Auction Results: Contemporary Art Evening and Day Sales, November 11 and 12, 2009 @Sotheby’s

Following on the heels of the solid outing at Christie’s the previous day, the market for contemporary photography stayed strong once again in the two Contemporary Art sales at Sotheby’s. The Total Sale Proceeds for photography across the Evening and Day auctions were well above the midpoint of the range, with a Buy-In Rate slightly higher than the day before (just under 22%).

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

Total Lots: 55
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $2986000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $4139000
Total Lots Sold: 43
Total Lots Bought In: 12
Buy In %: 21.82%
Total Sale Proceeds: $3737250

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

Low Total Lots: 0
Low Sold: NA
Low Bought In: NA
Buy In %: NA
Total Low Estimate: $0
Total Low Sold: NA

Mid Total Lots: 32
Mid Sold: 26
Mid Bought In: 6
Buy In %: 18.75%
Total Mid Estimate: $859000
Total Mid Sold: $800500

High Total Lots: 23
High Sold: 17
High Bought In: 6
Buy In %: 26.09%
Total High Estimate: $3280000
Total High Sold: $2936750

80.00% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above their estimate. There were five surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 306 Vik Muniz, After Gerhard Richter (from Pictures of Color), 2001, at $80500
Lot 309 Vik Muniz, The Best of Life Portfolio, 1989/1995, at $182500
Lot 315 Candida Hofer, Milchhof Nurnberg, 1999, at $37500
Lot 425 Elger Esser, Gravina, 1999, at $62500
Lot 426 Thomas Struth, Landschaft No. 28, 1993, at $30000

The top lot by High estimate was lot 40, John Baldessari, Life’s Balance, 1986, at $300000-400000; it sold for $542500. The top outcome of the sale was lot 303, John Baldessari, Two Compositions (Dynamic/Static; Red/Green), 1990, at $554500.

Complete lot by lot results can be found here (Evening) and here (Day).

Sotheby’s
1334 York Avenue
New York, NY 10021

Auction Results: Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening, Morning and Afternoon Sales, November 10 and 11, 2009 @Christie’s

If you are an optimistic, glass half full kind of person, then the performance of the photography lots in the recent series of Contemporary Art sales at Christie’s should give you some positive feelings about the state of market; the Total Sale Proceeds were smack in the middle of the range, and the Buy-In Rate was low (just under 18%).

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

Total Lots: 62
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $3538000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $5038000
Total Lots Sold: 51
Total Lots Bought In: 11
Buy In %: 17.74%
Total Sale Proceeds: $4240750

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

Low Total Lots: 0
Low Sold: NA
Low Bought In: NA
Buy In %: NA
Total Low Estimate: $0
Total Low Sold: NA

Mid Total Lots: 31
Mid Sold: 25
Mid Bought In: 6
Buy In %: 19.35%
Total Mid Estimate: $888000
Total Mid Sold: $770000

High Total Lots: 31
High Sold: 26
High Bought In: 5
Buy In %: 16.13%
Total High Estimate: $4150000
Total High Sold: $3470750

91.94% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above their estimate. There was only one surprise in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 449 Vik Muniz, Bette Davis (Pictures of Diamond), 2004, at $62500.

The top lots by High estimate were lot 353, Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still #15, 1978, and lot 408, Andreas Gursky, Toys ‘R’ Us, 1999, both at $300000-400000. The Sherman sold for $338500 and the Gursky sold for $434500, and they were the top two outcomes of the sale.

Complete lot by lot results can be found here (Evening), here (Morning) and here (Afternoon).

