Talia Chetrit, Reading @Renwick

JTF (just the facts): A total of 20 black and white and color images, framed in thin black/white frames with no mats, and hung in the main gallery space and back office. All of the works were made in 2008 or 2009. There are 7 c-prints (all 20×16, in editions of 4+1), 1 inkjet print (20×16, in an edition of 4+1), and 12 gelatin silver prints (5 prints at 14×11, 3 prints at 20×16, and 4 photograms at 14×11, editions are either 4+1 or 3+1, depending on whether unique process steps are being used). (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Talia Chetrit’s first solo show places her firmly in the process camp of contemporary photography, exploring the boundaries and meanings of the medium via experiments with light and color. I first came across her work in the After Color show at Bose Pacia last summer (review here); she had contributed some camera-less Photoshop gradients that were crisp exercises in monochrome abstraction. In this exhibit of new work, she covers a much broader array of techniques and approaches to studio-based picture making.

Several of the images on view are formal still lifes that have a vaguely Bauhaus feel to them; the wavy glass vase set against a graph paper grid seems straight out of the 1920s. Other pictures have a Surreal touch, merging playfulness and mystery – a plaster cast of a face, a fist and glove, and a photogram of a hand covered by undulating lines all have avant–garde sensibilities. Still others bear resemblance to traditional art school assignments (the abstract cut paper sculpture and the darkroom strobe lights in primary colors against black velvet), where the effects of light are tested and analyzed. Optical distortions, graphical elements, color patterns, chemical aberrations, they’re all here.

Overall, what is on display is an eclectic group of experiments; having seen the output of these methods, I can now easily imagine Chetrit working in her studio, taking chances and trying out different things, some working, some not, moving from tangent to tangent, trying to grab hold of the elusive edges of the creative process. I was left feeling that this is an artist who is actively and aggressively searching, looking for new ways into a medium that is in the midst of wholesale transformation. I’d be willing to bet that the best of the ideas that emerge out of this creative stew will form the basis of a tighter body of process-based work going forward.

Collector’s POV: The images in the show are priced as follows: the small prints are $1600, the large prints are $2000, the photograms in the back are $1800, and the images that include a unique process step are $2300. Chetrit’s work has not yet entered the secondary markets, so gallery retail is really the only option for interested collectors at this point.

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

Transit Hub:

  • Artist site (here)
  • Interview: Too Much Chocolate (here)
  • Feature: We Can’t Paint (here)

Talia Chetrit, Reading
Through October 17th

Renwick Gallery
45 Renwick Street
New York, NY 10013

The World in Black and White: Vintage Prints from the National Geographic Archive @Kasher

JTF (just the facts): A total of 167 black and white images, generally framed in black and matted, hung in the entry and the two main gallery spaces. A small glass case in the first room contains books, magazines, and documents. All of the prints are vintage prints from the archives of the National Geographic Society (here); most are gelatin silver. The negative dates range from 1890 to 1950. A book, National Geographic Image Collection, is also available (here). (Installation shots at right.)

The following photographers are included in the exhibit (with the number of images on view in parentheses):

Clifton Adams (5)
Alexander Graham Bell Collection (5)
Hiram Bingham (6)
Pierre Daye Collection (9)
Captain Frank Hurley (6)
Willis Lee (7)
A. B. Lewis (10)
Charles Martin (1)
Herbert Ponting (20)
J. Baylor Roberts (7)
Joseph F. Rock (15)
Vittorio Sella (13)
George Shiras III (7)
B. Anthony Stewart (12)
Georges Tairraz (5)
Baron Wilhelm von Gloeden (22)
Volkmar Wentzel (1)
Maynard Owen Williams (10)
Edwin Wisherd (6)

Comments/Context: The big show of vintage prints from the National Geographic archive now on view in Steven Kasher’s new ground floor space has the feeling of a Natural History museum exhibit wrapped in the trappings of the Chelsea art world; documentary images from exotic cultures, heroic expeditions and far flung places are hung salon style in the cool environment of a white cube. Beyond the inherent curiosity generated by the subjects themselves, the photographs present a thought provoking and prickly set of questions: when (and how) does photojournalism somehow become art? Can (and should) images originally made for historical or anthropological purposes be recategorized as art based on their inherent aesthetic merits? As I walked around the galleries, I found myself asking these same questions over and over again as I looked at each grouping of images. Are these particular pictures worthy of “crossing over”? Or are they just amazing historical artifacts?

