here), LensCulture (here)

Boris Mikhailov: Case History
Through September 5th
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Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd Street
New York, NY 10019

The Checklist: 06/16/11.

DLK COLLECTION

Checklist 06/16/11

New reviews added this week in red.

Uptown

ONE STAR: Moveable Feast: MCNY: July 10: review
ONE STAR: Night Vision: Met: September 18: review
ONE STAR: After the Gold Rush: Met: January 2: review

Midtown

ONE STAR: Herb Ritts: Edwynn Houk: June 25: review
TWO STARS: Henry Wessel: Pace/MacGill: July 8: review
TWO STARS: Rinko Kawauchi: Hermes: July 16: review
ONE STAR: Japan Today: Amador: August 19: review

Chelsea

TWO STARS: John Divola: Wallspace: June 18: review
ONE STAR: Barry Frydlender: Andrea Meislin: June 18: review
ONE STAR: Ellen Kooi: PPOW: June 18: review
ONE STAR: Robert Mapplethorpe: Sean Kelly: June 18: review
ONE STAR: Vision is Elastic: Murray Guy: June 18: review
ONE STAR: Ori Gersht: CRG: June 24: review
ONE STAR: Gillian Wearing: Tanya Bonakdar: June 24: review
ONE STAR: Ana Barrado: Deborah Bell: June 25: review
ONE STAR: Cao Fei: Lombard-Freid: June 25: review
ONE STAR: Florian Maier-Aichen: 303: June 25: review
ONE STAR: Jeff Merlmelstein: Rick Wester: June 25: review
ONE STAR: Roe Ethridge: Andrew Kreps: July 2: review
ONE STAR: Jo Ratcliffe: Walther Collection: July 15: review

SoHo/Lower East Side/Downtown

No current reviews.

Elsewhere Nearby

ONE STAR: Sam Taylor-Wood: Brooklyn Museum: August 14: review
TWO STARS: Lorna Simpson: Brooklyn Museum: August 21: review

Auction Results: Important Photobooks & Photographs, May 19, 2011 @Swann

The results of Swann's recent combination sale of photographic books and photographs were generally consistent with previous incarnations of this type of sale at the auction house. In both sections of the sale, the buy-in rate was over 35% and the Total Sale Proceeds fell below the estimate range.
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The summary statistics across the two portions of the sale are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):

Total of Both

Total Lots: 391
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $1169650
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $1704150
Total Lots Sold: 243
Total Lots Bought In: 148
Buy In %: 37.85%
Total Sale Proceeds: $964281

Important Photobooks Only

Total Lots: 128
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $208050
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $312050
Total Lots Sold: 80
Total Lots Bought In: 48
Buy In %: 37.50%
Total Sale Proceeds: $160772

Photographs Only

Total Lots: 263
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $961600
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $1392100
Total Lots Sold: 163
Total Lots Bought In: 100
Buy In %: 38.02%
Total Sale Proceeds: $803509

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

Important Photobooks Only

Low Total Lots: 122
Low Sold: 76
Low Bought In: 46
Buy In %: 37.70%
Total Low Estimate: $208050
Total Low Sold: $99812

Mid Total Lots: 5
Mid Sold: 4
Mid Bought In: 1
Buy In %: 20.00%
Total Mid Estimate: $104000
Total Mid Sold: $60960

High Total Lots: 1
High Sold: 0
High Bought In: 1
Buy In %: 100.00%
Total High Estimate: "Refer to Department"
Total High Sold: $0

The top lot by High estimate in the book section was lot 99, 21ST Editions, Collection, 1998-2010, at "Refer to Department"; it did not sell. The top book outcome was lot 13, Alfred Stieglitz, 291, Numbers 1-12, 1915-1916, at $31200. (Image at right, middle, via Swann.)

Only 62.50% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range in this portion of the sale. There were two surprises in this section (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 76, Eugene Smith, Minamata: Life - Sacred and Profane, 1973, at $960
Lot 119, Richard Avedon, An Autobiography, 1993, at $3840

Photographs Only

Low Total Lots: 242
Low Sold: 151
Low Bought In: 91
Buy In %: 37.60%
Total Low Estimate: $1003100
Total Low Sold: $576709

Mid Total Lots: 21
Mid Sold: 12
Mid Bought In: 9
Buy In %: 42.86%
Total Mid Estimate: $389000
Total Mid Sold: $226800

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 in the photographs section was tied between two lots: lot 161, Ansel Adams, Clearing Storm, Mount Williamson, From Manzanar, Sierra Nevada, California, 1944/1970s, and lot 212, Walker Evans, 5 photographs from the portfolio Walker Evans, 1935-36/1971, both at $20000-30000; the Adams did not sell and the Evans sold for $21600.The top outcome of this section of the sale was lot 289, Andre Kertesz, A Hungarian Memory portfolio, 1914-1923/1980, at $48000.