Christie’s
20 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10020

Roger Ballen: Boarding House @Gagosian

JTF (just the facts): A total of 42 black and white images, framed in black and matted, and hung against dark grey walls in a series of 6 galleries and hallway spaces. The images were taken between 2002 and 2008. The prints come in two sizes: approximately 20×20 gelatin silver prints (in editions of 10) and larger 32×32 digital inkjet exhibition prints (in editions of 10 as well). The show includes 28 prints in the smaller size and 14 prints in the larger size. A monograph of this work has recently been published by Phaidon (here). (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: I remember very clearly the first time I saw Roger Ballen’s photographs: it was in 2004, at a show at the Berkeley Art Museum. Hung against the museum’s rough concrete walls, the pared down, bizarre and unsettling pictures were unlike anything I had seen before. What stood out was their startling, almost confrontational originality; while we might have been able to connect them tangentially to Arbus or Witkin or any number of others, this was an artist who had found his own voice and clearly wasn’t afraid to make work that didn’t fit into neat categories.
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Fast forward five years to the new show on view now at Gagosian and we find Ballen still out on the fringes, exploring his own world, but having delved even deeper into his own psychological landscape. Taken in a Johannesburg warehouse filled with a warren of crude living spaces, the images are less about figures and “portraits” than his earlier work; the inhabitants (and co-conspirators) are seen only fleetingly in these pictures: fingers protruding from a sackcloth wall, open mouths laughing through holes, hands waving above a barrier or resting on a grimy mattress, dirty arms or legs dangling into the frame. Instead, it is the spooky environment itself and its layers of meanings that have become the focal point.
Ballen seems to have “turned up the volume” in these pictures, making images that are much more complex and visually dense than his previous work. The staged scenes and settings contain a wide array of oddly symbolic items and abandoned debris: dolls, rabbits, squiggly wire, pillows, newspaper, chicken heads, butterflies, feather dusters, spiders, mattresses, stuffed animals, electrical cords, snakes, fake plants, dead rats, and even a zebra skin and a hog’s head. It is however the wild drawings that cover the burlap, concrete and plywood walls that are the most tantalizing and memorable: stylized faces, heads, and simple bodies, executed in charcoal, chalk, and spray paint, winding around in surreal patterns and haunted scribbles. Taken together, each image becomes an elaborate still life installation in muted grey; layered sculptural elements form a backdrop for the hidden people and the dark metaphorical corners of their lives.
While many of the works evoke an initial shock, quite a few find their way toward dark, black humor rather than disturbing scary nightmare; there is a fine balance at work that mixes humanity with anxious revulsion, not-so-funny jokes with unsettling and uneasy voyeurism. The consistency with which Ballen knocks the viewer out of his/her comfort zone while still finding quiet moments of tenderness is what makes this exhibit so evocative and successful.
Simply put, this is the single best show of new photography I have seen this entire year. It is amazingly original, emotionally draining, expertly crafted, and not to be missed.
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Collector’s POV: The prints in this show are priced based on size. The 20×20 prints are $7500 and the larger 32×32 exhibition prints are $11000; both prices include the frame. Ballen’s work has been only intermittently available in the secondary markets in the past few years; prices have ranged between $2000 and $25000, for prints often made in editions of 35.
While Ballen’s work doesn’t fit well with our collecting parameters, I particularly enjoyed Chuckles, 2007 (open mouths and chicken heads), Celebration, 2007 (chalk covered hands and the hog’s head), and Boarding House, 2008 (drawings on boards, stuffed animals, a doll’s head, a dog, and a child).
Rating: *** (three stars) EXCELLENT (rating system described here)
Transit Hub:
  • Artist site (here)
  • Interviews: Lens Culture (here), American Photo (here), Dossier (here)
  • Book reviews: The Photobook (here), Conscientious (here)
Roger Ballen: Boarding House
Through December 23rd
Gagosian Gallery
980 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10075

Robert Frank @Pace/MacGill

JTF (just the facts): A total of 23 works, variously framed and matted, and hung against grey and red walls throughout the two main gallery spaces. 8 of the images are enlarged contact sheets from The Americans, where each strip contains at least one of the final images; all of these prints are gelatin silver, 20×16 in size. There are also two single image prints from The Americans (Trolley-New Orleans and Parade-Hoboken, New Jersey), both gelatin silver and 16×23.

Another 10 of the images are from a series Frank took in 1958 from the window of a New York city bus. They are all gelatin silver, and are either 14×10 or 11×7 in size. 2 other works are groups of images from enlarged black and white Polaroid negatives printed on 20×24 gelatin silver paper; one is from 1987, the other from 1999/2000. The last work is a group of 6 color Polaroids, each 20×24. Wall labels includes texts by the artist, Stuart Alexander, and Douglas Hyland. (There is no photography allowed in the gallery, so the installation shots at right are via the Pace/MacGill website.)

