One Collector’s View of the Current Photography Market

Over the past few weeks, we have watched with much trepidation as the signs of imminent gallery failures have started to become more obvious, and the gawkers and nay sayers have begun the death watch with not so hidden glee. As long term collectors, we view ourselves as part of the photography world, tied to the rise and fall of the “industry” just as much as the gallery owners, private dealers, museum curators, and even the artists themselves. As we watch with dismay as our own budget shrinks and talk to gallery owners who are increasingly worried about the burden of their fixed overhead, how we together get out of this tightening trap becomes a more complicated puzzle for everyone up and down the food chain.

As we look ahead to collecting in 2009, we are starting to develop an approach to pursuing our passion in the midst of this collapse. Here are a few things that we are thinking and planning:

1.) There will be less great material at auction this year and prices will be meaningfully softer across the board.

Since we have been consignors to auctions from time to time in the past, we know that we would be very unlikely to consign our best pieces to auction in this environment, unless we were in such dire straits that we needed to liquidate the collection to raise cash quickly. As such, we don’t expect that we will see superlative pieces coming out of the woodwork much this year, even though our friends in the auction houses will surely be beating the bushes aggressively in search of great work (perhaps they will surprise us). We expect the catalogues to be quite a bit thinner, somewhat more selective (less chaff), and the estimates to be much more realistic (read lower).

As virtually all collectors have tightened their belts, there will be less total volume of buyers, and those buyers will have smaller comfort windows for any given photograph they might be pursuing. As a result, prices will likely be softer, as buyers will be less willing to fight those last few bids for pieces they’re interested in, especially for later prints in larger editions and lesser known artists. We’re going to do our best to resist the temptation to look for bargains, as we have learned the hard way that this approach often leads to owning pictures that lose the battle for wall space and find themselves in the print storage boxes. This is a perfect segue to the next point.

2.) There will be two primary strategies that will be favored by most collectors: flight to quality and focus on emerging artists.

No collectors that we know have any intention of completely stopping their collecting activities during these tougher economic times if they can help it. But everyone is dealing with increased scrutiny of each and every purchase. As such, we think there are two obvious paths forward: raise the quality bar much higher and only purchase those perfect gems that fit into the core of your collecting plan, or abandon higher end work altogether (for the moment) and focus your energy and budget on smaller works and emerging artists that are significantly more affordable, thereby stretching your limited dollars further. In either case, the thrill of the chase and the joy of looking at the images are still there, but the overall outlay is much lower. I can imagine we might end up doing a little of both.

3.) We’re going to buy more photo books.

We are clearly going to do some substitution this year, buying more books and fewer prints. Great photography books are a low cost way to enjoy a wide variety of artists and styles, without the spending required for a fine print. And there are literally hundreds of photographers who we would enjoy having in our library who would not meet the requirements of being in our print collection. It’s a little like living vicariously, but given the high quality of most photography books these days, it’s still living pretty well.

4.) Gallery owners and artists/estates will be in need of our support.

Nearly every gallery owner we have talked with in the past month is somewhere on the spectrum from unsettled and nervous to reeling and desperate. The fixed costs of the space, the exhibitions, the fairs, and the staff aren’t going away, but the sales have slowed to a trickle or a complete halt, often depending on what kind of artists and inventory they are carrying. Some galleries are lucky enough to have one or more bread and butter artists or estates that pay the rent month in and month out, so they can experiment with other artists on the margin. Others are not so fortunate.

Some of these gallery owners are resorting to the self inflicted wounds of deep discounting, after spending years establishing baseline prices for their artists. On one hand this makes sense, given a new pricing reality and the knowledge that the sale won’t happen unless the price is meaningfully lower. On the other hand, offering a collector a print for half of what you have spent the past five years telling him it is worth is a recipe for permanently broken trust. This is “a rock and a hard place” choice.

While this may sound counterintuitive, we think that now is the time to cement our relationships with the handful of galleries, dealers and artists that we really value on a going forward basis. These are the people we like, who have paid attention to us and treated us fairly over the years, and who offer the work that we find most appealing. In these tough times, we are going to make a more conscious effort to go to their shows, and to spend time looking at the work from the drawers and back rooms. The shows are free and the gallery staff has more time to spend sharing their knowledge with us. It’s a good time to ramp up our photography education.