The surprising answer to my continual questioning was often yes, many of these prints can indeed be thought of in an art context without too much of a stretch of imagination. Of course, the history of photography is full of pictures that were originally made on assignment (whether photojournalism or commercial commissions) that have evolved into the category of art; the resonance of the images themselves and the passing to time have combined to move them beyond their original contexts into an altogether different realm.

I think that hung by themselves, most of these pictures would retain their National Geographic documentary patina, but placed in the context of a larger art/photography collection, many of the images could take on additional meanings or create interesting connections. While each viewer will see different associations given the diversity of imagery on display, here are a few relationships that I saw:

  • For landscape and nature collectors, the early panoramas of the Swiss Alps and Peru, by Georges Tairraz and Hiram Bingham respectively, could be stunning complements to other mountain scenes.
  • Herbert Ponting’s images of the discovery of the South Pole and other Antarctic adventures foreshadow the current wave of contemporary iceberg and global warming photography.
  • The flash lit albino deer images of George Shiras III would be a nice pair with Caponigro’s famous Running White Deer.
  • Willis Lee’s images of the stalagmites and stalactites of Carlsbad Caverns are a direct precursor to Ryan McGinley’s current body of work.
  • Vittorio Sella’s botanical images from Uganda would fit into a collection of early flowers and plants (like ours).
  • Alexander Graham Bell’s flight experiment photos would fit well with a selection of Berenice Abbott’s scientific images.

Overall, this exhibit is quite unlike the normal run of vintage and contemporary work to be found in the city’s art galleries and museums. It forces the visitor to consider the nature of the medium itself, and how certain images traverse different categories over time. While not all of the works on view can credibly make the jump to art status, those that do are a strong reminder that not all the images that move us come out of the art establishment, and great pictures, regardless of their origin or maker, are worthy of a place on our walls.

Collector’s POV: The prints in the show are priced between $3000 and $8500. Herbert Ponting and Baron Wilhelm von Gloeden are the only two photographers in the show with relatively consistent action in the secondary markets: Ponting’s images have generally ranged between $1000 and $15000; von Gloeden’s from $1000 to $5000, with an outlier or two a bit higher.

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

Transit Hub:

  • Reviews: NYTimes (here), Art in America (here)
  • Lens feature (here)
The World in Black and White: Vintage Prints from the National Geographic Archive
Through October 17th

521 West 23rd Street
New York, NY 10011

Auction Results: Latin America, October 3, 2009 @Phillips

Phillips’ Latin America sale took place last weekend in New York, and the photography included performed only marginally better than the photo lots in the Now sale in London a week before; the buy-in rate was slightly better, but still soft at over 45%, and the Total Sale Proceeds once again missed the total Low estimate by a decent margin.

I continue to be intrigued by this nascent strategy: can slicing the collector base into ever finer gradations based on subject matter, geography or other factors really grow the entire base and attract new clients, or are we all just looking at all the catalogues anyway? Can Phillips “make it up on volume”, even if the specific sales don’t individually bring in huge amounts? It will certainly be fascinating to watch.

