Edward Steichen: In High Fashion, The Condé Nast Years, 1923-1937 @ICP

JTF (just the facts): A total of 168 images, all silver prints except for a handful of color prints in one room, matted/framed and displayed on alternating red and grey walls in 5 adjoining rooms on the lower level of the museum. Additional items include a short video in the entry and 4 glass cases spread throughout the exhibit, holding magazines (both black and white and color), spreads, collages, and retouched prints. There is also a 288 page catalogue of the exhibition available. (Unfortunately, there are no installation shots for this exhibit; ironically, no photography is allowed at the ICP. Only a handful of thumbnail images can be found on the ICP website below; one of the images, Model Marion Morehouse and unidentified model wearing dresses by Vionnet, 1930, is at right.)

Comments/Context: While Edward Steichen is probably best known for his Pictorialist images in conjunction with Alfred Steiglitz and the Photo Secession, his early Modernist images, or later for his role as curator of the Photography department at MoMA (think The Family of Man), in between he turned to the dark side (much to the chagrin of his artist friends) and worked as a commercial photographer for Condé Nast to pay the bills, making fashion and glamour images for Vogue and Vanity Fair. This exhibit brings together for the first time a wide sampling of these images, drawn from the Condé Nast archives and the collection of the George Eastman House.

Since so much time has passed since Steichen took his images, many of the famous celebrities of that period have drifted into relative obscurity, forgotten or generally unknown by new generations. So whether Steichen’s subjects were fashion models or celebrities hardly seems to matter now, except for the most recognizable of the faces (Marlene Dietrich, Gary Cooper, Anna May Wong, etc.). They were all beautiful people, and these are gorgeous, sumptuous portraits.

Most of the images have an old Hollywood glamour and patina, lots of artfully sculpted hair, backless flowing dresses, and extravagant hats. There are long gowns with graceful lines, and coolly elegant poses, often with an Art Deco set or background. What was most startling for me were many of the head shot close-ups of famous actresses of the time (Sylvia Sidney, Joan Bennett, Pola Negri, Norma Shearer, Katharine Cornell, Gertrude Lawrence, Greta Garbo and Gloria Swanson among many others). In these images, Steichen has captured seductive and sophisticated looks, coy smiles, and smoldering stares, single handedly defining the actress as “siren”. In picture after picture, Steichen consistently found beguiling magic.

In walking through this exhibit you will be amazed by just how many superior portraits there are; just when you thought you had seen a dozen great ones, there’s another room to enjoy. Again and again, the quality and craftsmanship is top notch, the compositions meticulously perfect. While I would never have predicted it going into this show, given our collecting focus on other subjects, this is clearly one of the best shows we’ve seen this year. I actually sat down and took a rest during the middle of my visit, to ensure I had enough energy to savor each and every picture.

NY Times art critic Roberta Smith found less to enjoy at this Steichen show. She called it a “trifle dull” and “musty”. I couldn’t disagree more, but here’s her review of all the ICP fashion exhibits, so you can decide for yourself (here).

For some lively commentary on the images and some extremely helpful gossipy background on many of the forgotten stars portrayed, listen to the C-MONSTER audio guide podcast for the show, found here.

Collector’s POV: Steichen’s work is widely available in the secondary markets, from low priced Camera Work gravures to one of a kind masterpiece images; as a reminder, The Pond – Moonlight sold for just under $3 million dollars in 2006. Howard Greenberg Gallery (here) has just opened a show of Steichen’s work from 1915-1923 (the period just preceding the Condé Nast years) which highlights his transition from Pictorialism to Modernism (a show we will certainly see and review at some point soon). As an aside, Steichen also made some amazing flowers that would fit well with our collection, if we could only afford them.