Comments/Context: The massive Robert Frank show at the Met (review linked below) has been the cornerstone of the Fall photography season here in New York, and a number of ancillary exhibits have sprung up to capitalize on all the attention. This show mixes some additional material from The Americans (beyond what is at the Met) with other images and works by Frank from across his career.

One of the highlights of the Met show for me was the group of working contact sheets from The Americans, complete with grease pencil selections and rejections. More than a decade after the book was published, Frank went back and had enlarged contact sheets printed that gathered together just those strips of film that included images that made the book. As such, these are a shortened/edited version of the actual contact sheets, showing only those shots just before and/or after the final selected images. Being able to watch Frank coalesce around a composition from shot to shot is the real treat found here.
This show also has a series of 10 vintage images from 1958 entitled From the Bus, where Frank took seemingly haphazard shots out the window of a moving New York city bus. Not surprisingly, the pictures capture the random chance of sidewalks, cars, and people in the streets, all in a cinematic frozen action style. After a show of this work at the MoMA in 1962 (with Harry Callahan), Frank then went on to abandon still photography to focus on film-making for a number of years, so these images are a sort of bridge between his working methods. When Frank finally returned to photography a decade later, his work centered on sequences and groups of related images; the remaining three works in the show are examples of this artistic approach.

While there are certainly some Frank treasures in this show that will appeal to a relatively broad audience, I think this exhibit will be most enjoyed by those hard core Frank supporters who somehow didn’t get enough at the Met.
Collector’s POV: Hardly any of the works in this show are actually available for sale to collectors. Many items (either as individuals or groups of works) are marked “For Museum Consideration Only”, while a few are from private collections and are not for sale at all. The only works with actual prices tags are the contact sheets from The Americans, which are being sold as a set of 12 for $1300000. For comparison, a single enlarged contact sheet of images from The Americans sold this past October at Christie’s for $40000 (here).
Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)
Transit Hub:
  • DLK COLLECTION review of Looking In: Robert Frank’s The Americans @Met (here)
Through December 5th
32 East 57th Street
New York, NY 10022

Olaf Otto Becker, Above Zero @Amador

JTF (just the facts): A total of 13 color works (including one diptych and one portfolio of 17 images plus a map), framed in white, and hung throughout the gallery space. All of the prints are archival pigment prints, taken in 2007 or 2008, and subtitled with GPS coordinates. Each of the prints in the River 1 portfolio is 16×20, and the portfolio itself is available in an edition of 7. The other single images are either 26×30 or 44×52 (the diptych is a pair of 26×30 images); all of these are made in editions of 6. A monograph of this work has recently been published by Hatje Cantz (here). (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: German photographer Olaf Otto Becker is a throwback to the intrepid landscape photographers of the 19th century. Like Muybridge, Watkins, and O’Sullivan before him, he takes his cumbersome 8×10 view camera out into the unexplored (and often dangerous) wilderness to capture its vast glories. Becker’s previous project took him to the coastal areas of Greenland, where he photographed monumental icebergs and glaciers via an inflatable Zodiac boat. This recent project finds him further inland, trekking out into the icy unknown to document the paths of newly formed glacial rivers.
Becker’s images are a complicated confluence of science, politics and art. Beyond the views of the research station itself, the details of the melt water pictures ask all kinds of scientific questions (mostly hows and whys) concerning the formation process of the holes and pock marks, the carving of channels, the layers and stratification of the ice, and the eventual gathering into large lakes, both above and below ground.
The politics of the larger climate change and global warming questions are also obviously embedded in the works: black dust and soot from industrial pollution blankets the landscape, capturing heat much faster than the reflective ice normally would, accelerating the pace of melting, and thus driving the formation of these rivers. And hordes of eco–tourists taking pictures of themselves out on the dirty ice are a surreal reminder how intimately involved we actually are in transforming this faraway landscape.
In a purely artistic sense, the unexpected color palette of these images is what is most striking: there are no earthy colors at all, no greens, or browns, or yellows, even in the tiniest amounts. These are landscapes made entirely of white, grey and black, with pure strands of luminous light blue water winding through the canals of ice; in a sense, they are almost like negative prints – light where they should be dark and dark where they should be light. In composition, the works are relatively straightforward, carefully composed to heighten the grandeur of the gradual sweep of the rivers.
In general, in a time when images of the arctic have become a bit hackneyed, Becker seems to have found ways to keep the work fresh and unexpected, successfully mixing surprising beauty and serious commentary.