And from time to time, we plan to dig into our jeans and buy something, both because we love it for our collection, but also because we want these folks to survive and thrive. Our dollars not only support the gallery, but trickle down to the living artist or estate, who sorely need the money in either case. This buying is not some wild consumerist delusion; it is just the opposite. It is a conscious and difficult choice to support the groups we value when it isn’t obvious, just like our support for our favorite non-profits and charities in these challenging times means even more to them than usual.

So in our view, we’re clearly heading into a tough stretch for the world of photography and we can expect more bad news in the days to come. But instead of watching the train wreck from the sidelines, we plan to roll up our sleeves and get involved in the solutions to the best of our abilities. Yes, it will be restrained, measured, careful, and in numerous ways, much less than before. But it is still our passion, and we don’t plan on giving up that passion any time soon.

Auction Preview: 100 Fine Photographs, February 19 @Swann

Swann Galleries begins its 2009 season with a February sale of photographs, offering its signature eclectic mix of daguerreotypes and 19th century images, vintage works, and later prints from a wide variety of artists and time periods. (Catalogue cover at right.)

Here are the statistics for the auction:

Total Lots: 117

Total Low Estimate: $556600 (plus one “refer to department”)
Total High Estimate: $816400 (plus one “refer to department”)

Total Low Lots (high estimate below $10000): 99

Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): $543400Total Mid Lots (high estimate between $10000 and $50000): 17
Total Mid Estimate: $213000

Total High Lots (high estimate above $50000): 1 (plus one “refer to department”)
Total High Estimate: $60000 (plus one “refer to department”)

While there are several solid pictures in this sale (a nice vintage Minor White, a vintage Callahan weed, and an 1890s albumen panorama of Hong Kong among others), there aren’t many that would fit well with our particular collection. The best match would be Lot 36, Poughkeepsie Bridge, 1929, by Ralph Steiner, to go with some of our other bridge pictures. (Image at right.)

As the markets began to deflate last year, Swann held its own quite well, perhaps due to an increasingly good match between its typically lower end material and many collectors’ readjusted budgets. While the material here isn’t uniformly strong, it will still be intriguing to see how this sale performs, particularly with regard to realized prices versus estimates, as a proxy for the current mood of the market.

Swann Galleries

104 East 25th Street
New York, NY 10010

Nobuyoshi Araki @Kern

JTF (just the facts): A total of 305 black and white prints from three different projects, displayed in the main gallery space. Ginza (1963-1972) is comprised of 212 prints, each 14×17 or reverse, pinned directly to the wall, shown in three large grids. Subway (1963-1972) includes 80 prints, each 8×10, pinned behind plexiglass but not framed, arrayed in small series and groups along one wall. Untitled (1970) is made up of 13 small prints (5 1/2×4 1/2), framed in brown and lined up on an interior wall. (Installation shots at right: Ginza, top, Subway, middle, Untitled, bottom.)

Comments/Context: Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki has been making provocative and challenging pictures for nearly 40 years. His erotic nudes and bondage photographs, along with his sensual painted flowers, have often been called shocking and outrageous, sometimes even pornographic. He is one of the most productive and prolific photographers of all time, producing literally hundreds of books of his tantalizing work.
The exhibit of Araki’s work currently on view at Anton Kern goes back to the beginning of his career and examines some of his first projects from the 1960s and 1970s, before he fully embraced his mature style. Here we find him shooting roll after roll on the streets and in the subways, testing framing techniques and camera angles. The Ginza series, taken on the streets of the fashionable shopping district, are mostly contrasty head shots and tight close ups, dark and indirect. He captures his subjects in both traditional and Western dress, with a sense of style that is reminiscent of William Klein. There are plenty of shadows, but these streets are not gritty, they are glamorous. And while not every shot is a winner on its own, as a group, the images show an evolving working style and energetic eye, telling a well rounded story of this particular place and its people.

