Auction Preview: Photographic Literature & Fine Photographs, December 8, 2009 @Swann

Swann’s December sale is a combination of two effectively separate sales: one for photographic books and one for photographs. While the books will likely never reach parity in terms of dollars at risk, the breadth and quality of the photographic literature on offer in this sale seems for the first time to be roughly equivalent with the photographs; both halves of the sale have an eclectic mix of rarities and more mainstream pieces. Across the two sales, there are 423 lots on offer, with a total High estimate of $1810850. Since the two genres are so different, I’ve separated the statistical analysis of the sales into two parts below. (Catalog cover at right, via Swann.)

Photographic Literature

Here’s the breakdown (maybe we need different price categories/definitions for books?):

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including $10000): 210
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): $290700

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between $10000 and $50000): 0
Total Mid Estimate: NA

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

The top lot by High estimate in the book section is lot 2 Francis Frith, Egypt Nubia and Ethiopia, Illustrated with One Hundred Stereoscopic Photographs, 1862, at $7000-10000.

Below is the list of photographers represented by at least 4 lots in the book portion of the sale (with the number of lots in parentheses):

Richard Avedon (5)
Brassai (5)
Walker Evans (5)
Camera Work (4)
Robert Frank (4)
Lee Friedlander (4)
Yasuhiro Ishimoto (4)
Andre Kertesz (4)
William Klein (4)
Bruce Weber (4)
Garry Winogrand (4)

Our favorites among the books were:

Lot 89 William Klein, Tokyo, 1964
Lot 93 Shomei Tomastu, Oo! Shinjuku, 1969
Lot 97 Eikoh Hosoe, Embrace, 1971
Lot 110 Yasuhiro Ishimoto, Chicago, Chicago, 1969
Lot 150 Ed Ruscha, Thirtyfour Parking Lots in Los Angeles, 1967
Lot 163 Lewis Baltz, San Quentin Point, 1986

Fine Photographs

Here’s the breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including $10000): 202
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): $835150

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between $10000 and $50000): 9
Total Mid Estimate: $175000

Total High Lots (high estimate above $50000): 2
Total High Estimate: $510000

The top lot by High estimate in the photographs section is lot 350 Ansel Adams, Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941/1948, at $350000-450000.

Below is the list of photographers represented by at least 4 lots in the photographs portion of the sale (with the number of lots in parentheses):

Andre Kertesz (13)
Edward Weston (8)
Berenice Abbott (7)
Ansel Adams (7)
Ruth Bernhard (5)
Lewis Hine (5)
Harry Callahan (4)
Alfred Eisenstaedt (4)

Our favorites among the photographs were:

Lot 290 Florence Henri, Untitled, 1938
Lot 325 Art Sinsabaugh, Backyard of 750 Studio, Chicago, 1948

The complete lot by lot catalog (for both parts of the sale) can be found here. The 3D version is located here.

Photographic Literature & Fine Photographs
December 8

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

Moyra Davey, My Necropolis @Murray Guy

JTF (just the facts): A total of 53 photographic works and 1 video, variously framed and matted, and hung in two separate gallery spaces and the back office area. The South gallery contains 18 individual c-prints and a grid of 54 gelatin silver prints hung as one work. The c-prints are sized 20×20, 24×20 (or reverse), or 24×18, and are printed in editions of 3, 5, or 10; these works were made between 1990 and 2003. The black and white images in the grid are 3.5×5 each, and were made between 1996 and 2000; this work is unique.

In the North gallery, the main focus is a series of 32 c-prints hung edge to edge without frames, circling the space. Each image is 12×18, and has been folded, taped, and sent via the mail; all were made in 2009. The images are available as the original objects and in editions of 3 as regular c-prints. Also in this room, a single cluster of 25 c-prints has been hung as a single work; the work was made in 2007 and is approximately 51×79 as installed. In the center of the room, a video entitled My Necropolis runs in a loop; it was made in 2009 and comes in an edition of 5.

