After the Gold Rush: Contemporary Photographs from the Collection @Met

JTF (just the facts): A group show consisting of 25 photographic works from 15 different photographers, variously framed and matted, and hung in a single room gallery space with a main dividing wall. The prints were made between 1979 and 2010, using multiple processes (gelatin silver, chromogenic etc.). (Installation shots at right.)

The following photographers have been included in the exhibit, with the number of images on view in parentheses:

Gretchen Bender (1)
James Casebere (1)
Moyra Davey (1 grid of 100)
Philip-Lorca diCorcia (4)
Robert Gober (2)
Katy Grannan (3)
Hans Haacke (1 diptych)
An-My Lê (1 group of 5)
Curtis Mann (1)
Trevor Paglen (1)
Adrian Piper (1 triptych)
Laurie Simmons (1)
Wolfgang Tillmans (5)
Jeff Wall (1, distractingly large given the narrowness of the space by the way)
Christopher Williams (1)

Comments/Context: If you’ve spent some time trolling through the contemporary photography galleries in New York in the past couple of years, the odds are you’ve run across many of the works on display in this new group show of contemporary photography at the Met. Roughly half the works in the exhibit are recent acquisitions (look for the little blue logos on the wall labels), so it’s a terrific chance to try to extrapolate how the curators and the members of the Photography committee are approaching the addition of new work to the permanent collection.

This particular installation puts these photographs in the specific context of cultural interchange, and makes an argument for a pattern of contemporary work that is addressing and responding to the social, economic, and political environment that surrounds us, either as direct commentary or as indirect undercurrents and glimpses of prevailing mood and emotion. It then goes on to dig additional images out of storage from the 1980s and 1990s that fit this overall thematic construct, connecting the dots between different time periods and commonalities of upheaval or uncertainty in society at large.

My analytical brain can think of three different ways this show might have come to pass:

1.) The Met identified (“top-down”) a certain type of photography to look for or that it was interested in (cultural response), and then went out and systematically acquired works that fit those specifications
2.) The Met acquired recent works (of all kinds) that it thought were important and discovered later (“bottom-up”) that a real and identifiable pattern was occurring in part of the contemporary artistic environment; the curators followed that trail and then created a show that highlighted those discoveries and placed them in context
3.) The Met acquired recent works (of all kinds) that it thought were important and then shoehorned some of them into a theme so that it could find a rational way to display them and tie them into other existing holdings

While we’ll probably never know which of three it actually was (unless one of the principals involved weighs in with an answer), I think the theme of art as a reflection of the issues of the times seems like an awfully broad and all-encompassing umbrella under which to stand; apart from abstract, inward-looking, or highly conceptual work, almost anything else might logically fit into such a framework. As such, this show lacked the tightness of vision I’d like to see in a group show; yes, all the pieces fit into the right general bucket, but the selection and juxtaposition of images (walls of economic hardship, subtleties of military might, economic satire, snippets of racism, sexism etc.) wasn’t as hard hitting or consistent as I would have expected it to be if you were really trying to make a powerful point about the engagement of contemporary art photographers in current events; the thread was there to be sure, but it was just too diffuse to really grab my attention.

So rather than drawing any crisp conclusions about the overall trends in contemporary photography, I came away ticking down a checklist: Grannan, Casebere, Lê, Mann, Davey, Tillmans, all high-quality work that was recently (or still is) in local galleries, now part of the prestigious permanent collection of the Met. Let’s agree that these are all solid choices. But still, for the purposes of collection building (a topic in which I have infinite interest), it’s intriguing to think about what drew the curators and accessions committee members to these particular works. Why these photographers and not others? Why these specific images and not others from the same project or series (especially for an artist like Tillmans)? What long-term historical significance did they ascribe to these photographs? What holes were they trying to fill? How did they convince each other that these were the ones that money should be spent on? The answers of course are unknown, but thoroughly fun for an afternoon of speculation.
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Collector’s POV: Given this is a museum show, there are obviously no posted prices for the works on display. That said, given that many of these photographs have recently been in local NY gallery shows, an intrepid collector could search through the archive here for the relevant reviews and likely piece together a decently current price list for roughly half of the prints in the exhibit.