In the Subway pictures, Araki follows in the footsteps of Walker Evans, shooting multiple frames of bored travelers and commuting salary men riding the crowded trains. These pictures have more narrative to them, displayed in groups of several images, allowing the viewer to watch a scene unfold over a short time window. The Untitled images show us the beginnings of Araki’s more erotic vision. In these pictures, the same thin framed woman, with an oval face and big round eyes reminiscent of an anime character, is photographed in various nude poses, from demure to direct.

This exhibit broke many of my preconceived notions and pigeon holes for Araki’s work and made a compelling argument that his talents are much broader than generally perceived. Even if you are not a fan of Araki’s more recognizable images, this is a well constructed show that brings forth some thought provoking historical precedents for his later work.

The artist’s website (in Japanese) can be found here.

Collector’s POV: The Ginza images in the show are contemporary prints, retailing for $4400 each. The Subway series images are also contemporary prints and are $2800 each, sold individually and/or in groups of up to 8. The Untitled images are unique prints, $3300 each. Given that Araki has been so prolific, his work is readily available in a variety of secondary markets. At auction, his larger works are generally selling for under $10000, most for less than $5000. We have even seen Araki’s one off Polaroids of nudes and flowers on EBay, going for under $500. Many of his books have become collector’s items as well, fetching $1000 and up for the rarer titles. For our particular collection, we have been tempted to put together a small grid of Araki’s painted flowers, especially those in wild colors.

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

Through February 7

532 West 20th Street
New York, NY 10011

More Araki at Modern Art Obsession here.

Candida Höfer, Philadelphia @Sonnabend

JTF (just the facts): A total of 12 large scale color C-prints, framed in blond wood frames with no matting, arrayed in the entry and two rooms in the rear of the gallery. Images range in size from roughly 60×64 to nearly 70×100. All of the negatives are from 2007. (Installation shots with significant glare at right and below.)

Comments/Context: German photographer Candida Höfer has spent the better part of the past 30 years making huge deadpan images of public architectural spaces around the world. She has captured museums, hotels, banks, libraries, and palaces of all kinds, always devoid of people and often lit with pure daylight. Her current show at Sonnabend displays a group of new pictures taken in some of Philadelphia’s most ornate Federal buildings.
Höfer is, of course, one of the group of highly successful students of the Bechers at the Dusseldorf Academy of Art, and her work shares their clinical approach to picture making. The images are all taken from a rigid square frontal position, the subject matter has variation within an overall sameness, and the prints are made with a high degree of technical mastery.

Despite all of the over the top ornamental flourishes found in these rooms, the interiors are chillingly vast and empty, like tombs that have recently been unearthed and opened to anthropologists. While there are frequently subtle effects resulting from the placement of the light, for the most part, the images are dry and emotionless, in contrast to the clear hopes for grandeur and awe of the builders.

We have often seen Höfer’s work in the pages of glossy design magazines, her images hung on the walls of flashy apartments and newly redecorated lofts. It seems they often serve as stand ins for a dreamed about library or ballroom, a symbol of decorative luxury just out of reach. For us, there seems to be something absent, a missing connection that would normally draw us back to the images again and again. While Höfer has pointed her camera at a vast array of amazing places, there doesn’t seem to be anything new, fresh or memorable going on, and over time, the images become surprisingly interchangeable. And in a mind bending twist, perhaps that is just the point.

Collector’s POV: Candida Höfer’s work is readily available in the secondary market, in a range of sizes from small to gigantic. The pictures in this show are priced between 40000 and 50000 Euros. At auction, the smaller pieces can be found well under $10000 (often in editions of up to 100), while the larger works (perhaps more representative of what she’s trying to do and printed in much smaller editions, usually 6) seem to range between $20000 and $50000, give or take a few outliers on the high side.

