Auction Results: Crossing America: Photographs from the Consolidated Freightways Collection, Part I, April 7, 2011 @Christie’s

The sale of Part I of the Consolidated Freightways corporate collection at Christie’s last week was an all-around success, with better than expected performance at all price points. The overall Buy-In rate was under 15%, there were plenty of positive surprises, and the Total Sale Proceeds covered the High estimate by more than $400K. Once again, all of the top 10 lots found buyers.
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The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):

Total Lots: 130
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $973000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $1404000
Total Lots Sold: 111
Total Lots Bought In: 19
Buy In %: 14.62%
Total Sale Proceeds: $1838438
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Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post, here):

Low Total Lots: 100
Low Sold: 84
Low Bought In: 16
Buy In %: 16.00%
Total Low Estimate: $630000
Total Low Sold: $659188
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Mid Total Lots: 28
Mid Sold: 25
Mid Bought In: 3
Buy In %: 10.71%
Total Mid Estimate: $614000
Total Mid Sold: $910250
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High Total Lots: 2
High Sold: 2
High Bought In: 0
Buy In %: 0.00%

Total High Estimate: $160000
Total High Sold: $269000

The top lot by High estimate was lot 293, Robert Mapplethorpe, Flag, 1987, at $70000-90000; it was also the top outcome of the sale at $158500.

77.48% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range, and there were a total of 14 surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 201, Ansel Adams, Coastal Road, c1953, at $23750

Lot 203, Robert Adams, Golden, Colorado, c1974, at $18750

Lot 216, Garry Winogrand, Untitled, 1960, at $40000 (image at right, top, via Christie’s)

Lot 218, William Garnett, Train Crossing Desert, Kelso, CA, 1974, at $32500
Lot 219, William Garnett, Waterhole on the Santa Fe Trail with Cattle Tracks, New Mexico, 1975, at $11250 (image at right, middle, via Christie’s)
Lot 224, Robert Adams, Lakewood, 1973, at $18750
Lot 244, David Hockney, Merced River, Yosemite Valley, September 1982, 1982, at $40000 (image at right, bottom, via Christie’s)
Lot 251, Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, 1936, at $134500
Lot 253, Russell Lee, Oil field worker drinking water, Kilgore, Texas, April 1939, 1939, at $13750
Lot 261, Ben Shahn, Men with Hats, Listening, 1934, at $15000
Lot 262, Weegee, Coney Island, 1940/1950s, at $32500

Lot 294, Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still #55, 1980, at $134500
Lot 317, Marion Post Wolcott, Migrant Vegetable Pickers Waiting in Line to be Paid near Homestead, Florida, 1939, at $12500

Lot 319, Garry Winogrand, World’s Fair, New York City, 1964/Later, at $23750
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Complete lot by lot results can be found here.
20 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10020

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

In the first of three photography sales at Christie’s last week, the auction of the Feminine Ideal private collection performed solidly. The overall Buy-In rate was under 20%, and the Total Sale Proceeds topped the High estimate with some room to spare, helped by a 10 for 10 run of the top lots on offer.
The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):
Total Lots: 79
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $594000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $881500
Total Lots Sold: 65

Total Lots Bought In: 14
Buy In %: 17.72%
Total Sale Proceeds: $942125
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Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post, here):

Low Total Lots: 59
Low Sold: 47
Low Bought In: 12
Buy In %: 20.34%
Total Low Estimate: $346500
Total Low Sold: $373750
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Mid Total Lots: 18
Mid Sold: 16
Mid Bought In: 2
Buy In %: 11.11%
Total Mid Estimate: $415000
Total Mid Sold: $447875
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High Total Lots: 2
High Sold: 2
High Bought In: 0
Buy In %: 0.00%
Total High Estimate: $120000

Total High Sold: $120500
The top lot by High estimate was tied between two lots: lot 36, Philippe Halsman, Marilyn Jumping, 1950, and lot 72, Irving Penn, Balenciaga Mantle Coat (Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn), Paris, 1950/1988, both at $40000-60000; the Halsman sold for $40000, and the Penn was the top outcome of the sale at $80500.