66.26% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range. There were a total of 11 surprises in this section (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 131, Japanese Imperial Family, Stacked wooden box with photographs, 1912, at $2400
Lot 142, Frederick Gutekunst, Group of 50 photographs, 1878, at $15600
Lot 153, Edward Curtis, An Oasis in the Badlands, 1905, at $9600
Lot 216, Press Photography, 350 topical news photographs, 1930-1940s, at $3600
Lot 220, Roman Vishniac, Studying Cabala in a Basement in Kazimierz, the Old Ghetto of Cracow, 1936/1970s, at $6240 (image at right, middle, via Swann)
Lot 250, David Vestal, Group of 3 photographs, 1959-1960, at $6000
Lot 278, Julius Shulman, Case Study House #22, Pierre Koenig, Los Angeles, 1950/1980s, at $6240 (image at right, top, via Swann)
Lot 289, Andre Kertesz, A Hungarian Memory portfolio, 1914-1923/1980, at $48000
Lot 298, Hollywood, Group of 68 photographs, 1930s, at $19200
Lot 307, Garry Winogrand, Untitled from Women are Beautiful, 1968/1981, at $10800
Lot 372, Marry Ellen Mark, Untitled (prostitute of Bombay), 1978, at $5040

Complete lot by lot results for both sections can be found here.

Swann Galleries
104 East 25th Street
New York, NY 10010

Memories of the Future: Ana Barrado/Rockets @Bell

JTF (just the facts): A total of 21 black and white photographs, generally framed in black and matted, and hung in the single room gallery space against blue and white walls. All of the prints are gelatin silver prints made between 1978 and 1996, and are either strictly vintage or printed within a few years of the negative date. Physical dimensions range from 12x10 to 22x18 (or reverse), and the prints have not been editioned. The exhibit was organized in conjunction with Paul M. Hertzmann Inc. (here). (Installation shots at right, via Deborah Bell.)

Comments/Context: Venturing into space is one of the most inherently aspirational of human pursuits; we look to the immense sky above and optimistically challenge ourselves to reach for the stars. Ana Barrado's images of sleek booster rockets, space capsules and astronaut gear from across the years are simultaneously dated and futuristic, giving us a glimpse of the technological dreams of our recent past and deepening our reverence for the power (or folly) of our own machine age wonders.

Most of Barrado's photographs capture the conical forms of rockets, either on display or on the launchpad. The white projectile forms are surprisingly sculptural; nose cones, tubular bodies and angular tail fins provide overlapping geometric interest, while black engines jut and slash from the undersides. Taken with infrared film, the rockets gleam with a faint fuzzy patina, enhancing the contrasts (particularly the blinding white) and darkening the wispy Florida skies. Space suits, moon rocks, solar system displays and other relics of space flight add to the science fiction mythology, becoming a family friendly form of self congratulatory tourism.

Barrado's landscapes full of mothballed missles have an unexpectedly surreal quality to them; objects built for speed and distance are firmly rooted to slabs of concrete and grassy lawns, the open skies above mocking their status as museum monuments. I think the best of the pictures in this show move beyond the technical specifics and become more visually abstract, transforming the forms of the rockets into symbols of that ambitious quality in us all, the one that sees the excitement in stretching beyond our limits.

Collector's POV: The works in this show are priced between $3500 and $5500, generally based on size. Barrado's work has not yet entered the secondary markets in any significant manner, so gallery retail is likely the only option for interested collectors at this point.

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

Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)
• Feature: Photograph (here)

Memories of the Future: Ana Barrado/Rockets
Vintage Photographs 1980s-1990s
Through June 25th

Deborah Bell Photographs
511 West 25th Street
New York, NY 10001

Auction Results: Photographs, May 19, 2011 @Phillips London

The results of the recent Photographs sale at Phillips in London generally met expectations. The overall Buy-In rate was over 30%, but a large number of positive surprises and decent performance by the top lots helped push the Total Sale Proceeds right into the middle of the estimate range.

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

Total Lots: 188
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: £1177100
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: £1627600
Total Lots Sold: 125
Total Lots Bought In: 63
Buy In %: 33.51%
Total Sale Proceeds: £1420438

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

Low Total Lots: 82
Low Sold: 49
Low Bought In: 33
Buy In %: 40.24%
Total Low Estimate: £279100
Total Low Sold: £189125

Mid Total Lots: 97
Mid Sold: 69
Mid Bought In: 28
Buy In %: 28.87%
Total Mid Estimate: £980500
Total Mid Sold: £920413

High Total Lots: 9
High Sold: 7
High Bought In: 2
Buy In %: 22.22%
Total High Estimate: £368000
Total High Sold: £310900

The top lot by High estimate was lot 94, Leni Riefenstahl, Nuba Portfolio, 2002, at £60000-80000; it was also the top outcome of the sale at £85250.