Collector’s POV: The prices for the works in the show are as follows: the portfolio of 17 prints is $18000 (sold as a single unit), the large 44×52 prints are either $6000 or $7000, the smaller 26×30 prints are $3500, and the diptych is $5250. Becker has virtually no secondary market track record, so gallery retail is really the only option for interested collectors at this point.

While we are not landscape photography collectors, we can certainly appreciate the decorative quality of these pictures, as well as the many subcontexts and connections to the issues of our times that they represent. I think it would be an interesting juxtaposition to dig up some similar long exposure images of rivers by O’Sullivan and other 19th century expedition photographers from the American West and hang them side by side with Becker’s works.

Overall, these images are particularly memorable as a group, and will therefore work well in book form where the individual images can play off each other. I can also imagine a few of the largest prints being hung dramatically on their own, the otherworldly blue of the water catching a viewer’s eye from across a room.

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

Transit Hub:

  • Artist site (here)
  • Interview @Conscientious (here)
  • Broken Line book review @5B4 (here)

Olaf Otto Becker, Above Zero
Through January 9th

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

Olaf Breuning: Small Brain Big Stomach @Metro Pictures

JTF (just the facts): The entry and first two large gallery spaces are filled with Breuning’s monochrome wood sculptures and wall drawings. The third gallery contains the photography: a total of 11 color images, spotlit and hung against black walls. Eight of the works are framed in black with no mat; they are printed in editions of 3 and are all 25×33. The other 3 works are much larger (each 62×77, also printed in editions of 3), and are framed in white with no mat. All of the images are c-prints mounted on sintra and were made in 2009. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: While the main attractions in this playful exhibit are Breuning’s quirky, childlike sculptures and wall drawings, the real reason I came was for the photography (no surprise there I’m sure). In these images, Breuning has been experimenting with paint in primary colors (red, blue, yellow, and green), laid against contrasting black and white backgrounds; the photographs are documents of the results.
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The smaller images in the show all begin with a black palette and indistinct black backgrounds. Many use models painted/clothed entirely in black (with black hair/wigs) who are then variously splattered with blotches of the primary colors. There are alternately colored painted faces (eyes and mouths), figures covered in paint ball polka dots, a reclining nude with bold stripes poured over her body, and model moving her arms like a snow angel, smearing the colored paint across the wall. The interleaved images are long stripes of dripped paint in alternating colors, one with a series of concentric circles scratched in the center. The final black-based image depicts bubbles, flying through lights in the same four primary colors.

The larger works are all variations on the idea of a geometric wood grid, painted white against a white background wall, and then sprayed and splattered in bright color, either by painting in horizontal lines (creating a plaid, interwoven effect) or by dripping blobs of color onto the grid (as seen from both the front and back). To my eye, these abstractions are reminiscent of the energetic all-over feel of Mondrian’s Broadway Boogie Woogie (here), and are generally more successful than the black pictures.

Breuning calls these photographs “color studies”, and indeed, that’s what they feel like – explorations into the nature of color and how it reacts in different situations. The bold and patterned images are light-hearted and fun, just like the wild sculptures and striking drawings in the nearby galleries.

Collector’s POV: The photographs in this show are priced based on size: the smaller ones are $8000 and the larger ones are $15000. Breuning’s photographs have been only intermittently available in the secondary markets; prices have ranged between approximately $1000 and $5000.

