Florian Maier-Aichen @303

JTF (just the facts): 11 large scale, wall sized images, all from 2008-2009, displayed in the main gallery space and back hallway. Most of the images are C-prints, although a few slightly smaller silver prints and one albumen print are included as well. All are printed in editions of 6. (Unfortunately, there are no installation shots for this show, as we were not permitted to take any pictures. See the gallery website below for images of the works and of the installation.)

Comments/Context: In putting together our summaries of the photography in the recent Contemporary Art sales in London and New York, German photographer Florian Maier–Aichen’s came up several times. To be honest, he was not at all on our radar, so the current show at 303 Gallery gave us a chance to be more thoroughly introduced to his work.

In contrast to much of the cool aloofness found in the Becher school of objective German photography, Maier–Aichen is unabashedly painterly in his use of digital manipulation. His traditional landscape forms are undermined by streaks and swaths of neon color and artful romantic blurs. Sometimes these colors are introduced subtly, down in a corner or off to the side, in a way that makes you look twice to make sure you weren’t mistaken; in other cases, these changes are so blatant and obvious as to entirely reconfigure your view of an otherwise standard panorama. There is a Pictorialist self consciousness to these unexpected modifications, taking us away from traditional definitions of beauty to a more conceptual dialogue about the limits of this particular subject matter.

While a few of the images do succeed in expanding the boundaries of the form into exciting places we have not seen before, many miss the mark just enough to feel overly clever and contrived. The best of these works breathe life into a pretty tired genre. If Maier–Aichen is willing to take more risks and push these ideas further, I think the hit rate will be higher. The ones where the manipulations are too subtle just aren’t as effective at producing frame-breaking revolution.

Collector’s POV: The images in the show range in price from $35000 to $90000 based on size. The images which sold at auction earlier this year were all over the map: one buy-in with a low estimate of $20000, one sold at roughly $30000 and another sold at roughly $180000, so there really aren’t enough data points to determine a pattern. What is clear is that his work is creating some buzz.

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

Florian Maier–Aichen
Through April 11

303 Gallery
525 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011

Using the Moniker “Blogger”: A Case Study

Reversing the pattern of most reasoned arguments, I’ll give you all the punch line first: I’ve decided to abandon completely the use of the terms “blogger” and “blog” to the extent it is possible. This comes after a not-so-scientific study done while wandering around the Pulse show a few weeks ago in New York. Here’s a summary of the data collected.

In scenario one, I entered a booth, with my notebook and pen out, ready to take notes on the photography being shown. When asked by the booth staff what I was doing, I told them I was a photography collector. At this point, body language became welcoming, and smiles were exchanged. Polite offers to answer any questions I might have were put forth and some fawning occurred in several booths. Everyone was happy to have me take any pictures I might want to take. Many guestbooks were pointed out. One kind woman gave me the best excuse of all for my notebook (unprompted): I was “taking notes for my friends who couldn’t come to the show”.

In scenario two, I entered a booth, again with my notebook and pen out, ready to take notes on the photography being shown. When asked by the booth staff what I was doing, this time I answered that I was taking notes for my blog. At this point, body language universally became closed (arms crossed and frowning) and I could watch as the thoughts passed through their heads: “oh no, how do I get rid of this jackass from the Internet who is going to waste my time?” Mostly I was ignored from this point forward, and any questions I had were answered only grudgingly (and many didn’t at all like the idea of me taking pictures). Most looked relieved when I left.

I used both approaches enough times to prove (at least to myself) that there was some statistical significance to the differences I encountered. I do realize that term “collector” has a direct path to a sale while “blogger” does not, which is a meaningful difference in the two labels for a gallery owner. But I still wonder, what is it about the term “blogger” that seems to connote “unbalanced stalker”? Why can’t it mean highly professional journalist or critic, clearly worth respecting and reading? I’ve also found (less scientifically I’ll admit) that most people are happier when I call this destination a “site” rather than a “blog”. “Blog” seems to carry with it (for the broad population at least) an underlying sense that what will be found are the unhinged and useless rantings of a fool. “Site” as a piece of terminology seems to be an empty vessel, neither particularly positive or negative, but at least descriptive of the location where the writing is found and generally acceptable to all.