84.62% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range, and there were a total of 10 surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):
Lot 3, Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Nude in the Mojave Desert, California, 1947/Later, at $18750
Lot 7, William Klein, Dorothy + feathered hat + coffee, Rome, 1962, at $21250

Lot 10, Henry Clarke, Chapeau, Balenciaga, Paris, c1954/Later, at $9375 (image at right, bottom, via Christie’s)

Lot 32, Bert Stern, Marilyn Monroe, 1962/Later, at $18750
Lot 48, Paolo Roversi, Kirsten pour Romeo Gigli, Londres, and Kirsten in Nero, 1989-90, at $11250
Lot 51, Jeanloup Sieff, Black Underwears, 1978, at $16250
Lot 56, Irving Penn, Woman in Feather Hat, New York, November 1991, 1992, at $68500 (image at right, top, via Christie’s)
Lot 59, Erwin Blumenfeld, Nude, 1943/Later, at $18750
Lot 75, Norman Parkinson, In the Moonlight, Carmen, for American Vogue, 1950/Later, at $23750 (image at right, middle, via Christie’s)
Lot 76, Matthew Rolston, Lysette Anthony, Reclining, Los Angeles, 1988, at $3000
Complete lot by lot results can be found here.
20 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10020

Auction Results: Photographs, April 6, 2011 @Sotheby’s

Sotheby’s began the spring Photographs season in New York with a resounding, optimistic bang. It was a broad based success story, with strength across all price ranges, lots of positive surprises and a solid Buy-In rate (under 20%). Overall, the Total Sale Proceeds covered the high end of the range by more than $1.2 million dollars.

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

Total Lots: 174
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $2878000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $4339000
Total Lots Sold: 141
Total Lots Bought In: 33
Buy In %: 18.97%
Total Sale Proceeds: $5632188
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Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post, here):
Low Total Lots: 64
Low Sold: 49
Low Bought In: 15
Buy In %: 23.44%

Total Low Estimate: $545000
Total Low Sold: $553438
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Mid Total Lots: 97
Mid Sold: 81
Mid Bought In: 16
Buy In %: 16.49%
Total Mid Estimate: $2329000
Total Mid Sold: $2834375

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High Total Lots: 13

High Sold: 11
High Bought In: 2
Buy In %: 15.38%
Total High Estimate: $1465000
Total High Sold: $2244375

The top lot by High estimate was lot 111, Richard Avedeon, Avedon/Paris (portfolio), 1978, at $150000-250000; it sold for $314500. The top outcome of the sale was lot 92, Man Ray, Untitled (Photomontage with Nude and Studio Light), 1933, at $410500 (image at right, top, via Sotheby’s)

