Chris Killip, 4 + 20 Photographs @Amador

JTF (just the facts): A total of 24 black and white photographs, framed in black and matted, and hung against grey and off-white walls throughout the gallery space. The works on display were printed using a mix of processes: most are gelatin silver, but there are a few inkjet prints included as well. All of the prints are 24×20 in size (or reverse) and are uneditioned. The images were made in Northern England between 1974 and 1988. Most of the prints are modern prints made recently by Killip himself; a select number of vintage prints are also on view. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Even after many years as a collector, the intricacies of how the markets for photography operate often still puzzle me. I wonder: how is it possible that until now a photographer as talented and influential as Chris Killip has failed to have a solo gallery show in the US? Curators and institutions have long known his work, and In Flagrante is widely recognized as one of the great photobooks of all time. How is it then that he doesn’t have a broader following? It’s a complete head scratcher.
This show gathers together a mix of the known and unknown Chris Killip, a few images that might be familiar and a number of pictures that have never been published. The works document the lives of ordinary people in the North of England during the 1970s and 1980s as the governments of Margaret Thatcher and others worked to dismantle much of the country’s aging industrial base. The pictures might be classified as ‘social documentary’, but I think this label overlooks the strength of emotion that simmers underneath his photographs.
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Killip is able to capture a whole range of related feelings through the turn of an arm, an expression on a face, or the stance of a man in an overcoat. These images uncover despair, weariness, anxiety, and boredom from the inside, and with a sense of empathy that makes the situations achingly real. He then uses careful juxtapositions to both express glimmers of hope and simultaneously undermine them. Children play amidst the squalor of housing projects or on building scaffolding (like an improvised jungle gym) with dirty smokestacks in the background. A family sits on a blanket in their Sunday best, surrounded by trash and worn out grass. Gardens of roses and brussel sprouts are flanked by broken fences, rubbish bins, and plywood walls covered with torn posters. ‘True love’ is chalked on a brick wall near a sidewalk strewn with newspapers and garbage. Confrontation and violence seem just outside the frame, as the society slowly breaks down under the weight of declining prospects. Neighbors are reduced to peeping out of their windows, fearful of the world outside.
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In seeing these images in person for the first time, I felt a direct connection to the work of David Goldblatt, to the telling of larger, more complicated stories through the nuances of smaller everyday moments. There is the same sense of making pictures that have a pointed political message, by catching the contrasts but without highlighting the obvious. Individually and together, Killip’s images tell the sad stories of slow, relentless decay and of the harsh tests to their resilience that these people have had to repeatedly endure.

I came away from this show with an increased appreciation for both Killip’s compositional skills and craftsmanship, as well as his ability to single out resonant moments that can help outsiders to better understand the plight of his subjects. It’s an impressive body of work, full of durably memorable images of the edges of hopelessness.

Collector’s POV: The prints in this show are priced as follows: the contemporary prints are $4500 each, while the vintage prints are $10000 each. Surprisingly, Killip’s work has not yet become widely available in the secondary markets. A few recent prints have come to market in the past few years, fetching prices between $3000 and $6000, but there are so few data points, it is hard to chart much of a line. As a result, gallery retail is likely the only option for interested collectors at this point, and Amador is Killip’s sole representative in the US. The artist is also represented by Eric Franck Fine Art (here) in London.

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

Transit Hub:
  • Artist site (here)
  • Harvard faculty page (here)
  • Book: Errata Editions In Flagrante (here)

Amador Gallery
41 East 57th Street
New York, NY 10022

Auction Results: Photographs, October 6, 2010 @Sotheby’s

Sotheby’s began the main event Fall Photography auctions last week with a generally solid outing. The results were right within expectations, with an overall Buy-In rate just over 25% (a little higher than normal) and Total Sale Proceeds that fell at the lower end of the estimate range. The outcome was roughly equivalent to that of Sotheby’s various owner offering last April.