So while many of my fellow writers out there might take offense at these comments, try the test yourself on some random folks and see how they respond to the word “blogger”. My guess is that it won’t be pretty, unless they’re bloggers too. So from now on, and until the word “blogger” changes its stripes and has a positive connotation for hard hitting, useful journalism and commentary, please tell your friends about this “site” and I’ll either stick with being a “collector” or humbly call myself a “writer”.

UPDATE: Based on some of the insightful comments I’ve received via email and those below, I have some further ideas kicking around in my head surrounding the suitability of the blog as a vehicle for the kind of criticism/reporting we are doing here. Clearly, it is a format that has different “best use” parameters than most other mediums, a strange hybrid somewhere between a weekly magazine and Twitter. I’ll likely come back to this idea in a week or two, after the hustle of the auctions and AIPAD has worn off.

Auction Preview: Photographs and Photographic Editions, New York, April 2, 2009 @Bloomsbury

Bloomsbury made its entry into the New York Photographs market last fall with its debut sale, and has returned with a small but sensible sophomore effort this spring. There are a total of 140 lots in this sale (93 lots of photographs and 47 of books and editions) with a total high estimate of $832200. Given Bloomsbury’s overall strength in books, I imagine photo books will gain more and more focus at this house over time. (Catalogue cover at right.)

Here’s the breakdown (grouping photographs and books together):
Total Low lots (high estimate $10000 or lower): 132
Total Low estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): $695200
Total Mid lots (high estimate between $10000 and $50000): 8
Total Mid estimate: $137000
Total High lots (high estimate over $50000): 0
Total High estimate: NA
While there aren’t any major masterpieces in this sale (as evidenced by the small number of Mid and High estimated lots), the highlights include a small group of abstractions and still lifes (lots 40-47) from the New Bauhaus, which were an unexpected and welcome surprise. For our specific collection, I liked the Rudolph Koppitz Hand Studie, from 1920, best (lot 5, at right), as it would fit well with other nudes we own.
The lot by lot catalogue can be found here. There is also fancier version that looks and acts like a catalogue (“3D View”) rather than a web page.
6 West 48th Street
New York, NY 10036

Auction Preview: Photographs, New York, April 1, 2009 @Phillips

Phillips offers its entry in the spring auction season with its Photographs sale (in two sessions) on April 1. There are a total of 279 lots in this sale, for a total estimate of $2908000; this is nearly 100 lots more than Sotheby’s and more than twice as many as Christie’s, but with the lowest total estimate value of the three. The data below shows just how weighted to the Low end this sale is. (Catalogue cover at right.)

Here’s the breakdown:
Total Low lots (high estimate $10000 or lower): 204
Total Low estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): $1061000
Total Mid lots (high estimate between $10000 and $50000): 70
Total Mid estimate: $1347000
Total High lots (high estimate over $50000): 5
Total High estimate: $500000.
This sale includes the third installment of Robert Mapplethorpe’s images of Lisa Lyon, as well as a selection of 67 generally lower priced prints from the collection of Anabel and E.J. Gonzalez (further explained by a short background essay).
While this sale has plenty of bulk (many later prints), there aren’t many lots that jump out at us for our particular collection. There are several mixed lots with multiple images that we wish were being sold individually, so we could select out the ones we want and not be bothered with the rest. This potentially applies to Frank Gohlke (lots 36, and 37), Francesca Woodman (lot 196) and Carla van de Puttelaar (lot 213), but we’d need to see the prints that aren’t illustrated in the catalogue to be sure.
The lot by lot catalogue can be found here.

