Auction Previews: Contemporary Art Day and Evening Sales, October 17, 2009 @Phillips London

Phillips has the final slot in the high speed Contemporary Art auction run in London, with Day and Evening sales this coming Saturday. Among the big three, Phillips is delivering the largest number of photo lots (54) and the largest total High estimate (£1373500) across its two sales. (Catalog covers at right, via Phillips.)

Here’s the breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including £5000): 9
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): £31500

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between £5000 and £25000): 29
Total Mid Estimate: £372000

Total High Lots (high estimate above £25000): 16
Total High Estimate: £970000

The top lot by High estimate is lot 18, Cindy Sherman, Untitled Film Still #8, 1978, at £100000-150000.

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

Vik Muniz (7)
Florian Maier–Aichen (4)
Thomas Ruff (4)
Vanessa Beecroft (3)
Nan Goldin (3)
Cindy Sherman (3)
Wolfgang Tillmans (3)
Bernd and Hilla Becher (2)
Philip-Lorca DiCorcia (2)
Louise Lawler (2)
Paul McCarthy (2)

In these two sales, the best fit for our collection would be lot 286, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Krefeldn Hafen, 1979 at £8000-12000. Although outside our collecting parameters, the Cindy Sherman film still (the top lot across the two auctions) is pretty amazing.

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

Contemporary Art Day Sale
October 17th

Contemporary Art Evening Sale
October 17th

Phillips De Pury & Company
Howick Place
London SW1P 1BB

Polaroids: Diana Kingsley, Richard Pettibone, Mike and Doug Starn @Castelli

JTF (just the facts): A total of 54 works by three different artists, hung in the two main gallery rooms. (Installation shots at right.) Here are the details on each:

  • Diana Kingsley: 16 color and black and white Polaroids, framed in black and matted, and hung in the smaller second room. All of the images are approximately 3×4; the images were taken between 1999 and 2009.
  • Richard Pettibone: 15 color works, framed in white and matted, and hung in the larger first room. Some of the works are framed as diptychs and many have colored acrylic paint lines that cut across the prints. The images were taken between 1979 and 1980.
  • Mike and Doug Starn: 18 color and black and white works, framed in white and matted, and hung in the larger first room. Some of the works include multiple Polaroids taped together or assembled into single works. Most of the prints are 3×4, several of the assembled pieces are as large as 5×7; none of the prints are dated.

Comments/Context: Polaroids have long been used by artists of all kinds as a visual note taking facility: quick shots made to test lighting or compositions before diving into the final artwork, or pictures taken to be reminders of a fleeting idea or situation. Many were never meant to be shown as finished works, while others were designed from the beginning to be stand alone pieces. This show brings together the Polaroids of three artists not known as “Polaroid photographers” and shows how each has used the medium to further his/her own artistic processes.

Diana Kingsley’s Polaroids are mostly preliminary studies, where the arrangement of her rumpled tabletop still lifes are tested and reconfigured. Others (a deflated beach ball, a canoe, and a brightly lit sparkler) seem to have more of a life of their own, perhaps as momentary ideas, archived for some future project.

Mike and Doug Starn have taken their use of Polaroids a step further. Many of the works are repeated studies of objects (globes, snowflakes, raindrops in a puddle), but several have been taped together to form single refracted images, a little reminiscent of David Hockney’s photographic assemblages.

Richard Pettibone’s Polaroids seem the closest to final artworks. Pettibone has taken photographic monographs by Guy Bourdin, Helmut Newton and Diane Arbus and photographed cropped spreads from the books, a twist on his normal process of appropriation. Thin colored lines of paint have then been applied on top; together with the glamour shots, the works have a 1980s album cover feel.

To my eye, about half of the works on display in this show deserve to be called finished artworks. But for those interested in the experimenting of the artistic process, the others provide intriguing background material.

Collector’s POV: All of the images in the show are unique and are priced as follows:

  • Diana Kingsley: $1500 each
  • Richard Pettibone: between $7000 and $12000 each
  • Mike and Doug Starn: between $4000 and $6000 each

Neither Kingsley or Pettibone has any auction history in the photography markets; photo work by the Starns can be found from time to time, generally ranging from $2000 to $20000. If we had a collection of 1970s photography by Richard Price and Cindy Sherman, the Pettibone appropriations would be a perfect fit; while none of the works in the show is a match for our specific collection, the Starn snowflakes were my favorites.