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

Edward Steichen: In High Fashion, The Condé Nast Years, 1923-1937
Through May 3

International Center of Photography
1133 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036

This Is Not a Fashion Photograph @ICP

JTF (just the facts): A total of 75 images, nearly all black and white prints, framed in black and densely packed on a red ledge that runs the length of the walls of the one room gallery. A few images are hung above the ledge in an uneven second row. There is no wall text beyond the introduction; a laminated spiral bound booklet is available as background. 61 different photographers are represented in the exhibit, mostly from the 20th century. (Unfortunately, there are no installation shots for this exhibit; ironically, no photography is allowed at the ICP. An incomplete set of thumbnail images can be found on the ICP website below; one of the images, Malick Sidibé’s Nuit de Noel, 1962, is at right.)

Comments/Context: This group show now on view at the ICP is ostensibly a foil to the various fashion exhibits currently being displayed, theoretically riffing on the themes and cliches of fashion photography found in a wide variety of vintage material completely unrelated to fashion. I say theoretically, as while there are plenty of pictures of people in stylish clothing, or making dramatic gestures, or wearing striking hats in this show, the connection to fashion is tenuous at best, and in the end I think, completely unnecessary.
Guest curator Vince Aletti has gathered together and carefully sequenced a witty, clever, and ultimately very satisfying group show of people pictures. Chaotically hung and jammed together, it feels like the work of an obsessed collector (which is of course, coming from us, the highest of praise). This is a show that merits following the images in specific order, as Aletti has made each one connect to its neighbor, in a subtle game of echoes of posture, stance, gesture, and expression, not to mention the obvious similarities in hats, glasses, and clothing. There are lots of individually great pictures mixed in (both known and unknown), which resonate more in the context of those hung nearby. This is a “collector” with a good eye, who knew what he was doing; as such, it will likely be one of the best edited group shows of the year.

Collector’s POV: Since this show is entirely focused on images of people, there weren’t many specific fits for our collection. That said, I particularly enjoyed seeing the Sidibé, Nuit de Noel, in person, as we have been thinking more about this artist of late (see a recent book review here); I also enjoyed Leon Levinstein’s Lower East Side, 1969, a woman in a crazy striped dress.

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

This Is Not a Fashion Photograph: Selections from the ICP Collection

Through May 3

1133 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036

Weird Beauty: Fashion Photography Now @ICP

JTF (just the facts): The exhibition is divided into 14 numbered sections, each containing between 3 and 5 spreads, displayed floor to ceiling, interspersed with framed magazine covers and larger single images. There are a total of 57 spreads. Each spread is made up of tear sheets from magazines mounted to board (not framed), typically including several images from a single narrative or shoot. There are 42 photographers (or photographer pairs) represented in the show. (Unfortunately, there are no installation shots for this exhibit; ironically, no photography is allowed at the ICP. A few single images can be found on the ICP website below, but they don’t do justice to the density of the installation.)

Comments/Context: With a normal issue of Vogue measuring in at several inches thick, overstuffed with four color, full page ads and fashion articles, it is no surprise that the primary job of the fashion photographer is to get attention, to make pictures that are so visually arresting that they jar the reader from his/her mindless flipping and actually make them stop for a moment and take a second look. In our current world, with its non-stop cacophonous barrage of imagery, this task becomes even harder, and fashion photographers and stylists are challenged to push any and all boundaries to make their products stand out from the mind-numbingly large crowd. It is not surprising then that this summary show of current fashion imagery is an energetic and electric visual overload. The silent shouting coming from the walls is at points overwhelming.

The show is organized into groups of spreads, where individual stories and wild narratives are played out over a handful of related images. Nearly all of the spreads are in color, and most are eye catching in design. Likely as a reaction to the growing apathy of viewers, the photographers seem to be pulling out all the stops and the stories have evolved toward extremes: darker, wittier, edgier, and more disturbing than ever before. I particularly enjoyed the images by Steven Klein, Steven Meisel, and Solve Sundsbo, but the work in this exhibit is generally strong across the board.