Photographs

April 1, 2009

Phillips De Pury & Company

450 West 15th Street
New York, NY 10011

Wijnanda Deroo, Huizen van Vereniging Hendrick de Keyser

JTF (just the facts): Published in 2003 by Uitgeverij De Verbeelding. In Dutch (with no English translation). 96 pages, including 67 color images. Includes an essay by P.B. de Bruijn.
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Comments/Context: I think I first became aware of Dutch photographer Wijnanda Deroo’s work in the pages of Blind Spot magazine (here), where her work has appeared on several occasions. I was recently poking around the ICP bookstore (one of the best places for photo books in New York by the way), and I came upon this book she did as a commission for Vereniging Hendrick de Keyser, an association dedicated to the preservation of historic homes in the Netherlands, named after the famous 17th century sculptor/builder. I have wanted to get to know her work better for a while now, so into the purchase pile it went.
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Deroo has focused most of her art on interiors, both in historic places and in random, commonplace locations all over the world. An overly simplistic comparison can be drawn between Deroo’s work and that of Candida Höfer, since they both photograph interiors void of people. But unlike the sterile grandeur that pervades Höfer’s work, Deroo’s rooms have a lived in feel, as though the people stepped out moments ago, leaving the space empty but warm.
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The interior images in this book are perhaps a bit more formal than the rest of her work, as these buildings are preserved history, set pieces for visitors to enjoy (the exterior images are underwhelming, but necessary as background). Even so, Deroo finds powerful colors and sensual surfaces in these vacant rooms. I was particularly struck by her use of natural light in these pictures; if often pours into the spaces from bright windows, causing glossy reflections and glare off the polished floors and painted walls. While I fully realize the cliche in this statement, many of the images reminded me of Vermeer, particularly in the use of pure exterior light to bring clarity and emotion into a picture. These end up being much more than standard architectural photos; they tell us stories about the people that lived here, the functions and routines of their lives, and the wearing down of the spaces during the passing of time.

The artist’s website can be found here.

The Vereniging Hendrick de Keyser website can be found here.

Collector’s POV: Deroo is represented in New York by the Robert Mann Gallery (here). Not much of her work has appeared on the secondary market, so gallery retail is likely a collector’s only option in the short term. I continue to be impressed with Deroo’s images and I think many of these pictures would stand up well sharing walls with other strong color work.

River of Colour, The India of Raghubir Singh

JTF (just the facts): Published in 1998 by Phaidon Press. With a preface by David Travis, and an essay by Raghubir Singh. Large panoramic format volume; 160 pages, with 128 full page color plates. The images were taken between 1967 and 1996. (Cover shot at right.)

Comments/Context: Seeing Raghubir Singh’s images of India in an exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago last winter got me thinking that we needed to get a book of his work for our library and to educate ourselves on his art a bit further. Singh died in 1999, but had spent his entire thirty year career as a photographer documenting the complexities of his homeland. This book is a retrospective, a representative sample of work drawn from the 12 volumes of images he published across his lifetime, and as such, is a good place to start for collectors not familiar with his work.

The chaos and bustle of Indian life lends itself well to small camera photography, and Singh’s approach finds easy parallels with that of Cartier-Bresson and Winogrand. The difference lies in that Singh embraced color from the very beginning, making him a lesser known chronological counterpart to Eggleston, Shore, Sternfeld, Meyerowitz, and Ghirri (the generally acknowledged masters of early color).

Singh’s images are bursting with life; there is hardly an image in this entire volume that isn’t filled with people (and animals) in constant motion. Singh systematically blanketed his country, making pictures in many different states and geographies, along important rivers and down traditional roads. His images document the lives of ordinary people, in the humanist tradition, with a keen sense for the psychology of the place. For outsiders (like ourselves), some of these images have the look of exotic travel photography; for insiders, they likely represent a surprisingly successful portrait of the incomprehensible juxtapositions of day to day existence in India. Singh’s images are filled with bright colors and complex compositions, often capturing that fleeting moment when the chaos resolved itself into something visually striking.