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

Transit Hub:

  • Diana Kingsley artist site (here)
  • Richard Pettibone retrospective @ICA Philadelphia, 2005 (here)
  • Mike and Doug Starn artist site (here)

Polaroids: Diana Kingsley, Richard Pettibone, Mike and Doug Starn
Through October 24th

Leo Castelli Gallery
18 East 77th Street
New York, NY 10075

Auction Previews: Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening and Day Sales, October 16 and 17, 2009 @Christie’s London

Christie’s follows right on the heels of Sotheby’s with a pair of Evening and Day sales in London later this week. The material is a bit better here, but still relatively thin in terms of stand out contemporary pictures. There are total of 36 photography lots on offer across the two sales, with a Total High Estimate of £866000. (Catalog covers at right, via Christie’s.)

Here’s the breakdown:

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

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between £5000 and £25000): 24
Total Mid Estimate: £323000

Total High Lots (high estimate above £25000): 11
Total High Estimate: £538000

The top lot by High estimate is lot 8, Andreas Gursky, Salerno, 1990, at £90000-120000.

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

Andreas Gursky (6)
Richard Prince (4)
Florian Maier–Aichen (3)
Shirin Neshat (3)
David LaChapelle (2)
Thomas Ruff (2)
Hiroshi Sugimoto (2)
Andy Warhol (2)

While there weren’t any great fits for our collection in these sales, if we were magically given a choice of what’s on offer, we’d likely select lot 211, Andreas Gursky, Taipei, 2000.

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

Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale
October 16th

Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Sale
October 17th

Christie’s
8 King Street, St. James’s
London SW1Y 6QT

Auction Preview: Contemporary Art Including Arab & Iranian Art, October 16, 2009 @Sotheby’s London

Sotheby’s is first up in the Contemporary Art auction season in London, timed to coincide with the Frieze Art Fair in Regent’s Park (here). Overall, the selection of contemporary photography in this sale isn’t particularly inspiring, although many of the usual contemporary names can be found. There are total of 39 photography lots on offer, with a Total High Estimate of £1080000. (Catalog cover at right, via Sotheby’s.)

Here’s the breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including £5000): 2
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): £8000

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between £5000 and £25000): 24
Total Mid Estimate: £342000

Total High Lots (high estimate above £25000): 13
Total High Estimate: £730000

The top lots by High estimate are lot 114, Gilbert & George, Ginkgoed, 2005, and lot 126, Rashid Rana, Red Carpet-3, 2007, both at £80000-120000.

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

Hiroshi Sugimoto (4)
Rineke Dijkstra (2)
Shirin Neshat (2)
Richard Prince (2)

While there weren’t any great fits for our collection in this sale, I recently saw another print from Rashid Rana’s Red Carpet series at the show of Pakistani Art now on view at the Asia Society (review coming later this week), and I’ll admit it was pretty spectacular.

The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here.

Contemporary Art Including Arab & Iranian Art
October 16th

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

Looking In: Robert Frank’s The Americans @Met

JTF (just the facts): A total of 221 black and white images, along with 8 glass enclosed cases containing 17 books, 23 contact sheets, letters, writings, and other ephemera, and 1 4-minute movie, displayed on the exterior hallway walls and in 5 interconnected gallery spaces.

The exterior walls hold all 34 prints from Frank’s book Black, White and Things, published in 1952, prior to The Americans. The images are framed in white and matted, and were taken between 1948 and 1952. The entry area also holds a glass case with three early versions of The Americans and 1 contact sheet enlargement. (Installation shot at right. No photography was allowed inside the exhibit itself, so unfortunately, this is the only shot available.)