Finally, in the back office space, a grid of 100 c-prints (sold as a single work) is hung against the back wall. Each image is 10×8, and the entire work (from 1990) is available in an edition of 2+1. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: The overall feeling of Moyra Davey’s new show is something like reading someone else’s daily journal, minus the interior monologue of events and emotions. What is left is a series of understated scenes of day to day living, modest moments that caught the artist’s eye or were examined with an unusual level of curiosity, often with a hint of nostalgia. Time is passing before our eyes, but it is doing so slowly, so we can catch the subtle details before they slip away.

This exhibit is a sampler of sorts, providing a few examples of various earlier projects as background, along with a larger body of new work. Ancient stereo equipment, dense racks of albums, empty liquor bottles, and a hodgepodge of apartment interiors tell small stories of domesticity. Enlarged Lincoln pennies (Copperheads), covered in rust, dirt, and other chemical residues, scraped, scratched, bumped, and discolored, become humble worn sculptures, evidence of adventures long gone.

Davey’s newer work continues many of these same themes. Coffee cups, gravestones, clocks, keys, books, maps and other desk details all come together to recount an intellectual life in Paris. The images that were folded up, taped shut, and mailed to friends, have now been unfolded and displayed together, where the patterns and repetitions of ideas become more visible. The video on view covers similar territory: tombs, monuments, and parks, held still for a few moments and then replaced by another fragment or scene.

Overall, these works feel like an unassuming but carefully edited daybook, a gathering of simple, introspective images that are evidence of a mind scouring the details of life for meaning.

Collector’s POV: The prices for the works in this show are as follows. In the South gallery, nearly all of the individual prints are priced at $5000 each regardless of size or series (there is one single image priced at $10000). The black and white grid of bottles is $40000. The the North gallery, the cluster of prints is priced at $20000. It is hoped that the Paris photos will sell as a group in some fashion; a group of 8 prints is $15000, a group of 16 is $24000, and the entire set of 32 is $40000. Individual 20×24 prints of these same images are $3500 each. The video is priced at $15000. In the back office, the Copperhead grid is $40000. Davey’s images have not yet reached the secondary market, so gallery retail is the only viable option for interested collectors at this point.

While Davey’s works don’t fit into our collecting genres very well, I particularly enjoyed the large individual Copperheads and the Copperhead grid.

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

Transit Hub:

  • Interview: Big, Red & Shiny, 2008 (here)
  • Feature: Carefully Aimed Darts, 2009 (here)
  • Reviews: NY Times, 2003 (here), Boston Globe, 2008 (here)

Moyra Davey, My Necropolis
Through December 24th

Murray Guy453 West 17th Street
New York, NY 10011

Auction Preview: Photographs, December 7, 2009 @Christie’s

Christie’s off season December photographs auction contains a slightly lower priced mix of material than the normal April and October sales, with fewer stand out top end pieces available. But for an in-between sale, it has more lesser known and unusual surprises than one might suspect. Overall there are a total of 190 lots on offer, with a total High estimate of $1394700. (Catalog cover at right, via Christie’s.)

Here’s the breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including $10000): 163
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): $913700

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between $10000 and $50000): 26
Total Mid Estimate: $411000

Total High Lots (high estimate above $50000): 1
Total High Estimate: $70000

The top lot by High estimate is lot 111, Ansel Adams, Portfolio Four: What Majestic Word, 1963, at $50000-70000.

Here’s a list of the photographers who are represented by four or more lots in the sale (with the number of lots on offer in parentheses):

Ansel Adams (16)
Joel-Peter Witkin (7)
Edward Curtis (6)
Edward Weston (6)
Robert Frank (5)
Jacques-Henri Lartigue (5)
Man Ray (5)
Berenice Abbott (4)
Bernd and Hilla Becher (4)
Harry Callahan (4)
Bruce Weber (4)

A few of the lots that interested us for our own collection are as follows:

Lot 4 Edward Weston, Charis, 1934 (image at right)
Lot 64 Berenice Abbott, Manhattan Bridge, November 11, 1936
Lot 187 Charles Jones, Iris, c1900

The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here. The eCatalogue is located here.