97.60% 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 5, Albert Watson, Yvette, Berlin, 7th July, 1990, at £5000
Lot 46, Stephen Shore, Beverly Boulevard and LaBrea Avenue, Los Angeles, California, June 21, 1975/Later, at £16250 (image at right, bottom, via Phillips)
Lot 65, Robert Frank, New York City, 1947/Later, at £37250
Lot 88, Josef Koudelka, Invasion by Warsaw Pact Troops, Prague, August, 1968/2008, at £13750 (image at right, middle, via Phillips)
Lot 96, Nick Brandt, Elephants Resting, Amboseli, 2007, at £17500
Lot 111, El Lissitzky, Hans (Jean) Arp, 1924, at £55250 (image at right, top, via Phillips)
Lot 112, Alexander Rodchenko, Rodchenko Museum Series Portfolio #2: Portraits, Various/Later, at £32450
Lot 115, Irving Penn, Alfred Hitchcock, New York, May 23, 1947/Early, at £51650
Lot 117, Norman Parkinson, Pamela Minchin, Isle of Wight for Harper's Bazaar, 1939/Later, at £6875
Lot 138, Dan Holdsworth, Blackout 08, 2010, at £23750
Lot 173, Christer Strömholm, Lago di Maggiore, 1950, at £10625
Lot 184, Toni Schneiders, Untitled, December, 1956, at £3000

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

Phillips De Pury & Company
Howick Place
London SW1P 1BB

Jeff Mermelstein, Work Oeuvre Opera @Wester

JTF (just the facts): A total of 13 color photographs, framed in black and unmatted, and hung in the single room gallery space against grey and white walls. All of the works are chromogenic prints on Kodak Endura ultra matte paper, made in 2010. The prints are either 14x22 or 28x41 (or reverse); there are 6 of the smaller size and 7 of the larger size in the show. Edition sizes are either 6 or 8, depending on the image. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Jeff Mermelstein's images of Fashion Week in Milan, Paris, and New York from 2010 are witty examples of outsider anthropology. On assignment for New York magazine, he dropped into this eccentric subculture and captured off-the-catwalk moments of backstage oddity and harried showmanship. It's a sharp look at the stylized world of fashion, delivered with dry, quirky humor.

Many of Mermelstein's images surround moments of fit and finish, where models are being prepared and head-to-toe looks are being optimized: an unruly pile of wigs and hair extensions becomes a tangled mess, pink lipstick is smeared across the lips of a model covered in hair clips, and another leggy model in short shorts wears huge orange sunglasses near a jumbled gathering of potential shoe options. A stuffed tiger, a handful of red fingernails, an androgynous model in body paint, and the electric explosion of Grace Coddington's orange hair only add to the weirdness of it all.

These images take Mermelstein away from his usual street photography and toward the aesthetic of Martin Parr, which I think works quite effectively given the subject matter. While not every photograph on view here is entirely memorable, there are enough strikingly unconventional and idiosyncratic snippets of the underside of fashion to keep the show plenty lively.
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Collector's POV: The works in this show are priced at either $3500 or $5500, based on size. Mermelstein's work has not yet entered the secondary markets in any significant manner, so gallery retail is likely the only option for interested collectors at this point.
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Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)
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Transit Hub:

• Reviews/Features: New Yorker (here), Photo Booth (here), New York (here)

Jeff Mermelstein, Work Oeuvre Opera

Through June 25th

Rick Wester Fine Art

511 West 25th Street
New York, NY 10001

Deborah Bell to Join Christie's Photographs Department

Last week, I did an afternoon swing through Chelsea and stopped by to see the Ana Barrado show at Deborah Bell Photographs (review coming later this week). After kicking around the nuances of infrared film with my ever welcoming and knowledgeable host, she mentioned that this would be the last show at the gallery; she was closing up shop after more than a decade to join Christie's as the Head of the Photographs Department. What a surprise!

In my head, I think the well worn path usually runs in the opposite direction, in that auction house specialists eventually tend to move on to galleries (brand names or new ones of their own), but Deborah made a compelling case that given the changes in how material is now moving through markets, joining Christie's would give her a better opportunity to see and work with a bigger sample of high quality material from across time periods and styles. I think that this logic probably does hold, especially if you are running a smaller, more niche gallery program like hers.