The first room is divided into three sections. The first is entitled Early Work 1941-1953 and includes images from Frank’s book 40 Fotos, as well as images from Peru and other locations. A glass case of other influential books of the period includes Evans, Brodovitch, Kertesz, Tuggener, Schuh, and Brandt. A second case displays Mary’s Book, a hand crafted view of Paris made for Frank’s wife. The second section is entitled Guggenheim Fellowship 1955-1957 and includes a detailed map of Frank’s travels across the country, a pair of images, and two cases of letters to/from Walker Evans and Jack Kerouac, as well as maquettes and early text drafts for The Americans. Along one wall are two enormous gatherings of work prints (a total of 81 in all). The final section of the room begins the complete display in sequence of The Americans, with 6 images in this room; the works are framed in ribbed black, with white mats.

The second room continues the sequence of The Americans with 25 additional images. Two glass cases house 12 and 10 contact sheets respectively, marked with grease pencil annotations.

The third room contains the next 24 images from The Americans, and the fourth contains the final 28 images, for a grand total of 83 prints. Given the physical layout of these rooms, the sequence is forced to wind around and jump over itself a few times, which is a little distracting, given the crowds. The fifth and final room in entitled Destroying The Americans 1960-2008 and includes a glass case containing a composite piece incorporating a stack of prints with drilled holes, a 4-minute movie, a single print from the 1970s, and a final glass case with 5 international versions of the book.

An exhaustive catalogue edited by Sarah Greenough of the National Gallery, with a wide variety of scholarly essays, contact sheets etc. is available in a hardcover “Expanded” version ($75) and a somewhat thinner softcover version ($45). It is published by Steidl (here).

Comments/Context: From my vantage point, the media frenzy around the 50th anniversary exhibit of Robert Frank’s The Americans has reached a fever pitch unlike any I have seen for a photography show since we began collecting a decade ago; I feel like I am watching the Robert Frank cable channel: all Frank, all the time. There have been a never ending stream of supplementary exhibits, film screenings, lectures, and even a rare appearance by Frank himself, bracketed by a flood of feature articles, bios, and exhibit reviews by every major local and national publication (many linked below). Most of these have traversed the obvious and well worn paths: Frank as the Swiss outsider, the Guggenheim fellowship and the Kerouac anecdotes, the universal hatred of the book when it was released, Frank as the voice of the America that didn’t yet understand itself, Frank’s radical approach and its downstream impact on generations of documentary photographers, The Americans as an undeniable classic. Trying to add something of value to this mountain of celebration certainly seems daunting, but luckily, there are plenty of treasures buried in this sprawling exhibit that seem to have been overlooked by the scholarly gang of critics and summarizers.

Prior to seeing this exhibit, my experience of The Americans was limited to looking through the book (a copy of which nearly every collector likely owns) and seeing an odd print here or there in an auction or exhibit, most of which were later prints. I can hardly tell you what a revelation it was to see the large vintage prints of these familiar works, all sequenced together (not all of the prints in the exhibit are vintage, but those that are stand out a mile away). This was especially true for the vertical images, which were reduced the most to fit into the 8×10 format of the book; these works in their large grainy glory are truly astounding. Images that I had nonchalantly flipped over in the book suddenly jumped off the walls; it’s as if I really saw them for the first time here, and finally understood what they were all about.

Here’s my list of images that offer a completely different experience when seen in this show than when viewed in the book:

View from Hotel Window – Butte, Montana
US 30 Between Ogallala and North Platte, Nebraska
Car Accident – US 66 between Winslow and Flagstaff, Arizona
Barber Shop Through Screen Door – McClellanville, South Carolina
Los Angeles
Movie Premiere – Hollywood
Drug Store – Detroit
Courthouse Square – Elizabethville, North Carolina
US 90, En Route to Del Rio, Texas

The difference between the larger, grainier, and warmer vintage prints and the smaller, crisper, and blacker later prints is extremely noticeable; in my view, there is really no comparison – the vintage prints are far and away better. (As an aside, nearly every time I would look down to see who owned the very finest of the vintage prints in this exhibition, the answer was almost always gallerist Peter MacGill and his wife.)

The glass cases of contact sheets are the second fascinating and potentially overlooked portion of this exhibit. I spent a considerable amount of time crouched down looking at the contacts up close (they are a bit hard to see as they are presented). I must admit that I am generally a sucker for contact sheets, but these were especially compelling; seeing the variants across time, as he reframed or waited for the scene to change, provides plenty of insights into Frank’s working process. There is a great series of the famous Parade – Hoboken, New Jersey image where the flag flutters in various positions before finally unfurling to partially cover the second window; the process of selecting the winners among the variants is equally interesting.