My favorite work in the show was Moyra Davey’s Copperhead Grid, 1990/2009; it’s on the right in the bottom installation shot. While I have seen variations on these Davey copperheads before (in different sizes), I continue to be enthralled by their tactile surfaces. Chemical residues of orange and green swirl across the profile of Abraham Lincoln, the coins sometimes scratched and covered to the point that his head is almost indecipherable. Her subtle commentary about the insignificance of the penny, the deterioration of money, and the loss of meaning in the financial system are all wound together into a memorable set of eroded symbols.

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

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Transit Hub:

Review: Village Voice (here)

After the Gold Rush: Contemporary Photographs from the Collection
Through January 2nd

Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10028

Auction Results: BRIC, April 14 and 15, 2011 @Phillips London

The results of the BRIC sale at Phillips in London last week were generally uneventful, with the two Rashid Rana lots bringing in nearly half of the photography proceeds. The overall Buy-In rate was nearly 40% and the Total Sale Proceeds for photography came in just under the low end of the estimate range. With no positive surprises, there were no individual outcomes really worth mentioning, and thus no accompanying images for this results review.
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The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):

Total Lots: 56
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: £722000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: £971000
Total Lots Sold: 34
Total Lots Bought In: 22
Buy In %: 39.29%
Total Sale Proceeds: £719600
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Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post, here):

Low Total Lots: 18
Low Sold: 13
Low Bought In: 5
Buy In %: 27.87%
Total Low Estimate: £73000
Total Low Sold: £55625
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Mid Total Lots: 32
Mid Sold: 16
Mid Bought In: 16
Buy In %: 50.00%
Total Mid Estimate: £318000
Total Mid Sold: £150125
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High Total Lots: 6
High Sold: 5
High Bought In: 1
Buy In %: 16.67%
Total High Estimate: £580000
Total High Sold: £513850

The top lot by High estimate was lot 25, Rashid Rana, Veil IV, 2007, at £250000-300000; it was also the top outcome of the sale at £301250.
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97.06% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range. There were no surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate).

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

Phillips De Pury & Company
Howick Place
London SW1P 1BB

Auction Results: Photographs, April 13, 2011 @Bonhams Dubai

Bonhams’ recent Photographs sale in Dubai didn’t generate much notable momentum. The overall Buy-In rate was up over 33% (more than a third of the lots failing to find a buyer) and the Total Sale Proceeds missed the low end of the estimate range by a significant margin on both a dollar basis and as a percentage. With no positive surprises, there were no individual outcomes really worth highlighting, and thus no accompanying images for this results roundup.
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The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):

Total Lots: 85
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $570000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $757900
Total Lots Sold: 56
Total Lots Bought In: 29
Buy In %: 34.12%
Total Sale Proceeds: $394920
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Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post, here):

Low Total Lots: 72
Low Sold: 49
Low Bought In: 23
Buy In %: 31.94%
Total Low Estimate: $430900
Total Low Sold: $253920
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Mid Total Lots: 13
Mid Sold: 7
Mid Bought In: 6
Buy In %: 46.15%
Total Mid Estimate: $327000
Total Mid Sold: $141000
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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 tied between two lots: lot 33, Shirin Neshat, Mystified, 1997, and lot 70, Halim Al-Karim, Goddess of the Desert, 2010, both at $35000-45000. The Al-Karim didn’t sell. The Neshat sold for $36000, and was tied with lot 41, Camille Zakharia, Cultivate Your Garden, 1998, also at $36000, for top outcome of the sale.
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91.07% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range. There were no surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate).
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Complete lot by lot results can be found here.
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Bonhams
Royal Mirage Hotel

Villa No. 23
Beach Road
Jumeirah 1
Dubai, UAE

Auction Preview: Post-War and Contemporary Art, April 20, 2011 @Christie’s South Kensington

On the heels of the spring Photograph auctions and before the main event Contemporary Art sales in New York in mid May, Christie’s has jammed in a low end Post-War and Contemporary Art sale at its South Kensington office in London, scheduled for the middle of next week. It’s an eclectic mop-up of contemporary art photography, with a variety of lesser known and more affordable images. I was particularly happy to see the abstract photographs by John Chamberlain (better known for his massive sculptures of swirled together car parts), which don’t tend to surface much at auction. Mixed in with works from other mediums, there are a total of 43 lots of photography on offer, with a Total High Estimate of £328800.
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Here’s the statistical breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including £5000): 21
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): £68800

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between £5000 and £25000): 22
Total Mid Estimate: £260000

Total High Lots (high estimate above £25000): 0
Total High Estimate: NA

The top lot by High estimate is lot 38, Robert Gober, Untitled, 1988, at £18000-22000. (Image at right, top, via Christie’s.)