The artist’s estate website can be found here.

Collector’s POV: While I searched a bit on the Internet, I couldn’t find any New York gallery representation for Singh’s work. (UPDATE: I have been informed that SEPIA International (here) represents the estate of Raghubir Singh in North America, and will have a booth at AIPAD this year featuring a few estate prints.) There have only been a handful of images available in the secondary markets in the past few years, so few that a price pattern is hard to discern; perhaps the artist’s estate is a good place to start. I do think that Singh’s work would fit very well into collections that center on early color, especially some of those images with lavish color contrasts and/or almost cubist compositions.

Auction Results: Photography in the New York Contemporary Art Sales, March 2009

Last week saw the first round of Contemporary Art sales in New York, featuring generally lower priced work. (The main event for Contemporary Art in New York will be in mid-May.) As a reminder, we are only interested in the photography buried in these sales, and so our results do not include any other art that was on offer. Overall, it was a pretty dispiriting showing across the board: all three houses had buy-in rates above 40% for photography and none of them collected proceeds equal to their total low estimates for those lots. The statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):

Phillips De Pury
Under the Influence, March 9
Preview post here

Total Photo Lots: 44
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $470000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $682000

Total Lots Sold: 25
Total Lots Bought In: 19
Buy In %: 43.18%
Total Sale Proceeds: $307875

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

Low Total Lots: 24
Low Sold: 15
Low Bought In: 9
Buy In %: 37.50%
Total Low Estimate: $142000
Total Low Sold: $82625

Mid Total Lots: 18
Mid Sold: 9
Mid Bought In: 9
Buy In %: 50.00%
Total Mid Estimate: $340000
Total Mid Sold: $169000

High Total Lots: 2
High Sold: 1
High Bought In: 1
Buy In %: 50.00%
Total High Estimate: $200000
Total High Sold: $56250

76.00% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range. There were two surprises (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate): Vanessa Beecroft’s VB29.014.VB.VST, 1997, at $$21250 and Matthew Barney’s Cremaster 5: The Menagerie of the Queen of Chain, 1996, at $32500. Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

Sotheby’s
Contemporary Art, New York, March 10
Preview post here

Total Lots: 10
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $126000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $180000

Total Lots Sold: 5
Total Lots Bought In: 5
Buy In %: 50.00%
Total Sale Proceeds: $81875

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

Low Total Lots: 4
Low Sold: 2
Low Bought In: 2
Buy In %: 50.00%
Total Low Estimate: $30000
Total Low Sold: $26875

Mid Total Lots: 6
Mid Sold: 3
Mid Bought In: 3
Buy In %: 50.00%
Total Mid Estimate: $150000
Total Mid Sold: $55000

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

80.00% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range. There was only one surprise (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate) in this sale: Anselm Kiefer’s Des Malers Atelier, 1983, at $20000. Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

Christie’s
First Open Post-War and Contemporary Art, New York, March 11
Preview post here

Total Lots: 24
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: $455000
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: $646000

Total Lots Sold: 14
Total Lots Bought In: 10
Buy In %: 41.67%
Total Sale Proceeds: $275875

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

Low Total Lots: 3
Low Sold: 3
Low Bought In: 0
Buy In %: 00.00%
Total Low Estimate: $20000
Total Low Sold: $22125

Mid Total Lots: 19
Mid Sold: 10
Mid Bought In: 9
Buy In %: 47.37%
Total Mid Estimate: $496000
Total Mid Sold: $223750

High Total Lots: 2
High Sold: 1
High Bought In: 1
Buy In %: 50.00%
Total High Estimate: $130000
Total High Sold: $30000

71.43% of the lots that sold had proceeds in or above the estimate range. There were no surprises (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate) in this sale. Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

So overall, Phillips was the winner in Total Photography Proceeds this round, but it was a pretty hollow victory, at just over $300K all in. None of the houses brought in much premium on their photography offerings and there weren’t many upside surprises. Unfortunately for the auction houses, absent some unexpected rebound in the wider economy, these results are likely a pretty decent proxy for the kind of broad activity we will see later this month in the larger specialized Photography sales.