The final attention grabbing idea in this show (at least in my mind) is found in the last gallery, whose design feels a bit like an afterthought. But regardless of the haphazard collection of items, the key insight in this room is the idea that in his later career, Frank felt trapped by The Americans, that given its popularity, he could never get away from this body of work. Of course, now that I think about it, this is perfectly obvious; I’m sure it was terrifically hard to find ways to explore new artistic ideas when the world continually brings you back to your most famous project. The composite piece that includes a stack of prints riddled with drill holes shows how emotionally stressful it actually was.

While The Americans is undeniably one of the most famous photography books of all time, I can say that I truly saw this book for the first time during my visit to this show, or perhaps I finally discovered what Frank was really trying to get across. I found myself walking back and forth, covering each room several times, in order and backwards, letting the whole complex melancholy mood wash over me. The iconic images are still iconic; it’s many of those secondary images that suddenly have much more meaning, especially in the context of our current imperfect world – what I had once previously overlooked, I now see as astounding photographs.

This is clearly one of the can’t miss shows of the year, regardless of the over hype; carve out some time to see it, and make sure you allot enough to fight through the crowds and savor all the details that you might normally skip by.

Collector’s POV: Robert Frank’s work is routinely available at auction, especially later prints from The Americans from the 1970s, and other bodies of Frank’s work. For the more obscure images, prices can be as low as $5000 or so, but these are generally the outliers. Even later prints from The Americans can reach six figures, and vintage prints of the most iconic images have topped $600000 in recent years; even middle of the road later prints from this series can easily set you back $50000. Given the structure of our personal collection, in the past, I have not thought that Frank’s work was a particularly terrific fit for us; having seen some of the images in this show in a new light, perhaps that opinion needs to change.

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

Transit Hub:

  • Exhibit reviews/features: New Yorker (here), NY Times (here and here), WSJ (here), Village Voice (here), Newsweek (here)
  • Interview: WNYC (here)
  • Review of catalogue @5B4 (here)

Looking In: Robert Frank’s The Americans
Through January 3rd

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

Auction Results: Photographs by Sally Mann, October 7, 2009 @Christie’s

Christie’s has to be generally pleased with the results of the Sally Mann single owner sale last week: the buy-in rate was on the low side (just over 20%) and the Total Sale Proceeds fell nicely within the estimate range, at just over $660000. This sale seems to have been a case of getting expectations set appropriately all around, and then solidly meeting those expectations.

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

Total Lots: 59
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $583000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $869000
Total Lots Sold: 47
Total Lots Bought In: 12
Buy In %: 20.34%
Total Sale Proceeds: $667625

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

Low Total Lots: 17
Low Sold: 13
Low Bought In: 4
Buy In %: 23.53%
Total Low Estimate: $133000
Total Low Sold: $97875

Mid Total Lots: 42
Mid Sold: 34
Mid Bought In: 8
Buy In %: 19.05%
Total Mid Estimate: $736000
Total Mid Sold: $569750

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

89.36% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range. There were no surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate).

The top lot by High estimate was lot 307 Sally Mann, Candy Cigarette, 1989, at $30000-50000; it was also the top outcome of the sale at $68500.

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

Christie’s
20 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10020

As an aside, the average price paid for work in this sale was just over $14200 per lot (i.e. the total sale proceeds divided by the total number of lots that actually sold); this is an interesting comparison to the “about $20000” being charged for Mann’s new work (here).

Benefit Auction Previews: PRC and Aperture

In addition to the normal stream of photography auctions that we regularly cover here, I thought it might make sense to bring to your attention a pair of benefit auctions that are coming up in the next few weeks: one at the Photographic Resource Center at Boston University (here), the other at the Aperture Foundation (here). Event details (tickets, venues, honorees, etc.) can be found below:

2009 PRC Benefit Auction
October 24, 2009

Aperture Foundation 2009 Benefit and Auction
November 2, 2009

In general, benefit auctions are surprisingly effective hybrid events that often provide some unexpected opportunities for collectors who are paying attention. On one hand, these events are of course first and foremost fund raisers: opportunities to support organizations whose missions match a photography collector’s interests. Both of these organizations enrich the photography community via their myriad efforts (exhibits, book publishing, artist support, lectures, awards, and the like) and both are worthy of the generous backing of collectors of all kinds.