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

Candida Höfer, Philadelphia
Through February 14

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

More Chinese Photography Info

Here’s a solid group of recommendations for further study of contemporary Chinese photography I received from an expert on recent Chinese art:

Exhibition catalogues
Between Past and Present: New Photography and Video from China (2004 ICP, site here)
Foto Fest China 2008 (site here)
China under Construction (Amazon link here)
Zooming into Focus (UCLA Asia Institute 2004, site here)

Gallery
Three Shadows Photography Art Centre (site here)
Called “the most important place for photography in China”. I can’t vouch for that, but it is surely a strong endorsement nonetheless. There is a show of Ai Weiwei’s photographs from New York in the 1980s and 1990s on display now.

Book publisher
Timezone 8 (site here)

Luisa Lambri, Photographs @Luhring Augustine

JTF (just the facts): A total of 14 black and white Laserchrome prints, framed in white and minimally displayed in the entry, main gallery, and one back room. The images are of three different sizes (29×25, 30×36, and 48×37) and are available in editions of 5. All of the negatives are from 2008. (Marginal installation shot at right.)

Comments/Context: Italian photographer Luisa Lambri makes architectural images in the buildings constructed by the masters of modernity, and instead of documenting the triumphant vision and bold details that we have seen so many times before, she interprets the spaces in more personal ways and finds introspective moments of meditative quiet.

This is perhaps the subtlest show of photography I have seen in quite a while. On one wall, a grid of six images taken in the Centro Galego de Arte Contemporanea in Galicia, Spain (built by renowned Portuguese architect Alvaro Siza) are displayed, spread widely on a large blank wall. At first glance, these images appear identical, and are vaguely reminiscent of stairwells photographed by Tina Modotti and Charles Sheeler. As you contemplate these images, minute variations in the light in the images present themselves as slight tonal gradations and color shifts, so small as to be nearly imperceptible. The other images in the exhibit are also grouped to highlight these ethereal permutations.

These solemn and quiet abstractions grew on me over time and I started to appreciate a bit more their tender intimacy. I came around to seeing these images as sensory exercises in light, less about realism and more about minimalism. If however you are wound tight and moving quickly when you see this show, you will have little patience for these delicacies and will likely leave mystified.

Collector’s POV: These images will, of course, appeal to the all white, open and airy, minimalist crowd. The images in the show are priced at $9000, $10000, and $12000 based on size. Lambri’s work has been virtually absent from the secondary markets for photography, so retail is likely your only avenue for acquiring her work in the short term.

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

Luisa Lambri, Photographs
Through February 7

Luhring Augustine
531 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10011

Wang Qingsong

JTF (just the facts): Published in 2006 by Albion and Hatje Cantz, in conjunction with an exhibit at Albion in London. 136 pages, with an essay by Zoe Butt. Includes large plate images, as well as a comprehensive list of works as thumbnails (with sizes and editions). (Cover shot at right.)

Comments/Context: To Western eyes, the high points to the storyline of China’s transformation in the past few decades have become predictably well known: unprecedented and explosive economic growth, staggering new construction projects and radical urban change, an increased openness to and embracing of Western culture, and a much larger and more powerful position on the world stage. It is not surprising that amidst these changes, and in concert with a gradual relaxation of central censorship, artists have begun to examine the changes going on all around them and to ask hard questions about how China is being recast.
Wang Qingsong is a contemporary photographer who uses sarcasm, irony, satire and humor to expose some of the undesired consequences and unintended effects of the country’s modernization on the collective psyche of the population. Beginning in 1997, Wang has made theatrical images that have centered on the quiet war between traditional Chinese culture and the encroaching Western lifestyle. His early work was dubbed “Gaudy Art”, for its garish colors and not-so-subtle surrealistic kitsch. His 1998 work, Prisoner, shows Wang trapped inside prison bars made of Coke cans; Thinker, also from 1998, has him seated on a lotus leaf in Buddhist prayer, with a huge McDonald’s logo carved in his chest; Requesting Buddha no. 1, 1999, (at right) has the Buddha’s many arms filled with a variety of consumer products. These and other images all parody the materialism of the West and how it has invaded the minds of the Chinese people. Instead of worshiping self denial, fulfilling every desire via consumerism is the new norm.
Unlike the heroic and patriotic battle scenes from propaganda films, Wang’s series of images entitled Another Battle highlights the clash going on between the traditional and modern cultures, and shows Wang as a defeated and bloodied commander, lost among the razor wire decorated with soda cans. (Another Battle no.8, 2001 at right.) Other images show the battlefield complete with McDonald’s trash cans and road signs. These images have been elaborately staged, and have the feel of film stills.
Wang’s more recent output has evolved into elaborate and monumental tableaux, with large numbers of actors and painstaking stage sets, in the end becoming massive, scroll-like photographs, some more than 20 feet wide. While in approach there may be valid comparisons to Gregory Crewdson or Jeff Wall, Wang’s images are firmly rooted in typical and traditional Chinese artistic forms and metaphors and make no pretense of their careful manipulation. The image at right, Romantique, 2003, shows both a small detailed section on the top, with a thumbnail version of the entire work below (impossible to see I realize). Here the world is a confusing, fabricated mixture of Chinese and Western allusions and symbols, full of staged snippets from famous paintings by a wide range of recognized masters, from Botticelli and Raphael to Manet and Matisse.
Wang’s exaggerated work brings home many of the subtler challenges posed to China by such rapid modernization. As traditions are exchanged for Western consumerism, his work points to continuing social questions about what lies ahead for this giant nation. This monograph is almost like a catalog raisonne, as it has a complete set of all Wang’s images and other detailed print/negative information. As such, it is an excellent reference resource on this innovative Chinese photographer.
Wang Qingsong’s artist website can be found here.