Photographs
October 8th

Christie’s
20 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10020

Robert Frank @Robert Mann

JTF (just the facts): A total of 24 black and white images, framed in black and matted, and hung in the single room gallery with a wall divider. The redesigned space has approximately the same wall area as before, but is much tighter and more intimate than the previous incarnation; the large bright window that looked out over Chelsea is now gone. The works in the show were made between 1948 and 1962, with a few vintage prints mixed in among a larger group of prints from the 1970s. All of the gelatin silver prints are 11×14 or reverse, and are not editioned. There are 8 prints from The Americans; a mix of other works span the time before and after the landmark book. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: It seems patently obvious that with all the attention surrounding the major Robert Frank exhibit at the Met (review here), it would be smart for someone to put on a well edited gallery show of Frank’s work to coincide with the show. Unlike the Pace/MacGill show (review here) which tried to take a more scholarly approach and was largely available only to museums, this show executes the task at hand quite well: it gathers a solid group of images from The Americans as well as a selection of works/variants from other periods and ties them together into a neat package, a selling show to meet the demand of those whose interest in Frank has been piqued by the recent flurry of activity.

The show strikes a good balance between images from The Americans, for those who want to purchase a classic image from the book, and other works of interest from across Frank’s career, for those who might be enticed to explore his artistic vision more deeply. There are early images from New York, London and Paris, and a series of artist portraits (De Kooning, Giacometti, Kerouac, and Kline) from the 1960s. I had forgotten about Frank’s image Platte River, Tennessee, 1961, an image of a man standing with his back to the camera in a winter cropped field, complete with a cow in the background; it certainly belongs among the great images of backs in the history of photography (images by Lange, Wessel and Sidibe also come to mind).

Overall, this show is a well executed foil to the show at the Met, a practical complement for those who have been inspired by the exhibit and might now consider a Frank for their own collections.

Collector’s POV: The works in the show are priced between $15000 and $120000. Frank’s work is routinely available at auction, where prices have ranged between $5000 and $600000 in the past few years, with obscure images at the bottom of that range, and iconic vintage prints from The Americans at the top. With this price history in mind, the prices in this show are surprisingly well matched to the realities of the market. While Frank isn’t a direct fit for our collection, I certainly enjoyed NYC on 33rd and 11th Ave, 1949, a view of cobble stoned streets and an abstract reflection in a car side mirror.

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

Transit Hub:

  • Exhibit review: WSJ (here)

Robert Frank
Through January 9th

210 Eleventh Avenue
New York, NY 10001

Auction Previews: Photography and Contemporary Art, December 4 and 5, 2009 @Lempertz

Kunsthaus Lempertz has a pair of sales coming up in Cologne later this week, a various owner Photography sale and a Contemporary Art sale that includes some photography, both conveniently detailed in a single printed catalog. The Photography sale has an extensive selection (72 lots) of Camera Work gravures. Overall, there are a total of 318 lots on offer across the two sales, with a Total High Estimate of 633100€. (Catalog cover at right.)

Here’s the breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including 7500€): 307
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): 482100€

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between 7500€ and 35000€): 11
Total Mid Estimate: 151000€

Total High Lots (high estimate above 35000€): 0
Total High Estimate: NA

The top lot by High estimate is lot 321, Bernd und Hilla Becher, Chemische Fabrik Wesseling Bei Koln, 1998, at 15000-20000€.

Here’s a list of the photographers who are represented by four or more lots in the two sales (with the number of lots in parentheses):

Edward Steichen (18)
Alfred Stieglietz (14)
Alvin Langdon Coburn (8)
Paul Strand (8)
Baron Adolphe De Meyer (5)
Peter Keetman (5)
Heinrich Kuhn (5)
Albert Renger–Patzsch (5)
Nobuyoshi Araki (4)
Boris Becker (4)
Hans Finsler (4)
Gertrude Kasebier (4)
Herbert List (4)
Robert Mapplethorpe (4)
Toni Schneiders (4)

A few images that would fit well in our collection are below:

Lot 113 Hans Finsler, Kamin Elektrizitatswerk, 1928
Lot 131 Folkwang -Auriga Verlag, Ohne Titel (Pflanzen), 1928-1933
Lot 185 Peter Keetman, Ohne Titel (Strommasten), 1966/Later
Lot 216 Fritz Henle, Manhattan, When the Lights Went on Again in 1945, 1945/Later

The complete lot by lot online catalogs can be found here (Photography) and here (Contemporary Art).