The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):
Total Lots: 265
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $4364500
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $6512500
Total Lots Sold: 198
Total Lots Bought In: 67
Buy In %: 25.28%
Total Sale Proceeds: $4970754
Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post, here):
Low Total Lots: 113
Low Sold: 86
Low Bought In: 27
Buy In %: 23.89%
Total Low Estimate: $911500
Total Low Sold: $636191
Mid Total Lots: 128
Mid Sold: 92
Mid Bought In: 36
Buy In %: 28.13%
Total Mid Estimate: $3066000
Total Mid Sold: $2194063
High Total Lots: 23
High Sold: 19
High Bought In: 4
Buy In %: 17.39%
Total High Estimate: $2535000
Total High Sold: $2140500

The top photography lot by High estimate was lot 29, Rufus Anson, Two Actors from the melodrama ‘Robert Macaire‘, 1850s, at $250000-350000; it did not sell. The top outcome of the sale was lot 182, Robert Frank, US90, En Route to Del Rio, Texas, 1955/c1970, at $266500, against an estimate of $80000-120000. (Image at right, top, via Sotheby’s.)
78.28% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range. There were a total of nine surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):
Lot 95, Dorothea Lange, Drought Refugee from Polk Missouri, Awaiting the Opening of Orange Picking Season at Porterville, California, 1936, at $104500 (image at right, middle, via Sotheby’s)
Lot 110, Ruth Orkin, American Girl in Italy, 1951/1985, at $53125
Lot 140, Man Ray, Still Life Composition With Chess Set, Plaster Casts, and ‘A L’Heure De L’Observatoire – Les Amoureaux‘, 1935-36, at $170500
Lot 156, Jaromir Funke, Composition, c1925, at $74500
Lot 161, Andre Kertesz, Andre Kertesz portfolio, 1925-39/1981, at $116500
Lot 182, Robert Frank, US90, En Route to Del Rio, Texas, 1955/c1970, at $266500
Lot 187, Irving Penn, Chimney Sweep (B), London, 1976, at $68500
Lot 218, Helmut Newton, Vivian F. Hotel Volney (American Vogue) New York, 1972, at $16250
Lot 261, Robert Adams, Colorado Springs, 1969, at $86500 (image at right, bottom, via Sotheby’s)

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

1334 York Avenue
New York, NY 10021

Bettina Rheims @Edwynn Houk

JTF (just the facts): A total of 17 large scale color photographs, alternately framed in thick black and brown with no mats, and hung in the entry, main and side galleries. Neither process information nor physical dimensions were given on the gallery checklist. The works were made between 1991 and 2005 and are available in editions of either 3 or 5. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: The portraits and nudes of Bettina Rheims are a potent cocktail of celebrity, fashion, and tangled hair naturalness. Her images capture strong female personalities (known and unknown) in a kind of Annie Leibovitz meets Helmut Newton aesthetic, bringing together direct confrontation and edgy voyeurism, with a twist of subtle French seduction.

Her more commercial celebrity shots avoid obvious perfection, finding confident beauty in small staged moments: Monica Bellucci in a red shirt dress pouring ketchup on spaghetti (her jet black hair in a snarl), Marion Cotillard brazenly posing in lingerie and boots with a pool cue, model Anne Pedersen blowing a bubble while wearing green sparkly mascara around her intense blue eyes, and Heather Graham writhing on a white shag rug holding a crushed can of Tab. Rheims’ glamour is messy and unkempt, bold and aggressive.

Her nudes are similarly disheveled, staged in flowery hotel rooms, but her quiet models display a more conflicted mix of emotional states. Reserved and demure partially clothed poses are punctuated with flashes of skin, taking ordinary scenes and amplifying their sexuality, the softly romantic settings becoming charged with surprising eroticism.