Emmet Gowin: Photographs @Pace/MacGill

JTF (just the facts): A total of 44 black and white gelatin silver prints, matted with white frames, hung throughout the gallery on red and grey walls. The exhibition is a mix of vintage and later prints of negatives from the period 1963-1975, and coincides with a reprint of the 1976 book Emmet Gowin: Photographs, recently published by Steidl and Pace/MacGill in 2009. All of the prints are small, printed on 8×10 (or reverse) paper, most of the images being either approximately 9×7 or 6×6. (Installation shot at right courtesy of the Pace/MacGill website, since no personal photos were allowed.)

Comments/Context: In our high technology digital age, where a great many of the prints we see (both fine art and vernacular) are churned out by the “lab”, we seem to have lost our ability to fall in love with truly beautiful prints, where the print is the ultimate object and expression of the artist’s craft, not just a representation of the subject or the viewpoint of the photographer. The current show of Emmet Gowin’s photographs from the 1960s and 1970s was a jaw dropping reminder for me of just how dramatic superb black and white prints can be.
As most collectors likely know, the early part of Gowin’s career was focused on intimate and personal portraits of his wife Edith, their children and extended family, and rural life in Virginia and abroad. These are graceful pictures, full of subtle movements and behaviors that give us clues to the relationships between the people. There are images of the family on Christmas morning, surrounded by a mountain of discarded wrapping paper, Edith sitting by a window or behind a screen door, Edith with her aging grandparents, or Edith nude in the kitchen. Like Harry Callahan’s extended portrait of his wife Eleanor, Gowin has made dozens of pictures of Edith, telling a much broader and more complicated story than can be captured in a single frame. She is the center, around which the narrative of the rest of the family revolves. Other pictures in the series capture moments of rural life and country living (at home and in Europe) and twisting trees and branches outside their home, often printed in circular form on square paper, with the dark edges of black intruding from the corners, creating small distortions and a claustrophobic tunnel vision.
While I was certainly aware of these pictures, I hadn’t ever seen many of them up close, and so I was surprised and amazed by these sublime prints. Each one gathers your attention and rewards long, careful looking. In many, Edith’s stony glare is mesmerizing. Particularly for self described “print junkies”, this is show not to be missed.
The reprint of the book is available from the gallery for $60.
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Collector’s POV: Most of the prints in the show are priced at $6500, with a handful at $7500, $8000 or $10000. A few prints of Edith from this series can be found at auction from time to time, generally under $5000, but most of these images haven’t been readily available in the secondary market. My particular favorite is Edith, Danville, Virginia, 1967 at right, although there are a handful that we would just as happily add to our collection. The scan at right hardly does justice to the subtle tonal ranges in this picture that make it truly spectaular in person.
Rating: *** (three stars) EXCELLENT (rating system described here)
Through March 21
32 East 57th Street
New York, NY 10022

Elger Esser: Wrecks and Landscapes @Sonnabend

JTF (just the facts): This show includes three different sets of new work. In the entry room, 3 wall sized silver prints with hand coloring are displayed, framed in black, all from 2007. In the main room, 3 color landscapes are shown, in two sizes (40×48 and 70×80), framed in blond wood, C-prints on Diasec, all from 2008. In the far left room, there are 9 black and white heliogravure landscapes, each 48×54, framed in black, all from 2008. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: If we play a word association game and start with “Elger Esser“, the first word that comes to my mind is yellow. Esser’s large scale landscapes have often been diffused with a soft, washed out earthy yellow that is reminiscent of dreamy, lyrical 19th century romantic paintings. For me, it is a signature color; I can immediately identify his works from across a room based on the use of this particular color; no one else uses it the way he does.