Photography
December 4th

Contemporary Art
December 5th

Kunsthaus Lempertz
Neumarkt 3
D-50667 Koln

Andrew Moore, Detroit @Yancey Richardson

JTF (just the facts): A total of 10 large scale color images, framed in white with no mat, and hung in the main gallery space and back project room. The digital c-prints are made in editions of 5, and are sized either 62×78, 50×60, or 50×40. The show includes 2 in the largest size, 5 in the middle size, and 3 in the smallest size. All of the works were taken in 2008-2009. A monograph of this work entitled Detroit Disassembled will be published by the Akron Art Museum and Damiani in 2010 (here). (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: The rise and fall of Detroit, Michigan, is a familiar American tale. It begins and ends with the car industry: its exhilarating boom town growth and the uniquely American passion for the automobile, and its agonizing slow decline, as the massive manufacturing business was forced to remake itself, streamlining, downsizing, closing factories and moving elsewhere. But the story of Detroit is more complicated than this simple job loss narrative might imply. It includes endemic threads of race mistrust, political corruption, violence, failed schools, hollowed out neighborhoods and broken families; the solutions to the problems of Detroit, irrespective of the car business, are neither simple nor easy.

Andrew Moore’s large scale images of decaying Detroit combine archaeological documentation with an artistic aesthetic. Abandoned warehouses, crumbling theaters, rusting oil tanks, and empty offices are variously decorated with peeling paint, exposed rebar, debris, rubble, moss, plastic sheeting, and patches of sunlight pouring through gaps in the roof. There is a ghastly feeling of spectacle to it all; the images are simultaneously engrossing and scary, depressing and exuberant, with splashes of overly acidic colors adding a further element of unreality to these jungles of destruction.

Moore’s broad interiors, like the Rouge plant or the UA theater, reminded me of Candida Hofer’s images of over-the-top formal libraries and public spaces, only fast forwarded to the point where the glory and grandeur are gone and all that remains is broken scaffolding. Other images have echoes of Robert Polidori, Michael Eastman, and any number of other photographers who have taken on decaying buildings or the lush aftermath of devastation as their subject. The image of the melted clock (with its obvious nod to Dali) is a not so subtle allusion to the role of time in these pictures, and a reminder that in many of these empty places, time has effectively stopped.

Overall, these images left me a bit conflicted. On one hand, they are yet another example in the long tradition of photographs of ruins, stretching back all the way to the beginnings of the medium, satisfying our human fascination with history and decline. On the other, I’m not sure these works have really gone beyond the stereotype of Detroit to show us something new, something that we haven’t seen a hundred times on the news already. While these pictures are certainly eye catching and perhaps tap into a current mood of despondency, I guess I’m ready to move beyond the definition of Detroit as the null set and to look for something new growing amidst the desolation.

Collector’s POV: The prints in this show are priced based on size: the smallest prints are $9200, the medium sized prints are either $11500 or $13500, and the largest prints are either $17000 or $20000 (all prices include the frame). Moore’s work has only recently entered the secondary markets – a handful of lots have sold between $5000 and $20000 in the past year or two.

While these images are universally too large for our display spaces, my favorite image in the show was Palace Theater, Gary, Indiana, 2008, with its flaking mural and jumble of red seats.

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

Transit Hub:

  • Artist site (here)
  • Exhibit reviews: WSJ (here), Conscientious (here)
  • Interview: Conscientious (here)
  • Princeton page (here)

Andrew Moore, Detroit
Through January 9th

Yancey Richardson Gallery
535 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10001

Auction Preview: Photography and Photography Books, December 2, 2009 @Bassenge

Galerie Bassenge continues the German photographs season with its big sale in Berlin later this week. A 1930s vintage Munkacsi image of ice skaters and a 1924 vintage Outerbridge Christmas scene will likely appeal to top end collectors. Overall, there are a total of 448 lots on offer in this sale, with a Total High Estimate of 456130€. (Catalog cover at right, via Galerie Bassenge.)