I'm sure that the transition from running her own gallery to working for a large corporate entity will have its own mix of bittersweet moments and new opportunities, but luckily for her, the existing Christie's Photographs team is already strong and successful. As a collector, I'll certainly look forward to seeing her unpretentious brand of Minnesota friendliness at work in the showrooms this fall.

Ellen Kooi, Out of Sight @PPOW

JTF (just the facts): A total of 11 large scale color photographs, hung unframed in the front gallery space, a second adjoining room, and in the office area. All of the prints are either Ilfoarchive on dibond or Enduraprint on plexiglas, made between 2007 and 2011. Physical dimensions range from 27x45 to 31x107, with editions either 10+2, 12+2 or 20+2. A monograph of this body of work was published in 2010 by Filigranes Editions (here). (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Dutch photographer Ellen Kooi can neatly be categorized as one of the increasing number of contemporary photographers employing cinematic staging as a signature technique. Her images of children set amid flat Dutch landscapes sit roughly in the middle along the spectrum of realistic recreation and obvious fabrication, using theatrical lighting and unexpected perspectives to create open ended scenes and narrative fragments that reference childhood fairy tales with a sense of heightened realism.

While stories and dreams can of course take place anywhere, these pictures are firmly rooted in the Dutch soil and in the visual traditions of Dutch landscape painting across the centuries. Children in rubber boots squish across mudflats, a girl stands tall on a tree stump over looking a misty expanse of farmland, and another hides her face near a drainage canal flanked by weeds. With a compositional nod to Wyeth, a girl peers up at a lonely house perched on the hillside, carrying what looks to be a dead seagull. And we are left to only imagine why the boy sitting in the amazingly tall weeds is bathed in an alien green glow or why the girl is scrambling across the roadside in the twilit night.

In each of these images, the land itself plays much more than just a supporting role; it often dominates the figures, creating a sense of expansive natural scale and power compared to the children. Kooi has taken the realistic genre painting of the past and infused it with some modern mystery and uncertainty, taking idyllic landscape formulas and overlaying them with moods a bit more menacing.
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Collector's POV: The works in this show are priced between $8000 and $16000, based on size and the place in the edition. Kooi's work has not yet entered the secondary markets in any significant manner, so gallery retail is likely the only option for interested collectors at this point.

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

Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)

Ellen Kooi, Out of Sight
Through June 18th

PPOW Gallery
535 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011

Rinko Kawauchi: Illuminance @Hermes

JTF (just the facts): A total of 15 large scale color photographs, framed in white with no mat, and hung in the atrium gallery space at the top of the store. All of the works are chromogenic prints made between 2009 and 2011. The prints on display are square format, each 40x40; no edition information was available. A monograph of this body of work is forthcoming from Aperture (here). (Installation shots at right.)
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Comments/Context: Every time I see Rinko Kawauchi's work, I am reminded that photography has not lost its ability to capture the pure unadulterated wonder of the world around us. Her images of seemingly mundane objects and fleeting moments are radical in their effortless simplicity and genuine freshness, her optimistic curiosity discovering child-like interest in things most of us would pass by without a second glance. Her shows have the effect of stripping away jadedness and cynicism, taking us back to a view of the world that is more naturally engaged and actively inquisitive.

What I like about this newest selection of images is that they have been edited with much tighter hand, making the whole much more thematically coherent than previous shows I've seen, which have tended to wander with more randomness from subject to subject. Virtually all the pictures on view turn on their use of light. What might seem like a ridiculously overused photographic construct actually works here, as the images sparkle with flashes and beams of immaculate whiteness, on surfaces, in the air, and through the frame. Kawauchi's light glistens through watery mist, glances off of a scooter side mirror, stripes a sidewalk, gets lost in the smoke of fireworks, slips through the forest, and passes through a transparent bubble. She jumps from the immensity of a solar eclipse to the minuteness of a tiny frog perched on a thumb, touching the tenderness of a dead swallow and the poetry of a swirling sea in between.

Regardless of her subject, Kawauchi never seems to lose sight of delicacy and openness. At first, a blast of flash against an ordinary pink rose at night seems harsh and amateurish; look again and it has a quiet haze that is quite remarkable. Even shots that might be mistaken for stock photography are somehow infused with her life affirming attention; it's like we are being taught to see all over again. Kawauchi's work doesn't fit into any neat categories or curatorial frameworks; hers is an authentically original vision, and this well chosen small show is evidence of the power of an alternate viewpoint.

Collector's POV: This isn't a selling show, so no prices were available. Kawauchi's work has only recently entered the secondary markets; with only a few lots sold in various sizes, it's hard to draw many pricing trends from so few outcomes. As a result, gallery retail is still the best option for interested collectors. I don't believe Kawauchi has gallery representation in New York at the moment, so FOIL Gallery in Tokyo (here) will be the place to go.  
 
