Showing posts with label auctions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label auctions. Show all posts

Friday, May 13, 2011

WARHOL TO THE RESCUE!




Bill Ray: Andy Warhol with Polaroid camera, New York, 1980




The dust has not yet settled from this week's Contemporary auctions, but work by Andy Warhol was clearly one of the big highlights - especially photo-based paintings. The top lot was Andy Warhol’s 1963-64 “Self- Portrait,” made of four photo-booth-strip images in different shades of blue. It went for $38.4 million, above the $30 million high estimate, after a tortuous -- some dealers said tedious -- bidding war between private art dealer Philippe Segalot and a telephone client of Brett Gorvy, deputy chairman and international head of postwar and contemporary art at Christie’s. The price was an auction record for a Warhol portrait. (Via Bloomberg)




"Self-Portrait" (1963-1964) by Andy Warhol, acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas.
Source: Christie's via Bloomberg


"The market for important works by Andy Warhol, the reigning king of Pop, continued to reach new heights at Christie’s New York tonight, as bidders chased two iconic self-portraits by the artist, setting a new world auction record for a Warhol portrait in the process." Artdaily.org




"Sixteen Jackies" by Andy Warhol, silk screen on canvas.
Source: Sotheby's via Bloomberg


At the Sotheby's sale on Tuesday evening, a Warhol from 1964, "Sixteen Jackies" (est. $20-30 million), featuring a mixed composition of several Jacqueline Kennedy portraits in blue, brown, and white sold to an anonymous telephone bidder for $20,242,500 . Most experts thought that excessive estimates dampened enthusiasm at Sotheby's $128 Million Contemporary Art Auction.
 
The four images of Jacqueline Kennedy, each repeated four times, were enlargements of news photographs that appeared widely and continually in the media after the assassination. Taken from issues of Life magazine, the images depict, from top to bottom: Jackie stepping off the plane upon arrival at Love Field in Dallas; stunned at the swearing-in ceremony for Lyndon B. Johnson aboard Air Force One after the president's death; grieving at the Capitol; and smiling in the limousine before the assassination. 16 Jackies combines a number of themes important in Warhol's work, such as his fascination with American icons and celebrities, his interest in the mass media and the dissemination of imagery, and his preoccupation with death.





Bill Ray: Andy Warhol with 20 x 24 Polaroid Camera, New York, 1980


The more you look at the same exact thing, the more the meaning goes away and the better and emptier you feel."--Andy Warhol, 1975


Related: Composing The Artist: Photographs of Artists and Writers

Friday, March 25, 2011

Swann Auction: Yesterday's top selling photograph was Alfred Eisenstaedt's Children at Puppet Theater, 1963

Swann Galleries


The Spring auction season has started. First up yesterday, Swann (via Swann blog)


FRIDAY, MARCH 25, 2011
Yesterday's Top Lots: Fine Photographs



Adam Clark Vroman, Arizona and New Mexico, Volume II, album with more than 165 platinum prints, 1897. Sold for $62,400 on March 24, 2011.


Two rare photographic albums were the top lots in yesterday's Fine Photographs auction at Swann. Adam Clark Vroman's Arizona and New Mexico, Volume II, 1897, which featured more than 165 platinum prints of Native Americans, their dwellings, the famous Snake Dance and more, brought $62,400, a record price for both Vroman and the album. Linnaeus Tripe's album, Photographs of the Elliot Marbles, which can be read about here, brought $57,600.


Alfred Eisenstaedt, Children at Puppet Theatre, Paris, silver print, 1963, printed 1991. Copyright Time Inc. Sold for $48,000.


The day's top selling photograph was Alfred Eisenstaedt's Children at Puppet Theater, 1963, which sold for $48,000.
 
Also, via Swann's Twitter: "Bert Stern's unique contact sheet of Marilyn Monroe sold yesterday at Swann's Fine Photographs auction for a record $22,800"
 
Related: Born December 6: Alfred Eisenstaedt

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

2010 Photography Auction Summary

The DLK Collection Blog is always on our daily "must read" list. In case you may have missed it, yesterday they posted a highly informative review of 2010's photography auctions. The results were quite astonishing:

"Across the photography auction market for the entire year, the total sale proceeds taken together were $136,948,680, up by more than 83% from last year's total of $74,612,997. These numbers were driven by both higher average selling prices and better sell through."


The article concludes: "Overall, in a year of stabilization and renewed growth, Christie's seems to have taken it to its competitors a bit. The house doubled its total sale proceeds for photography from the previous year, dramatically increased its average selling price per lot (even when diluted by a sale of lower priced photobooks), and took share from the market.