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

Total Lots: 78
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $586600
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $836700
Total Lots Sold: 42
Total Lots Bought In: 36
Buy In %: 46.15%
Total Sale Proceeds: $480038

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

Low Total Lots: 59
Low Sold: 32
Low Bought In: 27
Buy In %: 45.76%
Total Low Estimate: $315700
Total Low Sold: $153563

Mid Total Lots: 17
Mid Sold: 8
Mid Bought In: 9
Buy In %: 52.94%
Total Mid Estimate: $351000
Total Mid Sold: $161875

High Total Lots: 2
High Sold: 2
High Bought In: 0
Buy In %: 00.00%
Total High Estimate: $170000
Total High Sold: $164600

A whopping 97.62% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range, so the estimates were obviously appropriately conservative. There was only one surprise in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 109, Vik Muniz, Gummy Bears, 2002, at $6250

The top lot by High estimate was lot 192, Vik Muniz, Maria Callas (from Diamond Divas), 2004, with an estimate of $70000-90000; it was also the top outcome of the sale at $92500.

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

Phillips De Pury & Company
450 West 15 Street
New York, NY 10011

Auction Results: Now: Art of the 21st Century, September 26, 2009 @Phillips London

The first of what looks to be a very long parade of themed sales at Phillips took place just over a week ago in London, and overall, the photography on offer performed quite poorly. Whether this was due to the material being too fresh and unknown or to a lack of actual buyers showing up we can’t say, as we weren’t present in the room at the time of the sale. But with a buy-in rate of more than 50% (i.e. more than half the photography lots failed to sell) and Total Sale Proceeds well below the total Low estimate, Phillips has to be wondering about how to tune the strategy for better results going forward.

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

Total Lots: 112
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: £465000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: £659500
Total Lots Sold: 54
Total Lots Bought In: 58
Buy In %: 51.79%
Total Sale Proceeds: £383601

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

Low Total Lots: 78
Low Sold: 34
Low Bought In: 44
Buy In %: 56.41%
Total Low Estimate: £220000
Total Low Sold: £90626

Mid Total Lots: 31
Mid Sold: 17
Mid Bought In: 14
Buy In %: 45.16%
Total Mid Estimate: £309500
Total Mid Sold: £177875

High Total Lots: 3
High Sold: 3
High Bought In: 0
Buy In %: 00.00%
Total High Estimate: £130000
Total High Sold: £115100

87.04% 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 141, Rashid Rana, When He Said I Do, He Did Not Say What He Did, 2004, with an estimate of £40000-60000; it sold for £25000. The top outcome of the sale was Lot 125, Thomas Ruff, Jpeg wd01, 2005, with an estimate of £30000-40000; it sold for £46850.

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

Phillips De Pury & Company
Howick Place
London SW1P 1BB

Paris à La Mode @KMR Arts

JTF (just the facts): A total of 15 black and white images, variously framed and matted, and hung in the entry and main gallery space. (Installation shot at right.) The negatives run from the early 1910s through to the 2000s, with most of the works from the 1930s-1950s; the prints are a mix of vintage and more recent prints. The following photographers are included in the show, with the number of images on view in parentheses:

Roger Catherineau (2)
Georges Dambier (3)
William Klein (3)
Jason Langer (1)
Jacques Henri Lartigue (1)
Jean Moral (4)
Louis Stettner (1)

In the back office alcove, 6 black and white images by Chip Hooper (waves and surf) are also on view. These images are either 20×24 or 26×32, in editions of 25 and 10 respectively.

Comments/Context: Since we live so close to New York and always have a plethora of gallery shows of photography to see at any one time, it’s easy to forget that there are out of the way galleries in smaller towns across the Northeast that are also worth a visit. KMR Arts is located in Washington, CT, about two hours from the city, up in Litchfield County. Settled in a Colonial house in the middle of the village, it is the opposite of the cold, white cube we are so used to; the rooms are warm and inviting, sized for regular people and intimate works of art. But unlike the traditional program for a local gallery (local artists, decorative calendar art etc.), KMR has developed a strong program of photography, as evidenced by its recent show of Lillian Bassman (which we unfortunately missed, but was reviewed by the NYTimes, below) and by the current show of Paris fashion and glamour images.