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

Transit Hub:

  • Artist site (here)
  • Video interview @Cool Hunting (here)

Olaf Breuning: Small Brain Big Stomach
Through December 5th

Metro Pictures
519 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011

Auction Preview: Photographies, November 20, 2009 @Sotheby’s Paris

Sotheby’s upcoming various owner photographs sale in Paris is conveniently scheduled to coincide with this year’s Paris Photo. The auction is anchored by a large group of 74 lots that are being sold to benefit the Auer Photo Foundation (here); 32 are photographs from their collection, 30 are books/lithographs (also from their collection), and 12 others are donated images. The auction also includes a strong group of Eugène Atget prints (including some hard to find nudes). Overall, there are a total of 207 lots on offer, with a Total High Estimate of 2615100€. (Catalog cover at right, via Sotheby’s.)

Here’s the breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including 7500€): 118
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): 473100€

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between 7500€ and 35000€): 78
Total Mid Estimate: 1427000€

Total High Lots (high estimate above 35000€): 11
Total High Estimate: 715000€

The top lot by High estimate is lot 84, Irving Penn, Mouth, New York, 1986, at 80000-100000€.

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

Eugene Atget (14)
Seydou Keita (5)
Robert Mapplethorpe (5)
Weegee (5)
Henri Cartier-Bresson (4)
Rene Groebli (3)
Eikoh Hosoe (3)
David LaChapelle (3)
G. Martin (3)
Nadar (3)
Helmut Newton (3)
Irving Penn (3)
Sebastiao Salgado (3)
Joel-Peter Witkin (3)

There are quite a few excellent fits for our collection in this sale. (No pictures are included, as the new Sotheby’s catalog format doesn’t allow for easy reuse of images.) Some of the notable lots for us include:

Lot 10 Charles Aubry, Nature Morte Aux Chardons, 1850
Lot 11 Anna Atkins, Asperula Odoater, 1852 and Aspidium Jamaica, 1852
Lot 34 Tina Modotti/Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Calla Lilies, 1924
Lot 35 Karl Blossfledt, Chrysanthemum Carinatum, 1915-1925
Lot 37 Albert Renger–Patzsch, Auf Dem Ozeandampfer Resolute, 1929
Lot 49 Florence Henri, A La Foire De Paris, 1929
Lot 126 Bernd and Hilla Becher, Chateaux D’Eau, 1974

The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here.

Photographies
November 20th

Sotheby’s
76, Rue Du Faubourg Saint-Honoré
75008 Paris

Auction Preview: Signature Photography, November 19, 2009 @Heritage

Heritage’s photography sale in Dallas next week is a selection of mostly lower end material, all with starting bids at half the Low estimate. There are a total of 187 photography lots on offer, with a Total High Estimate of $516100. (Catalog cover at right, via Heritage.)

Here’s the breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including $10000): 184
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): $471100

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between $10000 and $50000): 3
Total Mid Estimate: $45000

Total High Lots (high estimate above $50000): 0
Total High Estimate: NA

The top lot by High estimate is lot 77075, Tom Kelley, Marilyn Monroe, 1949/Later, at $14000-18000.

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

Michael Kenna (15)
Jim Marshall (10)
Anne Brigman (9)
Eliot Porter (8)
Berenice Abbott (5)
Ansel Adams (5)
Paul Caponigro (5)
Annie Leibovitz (5)
Jacques Lowe (5)
Barbara Morgan (4)
Hank O’Neal (4)
Jock Sturges (4)
Wynn Bullock (3)
Elliott Erwitt (3)
Andre Kertesz (3)
Brett Weston (3)

While not much caught our eye amid this less than inspiring bunch of lots, the best fit for our collection in this sale would be lot 77172, John Vanderpant, Castles at the Seashore, 1930s. (Image at right, bottom.)

The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here.