Rating: ** (two stars) VERY GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Reviews/Features: T Magazine (here), Time Light Box (here)

Rinko Kawauchi: Illuminance

Through July 16th

The Gallery at Hermès
691 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10065

The Checklist: 06/09/11

DLK COLLECTION
.
Checklist 06/09/11

New reviews added this week in red.

Uptown

ONE STAR: Moveable Feast: MCNY: July 10: review
ONE STAR: Night Vision: Met: September 18: review
ONE STAR: After the Gold Rush: Met: January 2: review

Midtown

ONE STAR: Herb Ritts: Edwynn Houk: June 25: review
TWO STARS: Henry Wessel: Pace/MacGill: July 8: review
ONE STAR: Japan Today: Amador: August 19: review

Chelsea

TWO STARS: Louise Lawler: Metro Pictures: June 11: review
ONE STAR: Carter Mull: Taxter & Spengemann: June 11: review
TWO STARS: John Divola: Wallspace: June 18: review
ONE STAR: Barry Frydlender: Andrea Meislin: June 18: review
ONE STAR: Robert Mapplethorpe: Sean Kelly: June 18: review
ONE STAR: Vision is Elastic: Murray Guy: June 18: review
ONE STAR: Ori Gersht: CRG: June 24: review
ONE STAR: Gillian Wearing: Tanya Bonakdar: June 24: review
ONE STAR: Cao Fei: Lombard-Freid: June 25: review
ONE STAR: Florian Maier-Aichen: 303: June 25: review
ONE STAR: Roe Ethridge: Andrew Kreps: July 2: review
ONE STAR: Jo Ratcliffe: Walther Collection: July 15: review

SoHo/Lower East Side/Downtown

No current reviews.

Elsewhere Nearby

ONE STAR: Sam Taylor-Wood: Brooklyn Museum: August 14: review
TWO STARS: Lorna Simpson: Brooklyn Museum: August 21: review

Auction Results: Photographs, May 19, 2011 @Bonhams London

The recent results of the Photographs sale at Bonhams in London were quite soft, with a Buy-In rate over 50%, few positive surprises, and Total Sale Proceeds that missed the estimate range by a wide margin.

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

Total Lots: 102
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: £240200
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: £340900
Total Lots Sold: 50
Total Lots Bought In: 52
Buy In %: 50.98%
Total Sale Proceeds: £166080

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

Low Total Lots: 81
Low Sold: 42
Low Bought In: 39
Buy In %: 48.15%
Total Low Estimate: £155900
Total Low Sold: £100680

Mid Total Lots: 21
Mid Sold: 8
Mid Bought In: 13
Buy In %: 61.90%
Total Mid Estimate: £185000
Total Mid Sold: £65400

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 56, Irving Penn, Five Dahomey Girls, Two Standing, 1967/1985, at £15000-20000; it did not sell. The top outcome of the sale was lot 47, Hans Haas, Hans Haas at work photographing the world under the ocean, n.d., at £14400. (Image at right, top, via Bonhams.)

92.00% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above their estimate. There were a total of 3 surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 5, David Octavius Hill & Robert Adamson, Four portraits, 1840s, at £4560 (image at right, bottom, via Bonhams)
Lot 47, Hans Haas, Hans Haas at work photographing the world under the ocean, n.d., at £14400 (image at right, top, via Bonhams)
Lot 77, Mario Testino, Kate Moss in Blue Cafe, 2005, at £5280

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

Bonhams
101 New Bond Street
London W1S 1SR

Auction Results: Photographs, May 18, 2011 @Bloomsbury London

It's a slow climb uphill for Bloomsbury to establish a viable Photographs department, and this sale marked some incremental progress from last year in terms of value on offer, Buy-In rate, and Total Sale Proceeds. The auction still missed the low end of the range by a wide margin and plenty of lots went unsold, but it's a small improvement that can be built on.

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

Total Lots: 225
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: £283100
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: £405750
Total Lots Sold: 127
Total Lots Bought In: 98
Buy In %: 43.56%
Total Sale Proceeds: £209858

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

Low Total Lots: 207
Low Sold: 89
Low Bought In: 118
Buy In %: 57.00%
Total Low Estimate: £254750
Total Low Sold: £150078

Mid Total Lots: 18
Mid Sold: 9
Mid Bought In: 9
Buy In %: 50.00%
Total Mid Estimate: £151000
Total Mid Sold: £59780

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 125, Irving Penn, Five Dahomey Girls, One Standing, 1967/1974, at £10000-15000; it did not sell. The top outcome of the sale was lot 21, PH Delamotte for Negritti & Zambei, The Reception of Napoleon III and Empress Eugenie by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, 1855, at £10980.