Looking forward, if the economic environment continues to slowly but steadily improve, I think we can expect that 2011 will be another solid year at auction. Big numbers are driven by the quality of material that is consigned and the overall confidence in the marketplace; 2010 had the landmark Penn, Avedon, and Polaroid sales (among others) and the beginnings of forward looking optimism. For 2011 to top 2010, we'll need to see more superlative material come out into the markets, particularly in the realm of photography that is classified as contemporary art, and we'll have to see a continued positive outlook from collectors."

Read the full post here.

Related: Thoughts on the Fall Auctions

             The Trumph of Photography

Friday, December 10, 2010

Trove of John F. Kennedy Photos Sold for Over $150,000 at Auction in New York City

President John F. Kennedy being visited by his children Caroline and John Jr., in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington during October 1962. AP Photo/Bonhams, Cecil Stoughton


Via The Art Daily:

By: Ula Ilnytzky, Associated Press


NEW YORK (AP).- A trove of John F. Kennedy pictures by White House photographer Cecil Stoughton (STOW'-tuhn) fetched over $150,000 at a New York City auction. It included a rare image of Marilyn Monroe with the president and Robert Kennedy at a Democratic fundraiser.

The collection of 12,000 photographs was estimated to bring in $200,000. It was offered by Stoughton's estate at Bonhams auction house Thursday.

The Monroe image, contained in an envelope labeled "Sensitive Material — May 19, 1962," sold for just over $9,000. The price included the buyers premium and was above its presale estimate of $4,000 to $6,000.



"It's the only image of the three of them together," said Matthew Haley, Bonhams' expert for books, manuscripts and historical photographs. "There are very few prints of this photo." (Please contact Monroe Gallery of Photography for details)

Stoughton was the first official White House photographer. He captured public as well as intimate Kennedy moments. About 60 percent of the images are of public events. The rest are of private moments: the children's birthday parties, family Christmases, and vacations in Hyannis Port, Mass.

One of Stoughton's most famous images shows Lyndon B. Johnson being sworn in aboard Air Force One following Kennedy's assassination Nov. 22, 1963. The photo shows Johnson with his hand raised taking the oath of office surrounded by his wife and Jacqueline Kennedy still wearing her blood-splattered dress.

"It is one of the most iconic images of the 20th century," said Haley.

Johnson signed it: "To Cecil Stoughton, with high regards and appreciation, Lyndon B. Johnson."

In the immediate chaotic aftermath of the assassination, Stoughton learned that Johnson was being sworn in on the aircraft on a Dallas airfield and rushed over in a car, said Haley. As he was running across the tarmac, "the Secret Service thought it was another assassination attempt and almost fired at him," he said.

Haley said Stoughton's camera jammed just as Johnson was about to be sworn in but he gave it a good shake and it starting working again.

The Monroe picture with the two Kennedy brothers was saved from being destroyed by the Secret Service. It was taken at a private Manhattan residence right after the actress infamously sang "Happy Birthday" to the president at Madison Square Garden in a simmering tight dress.

Haley said, "There apparently was a directive to the Secret Service that Monroe not be photographed with the president."

He said agents visited Stoughton's darkroom afterward and removed some negatives but overlooked the one of the threesome because it was in a tray being washed.

Among the more intimate photos of the Kennedy family is one from 1962 that shows the president sitting in a chair near his desk in the Oval Office while his children, Caroline and John-John, dance before him. It's inscribed by Kennedy: "Captain Stoughton — who captured beautifully a happy moment at the White House, John F. Kennedy."

Related: 48 YEARS AGO: MARILYN MONROE SINGS "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" TO PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY

             Marilyn Monroe, Kennedys Recalled in White House Archive Sale

Monday, November 29, 2010

PHOTOGRAPHY MARKET UPDATE

Earlier this month, we posted our thoughts on the record Fall art auctions, and the corresponding "bargains" for photography by comparison.  Two articles on the photography market have recently been published that are worth noting.

Artprice.com states "Strong demand and an abundant offer: having earned a legitimate place in the history of art, photography has become a dynamic medium with a rapidly maturing and increasingly demanding market. Today the photography medium accounts for 7% of total global auction revenue generated from contemporary art and its auction revenue total has grown 1,300% since the end of the 1990s (+1,270% between 1998 and 2008) in a market traditionally dominated by painting, sculpture and drawing."

Read the full article here.
 
The Financial Times has a very informative article in today's edition, which has already been posted on several photography sites today. In case you missed it, we have it posted below.