On the other hand, these are auctions: places to acquire photographs, just like any other auction. Since benefit auctions tend to get their material as direct donations from artists or their galleries, the images are often offered at surprisingly low prices/reserves, especially in the silent auction portion of most events. And given that there are usually far fewer bidders than a normal photography auction, unless the enthusiastic spirit of giving gets overly lubricated (as it does at some events), bargains can certainly be had from time to time.

While we won’t do our normal statistical analysis of these two auctions, a few notes on each:

At the PRC, there are 35 lots in the live auction and 110 lots in the silent auction, ranging from vintage 19th century work to fresh contemporary images, generally weighted toward the newer material. The lot by lot catalogue can be found here. Works by Aaron Siskind and Nicholas Nixon (both in the live auction) are clearly of interest to us.

At Aperture, there are 13 lots in the live auction and 57 lots in the silent auction, mostly contemporary work, several by artists that have published books with Aperture. The lot by lot catalogues can be found here and here. Works by Malick Sidibé and Ruud van Empel caught our eye in the live auction, while images by Dana Buckley and Simon Chaput (in the silent auction) might fit into our collection more neatly.

In both cases, a quick review of the online catalogues is worth your time; there are plenty of excellent, reasonably priced pictures on offer, and both organizations need and deserve your support.

Sally Mann, Proud Flesh @Gagosian

JTF (just the facts): A total of 33 black and white images, framed in silver and matted, and hung in three connected gallery rooms on the 4th floor. All of the prints are gelatin silver prints, made from wet collodion negatives; the works are approximately 15×14, and are printed in editions of 5. The negatives were taken between 2003 and 2009. A catalogue of the show is available from the gallery for $75. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: In contrast to the usual photographer/model interaction, something altogether different occurs when a husband or wife photographs his or her spouse, especially when those images are nudes; emotions run higher, deeper vulnerabilities get exposed, and more willing risks get taken. In the history of photography, it has traditionally been the men taking pictures of the women, and there are plenty of superlative examples to recall: Stieglitz and O’Keefe, Strand and Rebecca, Weston and Charis, Callahan and Eleanor, just to name a few; on the flip side, there are few if any examples where the role was reversed – the only one I can come up with is Cunningham’s nudes of Roi from the early 1900s, and these pictures were deemed too risque for wider viewing until decades later. Sally Mann is in many ways the perfect photographer to step into this void and take the male nude somewhere new; her unflinching portraits of her young children are profound evidence of her willingness to take some chances to explore the boundaries of how we see one another.
Over the period of about five years, Mann took pictures of her husband Larry, whose strong body was showing the signs of aging and the results of a battle with muscular dystrophy. The shadowy images are mostly indirect fragments: arms and backs, hips and buttocks, legs and elbows, feet and folds of skin, photographed in angled natural light, leaving plenty of darkness and melancholy. The settings are sparse: lying on a metal table, sitting on a stool, resting on a striped mattress with the stuffing coming out, or walking on a patterned Oriental rug. And if the compositions weren’t striking enough in and of themselves, Mann’s 19th century process adds yet another layer of timeless complexity to the works: many of the images are covered with chemical drips and splotches, stains and rips, and all manner of chance imperfections that often decorate each picture with swirls and streaks; others have been bleached out to a wince inducing whiteness.

These pictures are a far cry from beefcake portraits of men with ripped abs and massive shoulders; they tackle head on the questions of aging, waning strength, and male vulnerability. But unlike the unflinching self portraits of John Coplans, which address similar subject matter, these images are undeniably the gaze of a wife at her husband, which changes the emotional setting completely. What I think is most remarkable about these pictures is their amazing sense of honor; there are no longer any secrets between these two people, anything that was once hidden has long ago been revealed. The intimate pictures expose Larry’s frailties with respect and trust; they are images seen through the eyes of someone who loves this wiry and withered aging man.