Signature Photography Auction
November 19th

Heritage Auctions
Design District Annex
1518 Slocum Street
Dallas, TX 75207

Lillian Bassman: Women @Staley-Wise

JTF (just the facts): A total of 26 black and white images, framed in either black or white (with or without mats), and hung in the winding main gallery space, the back viewing room, and the reception area. The recent prints are executed in three different processes: pigment, palladium-platinum, and gelatin silver. There are 20 pigment prints, either from 1950s/1960s negatives or from more recent 1990s/2000s negatives, in editions of 25. These prints range in size from approximately 30×40 up to 42×62, with many intermediate/individual sizes. There are 5 palladium-platinum prints, again either from the 1950s or the 1990s, in editions of 15. All of these prints are 26×30. And there is one gelatin silver print, from the 1950s, in an edition of 25. It is 20×24. The monograph of this show (published by Abrams) is available from the gallery for $50. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: One of the great mysteries of photography is how the character of an image changes in relation to its printed size. While preferences between big and small vary, it’s clear that the impact of an intimate picture will be undeniably transformed when blown up to wall sized proportions. Most contemporary photographers have experimented with big prints at one time or another (to hold the wall with the same authority as paintings of the same size), and many have come to the conclusion that bigger is generally better, within some limits, especially if they are targeting contemporary art collectors, rather than those primarily interested in traditional photography.
In recent years, we have seen another variation on this theme more and more often: the reprinting of vintage negatives by older photographers (living or posthumously) in these “modern” sizes. Having seen quite a few of these kinds of prints from various artists, I think they fall into two distinct and separate categories: exciting new interpretations that force the viewer to rethink the originals and posterish cliches that cross the line into overdone “too much”.
Lillian Bassman’s fashion images from the 1950s were, in their vintage form, already bleached and blurred; they were shadowy, delicate pictures with a strong essence of confident femininity. The new prints on view in this show are even more contrasty, the images in some cases looking almost like monochrome watercolors or ink paintings. Flowing gowns, strappy heels, feathered hats, and lace veils have all become even more polarized and grainy, dark eyes and indistinct faces made even more ethereal by the blinding whites and the obscure blacks.
For the most part, I think these large striking prints succeed at highlighting Bassman’s innovations in fashion photography, without becoming caricatures of themselves. Her ghostly heads and figures become even more indistinct and hallucinatory writ large, making the subtle gestures and penetrating looks she captured even more bold and assertive.
Collector’s POV: The images in this show are generally priced based on size and printing process. The pigment prints are either $6000 or $8000, the palladium-platinum prints are either $15000 or $17500 and the lone gelatin silver print is $4000. Again, these are all recent prints, made much larger than any of Bassman’s previous work. Her vintage and later silver prints, approximately 11×14 or smaller for the most part, are available from time to time in the secondary markets; prices have ranged between $4000 and $15000 in the past few years.

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

Transit Hub:

  • NY Times feature, 2009 (here)
  • Lillian Bassman: Women book (here)
Lillian Bassman: Women
Through November 28th
560 Broadway
New York, NY 10012

Clifford Ross @Sonnabend

JTF (just the facts): A total of 18 black and white images, framed in white with no mat, and hung in the entry and 3 back rooms of the gallery. All of the prints are archival pigment prints, made in 2009, in editions of 5. The works are either 48×68 or 48×82, and all are titled “Hurricane” followed by a roman numeral. There are 4 images in the smaller size and 14 images in the larger size on display. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Clifford Ross’ images of hurricane force waves are unlike any other images of breaking surf that I have seen previously. From afar, they look a little mundane and routine; repeated black and white shots of waves cresting, smashing down into the sand, spraying water into the air and creating a frothy white soup of backwash. But up close, something altogether unexpected and magical occurs.
Within a few feet of the images, their staggering, extreme detail becomes apparent; every flying drop, every rolling curve, every ounce of spray is crisp and clear. The works feel like scientific studies of the physical properties of water, reminiscent of the stop motion photography of Harold Edgerton (here), but on a much grander scale. The crashing waves are revealed as intricate layers of volume, dark tubular forms and curtains of water, piled on top of each other and intermixed. The texture and color of the water is also suddenly of interest, sometimes smooth, sometimes rough and bubbled, the colors ranging from pure white to intense black. It’s easy to stand in front of one of these images and get lost in the minutiae.
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At the same time, there is a powerful sense of narrative drama in these pictures; the fury and danger of the ocean is on display. While these aren’t the massive deep sea waves that engulf entire ships, there is still plenty of excitement and energy in these smaller cousins. Compositionally, the works merge the romance and awe of Winslow Homer (here) and Hiroshige (here) with the meditative simplicity of Hiroshi Sugimoto’s bisected seascapes. Circling the gallery, the works prove that there is infinite variety and interest in this altogether straightforward subject.