Here’s the breakdown:

Total Low Lots (high estimate up to and including 7500€): 443
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): 403130€

Total Mid Lots (high estimate between 7500€ and 35000€): 5
Total Mid Estimate: 53000€

Total High Lots (high estimate above 35000€): 0
Total High Estimate: NA

The top lot by High estimate is lot 4095, Carl Ferdinand Stelzner, Portrait of Harro Harring, 1848, at 15000€.

Here’s a list of the photographers who are represented by five or more lots in the sale (with the number of lots in parentheses):

Floris Neususs (9)
August Sander (7)
Leopoldo Alinari (6)
Andreas Groll (6)
Leni Riefenstahl (5)
James Robertson (5)
Woodbury & Page (5)

Images of interest for our collection include:

Lot 4120 Max Baur, Flower images, 1930s
Lot 4173 Imogen Cunningham, Water Hyacinth II, 1910/1060s (the first date is incorrect)
Lot 4212 Miroslav Hak, Female nude, 1950s
Lot 4242 Peter Keetman, Volkswagen factory, 1953/1990s
Lot 4359 Peter Stackpole, Construction of the Bay Bridge, 1936/1980s
Lot 4377 Sasha Stone, Female nude, 1933

The complete lot by lot catalog can be found here.

Photography and Photography Books
December 2nd

Galerie Bassenge
Erdener Straße 5a
14193 Berlin

Robert Bergman, A Kind of Rapture @Yossi Milo

JTF (just the facts): A total of 14 color images, 12 hung in the main gallery space and 2 in the back alcove. The digital c-prints are framed in white and matted, each 37×25 or reverse. All of the works are untitled, and were taken between 1987 and 1995. (While photography is usually allowed at Yossi Milo, unfortunately no installation shots were permitted for this show. The image at right, Untitled, 1989, is via the Yossi Milo website.)

Comments/Context: In the past month or so, the photography press has been full of the underdog makes good story of the photographer Robert Bergman. After toiling in self-imposed obscurity for decades and intermittently digesting more than his fill of rejection and discouragement, Bergman now has three shows on simultaneously: museum exhibits at the National Gallery and PS1, and this show at Yossi Milo. The works on view at all three locations were published in a monograph in 1998, so it’s taken a more than a decade for these exhibitions to come to fruition.

Part of the reason I think Bergman’s work was backburnered for so long is that it almost perfectly contrarian: it rejects virtually all of the major trends that have dominated contemporary photography in recent years – it is not cool or detached, it is not staged, it makes no appropriations, it isn’t interested in process, it is not manipulated or altered, it has no biting commentary, conceptual framework or ironic viewpoint. That said, I don’t think Bergman made his pictures to buck the trends or thumb his nose at the establishment; my guess is that he just wasn’t very interested by all of what has been going on and instead closed himself off and looked back to the traditions of painting for his education.

When we apply the word painterly to photography, it is often used to describe color used in different ways (Impressionistic, Expressionistic etc.) or to explain surface texture reminiscent of hand applied paint (Pictorialism, Pointilism etc.). Bergman’s lush, saturated portraits are unabashedly painterly, but in an entirely different manner. They are structurally painterly, formally composed in such a way as to draw on the lessons of the Old Masters, where attention is focused on the face of the sitter, and the rest of the elements of composition (hair, clothing, background, even color itself) are used as carefully controlled supporting features to enhance the overall feeling of the work.

All of the images in the show are head or torso shots, blown up to larger than life size. The best of the works are penetrating, evocative and viscerally human: the visage of the man in the tan fur-lined coat clutching a book with his long fingers (reproduced above) stares powerfully out from the frame. Bergman’s portrait of this man could easily hold the wall with an Old Master portrait of a priest or nobleman; they draw on the same aesthetic conventions, albeit with different subject matter. To my eye, a handful of the works in this show rise to this searing level of success, the rest falling back into well-crafted if less than entirely moving street portraits of people from all walks of life. I also think that many of close-up heads are printed too big; they would work better and capture a more intimate mood if scaled to match normal human proportions.