All of Rheims‘ images, even the most subtle and vulnerable, have a sense of unflinching defiance, of the women confidently taking on the gaze of whoever might be looking. As such, these pictures vigorously grab your attention, reversing the normal power of the viewer, forcing you into an interaction controlled by the self-assured subject on the wall.

Collector’s POV: The works in this show are priced at either $22000 or $32000 depending on size. Rheims‘ work has become quite a bit more available at auction in recent years, with a number of lots up for sale every year. Prices have ranged between $2000 and $45000, with celebrity portraits (particularly of Madonna) at the top of that range.
Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)
Transit Hub:
  • Artist site (here)
  • Book: Bettina Rheims: Retrospective (here)
  • Interview: Artinfo (here and here)
  • Feature: NY Times T Magazine (here)
Bettina Rheims
Through October 30th
745 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10151

Jessica Backhaus, I Wanted to See the World @Laurence Miller

JTF (just the facts): A total of 51 color photographs, framed in white and matted, and densely hung in the entry and main gallery spaces. All of the works are c-prints, in one of three sizes: 40×30 (in editions of 8), 24×20 or reverse (in editions of 8 or 15), and 14×11 or reverse (in editions of 15). The show contains 4 prints in the largest size, 22 in the middle size, and 25 in the smallest size. The various works are drawn from four different book projects. There are 11 images from Jesus and the Cherries (2001-2004), 17 images from One Day in November (2002-2008), 11 images from What Still Remains (2004-2008), and 12 images from I Wanted to See the World (2010). (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: It was likely William Eggleston who first popularized color photographs of simple everyday objects made special through the sheer force of his focused attention. This concept of grabbing a seemingly random fragment of life and infusing it with significance has now morphed into an entire genre of contemporary photography, with practitioners with styles as different as Wolfgang Tillmans, Rinko Kawauchi and Paola Ferrario. In the past decade, German photographer Jessica Backhaus has also been exploring the nature of the incidental via a series of book projects, sampled here in a kind of mini-retrospective first New York solo show.
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Backhaus‘ approaches her overlooked objects with a sense of crisp, formal purity, and an eye for radiant color: red cherries in jars, orange carrots on the edge of a sink, a blue tennis ball in the gutter, a pink blanket on a clothesline. She explores the found geometries in the zigzag of carpeted stairs, the curvature of glasses of water, and the decay of a partially eaten apple or peeling sky blue paint. Water makes a repeated appearance, often infused with reflected, smeared color; her images capture drips, rivulets, wet pavement, and a variety of fogged, damp or sprinkled surfaces.

Backhaus takes this investigation of wetness to an entirely new level in her most recent body of work. These pictures document the reflections of colored buildings in the canals of Venice, her camera pointed down at the dappled, moving surface of the water. The bright colors become swirled, rippled and distorted, at turns broken and abstract. The color effects are both impressionistic and painterly, exercises in the marbling of pink and green, purple and yellow, or red and brown. They are images you can get lost in, endlessly following the intersecting waves and transitions.
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Together, this is a satisfying introduction to Backhaus‘ work, spanning both the power of pared down simplicity and the lyricism of visual complexity.
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Collector’s POV: The works in this show are priced as follows: the 40×30 prints are $5800 each, the 24×20 prints are $3600 each, and the 14×11 prints are $2500 each. Backhaus‘ work has not yet reached the secondary markets in any meaningful way, so gallery retail is likely the only option for interested collectors at this point.

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

  • Artist site (here)
  • Reviews: New Yorker (here), Photograph (here, scroll down), Photo Booth (here)
  • Book review: 5B4 (here)

Jessica Backhaus, I Wanted to See the World
Through October 30th

Laurence Miller Gallery
20 West 57th Street
New York, NY 10019

Auction Previews: Contemporary Art Evening and Day Auctions, October 15 and 16, 2010 @Sotheby’s London

Sotheby’s has the final slot in the London Frieze week sales, with its Contemporary Art Evening and Day auctions on the 15th and 16th. The top photography lots include work by Gursky, Uklanski, Prince, Gilbert & George, and Sherman. Overall, there are a total of 28 photo lots available across the two sales, with a Total High Estimate of £2608000.