Collector’s POV: Wang Qingsong’s work has become increasingly available in the secondary market in the past few years. Most of the images come in at least two sizes, and are in editions of 6, 10 or 20. Smaller single images have been priced starting at around $10000, moving upward toward $100000. Only a few of the large tableaux have come to market, and all have sold in the six figure range.

Zhang Huan, Altered States

JTF (just the facts): Published in 2007 by Edizioni Charta and the Asia Society, in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name at the Asia Society. 180 pages, with essays by Melissa Chiu, Kong Bu, Eleanor Heartney, and Zhang Huan. (Cover shot at right.)

Comments/Context: While Zhang Huan’s images can routinely be found in photography auctions around the world today, to call him a photographer would be to grossly misunderstand his art. His photographs are merely documents of his performance art – sometimes further labeled as “body art” or “endurance art”, as many of his performances involve testing the limits of his body and mind. This book provides a retrospective look at all of his performances and installations, going back to 1993. Each and every performance is an opportunity to watch from the sidelines as Zhang explores the depths of his own history and personality or reacts to his environment.

Not surprisingly, some of Zhang’s performances work better as photographs than others. He has sat covered in flies in a public toilet; he has suspended himself in midair and had some of his blood drained; he has lain naked on blocks of ice; he has worn suits of bone and meat. Two of his earlier projects To Add One Meter to an Anonymous Mountain, 1995 (below ltop) and To Raise the Water Level in a Fishpond, 1997 (below bottom) both lend themselves well to being captured as a single moments. Both works document Zhang measuring himself (with the help of others) against the natural world.


In Foam, 1998 (below left) and Family Tree, 2000 (below right), Zhang tackles the issues of his own personal identity. In one, he holds the photographs of family members in his mouth (is our history inside us, or can we swallow it?); in the other, he disappears under the layers of stories written on his face by Chinese calligraphers.

Most of Zhang’s works are subtly infused with traditional Chinese values and Buddhist teachings and these ideas provide the framework and backdrop for his autobiographical explorations. His performances seem to find the just the right balance: surprising without being gimmicky, earnest and stoic without being pompous, real and meaningful without being contrived. Overall, Zhang has generated a significant number of highly memorable and thought provoking moments in his short career; this book provides a valuable one-stop summary of his output.
Zhang Huan’s artist website can be found here.
Collector’s POV: Zhang Huan’s images have become mainstays of the auction circuit. Most are large chromogenic prints (often 40×60, but generally in various formats), in edition sizes ranging from perhaps a handful to as many as 25. Prices for single images have ranged from $10000 to over $100000, with larger groups of pictures (like Family Tree) selling for $150000 to $250000. Even though his work is often found in photography auctions, it has clearly crossed over to the “contemporary art” price schedule.
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(Aside: Blogger’s handling of embedded images is frustratingly quirky, so please excuse any unexpected odd formatting or white spaces you may encounter, especially likely if you are using a reader.)