89.36% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range. There were a total of 27 surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):
Lot 2, Ansel Adams, Moon and Clouds, Northern California, 1959/1970, at $31250
Lot 14, Edward Weston, Bad Water – Death Valley, 1938, at $50000
Lot 15, Edward Weston, Tomato Field, Big Sur, 1937, at $50000
Lot 19, Ansel Adams, Sand Dunes, Sunrise, Death Valley, National Monument, CA, 1948/1977, at $31250
Lot 32, Baron Adolf De Meyer, Dolores, 1919, at $50000
Lot 33, Paul Strand, Selected Images from Camera Work No. 48, 1915/1916, at $31250
Lot 41, Mathew Brady, John C. Calhoun, 1849, at $338500 (image at right, bottom, via Sotheby’s)
Lot 42, Timothy O’Sullivan, Ancient Ruins in the Canon de Chelle, NM, 1873, at $134500 (image at right, middle, via Sotheby’s)
Lot 44, Ansel Adams, Portrait of Alfred Stieglitz, 1940, at $25000
Lot 45, Helen Levitt, New York (Children with Broken Mirror), 1940, at $34375
Lot 46, Frederick Evans, Aubrey Beardsley, 1895, at $50000
Lot 54, Walker Evans, Alabama Schoolhouse, 1936/1950s, at $40625
Lot 58, Harry Callahan, Torn Sign, 1946, at $62500
Lot 81, Constantin Brancusi/Wayne Miller, Triptych, 1920-1945/1948, at $31250
Lot 82, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Behind the Gare St. Lazare, 1932/Later, at $18750
Lot 92, Man Ray, Untitled (Photomontage with Nude and Studio Light), 1933, at $410500 (image at right, top, via Sotheby’s)
Lot 96, Jaromir Funke, Composition (from Abstraktni Foto), 1929, at $350500
Lot 110, William Eggleston, Memphis, Krystal, 1984-85, at $18750
Lot 121, Richard Misrach, Palm Tree, California, 1975/Later, at $20000
Lot 122, Francesca Woodman, From Portrait of a Reputation, 1975-76, at $25000
Lot 123, Francesca Woodman, Untitled, Providence, Rhode Island, 1975-76, at $20000
Lot 131, Helmut Newton, Elsa Peretti, Bunny, 1975/1981, at $62500
Lot 139, Peter Beard, Kenya Caracals @Warden Woodley’s Tsavo Hdqutrs, 1984, at $43750
Lot 140, Peter Beard, Selected Studies in Mixed Media, 1960s/Later, at $34375
Lot 147, Peter Beard, Amboseli Elephants (Tsavo Before the Die-Off, Tsavo North), 1965/1989, at $56250
Lot 154, Irving Penn, Still Life with Watermelon (New York), 1947/1985, at $104500
Lot 161, Robert Mapplethorpe, Silver Dollar, 1988, at $20000
Complete lot by lot results can be found here.
1334 York Avenue
New York, NY 10021

Sam Taylor-Wood: Ghosts @Brooklyn Museum

JTF (just the facts): A total of 10 large scale color photographs, framed in brown wood and not matted, and hung along a single interior wall. All of the works are chromogenic prints, made in 2008. Each print is 43×56. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Ask me to name a famous picture of the Yorkshire Moors and my first reaction would be Bill Brandt’s black and white image of Top Withens from 1945 (here). British contemporary photographer Sam Taylor-Wood recently made her own series of images of this iconic landscape, recreating once again the gothic drama of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights.

The land itself is rugged and windswept, with tawny grasses covering the hillsides and rocky humps. Scraggly trees stand in isolation against stormy grey skies, and lonely footpaths wind their way across the empty expanse. Taylor-Wood’s landscapes heighten the melodrama of this bleak land, bringing a cinematic romance to otherwise desolate views. Her palette is drained, full of dark shadows, interrupted from time to time by a fleeting moment of sunshine which warms the golden stubble. I found these photographs to have a strong sense of theatrical stagecraft, of the artist intentionally enhancing the emotive power of the environment to create something expressive. Just like in the famous book, the land has a distinct personality of its own that influences the course of the narrative, and Taylor-Wood has made photographs that capture and intensify those particular gothic Victorian character traits, without exaggerating them into caricatures.
What I found most surprising here is that Taylor-Wood has made landscape photographs infused with film still romance and grand gestures, an approach that seems to react profoundly against a more prevalent contemporary trend toward deadpan sharpness and smaller found detail. In a way, these pictures feel classicly, overflowingly retro, which makes them quite a bit more memorable than you might otherwise expect.
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Collector’s POV: Since this is a museum show, the prints on view are obviously not for sale. Taylor-Wood’s photographs have been intermittently available in the secondary markets in recent years, with prices ranging between roughly $5000 and $140000. The artist is represented by White Cube in London (here).