Here’s the statistical breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including £5000): 1
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): £4000

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between £5000 and £25000): 15
Total Mid Estimate: £224000

Total High Lots (high estimate above £25000): 12
Total High Estimate: £2380000

The top lot by High estimate is lot 6, Andreas Gursky, Pyongyang IV, 2007, at £500000-700000. (Image at right, top, via Sotheby’s.)

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

Gilbert & George (3)
Darren Almond (2)
John Baldessari (2)
Elger Esser (2)
Florian Maier–Aichen (2)
Vik Muniz (2)
Cindy Sherman (2)

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

Contemporary Art Evening
October 15th

Contemporary Art Day
October 16th

Sotheby’s
34-35 New Bond Street
London W1A 2AA

Beyond COLOR: Color in American Photography, 1950-1970 @Bruce Silverstein

JTF (just the facts): A group show of 97 color photographs, variously framed and matted, and hung throughout the front, main, and back gallery spaces. The works on display were made between 1950 and 1970 by 11 different artists. Details on the photographers and prints included in the show are below, with the number of images and relevant specifics in parentheses:

  • Harry Callahan (9 dye transfer prints, made between 1951 and 1970, most printed later, ranging in size from 7×7 to 10×14)
  • Marie Cosindas (9 works: 5 archival inkjet prints, made between 1965 and 1968, printed in 2010, ranging in size 8×10 to 12×17, 3 dye transfer prints, made and printed in 1966, ranging in size from 11×14 to 13×15, and 1 c-print, made in 1966, printed in 1970s, 12×15)
  • Ernst Haas (5 works: 4 dye transfer prints, made and printed between 1953 and 1960s, ranging in size from 11×17 to 15×22, and 1 chromogenic print, made in 1969, printed later, 30×40)
  • Saul Leiter (8 chromogenic prints, made between 1956 and 1959, printed later, all 14×11)
  • Inge Morath (8 archival pigment prints, made between 1957 and 1965, printed later, all 13×18 or reverse)
  • Marvin Newman (9 archival inkjet prints, made between 1953 and 1956, printed 2010, all 13×19)
  • Ruth Orkin (7 archival inkjet prints, made c1950, printed 2010, all 11×14 or reverse)
  • Eliot Porter (10 dye transfer prints, made between 1950 and 1968, all 10×12 or reverse)
  • Arthur Siegel (6 dye transfer prints, made c1950, all but one vintage, ranging in size from 7×10 to 10×12)
  • Pete Turner (6 dye transfer prints, made between 1963 and 1970, printed 1970s, ranging in size from 11×15 to 40×60)
  • Garry Winogrand (20 slides, made between 1950-1970, shown as projected slide show)

Comments/Context: Given the overwhelming dominance of color photography in our lives today, it’s altogether surprising that the art historical narrative for this particular medium is still rather fluid and incomplete. Earlier this summer, the Starburst show at Princeton (review here) helped clarify the exciting period between 1970 and 1980, when Eggleston, Shore, Sternfeld and many others took color photography in a variety of new directions. But what was happening in color prior to that time has received much less scholarly attention. This ambitious gallery show attempts to step into that murky void, providing a companion piece covering the two decades prior to the 1970s color explosion.

One of my most important takeaways from Starburst was that the 1970s photographers found new ways to liberate themselves from the bonds of traditional subject matter. That show was filled with everything but the normal; it was filled with the quirky, the political, the mundane, the suburban, the conceptual, and even with color as the subject in and of itself. In contrast, when I walked through this show chronicling the period just before the 1970s, my strong reaction was: this is mostly black and white photography made in color. There is a heavy dose of street photography, mixed with a few landscapes, some portraits, and a still life or two, and with a few exceptions, most of the images are rooted in a recognizable black and white aesthetic.