The Mystery of Chinese Contemporary Photography

Our ignorance about Chinese contemporary photography is a deep, dark, massive abyss. Truth be told, we hardly know anything about the artists, their work, their influences or their ideas. We lack even the simplest framework for making sense of what is going on. Perhaps we are just dumb Americans, but we like to think we know a little about the world of photography.

If you look in the auction records over the past decade, you will find a startling pattern. There are a few 19th century Chinese photographers who made mostly panoramic shots of large Chinese cities, and then almost nothing for over 100 years, until the arrival of the new group of young artists a few years ago (nearly 50 new Chinese photographers at auction in the past three years). Very few of these artists have any New York gallery representation.

This poses many questions for us. Where did these artists come from? Where were they trained? From whom did they learn? Where did all the photographers from the previous 100 years go, if there were any? Were they all suppressed during the Cultural Revolution? What is the context of this new movement? Who are the important figures to be watching?

In tomorrow’s book reviews, we will try to wrestle with some of these questions (at the most basic level possible), with reviews of books on Wang Qingsong and Zhang Huan, two of the anointed stars of this Chinese invasion.

If you are a person out there listening who can add something to our education, whether it be in the form of broad background, a key book or article to read, or the narrow information of a single photographer who should be on our radar, please leave the information in the Comments or send us a direct email. Help us develop some perspective on a key trend in contemporary photography that has not, to our knowledge, been explained well to collectors at large.

Auction Preview: Constantiner Collection, Part II, February 12th @Christie’s

While the snow keeps coming down, there is no surer sign of Spring than the arrival of the first major photography auction catalogues. The 2009 Spring auction season begins with Part II of the Constantiner Collection, a lower-end sibling of the sale that set the record for a single owner photography sale at Christie’s (over $7.7M) last December (original posts for preview here and results here), despite coming to market in the worst of times. (Catalogue cover at right.)

As a reminder, the Constantiner Collection focuses on fashion and glamour images, with a heavy dose of Helmut Newton and Marilyn Monroe. This second part of the sale follows this same pattern, with 26 pictures by Newton (including an enlarged pair of contact prints from Sie Kommen which probably belonged in the first part of the sale) and 39 more lots of Monroe imagery. Here are the statistics for the auction:
Total Lots: 155
Total Low Estimate: $1143000
Total High Estimate: $1734500
Total Low Lots (high estimate below $10000): 113
Total Low Estimate (sum of high estimates of Low lots): $523500
Total Mid Lots (high estimate between $10000 and $50000): 38
Total Mid Estimate: $771000
Total High Lots (high estimate above $50000): 4
Total High Estimate: $440000

While there isn’t much to tempt us in this particular bunch of pictures, I think this second selection helps to tell a more rounded story of this collection. While Part I was filled with iconic pictures, scarce portfolios and trophy lots, this sale shows the hallmarks of the passion of the collectors. There are plenty of lesser known photographers and outlier images. This is evidence that these collectors were consistently looking at the images themselves, and not just the names and the prices. They had a certain eye for what they found of interest, and were willing to pursue unheralded pictures (by unfamiliar artists) and add them to their collection over time, even if they weren’t recognized masterpieces. And they continued to add depth to the collection, long after they had achieved critical mass. This kind of amazing collection is only built with single minded, relentless pursuit over many years.

Since the economic climate is perhaps even gloomier than when the first sale occurred, it is extremely difficult to predict how this sale might fare. The first sale was proof that the demand for fashion and glamour imagery is broader and deeper than many had imagined. This sale will test the edges of that demand a bit, and might give us some clues as to the evolving nature of the overall market for photography this year.