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

John Chamberlain (3)
Candida Höfer (3)
Nobuyoshi Araki (2)
Dan Graham (2)
Gabriel Orozco (2)
Wolfgang Tillmans (2)
James Welling (2)
Erwin Wurm (2)

(Lot 87, Sean Scully, Santa Domingo Facade No. 2, 1999, at £7000-10000, image at right, bottom, and lot 150, John Chamberlain, Untitled, 1997, £2000-3000, image at right, middle, both via Christie’s.)

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

Post-War and Contemporary Art
April 20th

Christie’s
85 Old Brompton Road
London SW7 3LD

Katy Grannan: The Happy Ever After: The Believers and Boulevard Series @Salon 94

JTF (just the facts): A two-part show, split between the gallery spaces at 243 Bowery and 1 Freemans Alley. The Freemans show consists of 28 large scale color photographs, framed in white and unmatted, and hung nearly edge to edge in the single room space. The Bowery show consists of 6 photographs upstairs (framed similarly) and 1 three-channel video (9 minutes long) shown in the main downstairs space. All of the photographs are archival pigment prints on cotton rag paper mounted to Plexiglas, made between 2008 and 2010. The photographs are generally sized 39×29 (in editions of 3), except for one image in the Bowery show which is 26×20 (also in editions of 3). The video was made in 2010, in an edition of 5. A monograph of this body of work is available from the gallery for $45. (Installation shots at right.)
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Comments/Context: It’s a pretty tough challenge for a young photographer to wedge herself into the already crowded field of contemporary street portraiture and then durably and defensibly develop an original point of view. In fact, this genre is so strewn with entirely forgettable, derivative photographers that it most resembles a medieval battlefield after a particularly bloody exchange; hardly anyone actually emerges intact with a brand new formula. Katy Grannan’s images of the invisible and marginal inhabitants of the sun blasted streets of San Francisco and Los Angeles aren’t pictures that deviate widely from those of a handful of recognized masters, and yet, she seems to have found a way to tweak the proportions of the visual ingredients just enough to generate an unusual recipe. A touch less intimate and empathetic than Arbus, a pinch more offhand and less formal than Avedon’s In the American West, and quite a bit more theatrical and performative than most street photography or Sander clones, Grannan’s photographs capture a melting pot of quirks and eccentricities with a surprising level of cool distance and mystery.

All of Grannan’s images have a roughly similar composition: 3/4 pose with an indirect glance, against a whitewashed backdrop in pure sunlight. From there, the details of personalities expand in an infinite number of directions. A man in a silky green and blue shirt shimmies against a wall, while another with a top knot and heavy makeup frowns into the distance. Bushy beards, long wavy hair, black eyes, elaborate tattoos, breathing tubes and wigs tell part of the story, while simple poses and gestures become almost dance-like against the uniform flatness. While these pictures have the trappings of picked from the sidewalk documents, there is something altogether collaborative and choreographed about the final results; there are multiple layers of subtle performance going on, with the subjects creating personalities both for themselves for and the passing camera.

While not every one of these portraits is completely compelling and memorable, I found the overall effect of the many photographs seen together to be evidence of something new. Grannan seems to have synthesized the lessons of her many predecessors and successfully incorporated a more conceptual mindset, generating an approach that is at once personal and removed. It’s a tricky line to walk, and several of the images fall a little flat. But when she gets the emotional temperature just right, the photographs have that timeless sizzle that makes me think we will be seeing pictures from this series again and again in the years to come.

Collector’s POV: The photographs in this show are available in two sizes: the 39×29 images are $11000 each, and the 26×20 images are $9500 each. Grannan’s work is just beginning to become available in the secondary markets; recent prices have ranged between $3000 and $10000. Given the small amount of her work available at auction, gallery retail is still the best option for interested collectors at this point. This project was also recently shown at Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco (here).