The conclusion I draw from ideas underlying this show is that there really was a violent schism in the 1970s, a breaking away from what had come before. I can’t say that I have ever heard that any of the notable 1970s color photographers say they were influenced by any the artists on view in this show (deepen my understanding in the comments if you can add something specific), and seeing this work, I can’t say that I am particularly surprised. To my eye, the impressionistic work of Saul Leiter (which I am finding increasingly amazing as I see more of it) and a few of Harry Callahan’s dye transfers are the only images that seem to consistently reach for something beyond the boundaries of black and white. The others have moments when a single image crosses into the new world, but that innovative energy isn’t sustained.

Overall, I think the gallery deserves credit for digging into a subject that needed some further investigation and for putting together a varied exhibit of representative work. This show is full of complex issues and ideas to keep your brain busy, but unfortunately the work itself is mostly forgettable. Even if all of the work isn’t durably original, as a whole, this period of change is still an important historical link worth understanding. In many ways, this is a show of transitional, now extinct species, which tried to adapt to the new environment, but in the end, lost the battle of natural selection.

Collector’s POV: The prints in this show are priced as follows:

  • Harry Callahan: $8500 or $9500 each
  • Marie Cosindas: dye transfers $15000 or $20000 each, c-print $7500, recent inkjet prints $3000 each
  • Ernst Haas: dye transfers between $25000 and $40000 each, chromogenic print $5250
  • Saul Leiter: $4000 each
  • Inge Morath: $2600 each
  • Marvin Newman: $3000 each
  • Ruth Orkin: $2750 each
  • Eliot Porter: most $2500 to $3000 each, one print at $12000
  • Arthur Siegel: between $8500 and $20000
  • Pete Turner: small sizes $5000, large sizes $38000
  • Garry Winogrand: not for sale

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

Transit Hub:

  • Reviews: Wall Street Journal (here), New York Photo Review (here)

Beyond COLOR: Color in American Photography, 1950-1970
Through October 23rd

Bruce Silverstein Gallery
535 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011

Auction Previews: Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening and Day Auctions, October 14 and 15, 2010 @Christie’s King Street

Christie’s comes to market second in the Fall London season, with its Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening and Day auctions at King Street on the 14th and 15th. The top lots include Gilbert & George, Sherman, Gursky, Wall and Demand. Overall, there are 40 photography lots on offer across the two sales, with a Total High Estimate of £1714500.

Here’s the breakdown:
Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including £5000): 5
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): £20500
Total Mid Lots (high estimate between £5000 and £25000): 18
Total Mid Estimate: £254000
Total High Lots (high estimate above £25000): 17
Total High Estimate: £1440000
The top lot by High estimate is lot 21, Gilbert & George, Frozen Youth, 1982, at £250000-350000. (Image at right, top, via Christie’s.) The next highest lot is lot 44, Cindy Sherman, Untitled (#412), 2003, at £100000-200000, a very scary clown indeed. (Image at right, bottom, via Christie’s.)
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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):
Hiroshi Sugimoto (7)
Nobuyoshi Araki (4)
Thomas Ruff (4)
Idris Khan (2)
Vik Muniz (2)
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The complete lot by lot catalogs can be found here (Evening) and here (Day).
October 14th
October 15th
8 King Street, St. James’s
London SW1Y 6QT

Looking Forward, Looking Back @Pace/MacGill

JTF (just the facts): A group show containing a total of 26 works, variously framed and matted, and hung against grey walls in the divided gallery space. The following photographers have been included in the show, with the number of photographs on view and relevant details in parentheses:

Robert Frank (3 images from The Americans, 1955-56)
Paul Graham (1 group of 7 from a shimmer of possibility, 2005)
Irving Penn (4 close-ups of Miles Davis’ hands, 1986)
Charles Sheeler (4 interiors/barns, 1914-1918)
Alfred Stieglitz (4 nudes of Georgia O’Keeffe, 1918-1919, plus Spiritual America, 1923)
Paul Strand (4 head shot portraits of Rebecca, 1920-1923)
Edward Weston (5 nudes, still lifes, and portraits, 1921-1927)

Most of the works on view are vintage, executed in a variety of processes (gelatin silver, platinum, palladium, chromogenic). There is no photography allowed in the gallery, so the installation shots at right are via the Pace/MacGill website.