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)
Transit Hub:
  • Features: Independent (here), ArtObserved (here)
Through August 14th
200 Eastern Parkway
Brooklyn, NY 11238

Stan Douglas: Midcentury Studio @Zwirner

JTF (just the facts): A total of 28 black and white works, framed in black with no mats, and hung in the front and back galleries of both 525 and 533, as well as the hallway between the two spaces. All of the images are digital fiber prints, mounted on Dibond aluminum, made between 2010 and 2011. Physical dimensions range between 18×18 and 43×86, and each image (regardless of size) is printed in an edition of 5+2AP. Each image title includes a fictional date between 1945 and 1951. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: The press photography of Weegee from the late 1940s is almost like its own singular genre of photojournalism. Combining the visceral grime of the city with a sense for the dramatic, Weegee’s flash-lit images of nightime crime scenes, bloody dead bodies, and gangsters headed for the police van have an unadorned mix of film noir glamour and gritty paparazzi reality that made him “Weegee the Famous”. In his most recent works, Canadian artist and photographer Stan Douglas has added a conceptual twist to this bygone style of image making, crafting contemporary images that artificially mimic the look and feel of Weegee’s world, down to the tiniest of period details.
Using authentic equipment and props from the 1950s (his “midcentury studio”), Douglas has meticulously restaged a number of Weegee’s usual subjects: dead bodies lying on the floor covered with newspaper or burlap sacking, men in fedoras and suits playing dice, a hidden cache of booze, cash, cards, and plastic chips found behind a wallpaper panel, and a jowly boss in dark sunglasses being taken away by police. The works have a convincing sense of authenticity, foiled only by an over-sharpness up close that gives away their fabrication. Other images in the series have the look and feel of period advertising photography: women’s shoes artfully displayed on a mirror, the intricate marbled curls of a woman’s hairstyle as seen from behind, close-up shots of a magician’s interlocking rings and and fire bursting from his hand, and a how-to demonstration of the right way to steal a watch right off someone’s wrist. Taken together, the whole project is a satisfyingly atmospheric portrait of a particular time, albeit with the inherent push and pull of reverence and irony that comes from being a complete fake.
Overall, I think this body of work is a bit uneven: the best of these photographs fully entranced me with their celebratory melodrama and their painstaking attention to detail, while a few of the others left me wondering whether the tremendous effort was worth the somewhat underwhelming payoff. That said, for those of you interested in the latest iterations in the complex canon of contemporary photographic staging, this show is certainly worth a visit.  
Collector’s POV: The prints in this show are priced at $30000, $45000, $50000, or $70000 each, based on size. Douglas’ work has only been intermittently available in the secondary markets in recent years. Single image prices have ranged between $1000 and $7000, while multi-image groups have ranged between $15000 and $35000. That said, none of his recent large scale images have come to auction, so it’s hard to say that the prices above are truly representative of his market. As such, gallery retail may be the only real option for interested collectors at this point.
I think that Hockey Fight, 1951, 2010, is one of the best single images I’ve seen anywhere all year; it’s the middle picture in the top installation shot. It’s filled with pitch perfect period detail (the haircuts, the clothes, the spilled popcorn) and captures an angry punch frozen in mid-throw. The flash lit cinematic scene is both visually engrossing from edge to edge and a fitting conceptual homage to the mastery of Weegee. To my eye, it’s the “don’t miss” image of the entire show.

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)
Transit Hub:
  • Reviews/Listings: PhotoBooth (here), Daylight (here)