There are a few images in the new show at Sonnabend that continue in this same “yellow” direction, combinations of painterly sky and water, from beaches or valleys or picturesque wetlands, often with a subtle 20th century intrusion. While Esser did his studies with the Bechers in Dusseldorf, his work seems to have evolved away from their deadpan objectivity to a warmer, more subjective reality in his picture making.
Three new works at Sonnabend seem to extend this romanticism further. Rather than starting with “real” images of sky filled landscapes, these pictures are built upon enlarged vintage postcard images of aging and decaying shipwrecks, hand colored with his same earthy palette, to create smoky, melancholy scenes, much darker in color and mood than his other works. The images are extremely grainy, to the point of almost having a Pointillist feeling, millions of tiny dots making the pictures vibrate. While they were completely unexpected in terms of my vision of what an Esser looks like, these pictures grew on me as I looked at them more. Perhaps we can place them in the context of a larger definition of his neo-Romanticism, not just sunny and idyllic visions, but also scary, sad, and almost apocalyptic ones.

In the back room, there were a group of more traditional black and white landscapes of France that seemed to lack emotional punch in comparison to the works in the other rooms. Perhaps I just needed some further background information on the significance of the images or their relationship to Esser’s art, as on their own, they weren’t particularly memorable.

Collector’s POV: The large silver prints with hand coloring are priced at $50000 each. The color landscapes are either $10000 or $30000 based on size. The heliogravures are $8000 each, in editions of 12. Esser’s work has generally been available at auction in recent years, typically ranging between $25000 and $75000 (with a few outliers).

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

Elger Esser: Wrecks and Landscapes
Through March 21

Sonnabend Gallery (artnet page here)
536 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011

William Klein Book Signing @Greenberg

Last evening, I went to a small book signing event for William Klein at Howard Greenberg, focused on his new painted contact sheets, appropriately called Contacts. Signing books for strangers is an odd ritual, where the photographer has tiny fragments of conversations with each visitor while signing each book, with a bunch of other hangers on milling around and listening. Klein is now in his early 80s, but I was surprised to find him engaging and funny, flirting and joking with all of the women. (Klein at the signing table at right.)

Just in front of me in line was a serious young Korean photographer with his Japanese girlfriend. Of course, you need to tell the signer your name so he can write it in the book, and so there was much back and forth with this man about his name, how to spell it, etc, until finally a business card was produced that Klein could read from. Klein then asked “are you Chinese?” and a detailed explanation of the nationalities of these two occurred. At the end, the man asked if he could take a picture with Klein. Klein laughed and said how about one with the girlfriend. The man didn’t quite know what to say to that, and so he asked again. Klein didn’t relent, but finally gave in to having a picture with both of them.
As I walked up, his first question to me was “are you Chinese?” which was completely ridiculous, since I am quite tall, with light hair and light skin, generally German or Dutch in my overall appearance, but entirely appropriate given the previous customers. When I told him that I wanted him to sign the book to by wife, he proceeded to write her name and then two large hearts as part of the inscription. His parting shot to me was: “is she a blond?” My takeaway was that Klein is still unexpected and cool, even in his 80s.
The book itself (cover at right) follows up on a project Klein began a few years ago, where short films were made of photographers discussing their contact sheets (these are well worth seeing on video if you haven’t found them already). Klein then took this idea a step further, blowing up his contact sheets and exchanging his grease pencil for enamel paints in bright primary colors. The result is a combination of the contact sheet editing exercise with vibrant, swirling, gestural X-outs, underlines and bracketing.
The book was published in 2008 by Contrasto and includes short essays by Klein and Robert Delpire. There are 38 images, including the cover, in this large format paperback volume.