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My favorite image in the show was Anonymous, San Francisco, 2010; it’s fourth from the left in the top installation shot. I liked the faded, aspirational glamour of the older woman’s swirl of windblown hair, combined with her giraffe print shirt and beaded swan handbag; it’s roughly harsh and touching at the same time. I also particularly liked the soft, ironic undertone of Anonymous, Los Angeles, 2009; it’s the last image on the right in the third installation shot. In it, a long haired man with a FUCK LAPD tattoo across his chest stands gently holding two small bunnies.
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Rating: ** (two stars) VERY GOOD (rating system described here)

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Transit Hub:

Artist site (here)
Reviews: La Lettre de la Photographie (here), Huffington Post (here)
Interview: Daily Serving (here)

Katy Grannan: The Happy Ever After: The Believers and Boulevard Series
Through April 30th

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Salon 94

Salon 94 Freemans
1 Freemans Alley
New York, NY 10002

Salon 94 Bowery
243 Bowery
New York, NY 10002

Cindy Sherman: Works from Friends of the Bruce Museum

JTF (just the facts): A total of 31 black and white and color works, variously framed and matted, and hung against orange and white walls in a series of 6 divided spaces. Information on the specific print processes was not available, but I’m assuming that the works are either gelatin silver prints or chromogenic prints (perhaps digital for the most recent), made between 1975 and 2008. Physical dimensions range between 8×10 and 71×90. All of the works on view were drawn from private collections in the Greenwich area. A catalogue of the exhibition is available in the gift shop for $20. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: It’s long been known that there was a significant (and growing) concentration of wealthy, discerning contemporary art and photography collectors in the Greenwich, CT area. If evidence for this claim were still somehow necessary, the fact that a respectable mini-retrospective of the work of Cindy Sherman can be put on by a local museum like the Bruce, drawing only from the private collections of the immediate community, should put any doubts about this to rest for good. Ahead of the full scale Sherman retrospective scheduled for next year at the MoMA, this small show is like an appetizer prior to the upcoming main course.
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Gathering work from a variety of collections has led to a show that jumps from project to project, hitting highlights across Sherman’s career, with a minimum of scholarly backdrop or narrative thread. A few unexpected early black and white works from her graduate school days are quickly followed by a selection of Untitled Film Stills (with prints in all three available sizes). Color gets introduced via a pair of early 1980s works, along with a pair of terrific large scale images from the Centerfolds series. A group of tougher images from the mid 1980s Fairy Tales and Disasters projects leads into a selection of the crowd-pleasing History Portraits, flanked by a pair of more recent clowns. The final room of the exhibit mixes images from Women from California and her most recent pictures of aging high society ladies. It’s a whirlwind tour of nearly 40 years of Sherman’s artistic output, boiled down to a series of easily digestable representative examples.

At its simplest level, this show is a solid introduction to the work of Cindy Sherman for those who are unfamiliar with her brand of self portraiture; it gathers a wide variety of high quality (and valuable) photographs and organizes them in roughly chronological order; even a Sherman neophyte could come away with a general understanding of what she’s been up to (while I was in the gallery, an older woman was walking around the show with her toddler grandchild, and at each picture, the boy would scream “it’s Cindy!”). I don’t think this show will add much to the deeper, academic understanding of Sherman’s work, but it is likely to be a local crowd pleaser.

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Beyond the parade of Sherman treasures on view, this exhibit also made me think about the increasing role of large, sophisticated private collectors in lending to public exhibitions at venues like the Bruce, where nearby supporters can now enable impressive, museum-quality shows nearly single handedly. From a quick review of the wall labels, the collections of Pamela and Arthur Sanders, Jennifer and David Stockman, and the Brandt Foundation have clearly made careful, long term choices in the Shermans they own; I’d certainly be curious to see what other photographic gems they (and others) have tucked away on their walls. Given the breadth and depth of the collecting going on in greater Greenwich, hopefully this will be the first of many shows at the Bruce that will mine the rich vein of contemporary art buried in this community.