Stan Douglas: Midcentury Studio

Through April 23rd

David Zwirner

525 West 19th Street
New York, NY 10011

Charles Traub, Object of My Creation @Gitterman

JTF (just the facts): A total of 29 black and white photographs, framed in black and matted, and hung in the main and front spaces on the ground floor. All of the prints on view are vintage gelatin silver prints from the period between 1967 and 1972. Dimensions were not available, but most are small square format, perhaps roughly 6×6; the nature studies in the front room are slightly larger, more like 10×12. A hardbound catalogue of the exhibition is available from the gallery for $25. (Installation shots at right.)
Comments/Context: It takes some courage for a successful photographer/teacher like Charles Traub to dig back into his storage boxes and unearth his work from college and graduate school for a new show. Rather than proof of a singular and original vision born fully formed, it shows Traub under the influence of his many esteemed teachers (Sinsabaugh, Meatyard, Siskind), working to synthesize their lessons (both visual and intellectual) into his own aesthetic vocabulary. The pictures show the evolution of an artist as a work-in-progress, rather than as a finished product.
Traub’s early photographs find him examining the contrasts of doorways and windows, finding hidden geometries, textures and abstractions in the interplay of light and dark. Bright dots on a subway post echo overhead lighting, and the mesh of a chain link fence adds a criss-cross effect to a church courtyard. When outside, natural forms become small sculptural vignettes, and rocks and grass become silhouettes of black against white; images from a year or two later dive into dense thickets of underbrush, often using negative tonalities to unbalance the all-over compositions. In general, these early works are intimate, careful photographs, focused on form rather than narrative, produced with meticulous attention to the quality of the finished prints.
I think these kinds of pictures are emblematic of a certain time period in American photography, where updated but still formal Modernism was forced to come to terms with more inward looking subjective/spiritual work (think Minor White). Students from that time inevitably got doses of both schools of thought, and as a result, often evolved in wholly different or hybrid directions. This show is like opening a time capsule back to that specific point in the late 1960s/early 1970s, led by a guide who was himself in the midst of making sense of it all.

Collector’s POV: All of the prints in this show are priced at either $3500 or $4000. Traub’s work is not widely available in the secondary markets, so gallery retail is likely the only option for interested collectors at this point.

While I enjoyed many images in this show, my favorite was Illinois, 1969; its on the top left of the middle installation shot. While the broken window is a classic subject, Traub’s version has both the jagged edge and the smooth rectangular forms of adjacent areas of white (contrasted with deep black), next to an unexpected opening at the bottom, showing weeds in the snow; it’s got much more going on compositionally than most dark/light exercises in silhouette and outline.
Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)
Transit Hub:
  • Artist site (here)
  • Review: New Yorker (here)
Charles Traub, Object of My Creation
Through April 23rd
170 East 75th Street
New York, NY 10021

Harry Callahan and Jackson Pollock: Early Photographs and Drawings @Pace/MacGill

JTF (just the facts): A total of 22 black and white photographs and 10 drawings, hung against dark blue and putty colored walls in the main rooms of the gallery. All of the photographs are vintage gelatin silver prints, framed in white and matted, and made between 1943 and 1956. Image dimensions range from 2×2 to 8×10 or reverse. The drawings were made in various media (pencil, pen, black ink, oil, or wash on paper) and were executed between 1938 and 1956. Dimensions range from 3×4 to 25×39. This show was organzied in cooperation with Washburn Gallery (here). There is no photography allowed in the gallery, so the installation shots at right are via the Pace/MacGill website.
Comments/Context: Regular readers here will perhaps remember my particular disappointment with MoMA’s fumbling of the photography portion of the recent AbEx show (here); in my view, it was a major missed opportunity to carefully examine the interplay of visual ideas that were manifesting themselves in different but similar ways in concurrent painting, sculpture and photography. This intimate show of just a handful of works by Jackson Pollock and Harry Callahan does everything the MoMA show didn’t do, hanging relevant chronological examples side by side, so the aesthetic parallels and compositional echoes become obvious. It’s a superbly edited and sequenced comparison, crackling with exciting connections.
Since Callahan and Pollock didn’t actually meet until the 1950s, I don’t think this show is making an explicit case for causation or influence, but rather exploring the nature of parallel evolution of like ideas. Both artists were interested in expanding the boundaries of representation, breaking down the recognizable into gestures, rhythms, and expressive marks, moving from the solitary object to all-over abstraction. The exhibit is a catalog of repeated visual motifs, organized in a back-and-forth manner: the angles and curves of Pollock drawings are paired with similar forms in Callahan torn sign photographs, dense interlaced line drawings from Pollock parallel the squiggly lines of Callahan’s sunlight on water and flashlight movements, and Pollock’s ink scratchings are juxtaposed with Callahan’s multiple exposure images of trees, all from generally matching time periods. The argument is persuasive, and the repetitions are conclusive evidence for the commonality of thinking.
While this is a small show, I think it does an excellent job of putting Callahan’s work into a larger artistic context; his efforts to understand photographic abstraction make better sense when placed side by side with Pollock’s own early inventions. This is the first vintage show I have seen this year that goes beyond a gathering of fine, rare or valuable photographs and instead uses the works to teach us something about the broader march of art history. Not only is this a great Callahan show, but it’s a lesson in how photography can be highly relevant to important art in other media.
Collector’s POV: The photographs in this show are priced between $25000 and $85000. Callahan’s prints are ubiquitous in the secondary markets, with dozens of vintage and later prints available every year. Prices at auction generally range from $3000 to $15000 for later prints, continuing up to roughly $100000 for vintage rarities. The Pollock drawings in the show are priced between $150000 and $275000.