Comments/Context: As part of the broader celebration of Pace’s 50 year anniversary, Pace/MacGill has gathered together a museum quality group show, with some of the most iconic photographic images from the 20th century on display. While each small room is packed full with photo treasures, what prevents this exhibit from being one of the best of the year is that it simply has no discernible unifying theme; it’s a tightly concentrated selection of superlative works (in groups) that have little relationship to each other, beyond the fact that they may have passed through the gallery at one point or another.

That’s not to say that the work on display isn’t among the best ever produced. A wall of elegant Strand portraits of Rebecca abuts a group of Modernist Sheeler barns, followed by a group of Stieglitz portraits/nudes of O’Keeffe, flanked by Stieglitz’ famous image of a gelded horse. The outer wall has three terrific large sized Franks, and the other room holds Weston nudes, a nautilus shell, Mexican pots and a portrait of Tina, juxtaposed with a group of startling Penn images of the hand of Miles Davis. The one nod to the present (or future) is a series by Paul Graham of a gas station at twilight. Mixed with these other older standouts, it seems a strange anachronistic inclusion, not because it isn’t of superior quality, but because it’s a lonely, lesser known color outlier, the token contemporary piece in an otherwise vintage collection.
So while at one level every piece in this show is an awe-inspiring masterpiece, at another, this is a show entirely devoid of ideas; plain and simple, it’s a group of amazing photographs. My recommendation is therefore to go and stand in the reflected glow of greatness, to drink in the scarcity of these famous images, but don’t expect to come away with any particular insights or conclusions.

Collector’s POV: Nearly all of the works in this show are from private or institutional collections. Those few that are for sale are marked “price upon request”, and since I was not a legitimate buyer for any of these iconic works, I decided against pestering the gallery staff about the specific prices. That said, given the rarity of many of these images, I imagine the prices (except for the Graham) would easily reach well into six figures.

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

Transit Hub:
  • Various 50 Years at Pace exhibitions (here)
Through October 23rd

32 East 57th Street
New York, NY 10022

Auction Previews: Contemporary Art Evening and Day Sales, October 13 and 14, 2010 @Phillips London

Phillips is up first during Frieze week, with its pair of Contemporary Art Evening and Day Sales in London on the 13th and 14th. Overall, there are few photographic standouts in this selection, with a total of 36 lots of photography available across the two sales, and a Total High Estimate for photography of £657000.

Here’s the statistical breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including £5000): 3
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): £13000

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between £5000 and £25000): 25
Total Mid Estimate: £349000

Total High Lots (high estimate above £25000): 8
Total High Estimate: £295000

The top lot by High estimate is lot 212, Andreas Gursky, Cairo Übersicht, 1993, at £35000-45000. (Image at right, top, via Phillips.)

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

Vik Muniz (5)
Florian Maier–Aichen (4)
Vanessa Beecroft (2)
Luigi Ghirri (2)
Andreas Gursky (2)
Candida Höfer (2)
Dash Snow (2)
Hiroshi Sugimoto (2)