Collector’s POV: Since this is a museum show, the works on view are obviously not for sale. Sherman’s photographs have become ubiquitous in the secondary markets in recent years, both in the photographs and contemporary art sales. Prices typically settle into the five and six figure ranges, with a few lesser known outliers on the low end and a few iconic works routinely up over the one million dollar mark and higher. The artist is represented by Metro Pictures in New York (here).

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

Transit Hub:

Reviews: NY Times (here), Hartford Courant (here), Stamford Advocate (here)
Most recent Metro Pictures show, 2008 (DLK COLLECTION review here)

Cindy Sherman: Works from Friends of the Bruce Museum
Through April 23rd

Bruce Museum
1 Museum Drive
Greenwich, CT 06830

Lorna Simpson: Gathered @Brooklyn Museum

JTF (just the facts): A total of 2 large installations and 1 video, hung along two long walls in a single room gallery space and in an adjacent darkened viewing area. One installation (57/09) consists of 308 small, square format gelatin silver prints, framed in white and matted, and hung in an undulating grid pattern. The second installation consists of 82 vintage photo booth prints and 68 small ink drawings, both framed in bronze, along with 30 solid bronze rectangles and 15 thinner bronze plates, arranged in a loose cluster. The video, Easy to Remember, consists of a grid of 15 mouths in black and white; it runs 2 minutes and 35 seconds. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: The three works in Lorna Simpson’s new show at the Brooklyn Museum all turn on the idea of cultural memory, of how past and present are often collapsed together and how our history is fully intertwined with our contemporary lives. It’s a powerful, sometimes haunting display that explores the universal nature of the passing of time, via its specific embodiment in the African-American experience.

In the first piece, Simpson has juxtaposed hundreds of 1950s amateur pinup photographs (found at flea markets and on eBay) with recent black and white self-portraits, recreating the specific poses, hairstyles and clothing with exacting mimicry. Both women talk on the phone, sit on benches, stand in the kitchen or near a TV, or sprawl invitingly on the floor. The mixing of old and new images and the constant repetition of twinned poses creates a strong back and forth rhythm. At first, I picked out the subtle differences between Simpson’s self-portraits (with an obvious edge of conceptual irony) and the genuine vintage photos; what is surprising is that after 50 or 60 images all tightly strung together, the context starts to dissolve away, and after another 100 or so, the contrasts become even more subtle, and they all merge together into an open-ended hybrid of past and present, reality and illusion. More than 50 years separates the lives of these two women, and yet, the connections are there; it’s like Simpson has created a kind of mirror that accounts for the changes in cultural context and perspective over time, but highlights the underlying commonality which remains.

The second piece brings together faded and wrinkled photo booth portraits, washes of dark ink, and rectangles of bronze into a complex meditation on the nature of memory. Anonymous faces stare out from the photographs, offering tantalizing clues to lost personal stories (who were these people and what happened to them?). As time passes, these individuals alternately fade and darken, becoming abstract blots of dark ink, eventually transforming themselves into mute blocks of cool bronze. Taken together, the installation seems to document the subtle process of forgetting, where the lives and accomplishments of those who came before us slowly disappear; as more and more specific faces become unknown blocks, it becomes harder and harder to recreate our collective history.

The video installation comes at the idea of memory from a different direction. 15 mouths hum the tune to the 1935 Rogers and Hart classic It’s Easy to Remember. The catchy melody will be instantly familiar to most, but the humming removes the actual lyrics, leaving behind a ghost of the song itself. Once again, Simpson has given us a fragmented shard of history, and then opened it up for a broad array of possible interpretations. I left the museum with the tune still stuck in my head, almost like a spooky undefined anthem.

Taken together, this is a thoughtful, understated, and quietly brilliant show about complex, interrelated cultural ideas and how time alters our perspective on these forces. And as a mark of something durably original, it has kept me thinking long after my trip to the museum.