I think the best pairing in the show can be found in the center of the bottom installation shot. It compares a Callahan photograph of spindly plant forms in snow with a Pollock ink drawing on orange colored paper, also covered with small black dots and hashed lines. The two motifs are nearly exactly the same, even though they have been executed using entirely different methods.

Rating: *** (three stars) EXCELLENT (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

  • Reviews/Features: NY Times (here), New Yorker (here)

Harry Callahan and Jackson Pollock: Early Photographs and Drawings
Through April 16th

Pace/MacGill Gallery
32 East 57th Street
New York, NY 10022

Auction Preview: Photographs, April 9, 2011 @Phillips

Phillips wraps up the flurry of major activity in the New York spring Photographs season with its broad various owner sale on Saturday. The auction includes a well-balanced selection of vintage and fresh contemporary work, with plenty of high end lots (headlined by a Cindy Sherman). Overall, there are a total of 261 lots on offer, with a total High estimate of $4913400.

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Here’s the statistical breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including $10000): 138
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): $931400

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between $10000 and $50000): 102
Total Mid Estimate: $2217000

Total High Lots (high estimate above $50000): 21
Total High Estimate: $1765000

The top lot by High estimate is lot 171, Cindy Sherman, Untitled #278, 1993, at $200000-300000.

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The following is the list of the photographers represented by five or more lots in this sale (with the number of lots on offer in parentheses):

Robert Mapplethorpe (8)
Vik Muniz (7)
Edward Weston (7)
Henri Cartier-Bresson (6)
Robert Frank (6)
Candida Höfer (6)
Irving Penn (6)
Harry Callahan (5)
Hiroshi Sugimoto (5)

(Lot 86, Candida Höfer, Playfair Library Hall, The University of Edinburgh, II, 1998/1999, at $8000-12000, image at right, middle, lot 196, Elger Esser, Doubt, Frankreich, 1999, at $50000-70000, image at right, top, and lot 211, Desiree Dolron, Xteriors VI, 2003, at $40000-60000, image at right, bottom, all via Phillips.)
The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here.
April 9th
450 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10022

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

Christie’s finishes up its spring Photographs run with a various owner sale on Friday. I can’t imagine there are too many vintage Eggleston tricycles still in private hands, so I’m sure the bidding for this icon of color photography will be fierce. I also assume the Frank spiral-bound Peru signed to Alexy Brodovitch with a MoMA provenance is a one of a kind treasure and will bring some serious Frank collectors out of the woodwork. With Penn images interspersed throughout the sale, there are a total of 211 photographs on offer, with a total High estimate of $5046000.