Collector’s POV: The works in the exhibit are priced at either $32000 or $35000 based on size. While Ross’ work has not appeared much in the secondary markets, an earlier image from the same series (2002) sold at Christie’s this past summer for £10000.
For once, I think the large size of these photographs makes them work better. I can clearly imagine one of these big wave studies successfully filling an entire huge wall. That said, I also think that these images would make a terrific book, as the subtle changes in patterns and textures across the series are a compelling theme and variation fugue.

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

  • Artist site (here); make sure to look under “Process” to see shots of Ross taking the pictures in the surf
  • Photos from opening @Guest of a Guest (here)
  • New Yorker feature, 2006 (here)
  • NY Times review, 2005 (here)
Through December 19th
Sonnabend Gallery (artnet page here)
536 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011

Auction Preview: Ilse Bing, November 16, 2009 @Millon

In the past few years, the French auction season has often been highlighted by sales that span the entire estates of relatively well known European photographers. We participated in the Brassaï sale before we began this site, and we covered the Blanc & Demilly sale last fall (here) and the Sasha Stone sale this past summer (here).

This sale focuses on Ilse Bing and draws photographs and ephemera from her entire career. The vast majority of the works on offer are from 1930s Paris and New York, and many of her iconic images are represented. (Hardback catalog cover at right, via Millon. By the way, the catalog itself is an excellent reference book on Bing, with a biographical essay, a detailed bibliography and exhibition list, and copies of all her hand stamps.)
There are a total of 286 lots on offer, with a Total High Estimate of 470200€. Only a handful of lots have a high estimate over 3000€, so there is plenty of low priced material to dig through. In general, I have found the estimates to be ridiculously low compared to the prices we have encountered for her work in galleries or at auction in the past few years; this is of course a result of bringing so much Bing material to market at once and hoping to have it all absorbed. Given what’s in the catalog, I’d say that if you ever wanted an Ilse Bing for your collection, now would be the time to go after it.
Here’s the breakdown:
Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including 7500€): 285
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): 450200€
Total Mid Lots (high estimate between 7500€ and 35000€): 1
Total Mid Estimate: 20000€
Total High Lots (high estimate above 35000€): 0
Total High Estimate: NA
The top lot by High estimate is lot 56, Ilse Bing, Le Moulin Rouge, Paris, 1931, at 15000-20000€.
We already have several Ilse Bing images in our collection (here), and there are variants or duplicate prints of most of our images up for sale. There are of course others in this auction that would fit nicely with our existing holdings. (The easily accessible thumbnails on the website are quite small, so I have not reproduced them here.) A few of interest include:
Lot 12, Gear, Frankfurt, 1930
Lot 91, Le 14 Juillet, Paris, 1933
Lot 109, Amboise, 1935
Lot 135, Nature Morte, Paris, 1931
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The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here.
November 16th
5, Avenue D’Eylau
75116 Paris

Sidewalk Barrier as Expensive Art

During my last whirlwind tour of photography galleries in Chelsea, I found myself walking up 10th Avenue, between 22nd and 23rd Streets, on the left side of the street going uptown, where a construction site has walled off the sidewalk. To make a passageway for pedestrians, some unassuming barriers have been put out in the road, strung together to make a small path; the other side is a plywood wall, now covered with concert posters. The barriers are made of old railroad ties, two by fours painted a red and white candy stripe, and often some orange plastic netting. As I was walking along, writing down some last minute thoughts from the previous show, I looked down and noticed one of the barriers was a little different:


There’s a small little plaque mounted to the base of one of them; easy to miss if you’re rushing past or talking. So I peered down to see what it said:

This for me was an “only in Chelsea” kind of moment. Paul Richard’s website can be found here, with many more of these random street-side designations, among other artistic projects. I realize that this isn’t photography, but it made me smile nonetheless.

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