Most of the works on view are images of French women posing in the streets of Paris, artfully arranged to accent the line of a coat or the drape of a dress, or printed in negative tonalities to add a Surreal touch. The abstract Catherineau photograms are therefore an unexpected inclusion; and yet, when placed in the context of the graphical elements of the fashion compositions, there is a surprising resonance. All in, the small show is a well edited mix of the known and unknown, with just a hint of the avant–garde, likely a good mix for a clientele that comprises both transplanted New Yorkers and locals.

Collector’s POV: The prints in the show are priced between $1200 and $20000, with most in a range between $2800 and $5500. The Chip Hooper images in the back are priced between $2000 and $6000. While these fashion images don’t fit into our particular collecting regimen, I was certainly pleased to see a thoughtful show of well selected French photography buried in the wooded hills of Connecticut.

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

Transit Hub:

  • NYTimes review of Lillian Bassman show at KMR, 2009 (here)
  • Chip Hooper artist site (here)

Paris à La Mode
Through November 28th

KMR Arts
2 Titus Road
Washington Depot, CT 06794

Weston’s Westons @Danziger

JTF (just the facts): A total of 40 black and white images, framed in black and matted, and hung in the single room gallery. The prints in the show were made by Cole Weston from Edward Weston’s negatives; the negatives were taken between 1920 and 1941; the posthumous prints were made in the 1960s/1970s/1980s (Weston died in 1958). All of the prints are gelatin silver contact prints, ranging in size from 4×5 to 8×10 or reverse. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: I have to admit up front that, as a collector, I’ve always been a bit skeptical of the Edward Weston images printed by his son, Cole Weston. Over the years we have owned a few (now no longer in our collection), but I’ve never really felt like they were truly authentic somehow; after all, they were made after Edward Weston’s death. They always felt a little like cheating; even though the images were undeniably beautiful, I always knew (even if others didn’t) that they weren’t the “real” ones.
This uneasiness had nothing whatsoever to do with the quality of the prints; on the whole, the Cole prints are brilliantly executed, with exacting craftsmanship and rigorous attention to Edward Weston’s printing instructions. And this exhibit is an excellent reminder of just how breathtaking the prints can be. Danziger has selected a lovely mix of iconic images and lesser known variants to show off this work, many of which are slightly purer in their blacks than the originals printed by Edward Weston himself. I am a particular fan of the small 4×5 nudes Weston did in the 1930s, all fragmented body parts, transformed into exercises in form and line. There are also a group of nudes of Charis on the sand, as well as some earlier studio nudes that are slightly broader in composition than the later close ups. Mixed in among the nudes are a few vegetables and flowers, some dunes, a couple of shells, and a few other miscellaneous works.
Since we have been on the lookout for vintage versions of the small nudes for years now, I can say with some confidence that there really aren’t that many floating around in the market, and the prices for those that are available have been driven up substantially in the past few years as the scarcity factor increases. The iconic works are all well into six figures, and many of the best prints are now in museums or large private collections.
Which makes me think that this show at Danziger has a surprising stroke of genius to it. While the Cole prints have long been stigmatized as a lesser substitute, the time may now be right for many collectors to revisit these prints as a viable alternative to the effectively unavailable vintage Weston work. The prices are generally still reasonable, the prints are gorgeous, and the Cole prints in and of themselves are rising in value as they too become less available. I guess that I remain conflicted on the ultimate verdict on these prints, but seeing the elegant grids of nudes that we have coveted for so many years hanging so invitingly on the walls made me wonder if it wasn’t time for us to stop being such righteous purists and start thinking a little differently.
Collector’s POV: The prints in this show are priced between $5000 and $15000, with many already sold when I visited the show. A few EW/CW prints seem to be available in nearly every auction; they have become widely available in the secondary markets in the past decade. During that time, prices typically ranged between $1000 and $5000. Today, most images remain in this range, but in the past year or two, many have started to creep upward, once in a while crossing the $10000 threshold for the most iconic images.
Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

  • Weston family website (here)
Danziger Projects
534 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011

