This sale at Christie’s is part of a larger series of online photography sales where all the lots have come from the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Between now and April of 2018, Christie’s will hold a total of 7 online actions, with a mix of single artist sales and wider gatherings of material. Whether the purely online market is now robust enough to deliver solid results for all of this MoMA material (over 400 lots across all of the sales) remains to be seen.
This sale provides a survey of the photography made between the late 1890s and the 1930s, tracking the stylistic transition from soft focus Pictorialism to hard edged Modernism. The sale is led by a Clarence White nude (in platinum) and runs the gamut from dreamy textural portraits to sharp industrial scenes. Overall, there are a total of 58 lots available in the sale, with a Total High Estimate of $1222000.
Here’s the statistical breakdown:
| Preview Statistics | |
|---|---|
| Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including $10000) | 29 |
| Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of low lots) | $170000 |
| Total Mid Lots (high estimate between $10000 and $50000) | 23 |
| Total Mid Estimate | $582000 |
| Total High Lots (high estimate above $50000) | 6 |
| Total High Estimate | $470000 |
The top lot by High estimate is lot 123, Clarence White, Untitled, 1921, estimated at $80000-120000 (image above, via Christie’s).
Here’s the complete list of photographers with three or more lots in the sale, along with the number of lots on offer:
| Multiple Lots For Sale | |
|---|---|
| Edward Steichen | 11 |
| Alfred Stieglitz | 8 |
| Ilse Bing | 7 |
| Alvin Langdon Coburn | 5 |
| Edward Weston | 4 |
| Clarence White | 4 |
| Anne Brigman | 3 |
| Walker Evans | 3 |
Other lots of interest include (images above, via Christie’s):
Lot 102, Edward Steichen, Heavy Roses, 1914/1950s-1960s, estimated at $40000-60000
Lot 154, Germaine Krull, Untitled from Métal, Hamburg, c1925-1928, estimated at $10000-15000
Lot 155, Alvin Langdon Coburn, Vortograph, c1917/1958, estimated at $10000-15000
The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here.