Collector’s POV: Since this is a museum show, the works on view are obviously not for sale. Simpson’s photographs have only been intermittently available in the secondary markets in recent years, with prices ranging between roughly $1000 and $25000. As such, gallery retail is likely a better option for interested collectors at this point. The artist is represented by Salon 94 in New York (here).
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Rating: ** (two stars) VERY GOOD (rating system described here)
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Transit Hub:

Artist site (here)
Reviews: La Lettre de la Photographie (here), Snapshots (here), New Yorker (here), Brooklyn Paper (here)

Lorna Simpson: Gathered
Through August 21st

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway
Brooklyn, NY 11238

Auction Preview: Photographs, April 13, 2011 @Bonhams Dubai

Later this week, Bonhams is having a Photographs sale in Dubai. While many Western collectors (including ourselves) might still be somewhat uncertain about bidding/buying in Dubai (and figuring out the constraints of the US sanctions on Iran), I think a flip through the catalog is an interesting window into contemporary Middle Eastern photography; there are plenty of photographers in this sale that we just don’t see much of in New York. Overall, there are a total of 85 photographs on offer, with a total High estimate of $757900.
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Here’s the statistical breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including $10000): 72
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): $430900

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between $10000 and $50000): 13
Total Mid Estimate: $327000

Total High Lots (high estimate above $50000): 0
Total High Estimate: NA
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The top lot by High estimate is tied between two lots: lot 33, Shirin Neshat, Mystified, 1997, (image at right, top, via Bonhams) and lot 70, Halim Al-Karim, Goddess of the Desert, 2010, both at $35000-45000.

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

Norman Parkinson (4)
Sebastiao Salgado (4)
Andre Villers (4)
Jamie Balbridge (3)
Chuck Close (3)
Shadi Ghadirian (3)
Peter Anderson (2)
Lillian Bassman (2)
Majid Koorang Beheshti (2)
Amr Fekry (2)
Philippe Halsman (2)
Horst P. Horst (2)
Bahman Jalali (2)
Rana Javadi (2)
Nadine Kanso (2)
Laila Muraywid (2)
Herbert Ponting (2)
Bijan Sayfouri (2)
Todd Webb (2)
Camille Zakharia (2)
Siamak Zomorrdi-e Motlach (2)
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(Lot 37, Shadi Ghadirian, Untitled from the Qajar series, 1998, at $7000-9000, at right, middle, and lot 50, Faisal Samra, Distorted Reality #36, 2007, at $10000-15000, at right, bottom, both via Bonhams.)

The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here.
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Photographs
April 13th
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Bonhams
Royal Mirage Hotel

Villa No. 23
Beach Road
Jumeirah 1
Dubai, UAE

Auction Preview: BRIC, April 14 and 15, 2011 @Phillips London

Coming up later this week in London, Phillips has brought back its BRIC themed sale, featuring varied work from the emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India, and China. As you might expect, there are plenty of unfamiliar contemporary names in the mix, and the sale offers Western collectors exposure to work out beyond the edges of the well worn paths we regularly travel. Overall, out of 204 total lots on offer, there are 56 lots of photography available, with a Total High Estimate for photography of £971000.

Here’s the statistical breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including £5000): 18
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): £73000

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between £5000 and £25000): 32
Total Mid Estimate: £318000

Total High Lots (high estimate above £25000): 6
Total High Estimate: £580000
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The top lot by High estimate is lot 25, Rashid Rana, Veil IV, 2007, at £250000-300000. (Image at right, bottom, via Phillips.)
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Here is the list of the photographers who are represented by more than one lot in the sale (with the number of lots in parentheses):

Zhang Huan (4)
Boris Mikhailov (3)
Vik Muniz (3)
Wang Qingsong (3)
Cui Xiuwen (2)
Oleg Dou (2)
Gao Brothers (2)
Ma Liuming (2)
Vladislav Mamyshev-Monroe (2)
Qiu Zhijie (2)
Rashid Rana (2)
Marc Riboud (2)
Weng Fen (2)

(Lot 154, Zhang Huan, My Boston 2, 2005, at £6000-8000, image at right, top, and lot 165, Cui Xiuwen, One Day in 2004 No. 4, 2004, at £5000-7000, image at right, middle, both via Phillips.)
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The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here.