Hellen van Meene, Tout va disparaître @Yancey Richardson

JTF (just the facts): A total of 16 color prints, framed in brown wood without mats, and hung in the main gallery space. All of the prints are chromogenic prints, made in editions of 10; the images are printed in one of three sizes: 12×12, 16×16, or a panoramic 16×32. The negatives were taken between 2007 and 2009, as part of one of four projects: Russia, Lewis Carroll’s Phantasmagoria, Pool of Tears, or Going My Own Way Home. A monograph of this work is available from Schirmer/Mosel (here). (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Hellen van Meene’s intimate portraits of the awkward drama of adolescence take the conflicted emotions of her teenage subjects and infuse them with a quiet melancholy. She has staged her models in moody rooms of rich color, often using natural light from a nearby window, and dressed them in 19th century draped gowns of silk and lace. The resulting pictures feel like small angst-filled performances, or odd dress up games, where the girls adopt blank stares and mannequin-like poses that only partially conceal their inner lives.
The best of the works in this show are the smallest prints; the scale forces the viewer to enter the staged environment and pay attention to what is occurring. And even though the mood is consistently shadowy and mournful, it is those hidden vulnerable moments that come out when the girls are lost in thought that transform a handful of these unconventional set-ups into something altogether more intriguing.

Van Meene’s panoramic portraits are shot at generally the same scale as their smaller cousins, thereby providing much more setting and narrative environment for the subjects than the close-ups. The challenge is that she is primarily telling subtle inner stories, where the emotional landscape is more important than the physical one. The result is that the larger backgrounds of the panoramas seem a little too staged or more expansive than necessary given the nuanced personalities being captured.

In general, I liked the European style work much better than the images taken in America; the lyrical fairy tale settings of abandoned rooms in deep blue matched the subjects and their private emotions better; others felt like ghost story illustrations where our plucky heroine is wondering what to do next. In America, the models and their surroundings were more brash and confrontational; these teenagers weren’t playing along quite as demurely. And while these images are revealing in their own way, Van Meene’s magical spell is a bit broken by this directness; the images are less successful at transporting the viewer somewhere unexpected.
All in, this is a well crafted, quiet show that rewards careful looking, where a few of the portraits strike just the right pitch in exposing the real drama of growing up.
Collector’s POV: The prints in this show are priced according to size: the 16×16 prints are $5500, the 12×12 prints are either $5500, $6500 or $7100, and the 16×32 prints are $7000. Van Meene’s work has started to become more available in the secondary markets in the past few years; prices have ranged from approximately $2000 to $6000. Since we aren’t portrait collectors, Van Meene’s work isn’t a great fit for us, even though I found much of the show engaging.
Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)
Transit Hub:
  • Artist site (here)
  • Interview with Conscientious, 2008 (here)
  • NYTimes review, 2007 (here)
Through October 31st
535 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011

Jeff Wall @Marian Goodman

JTF (just the facts): A total of 13 large scale black and white and color images, framed in silver with no mat, and hung in the North and South galleries, as well as an additional small viewing room. The prints range in size from relatively small (31×24) to mural sized (93×116); unlike other previous installations of Wall’s work, these images are not backed by lightboxes; they are normal prints. The edition sizes range from 2+1 for the largest works, through 3+1, 4+1, 8+2 and eventually 10+2 for the smallest works. Most of the negatives are from 2008 or 2009, with two outliers from 2007 and 1998. Photography was not allowed in the galleries, so unfortunately, there are no installation shots for this show.

Comments/Context: Jeff Wall is perhaps the most intellectual of the top tier contemporary photographers at work today; it only takes a few moments with some of his writings and interviews to recognize that this is an artist who has meticulously thought his images through ahead of time, systematically placed them in a larger art historical framework, and thoroughly analyzed his own approach in a depth of detail normally reserved for scholars and historians. For many younger photographers, Wall is a kind of God; a distant icon to be revered and emulated, an emblem of how the traditions of documentary photography and cinematography can be merged, and with a splash of technical perfection, can produce hyper real narratives that tell expansive stories in a single frame.