Overall, these revealing and often unexpectedly beautiful works have the feeling of a contract: Mann was taking something from her husband, who gave it willingly, but not without giving up something of himself in the bargain; the emotional pitch is so consistently high that the show is a little exhausting. As a male viewer, I think there is one additional level of meaning here: a sense of wisdom shared, a look into the future and what it might mean to get older, and an example of how to bear those years with dignity and grace.

Collector’s POV: No printed price list was available for this show, but I was told the images were “about $20000” each. While part of our collection is currently made up of female nudes, these images are really the first male nudes from any period in the history of photography that seem like they could fit within our existing group. I particularly enjoyed Ponder Heart, 2007 (a back and hand in the bright sunlight), The Nature of Loneliness, 2008 (a back), Amor Revealed, 2007 (the curve of a hip, reminiscent of a nude by Ruth Bernhard), and Hephaestus, 2008 (a frontal pose like a Greek god). And overall, with no pun intended, I expect these works will age extremely well.
Rating: ** (two stars) VERY GOOD (rating system described here)
Transit Hub:
  • Review @FT (here)
  • Artist statement @Conscientious (here)
  • Book review @5B4 (here)
Through October 31st

Gagosian Gallery
980 Madison Avenue

New York, NY 10075

Michael Collins, London Cityscapes @Janet Borden

JTF (just the facts): A total of 9 color images hung in the main gallery space. The light jet prints come in two sizes: 48×60 (framed in brown with no mat, in editions of 7) and 20×24 (framed in black and matted, in editions of 15); there are 6 images in the large size and 3 in the small size. The prints are straight large format images made from 8×10 color negatives, which are then digitized and printed onto photographic paper. All of the works were made between 2007 and 2009. A small exhibition booklet has been published in conjunction with the show. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Michael Collins’ bird’s eye views of London remind me of all the failed photographs I have personally made from the rooftop observatories of tall buildings around the world. It doesn’t matter whether I am visiting the Empire State Building, the Sears Tower, or the Eiffel Tower, I’m always astounded by the breadth of the view and the staggering detail below and delusionally think that I could somehow capture this grandeur with my snapshot camera. Of course, this is never the case; the pictures never even come close to matching the experience of seeing the view first hand and are therefore relegated to the dustbin – they’re not even good enough to be put in the album.
Michael Collins has however taken the pictures that I have always envisioned. His massive objective views of London are incredibly sharp at nearly all distances, highlighting the intricate details of the dense built environment. Taken on cloudy days in uniform neutral light, the images of the city become a patchwork of muted greys, browns, and tans, old stone and new glass mixed together in chaotic layers; the view looking down flattens the scale, making the city look like a model railway or an urban planning exercise.
Not only do these pictures represent the precise topographical reality on the ground, they also provide a time capsule image of the city at one exact moment (just like the 19th century panoramas made of major cities of the time); taken a year later, the same view of London will be different – an unfinished building will now carve out its final silhouette, or an old building will be gone, demolished in the ongoing process of renewal.
Given their subtle palette and direct approach, these images don’t brazenly announce themselves as worthy of prolonged attention. But get up close and look for more than a moment; there are hundreds of tiny stories hiding in plain view.
Collector’s POV: The prints in the show are prices at $8000 for the large images and $3000 for the small ones. Collins’ work has not yet shown up in the secondary markets, so gallery retail is likely the only option for interested collectors at this point. Contrary to my usual prejudice against overly large photography, the big prints in this show are the most successful; the size allows the viewer to get enveloped in exploring the minutiae.
Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)
Transit Hub:
  • Reviews: Londonist (here), Evening Standard (here)
Michael Collins, London Cityscapes
Through October 17th
560 Broadway
New York, NY 10012

Nature as Artifice: New Dutch Landscape in Photography and Video Art @Aperture

JTF (just the facts): A total of 112 black and white and color photographs and 4 video/computer installations, variously framed and matted, and hung throughout the main gallery space, which has been divided by several interior walls. (Marginal installation shots at right.) Most of the works in the exhibition are from the last decade, although a few reach back as far as the early 1980s. The following photographers and video artists have been included in the show, with the number of works on view in parentheses:

Hans Aarsman (20)

Theo Baart & Cary Markerink (26)
Wout Berger (17)
Henze Boekhout (16)
Driessens & Verstappen (1 video)
Marnix Goossens (3)
Arnoud Holleman (1 website)
Gert Jan Kocken (3)
James Linders (12)
Hans van der Meer (3)
Gabor Ösz (1)
Bas Princen (2)
Xavier Ribas (1 video)
Gerco de Ruijter (4)
Frank van der Salm (2)
Hans Werlemann (1 video)
Edwin Zwakman (3)
Comments/Context: The 400 year anniversary of the arrival of Henry Hudson in New York harbor has been a non-stop festival of Dutch history and culture, with parties, receptions and exhibitions starting in the Summer and continuing on through the Fall; our Dutch friends seem to have been shuttling from one event to another for months. Our personal Dutch photography tour has had two major stops during this time: the Dutch Seen exhibit at MCNY (review here) and this contemporary landscape show at Aperture, along with several other smaller solo shows and books we visited and reviewed.
Much is made in the trappings of this exhibit of the idea that the Netherlands is “the most artificial country in the world”, that the traditional Dutch farming lifestyle has been transformed by suburbanization and industrialization into something altogether different, a designed and homogenized flatland that runs to the sea. And it’s true, there are no rugged mountains or breathtaking vistas among these pictures. But what is surprising about this show is just how many photographers and artists have found less grandiose moments of beauty amidst this landscape, spare patterns and views that tell an understated story.
A big group show like this one is uneven by design, bringing together disparate and even conflicting perspectives to provide a more complex picture of the subject; as such, nearly every visitor will find some images that catch his/her eye and others that seem to miss the mark. One of the highlights of the exhibit is the big, pulsating installation of images by Theo Baart and Cary Markerink. (Installation shot at right, second from the top.) An entire long wall is filled with cars, trucks, gas stations and traffic, in a chaotic, jumbled mix of formats, processes, and sizes; the whole thing works together well as a stream of consciousness view of life on the roadways.

We’ve written before about Gerco de Ruijter’s geometric aerial landscapes (here), but this was the first time we had seen them in person. (Installation shot at right, second from the bottom.) A grid of four glossy images hangs on the back wall, the cool lines and patterns coming in at different angles, highlighting the organic abstraction taking place; the larger size and shiny surface give the works an object quality that is much different than I had experienced in book form. I also enjoyed James Linders‘ black and white images of wastelands and roadside non-spaces from the late 1980s. (Installation shot at right, bottom) These images have a New Topographics feel to them, with pavement, bike racks, light poles, and curved roads coming together in careful compositions, surprisingly beautiful and subtly critical at the same time. And while video art is not really in our charter, Hans Werlemann’s view of life moving by through a car window, interspersed with still frames every few seconds was an unexpectedly thought provoking commentary on vision and everyday life; spend a few minutes letting it wash over you – it certainly got me thinking about what I am actually absorbing as I blast around on fast forward.

Overall, the show has a few high points and many others that aren’t as compelling or memorable; that said, our favorites likely won’t match yours, so swing by and make your own judgments before it closes.
Collector’s POV: While the name on the door calls this venue a gallery, it really is more like a museum; typically there are no prices posted anywhere and the works are not for sale, and this show is no different. For our specific collection with its overwhelming preponderance of black and white, the pared down images by Linders would be the best fit for the other city/industrial work already hanging on the walls.
Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)
Transit Hub:
  • Reviews: Bint Photobooks (here), The L Magazine (here)
Through October 15th
547 West 27th Street
New York, NY 10001

Irving Penn Dies

Irving Penn, one of the true giants of photography, died yesterday at the age of 92. In his long and amazingly prolific career, Penn took on several major subject matter genres, developed new perspectives and visual innovations for each, and made iconic pictures in his own unique style that changed forever how we view these subjects. A quick review:

Portraits: Penn made dozens of spare celebrity portraits (artists, musicians, actors and actresses), as well as surprisingly regal images of tradesmen, children, gypsies and tribesmen, either highlighting their own straight forward elegance or placed in the cramped corner of two converging walls, a Penn invention that freed the subjects from the formality of traditional poses.