BRIC
April 14th/15th
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Phillips De Pury & Company
Howick Place
London SW1P 1BB

Auction Results: Photographs, April 9, 2011 @Phillips

There must have been something in the air at the various owner Photographs sale at Phillips last week, as plenty of later prints jumped to astonishingly frothy prices. On the heels of successful sales at Sotheby’s and Christie’s, if you were looking for further evidence of growing momentum in the market, just look carefully at the list of surprises below and keep an eye out for the large edition greatest hits. Overall, the sale performed well by virtually every measure: a low Buy-In rate (under 10%, which is all the more impressive in a large, mixed owner sale), strength across all price points and genres, tons of positive surprises, and Total Sale Proceeds that far exceeded the estimate range.
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The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):

Total Lots: 261
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $3420600
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $4913400
Total Lots Sold: 235
Total Lots Bought In: 26
Buy In %: 9.96%
Total Sale Proceeds: $5802250
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Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post, here):

Low Total Lots: 138
Low Sold: 125
Low Bought In: 13
Buy In %: 9.42%
Total Low Estimate: $931400
Total Low Sold: $1157875
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Mid Total Lots: 102
Mid Sold: 92
Mid Bought In: 10
Buy In %: 9.80%
Total Mid Estimate: $2217000
Total Mid Sold: $2707775
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High Total Lots: 21
High Sold: 18
High Bought In: 3
Buy In %: 14.29%
Total High Estimate: $1765000
Total High Sold: $1936600

The top lot by High estimate was lot 171, Cindy Sherman, Untitled #278, 1993, at $200000-300000; it was also the top outcome of the sale at $242500.

95.74% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range. There were a total of 32 surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 2, Richard Avedon, Homage to Munkacsi, 1957/1978, at $37500
Lot 12, Helmut Newton, Karl Lagerfeld, Paris, 1973/1983, at $18750
Lot 20, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Rue Mouffetard, 1954/Later, at $57500
Lot 32, Andre Kertesz, Melancholic Tulip, 1939/Later, $18750
Lot 34, Mario Giacomelli, Untitled, 1958/Later, at $21250
Lot 36, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Lesson at La Scala’s Ballet School, Milan, Italy, 1934/1995, at $10000
Lot 38, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Alberto Giacometti, 1961/Later, at $74500
Lot 51, Peter Beard, Hunting Cheetahs on the Taru Desert, June, 1980/Later, at $74500
Lot 52, Peter Beard, Tsavo Natl. Park, 1970s/Later, at $43750
Lot 53, Peter Beard, Elephant Reaching for the Last Branch on a Tree, Kenya, 1960/Later, at $40000
Lot 54, Irving Penn, Gorilla (Male), 1986, at $30000
Lot 91, Robert Mapplethorpe, Flowers in a Vase, 1985/1988, at $100900
Lot 94, Irving Penn, Miles Davis hand and trumpet, New York, July 1, 1986/1998, at $122500
Lot 95, Annie Leibovitz, The Rolling Stones, New York, 1985, at $12500
Lot 103, Ruth Bernhard, Draped Torso, 1962/Later, at $27500
Lot 113, Alex Guofeng Cao, Jackie vs. JFK II, 2010, at $15000
Lot 120, Ray Metzker, Kayak, Frankfurt, 1961/1995, at $6250
Lot 127, Robert Adams, Denver, Colorado, 1973/1977, at 21250
Lot 129, Robert Adams, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 1968, at $18750
Lot 131, Robert Adams, Tree, Colorado Prarie, 1984/1985, at $15000 (image at right, middle, via Phillips)
Lot 134, Berenice Abbott, New York at Night, 1932/1980s, at $32500
Lot 145, Robert Frank, Cafe-Beaufort, South Carolina, 1955/1960s, at $182500 (image at right, top, via Phillips)
Lot 158, Sally Mann, Untitled from Virginia, 1996, at $20625
Lot 166, Robert Mapplethorpe, Lisa Lyon, 1982, at $17500
Lot 179, Sebastiao Salgado, Churchgate Station, Bombay, India, 1995/Later, at $11250
Lot 191, Steve McCurry, Afghan Girl, Pakistan, 1985/2006, at $60000
Lot 211, Desiree Dolron, Xteriors VI, 2003, at $194500
Lot 251, Martin Parr, Common Sense (woman’s hand with cigarette), 1997-98, at $11875
Lot 253, Vee Speers, Untitled #16 from The Birthday Party, 2008, at $20000 (image at right, bottom, via Phillips)
Lot 255, David Levinthal, Untitled/Untitled from Barbie Millicent Roberts: An Original, 1998, at $15000
Lot 260, Sandy Skoglund, Revenge of the Goldfish, 1980, at $47500
Lot 261, Sandy Skoglund, The Green House, 1990, at $30000
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Complete lot by lot results can be found here.
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Phillips De Pury & Company
450 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10022