The selection of Wall’s most recent works now on view at Marian Goodman is unfortunately a lopsided group of pictures; there are a handful of stand out images, mixed in with others that seem to miss the mark. I use the word “seem” here with some care – Wall’s well known intellectual approach sets a sort of challenge for the viewer; none of what he has done is in the least bit random (these are not aimless snapshots), and his pictures are normally made up of complex layers of meaning and reference. So as I stood before the many works that didn’t move me much, I couldn’t help but ask myself the question: am I just too dumb to understand what Wall is doing here? Unable to parse many of the images into some kind of significance or meaning, and given the massive prices on the sheet in my hands, I had the distinct feeling of being talked down to.

There are however a few truly extraordinary images buried amid the less inspiring pictures. I thoroughly enjoyed Siphoning Fuel, an image of an older man in a Hawaiian shirt, on his knees siphoning gas from an old Chrysler, while a young girl squats down nearby; it’s the kind of picture that I associate with Wall – careful narration and composition, full of pregnant possibilities. Knife Throw tells the story of two young men practicing their knife throwing skills, launching pocket knives into a battered and scarred pink wall in a dark garage or warehouse; again Wall has taken a complicated situation and pared it down into a memorable moment.

I therefore came away from this show somewhat conflicted: there are certainly a few images here that merit inclusion among Wall’s best works; there are also quite a few that left me unmoved or puzzled, trying to figure out what an empty spider web jungle gym or a woman walking on the street with a green building in the background were supposed to be telling me. When he gets it right, Wall is the master of turning the mundane into something theatrical; unfortunately, when he misses, there isn’t much to hold your attention.

Collector’s POV: The smallest works in this exhibit are priced at either $110000 or $120000; after that, the prices jump to $385000 and then range all the way up to $550000. Wall’s images have not been widely available at auction in the past few years; the few works that have come up for sale brought in between $70000 and $220000, but none of his iconic works were among this group, so this price range is likely suspect as a result.

Collectors are always making trade-offs, and given these huge prices, I certainly found myself thinking about all of the amazing work that could be acquired for the price of just one of these murals. If we had a world class contemporary collection, perhaps one of the best from this show would be a welcome addition; but for our modest collection, our dollars would clearly be better spent elsewhere.

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

Transit Hub:

  • Exhibit review, NYTimes, 2009 (here, scroll down a bit)
  • MoMA retrospective, 2007 (here)
  • NYTimes Magazine feature, 2007 (here)

Jeff Wall
Through October 30th

Marian Goodman Gallery
24 West 57th Street
New York, NY 10019

Auction Results: Contemporary Art, September 24, 2009 @Sotheby’s

The contemporary photography in Sotheby’s first sale of the New York season delivered average if uninspiring results, with a buy-in rate creeping up a bit higher than might have been expected and Total Sale Proceeds just covering the total Low estimate. If the two lots that seemed to have no reserve and sold for pennies on the dollar were included as buy-ins, the numbers would have looked even weaker. And Sotheby’s should thank Ruud Van Empel, who single handedly delivered a quarter of the total proceeds on one lot.

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

Total Lots: 34
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $402000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $573000
Total Lots Sold: 24
Total Lots Bought In: 10
Buy In %: 29.41%
Total Sale Proceeds: $422375

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

Low Total Lots: 20
Low Sold: 15
Low Bought In: 5
Buy In %: 25.00%
Total Low Estimate: $150000
Total Low Sold: $106500

Mid Total Lots: 12
Mid Sold: 7
Mid Bought In: 5
Buy In %: 41.67%
Total Mid Estimate: $288000
Total Mid Sold: $149375

High Total Lots: 2
High Sold: 2
High Bought In: 0
Buy In %: 00.00%
Total High Estimate: $135000
Total High Sold: $166500

A generally soft 70.83% 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 284, Wang Qingsong, Romantique, 2003, with an estimate of $50000-70000; it sold for $50000. The top outcome of the sale was Lot 249, Ruud Van Empel, World #17, 2006, with an estimate of $45000-65000; it sold for $116500.