At one level, this show can be seen as a pleasing collection of eye candy. But what I found surprising was to put this type of work into the larger context of contemporary photography, particularly the strain of work that involves elaborately staged tableaux, where the artist has preconceived a dramatic or powerful scene (often a fantasy) with carefully selected actors and props that are then “directed” and photographed (think Wall, Crewdson, et al). Both fashion spreads and these choreographed scenes share a similar underlying conceptual framework; perhaps the construct is being used for different ends by the two groups and perhaps different emotional states are being described or explored, but the work is undeniably related. And even the most inattentive of viewers will see the many appropriations from contemporary art buried in the fashion spreads, further intertwining the two lines of evolution.

This show thus made the genres blur for me more than they had in the past, and took the fashion photos out of the “fashion” context and made me consider them in the larger flow of contemporary photography. It is therefore both an undeniably fun exhibit, as well as a thought provoking one.

Collector’s POV: In the past few years, more and more fashion photographs have begun to show up in photography and contemporary art auctions. The work of both Steven Klein and Steven Meisel (as well as others of course) can now be found from time to time in the secondary markets. The recent sale of the Constantiner collection at Christie’s is clear proof that there are plenty of dedicated and experienced collectors building world-class collections of fashion photography of all kinds. While these works don’t fit into our collection plan, it’s clearly a growing area of interest for many collectors.

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

Weird Beauty: Fashion Photography Now
Through May 3

International Center of Photography
1133 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036

Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Thousand @David Zwirner

JTF (just the facts): 1000 Polaroid images, mostly color and mostly 3 1/2 x 4 1/2, each mounted to aluminum (not matted or framed) and displayed edge to edge on a small silver shelf hung at eye level around the perimeter of the gallery. The architecture of the gallery folds in on itself like a shell, creating a narrowing blocky maze. The images span approximately 25 years of the DiCorcia’s career. There are also 4 large DiCorcia images, made recently, in a side gallery. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Since we are used to standing back to see Philip-Lorca DiCorcia’s normally wall sized images, this installation of 1000 (yes, one thousand, a staggeringly large number) pictures as tiny prints was a mind bending change in our perceptions. The prints literally force you to get your face within a few inches to see them well, and to take in the entire show, you must slowly meander along the monorail attached to the wall to see each and every picture. The prints wind around and around and finally spit you back out at the entrance, having traveled far further than a simple four wall walk around.
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Along the way, many of DiCorcia’s best and most memorable images can be found, representatives from all of his famous bodies of work (staged street scenes, hustlers, strippers, heads etc.) mixed into a chaotic brew of test shots, exposure mistakes, random still lifes, and seemingly ordinary family snapshots. There are clocks and flowers and skulls, people at home and people on the street.
The first effect of this display is that is exhausting. There are simply so many good images that require such intimate attention that they all fall into a blur quite quickly, with the repetitions and allusions of the sequencing coming to the forefront, rather than any one outstanding shot. The second effect for me was to turn the whole enterprise on its head; the exhibit seemed to become more about the process of editing than it did about individual frames. Why were these specific images chosen out of all those taken? What was it about this particular snapshot that resonated for the artist? How and why did he make the choices that he did? What is the larger narrative at work here?
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The final effect of this smorgasbord of imagery was to see a single overall emotional state that seems to pervade all of DiCorcia’s work, which I wasn’t particularly aware of until I saw all of the images together. Regardless of the subject matter, there is very little joy in the world he has captured. There is plenty of isolation, and shadowy loneliness, and deadpan boredom, regardless of whether it was staged or captured live. I must admit that this mood (when I recognized it) dampened my enjoyment of the many treasures to be found in the mixed bag along the aluminum rail.
As a generally unrelated adjunct, there is a small room containing four new DiCorcia pictures, printed in their normal large size, just off the main gallery space.

Collector’s POV: The thousand images in this exhibit are not for sale individually, but are being sold as one installation (I didn’t ask the price). DiCorcia’s work is widely available at auction, typically selling in the range between $10000 and $50000, with an outlier here and there.
Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)
Through March 28th
525 West 19th Street
New York, NY 10011
Roberta Smith’s short review of this exhibit in the NYTimes is here. A review by Horses Think is here.

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

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