Overall, I think it is no accident that Bergman’s portraits have resurfaced during these uncertain economic times. Perhaps we are searching for a much needed dose of authenticity, of real people with less than perfect lives with whom we can empathize. We need somewhere to project our own anxieties and see reflected back some unexpected strength of spirit, and Bergman’s portraits fill this niche in a way that few others have bothered to consider.

Collector’s POV: The prints in the show are priced at $12500 each. Bergman’s work is not available in the secondary markets, so gallery retail is the only option for interested collectors at this point.

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

Transit Hub:

  • Exhibits: NGA (here), PS1 (here)
  • Book: A Kind of Rapture, 1998, Pantheon (here)
  • Features: WSJ (here), Washington Post (here), New York (here)
  • Interview: Brooklyn Rail (here)

Robert Bergman, A Kind of Rapture
Through January 9th

Yossi Milo Gallery
525 West 25th Street
New York, NY 10001

Touhami Ennadre, Under New York @Priska Juschka

JTF (just the facts): A total of 14 black and white images, framed in black, and hung in a dimly lit side gallery with black walls. All of the works are gelatin silver prints on baryta paper mounted on canvas, sized 60×48 or reverse. Each image is unique; there are no editions. The show consists of works from two different projects: Under New York and Bodies of Night; both are dated 2001-2007. (Installation shots at right.)
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Comments/Context: Entering Touhami Ennadre’s current show is like walking into the mouth of a cave; the dark space is indistinct and amorphous, until you stand for a moment and let your eyes adjust, and then the objects on the walls come into somewhat clearer view. Even then, each piece requires an intimate viewing, as it’s often impossible to identify the shadowy subjects without a close, face near the frame inspection.
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There are two separate sets of work intermingled in this exhibit, both playing off the enshrouding effects of darkness. In Bodies of Night, Ennadre has captured the nocturnal activities of people in clubs: dancing, embracing, and even tied up in ropes. In these pictures, the inky darkness is a form a freedom, an enabler to get sweaty and close, to be who they really are, to let loose or to act out their fantasies, protected by the anonymity of the night. In Under New York, the blackness of the pictures plays a different role: here it envelops homeless people, huddled on the subway or on the streets, isolating their struggles and hiding them from view; the darkness has an erasing effect, turning these people into rumpled bundles of rags.
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Of the two, I think the Under New York series is slightly more successful. In these works, since there are no faces, the subjects have been transformed into sculptural layers of texture: hoods, coats, blankets, and newspaper intermingle, the flash creating shine and glare on slick surfaces. The viewer is forced to work hard to discover what these pictures are, to see that they are indeed human; they therefore force us to confront the reality of homelessness much more directly than an embarrassed diverted glance on the subway platform normally allows.

One surprisingly thing about all of the works in this show is, given their subject matter, they are remarkably non-voyeuristic. Ennadre has found a way to document extremely personal and vulnerable moments with a purity of purpose that has stripped away a layer of implied shame. Overall, this show has a heavy dose of both literal and figurative darkness, but also finds a way to see some light in the depths of black.
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Collector’s POV: The works in this show are priced at $35000 each. Ennadre has no auction history to speak of, so interested collectors will need to follow up at retail. While these works don’t fit into our collecting genres, I particularly enjoyed 53 St-5th Ave, with its cacophony of fabrics and surfaces.
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Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

  • Artist site (here)
  • Documenta 11 (here)
  • Interviews: Nka (here), Examiner (here)

Touhami Ennadre, Under New York
Through January 2nd

Priska Juschka Fine Art
547 West 27th Street
New York, NY 10001
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ADMINISTRATIVE NOTE: This will be the last post prior to the Thanksgiving holiday in the US. We will be back to normal posting next Monday, November 30.

Auction Results: Photographs, November 14, 2009 @Phillips

Like the Christie’s and Sotheby’s sales back in October, the results of the recent Phillips various owner photographs sale in New York fell right into the “Normal” range we have described this season: a Buy-In rate about 25%, Total Sale Proceeds that just cover the Total Low Estimate, and quite a few surprises. Even though Phillips was out of phase by a month, the results were surprisingly consistent.