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

Contemporary Art Evening Sale
October 13th

Contemporary Art Day Sale
October 14th

Phillips De Pury & Company
Howick Place
London SW1P 1BB

Chris Verene, Family @Postmasters

JTF (just the facts): A total of 41 color photographs, framed in white with no mat, and hung in the reception and two main gallery rooms; a few additional images are apparently available for viewing in the office. All of the works are square format chromogenic prints with hand written captions. The prints are sized either 24×20 or 36×30, and both are printed in editions of 6+2AP. There are 11 images in the smaller size and 30 images in the larger size in the show. All of the works on display were taken between 1992 and 2010. A monograph of this body of work was recently published by Twin Palms (here) and is available from the gallery for $65. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: If we were to organize a hypothetical photography exhibit called “The Family as Muse”, there would be a nearly endless variety of superlative imagery to choose from. Maybe we might select images from Sally Mann, Nicholas Nixon, and Tina Barney, or perhaps Doug DuBois, Larry Sultan, Mitch Epstein and Nan Goldin, or really any number of deserving others. Chris Verene’s pictures of his extended family would happily fit into this sprawling exhibition, and would stick out for their unflinching sense of documentary reality.
Plenty of photographers have pointed their cameras as loved ones and come out with images that are filled with dignity, tenderness, and inner strength. Verene’s images have these same qualities, but it is his willingness to see eccentricities and quirks, weaknesses and failures in these people that makes these photographs original. An outsider might make these same pictures with a sense of subtle mockery or condescension, but with Verene as an insider in this story of real family struggle, the images become alternately heartbreaking and hopeful.
Part of the reason this happens is that Verne’s images are adorned with small texts that act like a quiet voice over, providing an oral storyline to go with the visual one on the wall. By giving these people names and context, the stories become specific, individual and personal, even though they may represent more universal conditions we can all identify with. A man stands with a strange expression on his face, near an empty swing set made of old hubcaps; the text reads “after the divorce, Steve never saw his girls again”; suddenly an odd and unidentifiable scene is transformed into something crushingly woeful. A mother tends to a pair of girls in their carseats; the text reads “Amber and her girls are living in her car”, and again, a thin film of agony alters the mood.
As you wander through the galleries, the stories cover multiple generations and chronicle divorces, lost jobs, babies, packs of kids and dogs, trailers, making due and getting by. Time passes and we see kids grow and and parents age; new challenges replace old ones. And yet there are surprising moments of simple joy buried in these hard and often depressing situations: kids being swung in circles by their arms, the delight of a Renaissance Faire costume, the bliss of lying on your back in the driveway.
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At their best, Verene’s images are condensed emotion, densely packed moments of aching, where the action has taken place off stage and the results are less obvious but all the more distressing. His pictures successfully put an intimate face on the economic hardship and poverty that has touched many in recent years, his true stories more subtly tragic than any he could have dreamed up.

Collector’s POV: Regardless of size, the prints in this show are priced in ratcheting editions, starting at $2500, moving through $3500, $5000, and $8000, and ending at $10000, with the last print reserved for institutional buyers. Verene’s work has not reached the secondary markets with any consistency, 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)
  • Reviews: NY Times (here), New Yorker (here), Photo Booth (here)
  • Interview: Amy Stein (here)
Chris Verene, Family
Through October 16th
Postmasters
459 West 19th Street
New York, NY 10011

Auction Results: Latin America, September 29, 2010 @Phillips

The results for the photographs in the Latin America themed sale at Phillips last week were generally weak, with a Buy-In rate over 55% and Total Sale Proceeds that fell well under Total Low Estimate. Manuel Alvarez Bravo had a particularly tough outing, going 0 for 7.

The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):
Total Lots: 74
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $451000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $643500
Total Lots Sold: 32
Total Lots Bought In: 42
Buy In %: 56.75%
Total Sale Proceeds: $250750

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

Low Total Lots: 60
Low Sold: 25
Low Bought In: 35
Buy In %: 58.33%
Total Low Estimate: $309500
Total Low Sold: $118875
Mid Total Lots: 13
Mid Sold: 7
Mid Bought In: 6
Buy In %: 46.15%
Total Mid Estimate: $284000
Total Mid Sold: $131875
High Total Lots: 1
High Sold: 0
High Bought In: 1
Buy In %: 100.00%
Total High Estimate: $50000
Total High Sold: $0
The top photography lot by High estimate was lot 161, Vik Muniz, Don Quixote in His Study, After William Lake Price, 1890 (from Rebus Series), 2004, at $30000-50000; it did not sell. The top photography outcome in the sale was lot 123, Vik Muniz, Self Portrait (from Pictures of Magazines), 2003, at $33750. (Image at right, top, via Phillips.)