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

Sotheby’s
1334 York Avenue
New York, NY 10021

The Abstracted Landscape @Laurence Miller

JTF (just the facts): A total of 19 black and white and color works, variously framed and matted, hung in the entry and main gallery space. This a group show of four gallery artists: Peter Bialobrzeski, Stephane Couturier, DoDo Jin Ming, and Toshio Shibata. (Installation shots at right.) The details for each artist’s works are below:

  • Peter Bialobrzeski: 2 c-prints, 60×50 each, in editions of 10, from 2005; 6 c-prints, 11×14, in editions of 9, from 2008; and 1 c-print, 51×65, in an edition of 5, from 2003
  • Stephane Couturier: 1 c-print, 26×48, AP, from 1991; 1 c-print, 52×44, in an edition of 8, from 2005; and 1 digital c-print, 50×88, in an edition of 5, from 2004
  • DoDo Jin Ming: 12 gelatin silver prints, hung as a single work, 55×60, in editions of 10, from 1996; 1 gelatin silver print, 30×40, in an edition of 10, from 2002; 1 digital c-print, 51×41, in an edition of 10, from 2004; and 1 digital c-print in two parts, overall 63×49, in an edition of 10, from 2004
  • Toshio Shibata: 1 gelatin silver print, 20×24, in an edition of 25, from 1990; 1 gelatin silver print, 50×40, AP, from 1996; and 1 c-print, 50×40, in an edition of 10, from 2005

Comments/Context: This exhibit is a thematic group show of gallery artists, where images have been selected based on a broadly common handling of landscape elements. And while the show is entitled The Abstracted Landscape, none of the works on view is completely abstract in the traditional sense (i.e. non-figurative); rather these images are all landscapes that turn on compositional fragments of form and line, pattern and shape.

Peter Bialobrzeski is represented by two twilight building scenes from his series Lost in Transition (book reviewed here), a typology of shacks, and a massive hillside view from Heimat that dwarfs the people down to ant-like dots. Stephane Couturier’s prints take the abstraction a bit further, where a roadway flanked by spindly trees and sculpted land becomes an exercise in blocks of color and texture; another image shows a terraced ground in an unreal shade of green, using the contrasts of the land to create juxtapositions of wild and controlled areas.

Three waterfalls by Toshio Shibata transform rushing water into cottony white curves; the most abstract image in the show peers straight down the face of a waterfall, turning the perspective upside down. (A recent Shibata book review can be found here.) And DoDo Jin Ming’s negative prints of a faded sunflower field become a post-apocalyptic nightmare, complete with dark shadowy figures; her typology of pyramids plays with size as well as color, all variations on the simple triangular form.

Overall, this is a solid group show that highlights relevant work by each of the photographers included; the thematic construct is a bit thin, but the work itself is consistently well crafted.

(As an aside, for those of you who are familiar with the gallery space, the overall size of the display space has recently been reduced. What was once the second gallery room is now a private viewing space, and a door on the far side of the entry has now been closed off.)

Collector’s POV: The prices for each of the four photographers in the show are as follows:

  • Peter Bialobrzeski: $1500 for the small prints, $7500 for the Lost in Transition prints, and $15000 for the Heimat print
  • Stephane Couturier: the prices were $7500, $15000, and $35000, based on ascending size
  • DoDo Jin Ming: the group of 12 prints is priced at $10000 total, the Free Element print is $16000, and the two images from Behind My Eyes are $15000 and $10000
  • Toshio Shibata: the small black and white print is $6000, the larger black and white is $25000, and the color image is $10000

There has been very little secondary market activity for any of these artists, so gallery retail is likely the best option for collectors in the short term. While none of these works is a great fit for our collection, I particularly enjoyed Shibata’s look down the steep face of a waterfall (black and white) and Couturier’s view through a crumbling light blue building (reminiscent of Gordon Matta-Clark).