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

Total Lots: 294
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $2424900
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $3461100
Total Lots Sold: 214
Total Lots Bought In: 80
Buy In %: 27.21%
Total Sale Proceeds: $2756314

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

Low Total Lots: 203
Low Sold: 149
Low Bought In: 54
Buy In %: 26.60%
Total Low Estimate: $1121100
Total Low Sold: $904564

Mid Total Lots: 81
Mid Sold: 57
Mid Bought In: 24
Buy In %: 29.63%
Total Mid Estimate: $1655000
Total Mid Sold: $1277250

High Total Lots: 10
High Sold: 8
High Bought In: 2
Buy In %: 20.00%
Total High Estimate: $685000
Total High Sold: $574500

An amazing 41.59% of the lots that sold had proceeds above their estimate. There were a total of fifteen surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 1 Robert Mapplethorpe, Lisa Lyon, 1981, at $31250
Lot 20 Peter Beard, Antelopes, 1984/Later, $16250
Lot 41 Patrick Demarchelier, Christy, New York, 1986, at $11250
Lot 45 Patrick Demarchelier, Christy Turlington, New York, 1990/1996, at $37500
Lot 60 Simen Johan, Untitled #133 (Moose), 2006, at $40000
Lot 96 Ahmet Ertug, The Library of Trinity College, “The Long Room”, Dublin, 2008, at $40000
Lot 99 Gavin Bond, Redemption, 2008, at $31250
Lot 108 Edward Burtynsky, Shipbreaking #28, Chittagong, Bangladesh, 2001, at $33750
Lot 136 Nan Goldin, French Chris at Drive-in, New Jersey, 1979, at $16250
Lot 141 Wolfgang Tillmans, Paul, Nude, Golfball, 1994, at $7500
Lot 145 Albert Watson, Kate Moss, Marrakech, Morocco, 1993/Later, at $32500
Lot 189 William Eggleston, Untitled, 1973/2004, at $11250
Lot 195 Flip Schulke, Muhammed Ali boxing underwater, 1961/Later, at $13750
Lot 258 Hans Bellmer, Les Jeux de la Poupee IV, 1939/1949, at $37500
Lot 287 Shikanosuke Yagaki, Bamboo curtain, 1930, at $11250

The top lot by High estimate was lot 105, Thomas Ruff, Nude ox03, 2006, at $60000-80000; it did not sell. The top outcome of the sale was lot 144, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Salvador Dali, 1999, 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: Contemporary Art, Parts I and II, November 12 and 13, 2009 @Phillips

The contemporary photography available at the recent Contemporary Art auctions at Phillips performed measurably worse than the works on sale at Christie’s or Sotheby’s in the previous days. The Total Sale Proceeds for photography across Parts I and II were meaningfully below the Total Low Estimate, with a Buy-In Rate that was much higher (35%). When the big ticket top lot fails to sell (in this case, a Richard Prince), it certainly puts a drag on the overall statistical results.

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

Total Lots: 60
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $1685000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $2436000
Total Lots Sold: 39
Total Lots Bought In: 21
Buy In %: 35.00%
Total Sale Proceeds: $1459250

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

Low Total Lots: 18
Low Sold: 15
Low Bought In: 3
Buy In %: 16.67%
Total Low Estimate: $129000
Total Low Sold: $103250

Mid Total Lots: 36
Mid Sold: 20
Mid Bought In: 16
Buy In %: 44.44%
Total Mid Estimate: $927000
Total Mid Sold: $488500

High Total Lots: 6
High Sold: 4
High Bought In: 2
Buy In %: 33.33%
Total High Estimate: $1380000
Total High Sold: $867500

87.18% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above their estimate. There were only two surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 222 Kim-Joon, Duet-dog, 2006, at $16250
Lot 242 Frank Thiel, Stadt 10/06/A (Berlin), 2001, at $32500

The top lot by High estimate is lot 8, Richard Prince, Untitled (four women with their backs to the camera), 1980, at $400000-600000; it did not sell. The top outcome of the sale was lot 6, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Untitled, 1994, at $542500.