81.10% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above their estimate. There were a total of 11 surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 4, Frank Meadow Sutcliffe, With the Wind and Tide, 1880s, at £1159
Lot 13, Fred Judge, Conway Bridge and Castle, c1910, at £3660 (image at right, bottom, via Bloomsbury)
Lot 33, John Edward Sache, Collection of Images of India, 1860s, at £2684
Lot 34, Felice Beato, The Dumi Gate and Emanbarra, Lucknow; Bailey Guard Gate from the Inside, Lucknow, c1858, at £854
Lot 66, Arvid Gutschow, Untitled, c1930s, at £2684 (image at right, middle, via Bloomsbury)
Lot 89, Edouard Boubat, Self Portrait in Mirror, 1951, at £4880
Lot 94, Andre Villers, The Hands of Pablo Picasso, 1960, at £5490
Lot 121, Robert Capa, Omaha Beach, D-Day, 6, June 1944, 1944/before 1955, at £6710 (image at right, top, via Bloomsbury)
Lot 130, Albert Rudomine, Female Nude, 1930s, at £1464
Lot 175, Richard Sadler, Weegee, Coventry, 1963, at £854
Lot 218, Roksana Ciurysek, Butterfly, 2010, at £2684

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

Bloomsbury Auctions
24 Maddox Street
Mayfair
London WS1 1PP

Roe Ethridge, Le Luxe @Kreps

JTF (just the facts): A total of 12 large scale color works and 2 sets of bookshelves, framed in white and not matted, and hung in the entry, the main gallery space, and the office area. All of the works are c-prints, ranging in size from roughly 37x25 to 77x52. The photographs were made between 2005 and 2011, and have been printed in editions of 5. The bookshelves are alternately made of stainless steel (1 unit) and pine wood (9 units), from 2011. A monograph of this body of work was recently published by Mack Books (here). (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: It has taken me quite a while to get my head around just what exactly Roe Ethridge is doing in his photography. The first couple of times I saw his work, all I could discover was a sense of impersonal randomness, often executed in a glossy commercial style, mixing appropriated and original work with equal facility. Without any apparent connection or narrative to link the works, I simply couldn't find my way in, and was left mystified by the ordinariness of it all.

This show of new work was my first experience in seeing a larger group of images actually sequenced by Ethridge, rather than simply catching a glimpse of a picture or two taken out of context. What I found was that I started to understand how this approach operates, especially in the open-endedness of what the pictures taken together might (or might not) imply. It sounds corny I'm sure, but it's almost as if the space between the pictures is what Ethridge is after, rather than the specific images themselves.

What's actually on the walls is a puzzling group of seemingly unrelated subjects and styles: a group of images from a commission by Goldman Sachs to document the building of its new offices (still lifes of wet sand pits and mottled concrete floors, workers installing glass curtain walls), a plastic shopping bag against a glossy red brick wall, a shiny over-pixelated bow, an appropriated Point Break poster with the artist's face superimposed over Patrick Swayze, two aerial views of Tokyo with rainbow lights and glittering gold haze, a grid of women in bikinis, etc. In seeing these all together, I began to see a strong relationship to the work of Wolfgang Tillmans. The similarities between the two are structural I think, not stylistic; Ethridge has substituted an impersonal often commercial view for Tillmans' deadpan observations of small moments, but the effect is the same - it's how the pieces are put together and recontextualized that generates the insights. This idea of the pictures as a scaffolding for the narratives that fall between them is reinforced by the empty bookshelves installed in the gallery. Whether wood or steel, all they do is provide structure; the information is missing, to be supplied by the viewer.

As stand alone images, I continue to have trouble with many of Ethridge's slicker efforts, as I don't think they hold up particularly well on their own. But as an environment (or perhaps as a book I imagine), I finally saw the core of his originality. The ideas are a bit obtuse and reach beyond what we normally think of as the normal boundaries of "self-contained" photography, but as digital images exponentially proliferate, perhaps Ethridge's approach to mash-up and shuffled rework of any and all may signal a new way of thinking about conceptual relationships within photography.

Collector's POV: The prints in this show are priced between $12000 and $28000 (with intermediate prices at $14000, $18000, and $24000), roughly based on size. Ethridge's work is not consistently available in the secondary markets; prices for the few lots that have sold at auction in recent years have ranged between $12000 and $20000. As such, gallery retail is likely the best option for interested collectors at this point.