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

Transit Hub:

  • Peter Bialobrzeski: artist site (here)
  • Stephane Couturier: NYTimes review, 1999 (here)
  • DoDo Jin Ming: NYTimes review, 2002 (here)
  • Toshio Shibata: artist site (here)

The Abstracted Landscape
Through November 14th

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

Brassaï, Paris in the 30’s, Early Prints @Houk

JTF (just the facts): A total of 37 black and white images, framed in black and matted, and hung in the entry and main gallery space. All of the prints are gelatin silver enlargement prints on ferrotyped paper, ranging in size from approximately 7×5 to 20×16 (or reverse). All of the images were taken in the 1930s; most of the prints are vintage, with some printed by the artist in the 1940s/1950s/1960s. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Brassaï’s images of 1930’s Paris at night clearly belong among the masterworks of photography; they have become emblematic of the alluring and bewitching lights of the city and the provocative nightlife that goes on in the cafes and bars. This fabulous show includes a variety of Brassaï’s signature nocturnal subjects: couples in cafes (alternately happy, bored, dancing, or blithely smoking), backstage shots of cabaret shows and dancers, semi-nude women in brothels, and shadowy dark views of foggy illuminated bridges and street corner assignations.
While many of the images on display will be familiar to most collectors, there are also a few surprises mixed in. Several of the cafe images were printed somewhat larger than normal, making the intimate vignettes of private encounters more striking; the larger size seems to have transformed them from stolen moments to spotlit studies in human interaction. There are also a handful of unexpected pure abstractions, made from soap and cotton, and a pair of scarce formal nudes.
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This show is a great reminder that vintage work isn’t by definition tired and stuffy, or somehow distant and unrelated to the world of contemporary art. There are plenty of masterclass lessons to be drawn from this show, especially for those who seek to document the seamy underbelly of life.
Collector’s POV: The prints in the exhibit are priced between $11500 and $95000, with one image “price on request”. Works by Brassaï are readily available in the secondary markets, with prices generally ranging from approximately $2000 to $60000, with a few outliers in six figures. The huge Brassaï sale at Millon in 2006 brought a lot of material into the market, so collectors can certainly access prints at auction, as well as in galleries.

For our collection, the lovely nude, Torse, from 1934 would be the best fit, although we already own one Brassaï nude which is quite similar (here); we also have an unexpected outlier for Brassaï – a floral (here).

Rating: ** (two stars) VERY GOOD (rating system described here)
Transit Hub:
  • The Eye of Paris retrospective, 1999, @NGA (here)
  • Review of 1999 show in Time (here)
  • 2006 sale review in NYTimes (here)
745 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10151

Auction Results: First Open Post-War and Contemporary Art, September 23, 2009 @Christie’s

Christie’s got off to a good start this auction season with a solid outcome in its First Open Post-War and Contemporary Art sale last week. The photography in the sale generally performed well, with a low overall buy-in rate and Total Sale Proceeds within the range, albeit on the low side. A broader wrap-up article, covering the entire sale, can be found here.

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

Total Lots: 20
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $256000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $371000
Total Lots Sold: 17
Total Lots Bought In: 3
Buy In %: 15.00%
Total Sale Proceeds: $263125

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

Low Total Lots: 4
Low Sold: 4
Low Bought In: 0
Buy In %: 00.00%
Total Low Estimate: $31000
Total Low Sold: $51250

Mid Total Lots: 15
Mid Sold: 12
Mid Bought In: 3
Buy In %: 20.00%
Total Mid Estimate: $280000
Total Mid Sold: $161875

High Total Lots: 1
High Sold: 1
High Bought In: 0
Buy In %: 00.00%
Total High Estimate: $60000
Total High Sold: $50000

82.35% 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 1, Gerhard Richter, Guildenstern, 1998, at $20000

The top lot by High estimate was Lot 91, John Bock, Untitled, 2000, at $40000-60000, and it was the top outcome of the sale at $50000.

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

Christie’s
20 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10020

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