Auction Results: Photographs, April 8, 2011 @Christie’s

Christie’s finished up its successful run of photography sales last week with its various owner auction, which like its two predecessors, also found its way to besting the pre-sale estimate range. Across a much bigger sale, the overall Buy-In rate was still under 20%, there were a number of positive surprises, and the Total Sale Proceeds covered the High estimate by more than $300K.

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

Total Lots: 211

Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $3403000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $5046000
Total Lots Sold: 170
Total Lots Bought In: 41

Buy In %: 19.43%

Total Sale Proceeds: $5367500

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

Low Total Lots: 93
Low Sold: 71
Low Bought In: 22
Buy In %: 23.66%
Total Low Estimate: $570000
Total Low Sold: $533500

Mid Total Lots: 101
Mid Sold: 83
Mid Bought In: 18
Buy In %: 17.82%
Total Mid Estimate: $2346000
Total Mid Sold: $2266250

High Total Lots: 17
High Sold: 16
High Bought In: 1
Buy In %: 5.88%
Total High Estimate: $2130000
Total High Sold: $2567750

The top lot by High estimate was lot 561, Irving Penn, Cuzco Children, 1948/1977, at $250000-350000; it did not sell. The top outcome of the sale was lot 504, Richard Avedon, Marilyn Monroe, New York City, May 6, 1957, 1980, at $482500.

94.12% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range, and there were a total of 20 surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 410, Robert Mapplethorpe, Orchid, 1982, at $27500
Lot 412, Robert Mapplethorpe, Flower arrangement, 1988, at $32500
Lot 413, Robert Mapplethorpe, Tulip, 1984, at $40000 (image at right, top, via Christie’s)
Lot 415, Robert Mapplethorpe, Orchid, 1985, at $35000
Lot 484, Etienne-Jules Marey, Chronophotographie du salt en longeur, 1882-83, at $43750
Lot 488, Sergei Alekseevich Luchishkin, Project for a Spatial Construct, 1922-23, at $25000
Lot 489, Unknown Photographer, Princess Alexandra, 1920, at $4000
Lot 490, Guillaume Duchenne De Boulogne, Studies from Photographies Pathologiques, 1865, at $4000
Lot 511, Andre Kertesz, A Hungarian Memory, 1980, at $25000

Lot 536, Bruce Weber, John Sauerland, Olympic Swimmer, Hall of Fame Pool, Summer, 1983, at $13750

Lot 539, Bruce Weber, Boys from Red Cloud, Nebraska, 198, at $8125
Lot 546, Bruce Weber, Kenny, Honolulu, 1982, at $6000

Lot 550, Bruce Weber, George, Upper Saranac Lake, Summer, 1983, at $7500

Lot 553, Bruce Weber, Butterfly Beach Parking Lot, Santa Barbara, 1982, at $16250 (image at right, bottom, via Christie’s)

Lot 554, Peter Beard, Last Word from Paradise, Loliondo, from The End of the Game, ?/Later, at $80500

Lot 562, Erwin Olaf, Grief, Troy, 2007, at $14375

Lot 573, Irving Penn, Bee on Lips, New York, September 22, 1995/1999, at $182500

Lot 578, Irving Penn, After Dinner Games, New York, 1947/1985, at $158500

Lot 593, Eugene Atget, La Villette, rue Asselin, 1921, at $242500 (image at right, middle, via Christie’s)

Lot 594, Herb Ritts, Fred, Body Shop, Los Angeles, Summer 1984, at $18750

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

Christie’s

20 Rockefeller Plaza

New York, NY 10020

David Mahoney on SFMOMA Collection Rotation

SFMOMA has a cool feature on its blog where the museum invites various folks to curate a mini-exhibit of items from its online collection database. Passionate, long-time photography collector and SFMOMA trustee David Mahoney (a true expert on 1970s American photography by the way) has just put his selections up; you can find them here.

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