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

Transit Hub:

• Reviews: New Yorker (here), TimeOut New York (here)

Roe Ethridge, Le Luxe
Through July 2nd

Andrew Kreps Gallery
525 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011

Auction Results: Photographs, May 17, 2011 @Christie's King Street

Christie's went 8 for 8 with its High lots in its recent Photographs sale in London, driving the Total Sale Proceeds up above the top end of the estimate range with some room to spare. A failed run of 12 straight passed lots by Don McCullin inflated the Buy-In rate (above 38%), but the rest of sale performed quite solidly otherwise.

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

Total Lots: 102
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: £695500
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: £1013000
Total Lots Sold: 63
Total Lots Bought In: 29
Buy In %: 38.24%
Total Sale Proceeds: £1169075

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

Low Total Lots: 39
Low Sold: 17
Low Bought In: 22
Buy In %: 56.41%
Total Low Estimate: £136000
Total Low Sold: £72000

Mid Total Lots: 55
Mid Sold: 38
Mid Bought In: 17
Buy In %: 30.91%
Total Mid Estimate: £562000
Total Mid Sold: £485875

High Total Lots: 8
High Sold: 8
High Bought In: 0
Buy In %: 0.00%
Total High Estimate: £315000
Total High Sold: £611200

The top lot by High estimate was lot 61, Peter Beard, Hunting Cheetah on the Tarn Desert, 1960/Later, at £50000-70000; it was also the top outcome of the sale at £217250. (Image at right, bottom, via Christie's.)

92.06% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above their estimate. There were a total of ten surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 45, Helmut Newton, Portrait of Margaret Thatcher, Anaheim, California, 1991, at £27500
Lot 55, Desiree Dolron, Xteriors VII, 2004, at £103250 (image at right, top, via Christie's)
Lot 58, Guido Mocafico, Dendroaspis Jamesoni Jamesoni, 2003, at £30000
Lot 61, Peter Beard, Hunting Cheetahs on the Tarn Desert, 1960/Later, at £217250 (image at right, bottom, via Christie's)
Lot 73, David Hockney, David and Ann on the Subway, November 18, 1982, at £23750
Lot 78, Helmut Newton, Violetta with Monocle - Big Nude IX, Paris, 1991, at £16250
Lot 80, Helmut Newton, Chez Patou, Paris, French Vogue, 1977, at £12500
Lot 91, Jeanloup Sieff, Nude on a Cube, 1972, at £7500
Lot 97, Irving Penn, Turning Head (B), Self-portrait, 1993/1996, at £27500 (image at right, middle, via Christie's)
Lot 102, David Bailey, Michael Caine, 1965/1989, at £6875

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

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

Ori Gersht: Falling Petals @CRG

JTF (just the facts): A total of 13 large scale color works and 1 video installation, alternately framed in white or black and not matted, and hung in the main gallery space (with a closed off viewing room in the back for the video). All of the works (both single images and diptychs) are either archival pigment prints or c-prints mounted on dibond, ranging in size from 14x16 to 51x80. The works were made in 2010, and have generally been printed in editions of 8 (there are 3 works printed in editions of 6). The video is a dual channel HD video projection with sound, made in 2011. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: My first reaction upon walking into Ori Gersht's new show was that Japanese cherry blossoms have to be one of the most classic and therefore overdone subjects that an artist might tackle. Not only is there the backdrop of centuries of Japanese art depicting these specific trees in bloom, but plenty of famous photographers have more recently brought their own unique perspectives to the blush of pale pink in springtime. Whether the angle is the renewal of life and the turning of the seasons or the fragility and grace of the flowers and their symbolism of innocence and natural beauty, this is subject matter that has been discovered over and over again, perhaps not exhausted, but certainly not unexplored.

Gersht's images of the trees in bloom are surprisingly dark and almost sinister. Taken at night, they have a peculiar glow, where the light catches the petals against a muted, enveloping evening. Up close, many are turned into distorted impressionistic clusters of pink and blue dots, where pixelated texture breaks the image down into tactile gestures. Wider landscapes have familiar compositional hallmarks (a tree branch or gnarled trunk isolated for effect), and yet the scenes seem almost nightmarish in their otherworldly flash lit silence; nearby, swaths of floating petals covering the water become nearly abstract. In all the images, simple ephemeral beauty has been found to have an ominous almost desperate side hiding underneath.