Walter Niedermayr @Miller

JTF (just the facts): A total of 15 works, made up of 2, 3 or 4 panels hung edge to edge, framed in blond wood and displayed throughout the entire gallery (entry, 2 small front rooms, and three larger back rooms). The prints are a mixture of C prints and digital ink prints, made in editions of 6. The negatives are from the period 2000 to 2008. All of the works are large, varying in size, but most are approximately 50×100. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Italian photographer Walter Niedermayr has made a career out of documenting scenes of immense natural scale. His most recognizable images are set on mountain tops or at alpine ski reports, where spindly lift machinery winds up the mountainside and people are reduced to tiny blips of bright color, often contrasted with vast open panoramic spaces of pure white. He uses this same formula with wide swaths of bleached out sand and dunes, or with expansive rolling green pastures where the miniature people have been replaced by sheep and hay bales.

While we had seen single works by Niedermayr previously, I very much enjoyed seeing a larger body of his images collected and hung together, as many more patterns in his artistic approach emerged. From afar, the works wash out to painterly expanses of color; up close, they are a potent reminder of the insignificance of life and its entertainments when placed against the backdrop of the timeless and indifferent natural world.

The artist’s placeholder website is here.

Collector’s POV: The works in this show range in price from $19000 to $32000, mostly based on size/the number of panels in the work. Niedermayr’s work has started to become more available in the secondary markets in the past few years, finding buyers at auction at prices from $10000 to $25000. I find these images both visually stimulating from a variety of distances and thought provoking in terms of their environmental commentary. This combination will likely make them successful and enduring over the long run.

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

Through March 14

524 West 26th Street
New York, NY 10001

Andy Warhol: Snapshots @Neuberger

JTF (just the facts): 33 color Polaroids and 21 black and white prints (8×10 or reverse), all matted, with white frames, displayed in two adjacent galleries with a dividing wall. All of the images are from the 1970s and 1980s. There are also two glass cases with representative cameras and magazine ads. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: The Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts (site here) recently gifted over 150 Warhol photographs to the Neuberger Museum of Art in honor of the Foundation’s 20th anniversary, and this exhibition is the first to explore the work the museum received.

In the first room, color Polaroids from the period 1972 to 1985 are shown. Most of the images are head shot portraits of the kind Warhol used as the basis for his silkscreen paintings. There are quite a few famous people and celebrities represented: Diana Ross, Dolly Parton, Dorothy Hamill (with a skate), Tom Seaver (with a baseball mitt), Ric Ocasek (of the Cars), and Yves Saint Laurent all peer out from the walls. There are also plenty of random, unknown people who Warhol photographed for portrait commissions. All of his subjects have been heavily “touched up”: dark red lipstick and pasty white makeup make their features more pronounced. Among this group, there are also a few still life images, similar to the ones shown at Paul Kasmin last fall (review here).

The second room has a selection of black and white prints (made between 1980 and 1983), which absolutely fit the definition of snapshots. Many chronicle Warhol’s fast lane celebrity life, full of dinner parties, fashion shows, cocktails and birthdays. Others are more mundane: images of a closet interior or various unidentified people. All are printed in contrasty tones. While these images don’t rise to the level of art, they do help fill out a more complete picture of Warhol’s later life.

A second Warhol exhibit is also on view at the Neuberger in the next gallery, entitled Andy Warhol: Pop Politics (here). This is a broader show of paintings, prints, drawings and other mixed media pieces, pulled together by the common theme of politics. There are many glass cases with detailed letters (thank you notes and the like) and mementos from various politicians, displayed next to portraits that Warhol made of these people. A few source photographs are mixed in here (Polaroids like the ones in the other room), depicting Jimmy and Lilian Carter, Edward Kennedy and others.

Collector’s POV: To our eyes, the still lifes are still the most notable of these images in terms of artistic quality, although some of the celebrity portraits are certainly entertaining and fun. The black and white images are best considered as background material to Warhol’s amazing life.

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

Through May 17

Purchase College, SUNY
735 Anderson Hill Road
Purchase, NY 10577

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