Here’s the statistical breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including $10000): 93
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): $570000

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between $10000 and $50000): 101
Total Mid Estimate: $2346000

Total High Lots (high estimate above $50000): 17
Total High Estimate: $2130000

The top lot by High estimate is lot 561, Irving Penn, Cuzco Children, 1948/1977, at $250000-350000.
Here’s the complete list of photographers represented by five or more lots in the sale (with the number of lots in parentheses):
Irving Penn (19)

Bruce Weber (18)
Robert Mapplethorpe (10)
William Eggleston (9)
Ansel Adams (7)
Richard Avedon (6)
Harry Callahan (6)
Henri Cartier-Bresson (6)
Robert Frank (6)
Andre Kertesz (6)
Bernd and Hilla Becher (5)
Sally Mann (5)
Erwin Olaf (5)
Herb Ritts (5)

(Lot 452, Robert Frank, Peru, 1948, at $100000-150000, at right, middle, lot 480, William Eggleston, Memphis (Tricycle), 1969-70, at $200000-300000, at right, top, and lot 491, Maurice Tabard, Montage (Nue), 1929, at $15000-25000, at right, bottom, all via Christie’s.)
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The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here. The eCatalogue is located here.
April 8th

Christie’s

20 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10020

Auction Preview: Crossing America: Photographs from the Consolidated Freightways Collection, Part I, April 7, 2011 @Christie’s

We’ve had a copy of the mid 1980s catalog of the Consolidated Freightways photography collection on our bookshelves for many years now. I’ve always thought that it was a smart and understated corporate collection: starting with a meaningful connection to the business itself (American, involved in transportation, trucking, highways, roads etc.), it expanded its visual and aesthetic boundaries to include a wide variety of relevant photography, from architectural images and city scenes, to street photography and Western landscapes, starting in the 1920s (the founding of the company) and continuing up to the present. The collection mixes the well known and the lesser known, takes some chances, and ends up with a distinctive personality, rather than being a bland compendium of the obvious and the politically correct. Overall, Part I of the sale includes 130 photographs, with a total High estimate of $1404000.
Here’s the statistical breakdown:
Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including $10000): 100
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): $630000

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between $10000 and $50000): 28
Total Mid Estimate: $614000

Total High Lots (high estimate above $50000): 2
Total High Estimate: $160000

The top lot by High estimate is lot 293, Robert Mapplethorpe, Flag, 1987, at $70000-90000.
Here’s the complete list of photographers represented by three or more lots in the sale (with the number of lots in parentheses):
Berenice Abbott (5)

Harry Callahan (5)
Dorothea Lange (5)
Garry Winogrand (5)
Bruce Davidson (4)
Lee Friedlander (4)
Robert Adams (4)
Ansel Adams (3)
Diane Arbus (3)
Roy DeCarava (3)
Walker Evans (3)
Robert Frank (3)
Ralph Eugene Meatyard (3)
Ray K. Metzker (3)
Hiroshi Sugimoto (3)

(Lot 230, Lee Friedlander, Newark, 1963, at $10000-15000, at right, top, lot275, Harry Callahan, New York, 1976, at $6000-8000, at right, bottom, and lot 288, Lewis Baltz, Lemmon Valley, Looking Northeast, 1977, at $7000-9000, at right, middle, all via Christie’s.)
The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here. The eCatalogue is located here.
April 7th
20 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10020

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

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

Here’s the statistical breakdown:

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

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

Total Mid Estimate: $415000

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

Total High Estimate: $120000
The top lot by High estimate is tied between two lots: lot 36, Philippe Halsman, Marilyn Jumping, 1950, (image at right, top, via Christie’s) and lot 72, Irving Penn, Balenciaga Mantle Coat (Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn), Paris, 1950/1988, both at $40000-60000.

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

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

(Lot 11, Irving Penn, Woman with Umbrella (Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn), New York, 1950/1984, at $30000-50000, at right, bottom, and lot 72, William Klein, Dorothy + feathered hat + coffee, Rome, 1962, at $7000-9000, at right, middle, both via Christie’s.)
The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here. The eCatalogue is located here.
April 7th
20 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10020

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