Without the knowledge of the backstory provided by the press release, I would never have known that Gersht was influenced by the trees' symbolism for kamikaze pilots from World War II, or by the location of some of the specimens in Hiroshima's irradiated soil. Given these narrative hooks, the menacing quality which has been drawn out starts to make more sense. While the surreal mood (and coloration) is obvious, I doubt that one could discern the military connections without some help. That said, and although not every image is startlingly memorable, Gersht has successfully infused this subject matter with a more complex set of emotions than is normally associated with the cliche of lovely spring flowers.
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Collector's POV: The single image prints in the show are priced between $8500 and $25000, with the largest of the diptychs slightly higher at $30000. Gersht's work is not consistently available in the secondary markets; prices for the few lots that have sold at auction in recent years have ranged between $3000 and $17000. As such, gallery retail is likely the best option for interested collectors at this point.
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Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)
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Transit Hub:

• Review: TimeOut New York (here)
• Exhibit: Santa Barbara Museum of Art (here)

Ori Gersht: Falling Petals

Through June 24th

CRG Gallery
548 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011

Auction: Photographie, June 10, 2011 @Van Ham

Later this week in Cologne, Van Ham finishes up the Spring season in Germany with a various owner Photographs sale. As usual, there is a generous selection of lower end German/European material, with a special section of vintage architectural images of Cologne headlined by Werner Mantz and Hugo Schmölz. Overall, there are a total of 398 lots on offer in this sale, with a Total High Estimate of 793380€.

Here's the breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including 7500€): 383
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): 626380€

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between 7500€ and 35000€): 15
Total Mid Estimate: 167000€

Total High Lots (high estimate above 35000€): 0
Total High Estimate: NA
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The top lot by High estimate is lot 1146, Floris Neusüss, Sabine, 1961, at 16000-18000€.

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

Hugo Schmölz (21)
Albert Renger-Patzsch (16)
Werner Mantz (14)
August Sander (11)
Weegee (7)
Margaret Bourke-White (6)
Brassai (6)
Germaine Krull (6)
Paul Wolff (5)
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(Lot 1035, Joachim Brohm, Franzosische Zeitzone, 1985, at 2800€ , at right, top, lot 1074, Frank Gohlke, Landscape, Moorhead, MN, 1977, at 2800€, at right, bottom, and lot 1149, Arnold Odermatt, Stansstad, 1966/Later, at 2800€, at right, middle, all via Van Ham.)

The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here.

Photographie
June 10th
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Van Ham Kunstauktionen
Schönhauser Straße 10 - 16
D - 50968 Köln

Florian Maier-Aichen @303

JTF (just the facts): A total of 8 large scale color images, generally framed in white and not matted (the two smallest works are framed in black and matted), and hung in the main gallery space (with a partial dividing wall). All of the works are c-prints, ranging in size from 16x13 to 82x106. The works were made in 2011, and have been printed in editions of 6. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Florian Maier-Aichen's show of new work at 303 finds him moving further and further away from the traditional frameworks and definitions of photography. While all of the end products in this exhibit are photographic prints, Maier-Aichen has employed a dizzying array of artistic techniques and media (including painting, drawing, watercolor, animation, sculptural installation, and Photoshop) to expand the boundaries of the form. As a result, these works feel very process heavy; the "how" seems to dominate the rest of the ideas he is offering, making the "why" less clear.

Two of the new works seem to extend his exploration of broad romantic landscape, connecting back to his previous images most closely; one aerial depicts unexpected yellow blotches of farmland in a sea of blue and green, while another captures a steep fjord with boats in surreal tricolor fuzziness. A third takes a dated suburban scene from Los Angeles and transforms it with Photoshop snow and hand painted cars, creating a juxtaposition of incompatible styles and an impossibility of memory.

The rest of the works in the show drift away from a quasi-documentary approach toward interpretation and abstraction via rephotography. Two large pictures began as drawings/paintings on canvas, night scenes of stars against dark skies, with tree silhouettes or childlike waves as framing; up close, they are quite textural. Two others are photographs of animation cells and watercolors, one a swirling mass of happy abstraction, another a cartoon mix of landscape and a floating circular target. The last documents a copy of a Kenneth Noland painting being submerged in a flood of dark red water.

As Maier-Aichen moves away from the traditions of photography toward a new frontier of mixed media, I think it becomes harder and harder to understand or judge his work in a purely photographic context. Intellectually, I am intrigued by what he is attempting to do, as it represents a new confluence of ideas; the tools are being used in original, less "realistic" ways. Visually though, I continue to be less than moved; as his work gets more symbolic and impressionistic, it may indeed be leaving photography behind. There's clearly a conceptual redefinition going on here, but the resulting images need to be more than just inventive process.
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Collector's POV: The prints in the show are priced between $25000 and $120000, with several at $70000. Maier-Aichen's work has become consistently available in the secondary markets in the past few years, with prices generally ranging between $25000 and $180000.
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Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Review: New Yorker (here)
• Interview: Art in America (here)

Florian Maier-Aichen

Through June 25th

303 Gallery
547 West 21st Street
New York, NY 10011