75.00% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range. There was only one surprise in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):
Lot 296, Mario Testino, Disciples I, 2003, at $8125 (image at right, bottom, via Phillips)

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

450 West 15th Street
New York, NY 10011

Peter Sekaer: An Untold Story @Greenberg

JTF (just the facts): A total of 44 black and white photographs, framed in brown wood and matted, and hung against brown walls in the main gallery space. All of the works are gelatin silver prints, taken between 1934 and 1940; most of the prints are vintage, although a few modern prints are also mixed in. Sizes range from 4×5 to 15×17. The images primarily depict the southern states, but there are a few New York and Philadelphia scenes included as well. In the book alcove, a selection of FSA photography from 1935-1940 is on view as a foil. A total of 14 works from Ben Shahn, Lee Russell, Jack Delano, Walker Evans, Arthur Rothstein and Marian Post Wolcott are on display in this small area. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: One of the things that continually surprises me about photography as an art form is that new photographers of merit continue to be rediscovered, dug out of the archives decades after they have come and gone, and presented for reconsideration in the context of an already agreed upon historical narrative. It would be easy to assume that the story of the 1930s Depression-era photography of the FSA and WPA has already been entirely told, and yet here is Peter Sekaer, a forgotten player from this period now found once again, with a solo museum show at the High Museum in Atlanta and an accompanying gallery show at Howard Greenberg.
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While Sekaer knew Ben Shahn and studied with Berenice Abboott, it is the influence of Walker Evans that is most obvious in his pictures. Sekaer actually printed for Evans in 1935 and the two later traveled together through the South on an assignment for the Resettlement Association. In many cases, they shot from similar locations or documented common subjects, so the resemblance between the two is more than just a coincidence.

When Sekaer pointed his camera at vernacular signage and small town graphic design or at architectural fronts and building details, his work is a dead ringer for that of Evans. There is the same deadpan admiration for the painted head of a cow or the lettering on a storefront window, the same spare compositions of shutter doors, roof moldings, and geometric building forms. His approach is straightforward and unadorned, with close attention to contrast and tonality, finding small town whimsy in the displays of commerce, and layered, textured patterns in the lines of everyday houses. Sekaer’s images of people are perhaps one click warmer than those of Evans, a little less stoic and heroic, a little more active and empathetic. Throngs of kids play on dirt streets or hang out on a front porch behind a wire mesh, while adults are captured flash-lit in their kitchens and living spaces.

Overall, while I’m not sure that I can discern a truly innovative or original point of view in these pictures, they are undeniably well-made photographs that are clearly relevant to the larger 1930s photographic landscape. For collectors of FSA work and fans of Walker Evans, I think Sekaer will be a welcome addition. While he will likely remain a secondary figure in the overall historical story, Sekaer seems to have made plenty of solid images that would happily share a wall with better known Depression-era names.

Collector’s POV: The prints in this show are priced between $3000 and $20000, with the majority between $6000 and $12000. Sekaer’s work does not have much history in the auction markets, as the inventory of work seems to have been fairly closely controlled; only a few lots have come up for sale in the past five years or so, with prices falling between $3000 and $10000.
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Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

  • Exhibition: Signs of Life, High Museum (here), accompanying monograph (here)
  • Review: New Yorker (here)
  • Feature: NY Times (here)
Peter Sekaer: An Untold Story
Through October 23rd
41 East 57th Street
New York, NY 10022

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