February 12th
20 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10020

Aaron Siskind: Recurrence @Silverstein

JTF (just the facts): 101 black and white gelatin silver prints (mostly vintage), displayed in the back two rooms of the gallery. The main room has a dark wall, while the smaller room in the far rear is white. The images span much of Siskind’s career, from 1940s work in Gloucester to 1980s images of tar dripped roads. (Mediocre installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Taking on the estate of a recognized master who had previously been represented by one or more other galleries has its own special challenges. By and large, these kinds of estates have been “picked clean” by the preceding representatives, the best of the early and influential work skimmed off and sold years or decades earlier, often leaving behind a grab bag of later and less well known work that doesn’t seem to have an audience among collectors and museums, unless someone is looking to build a comprehensive sample of the artist’s career.

Bruce Silverstein seems to be willing to dig through these estates in search of diamonds in the rough. Starting with the Kertesz estate, and now with the Siskind estate, his job has been to sift through what remains and try to make sense of it all. Most importantly, he has brought a fresh pair of eyes to work that has been overlooked and under appreciated.
This show is built around the insight that Siskind’s work is best understood when seen the way Siskind took the pictures: in series. Long before the Bechers developed their typologies, the ID in Chicago was teaching students to shoot in multiples, to make projects of a single subject matter observed in detail. This exhibit is then groups of pictures rather than a gathering of single images. There is a cluster of reeds, some broken windows, a group of wall stones. There are pieces of driftwood and swirling strands of seaweed. There are building facades, close ups of paint on walls, and divers soaring through the air. All are displayed in groups of 4, 6, 9, 12 or even 16 pictures; there are few single pictures hung in isolation.

What is striking about this exhibit is that it shows, regardless of the subject matter, and over nearly 50 years of taking pictures, Siskind was ultimately interested in lines, patterns, color contrasts, and the beauty of simple forms. Over and over again, the groups of images show him meticulously exploring a subject, in search of interesting compositional relationships between the lines. Siskind seems to have been intrigued by both the sharp and geometric, as well as the rounded and swirling. While some of his work does have a formal rigidity to it (the building facades with grids of windows for example), most of the works have a more fluid, gestural quality, more in tune with the prevailing ideas in the world of Abstract Expressionism. As he got older, these gestures seemed to get looser, with the paint splatters and tar ribbons of the 1970s and 1980s becoming larger and more like calligraphy.
What I like best about this superb exhibit is that it puts all of these different projects into a larger context. Seen as single images, isolated from the rest of his work, some of these pictures don’t hold up particularly well. But seen in groups, riffing on the same ideas as their neighbors, the pictures have a much stronger resonance. I think the show does an excellent job of showing that Siskind continued to make thought provoking pictures in his own unique style his entire career, not just in his 1950’s heyday. Siskind’s artistic approach across his lifetime was remarkably consistent, and the later works merit more attention and praise than they have heretofore received. This show does a good job of forcing us as viewers to think about the quality of his entire output, rather than just his greatest hits. Every single group in the gallery is worth some patient looking. In our view, this is a show worth going out of your way to see.

The Aaron Siskind foundation website is here.

Collector’s POV: There are plenty of superlative prints in this show that would fit perfectly into our collection. Prices range from $3500 on the low end to $30000 on the high end for single images, with some prints sold only in groups with larger total prices. Siskind made a large number of later prints in his life, and as a result, the market for his work has gotten muddied and confused. Vintage prints of his most famous images are hard to come by, but vintage images of variants in any one series are often much more reasonable (and available). We already own several Siskinds (here), but we still found many things to tempt us.
Rating: *** (three stars) EXCELLENT (rating system described here)
Through February 21st
535 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10001

Dutch Photographer Gerard Petrus Fieret Dies

We picked up the news on the Internet that Dutch photographer Gerard Petrus Fieret (1924-2009) apparently died yesterday. We became aware of his work via a catalogue/show that gallerist Deborah Bell (site here) and private dealer Paul Hertzmann (artnet site here) collaborated on several years ago.

Fieret made a number of nudes in the 1960s that seem emblematic of those times. They are warm, grainy, and real, sometimes strange and chaotic, complete with his bold signature and address stamp prominetly placed, often right in the middle of the image. (See Untitled, ca 1960s at right.) The pictures are unlike any other nudes we have seen. Fieret’s vision was indeed unique: informal, shadowy, personal and full of life.

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