Complete lot by lot results can be found here (Part I) and here (Part II).

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

Bruce Davidson, Five Decades @Wolkowitz

JTF (just the facts): A total of 44 photographs, framed in white and matted, and hung in the front room, the hallway, and the larger back gallery. (Marginal installation shots at right.) The show is divided into six separate bodies of work. Except for the images from Subway, all of the prints are modern prints, many significantly enlarged from the original size:

Circus: gelatin silver prints, 1958/modern
2 images, each 16×20
3 images, each 30×40, in editions of 15

Brooklyn Gang: gelatin silver prints, 1959/modern
3 images, each 16×20
1 image, 20×24
3 images, each 30×40, in editions of 15

Time of Change: gelatin silver prints, 1961/modern
5 images, each 11×14
2 images, each 16×20
1 image, 20×24
1 image, 30×40, in an edition of 15

LA: gelatin silver prints, 1964/modern
2 images, each 16×20
6 images, each 30×40, in editions of 15

East 100th Street: gelatin silver prints, 1966-68/modern
3 images, each 11×14
2 images, each 16×20
1 image, 20×24
1 image, 30×40, in an edition of 15

Subway: 1980s dye transfers
8 images, hung in a grid, each 20×24, in editions of 10

Comments/Context: In addition to the East 100th Street MoMA show recreation at Greenberg and the massive, three-volume catalog from Steidl (both linked below), Bruce Davidson also has a mini-retrospective show on view at Bryce Wolkowitz. For those, like ourselves, who aren’t as deeply familiar with all of Davidson’s projects over the years, this exhibit is an effective way to see the whole span of his artistic career. It gathers a group of images from each of his major series, selecting both iconic images and lesser known works, providing a sampler of his overall output across the decades.

Prior to this show, I have to admit that my shorthand summary for Davidson has always been “East 100th Street and other documentary work”. What I think this exhibit did for me was to connect the dots a bit better on his other projects. While I certainly recognized the circus dwarfs, Freedom Riders (especially the boy with VOTE painted on his forehead), Brooklyn gang members (particularly the stick ball game in the street), and the fragmented color shots from the subway, this show helped to put them into a larger and broader context, seeing connections between the disparate threads. In contrast, Davidson’s images from 1960’s Los Angeles were completely new to me, and in many ways, I found them the most striking and exciting; I liked their dry, ironic humor – posing at muscle beach, the view out an airplane window, a man at a drive-through, parked cars densely packed at the beach, the back of the Hollywood sign. Coming out of the show, I’d like to think that my understanding of Davidson’s work is much more comprehensive, and East 100th Street stands out a bit less in my personal rating of his various projects.

As an aside, in my opinion, the large 30×40 prints of the older negatives aren’t hugely successful and are a bit distracting as result. In many cases, the prints are extremely grainy (several of the Circus images in particular); they just can’t support the enlargement being asked of them. In other cases, I think the intimacy and subtlety of the works are somewhat compromised when the pictures are so big. Only the Los Angeles images seemed to be effective at the larger size, as they depict more outsized craziness.

That said, this is an impressive show of Davidson’s long career, with many standout images that deserve to be remembered.

Collector’s POV: All of the modern gelatin silver prints are priced on the same scale: 11×14 at $4000, 16×20 at $5000, 20×24 at $8000, and 30×40 at $15000, regardless of which project the negative came from. The dye transfers range between $6500 and 9500. As I mentioned in our Greenberg review, Davidson’s work has been thinly traded in the secondary markets in the past few years, with very few of his best vintage images coming up for sale; with that caveat, the recent price range of $2000 to $8000 at auction may or may not be particularly relevant when considering the appropriate prices for his work.

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

Transit Hub:

  • DLK COLLECTION review of Greenberg show (here)
  • Journey of Consciousness, three volume set (here)
  • Interview: Kojo Nnamdi Show, 2006 (here)

Bruce Davidson, Five Decades
Through December 19th

Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery
505 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011

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