Still Lifes: Penn’s artfully collected and composed table top still lifes (frozen foods, watermelons, animal skulls, playing cards) remade a traditional subject in an entirely new and modern way. As flower collectors, we have always admired his floral still lifes (both black and white and color) for their electrifying boldness and vibrancy. And his oversized cigarette butts and discarded bubble gum blobs proved he could make staggeringly beautiful images from the overlooked and ugly.

Fashion: Penn’s career at Vogue is filled with jaw dropping fashion images made for covers and spreads. In contrast to the movement of Munkacsi and Avedon, Penn ‘s images were remarkable in their calm; they were exactingly constructed graceful images that focused the viewer’s attention on the elegant line of a dress or the refined turn of an arm.

Nudes: While Penn made a relatively small group of traditional fashion nudes of models, his less well known early 1950s nudes are fleshy and full figured, unlike anything that had been done in the nude form previously; folds of skin and wide curves of hips and breasts billow and sag in a whitened world, bleached out and abstracted. We continue to look for just the right image from this series for our own collection.

Platinum: Beyond Penn’s compositional marvels, he also introduced the subtleties of the platinum process to a much wider audience. Much of his best black and white work was printed later in platinum, bringing an entirely new set of rich tonalities to the already well crafted images.
All in, it is no wonder Penn’s obituary ran on the front page of the New York Times this morning. His impact on the world of photography was and still is monumental and his place in the pantheon of master photographers is secure.

Penn is represented by Pace/MacGill Gallery in New York (here) and Fraenkel Gallery in San Francisco (here). Given his voluminous output of imagery and his tendency to make decent sized editions of later prints, Penn’s work is ubiquitous at auction; recent prices have ranged from $5000 all the way up to over $400000, seemingly regardless of print date or edition size; collectors just can’t seem to get enough of his work. Harlequin Dress (Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn), 1950 and Woman in Moroccan Palace (Lisa Fonssagrives) (at right above, via Christie’s) routinely top the price charts, even for recent prints from editions as large as 40.

Obituaries: NY Times (here), LA Times (here)

Auction Preview: Photographs & Photographic Literature, October 22, 2009 @Swann

Swann’s diverse sale of Photographs and Photographic Literature is scheduled two weeks after the rest of the New York auction season, perhaps to entice those buyers who stayed on the sidelines or kept their powder dry during the frenzy this week. The generally lower end sale features a deep selection of Lewis Hine images, a series of unusual artist portraits by Diane Arbus, and a group of crime images of famous gangsters and murderers. Overall, there are 327 photographs on offer, with a total High estimate of $2012650. (Catalog cover at right, via Swann.)

Here’s the breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including $10000): 297
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): $1352650

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between $10000 and $50000): 30
Total Mid Estimate: $660000

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

The top lot by High estimate is lot 28 Eadward Muybridge, 125 plates from Animal Locomotion, 1887, at $35000-45000.

Below is the list of photographers represented by at least 5 lots in the sale (with the number of lots in parentheses):

Lewis Hine (15)
Camera Work (10)
Diane Arbus (8)
Edward Curtis (8)
Walker Evans (8)
Andre Kertesz (8)
Horst P. Horst (7)
Berenice Abbott (6)
Civil War (6)
Edward Weston (6)
O. Winston Link (5)

While there aren’t too many images in this sale that fit particularly well into our collecting genres, here are a few that caught our eye:

Lot 1, William Henry Fox Talbot, Untitled (lace), 1845 (at right, bottom)
Lot 64 Wilson A. Bentley, Group of 7 snow crystals, 1903 (at right, middle)
Lot 122 Walker Evans, Untitled (John Dais Co. Wholesale Fish), 1934/1950s
Lot 161 Walker Evans, Chicago South Side, 1946
Lot 169 Germaine Krull, Untitled (Parisian street scene), 1930s

The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here. The 3D version is located here.

Photographs & Photographic Literature
October 22nd

Swann Galleries
104 East 25th Street
New York, NY 10010

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