A STRONG MARKET FOR PHOTOGRAPHS
By Francis Hodgson
©The Financial Times



Richard Avedon’s “Dovima with Elephants”


When a photograph sells at auction for $1m, the market can surely be considered healthy. The oversize print of Richard Avedon's "Dovima with Elephants", which made €841,000 ($1.12m) at Christie's in Paris last Saturday, was just one of 13 prints in that sale to achieve more than €100,000 (all prices quoted include premium). And the event achieved the still-rare accolade of being a "white-glove sale", one in which every lot finds a buyer.

This came only a matter of days after Andreas Gursky's "Frankfurt" made more than $2m in the contemporary art sales at Sotheby's in New York. It was the second Gursky to top $2m this year, following his "Pyongyang IV", which well exceeded its estimate to reach £1,329,250 in the equivalent sales at Sotheby's in London.

All this gives a pretty clear indication of a market suffering no stress at the top end. High-ticket photographs of the type so often described as "iconic" are continuing to do well, and prices are well on the way to surpassing their pre-recession levels for these items. Such photographs have become strongly branded decorative objects, safe to display in corporate buildings while still retaining a hint of daring.

It was reassuring in that context to see that Christie's did well enough with its October 7 sale in New York devoted to Joseph-Philibert Giraud de Prangey, a connoisseur's daguerreotypist, a brilliant 19th-century pioneer but undeniably obscure. Even the largest daguerreotype is tiny by the showy standards of the giant prints of today; they look fantastic but you can't exactly identify them from across an atrium. Heartening to see that such difficult objects to exhibit can still find good buyers, and the sale's total proceeds of approximately $3m showed a growing awareness of the importance of good early photographs.

The range of general photographic sales, with their more modest prices and less fierce levels of competition between high rollers, remain the domain of specialist collectors; they are still to recover pre-recession confidence levels and there are certainly bargains to be had in the general sector.

A couple of tendencies to note: the Avedon image (a 1955 fashion shoot displaying a Dior dress, and now bought by Dior) echoes a strengthening market for pictures from the magazine world. Philippe Garner of Christie's has nurtured the Gert Elfering collection, over several sales and several years, for example, which has resulted in something above $10m in sales. The most recent auction in the series, this summer, sold 67 prints by the late Jean-Loup Sieff, a magazine photographer if ever there was one, hitherto barely noticed by the market.

A continuing trend is the presence of great photography across different saleroom sectors – the record for Cindy Sherman, for instance, was broken not at a sale devoted to photographs but at Philips' contemporary art sale, also in early November, with her "Untitled #153" (1985) achieving $2,770,500.

Photographs appear in books, too. The saleroom habitat of specialist dealers in photographic books has traditionally been Swann's. But Christie's photobook sales in London now seem a regular fixture in the calendar, and Sotheby's London book department continues to host a remarkable number of interesting early photographic books. Let the buyer beware, certainly. But let the buyer also have a good time. Photographs are never out of season.

See our Art Price Index for photography 1985-2010

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

"THE TRIUMPH OF PHOTOGRAPHY"

There is a great FREE daily Photography newsletter that we highly recommend. Below is one excerpted article from La  Lettre de la Photographie.

Sign up for free here


 

 18.588 € Viviane Esders, Paris: Andréas Feininger, The Photojournalist (Denis Stock), New York, 1955


Viviane Esders opens the Photography Auction Season in Paris. Viviane Esders’ modern and contemporary photo auctions held at the Hotel Drouot on November 9 included 245 lots. Nearly half found buyers for a total of €310,047 (fees included) and more than 40 lots surpassed the high estimated price. The highest bidding took place for lot 91, Andréas Feininger’s Icone “The Photojournalist (Denis Stock)”, New York, 1955, which sold for €18,588. Lot 137, “Sifnos”, Greece, 1960, by Henri Cartier-Bresson, a vintage print estimated at €4,000 sold for €11,153. Lot 176, “Yves Saint Laurent’s Dress”, Vogue, Paris, 1970, by Jean-Loup Sieff, sold for €7,807 or Lot 179 “East 100th Street”, 1966, by Bruce Davidson, estimated at €2,000 – 3,000 sold for €9,294. Among the contemporary prints, was Lot 214, a 2005 self portrait by Kimiko Yoshida that sold for €15,490 or lot 226 “Naomi Campbell”, Vogue, USA, Los Angeles, 1990 by Peter Lindhberg, sold for €15,490. Catalogue www.viviane-esders.com or www.yannlemouel.com Viviane Esders’ next auction: " Picasso et ses amis" Étude Blanchet et Associés Hôtel Drouot Thursday December 9th at 2pm. Catalogue http://www.blanchet.auction.fr/

Several sales took place at “Paris Photo”, poor timing given the major exhibition openings taking place throughout Paris for the Photography Month. Among the most remarkable sales, that of Millon 1 Associés that took place on November 18 at 3pm in the hall of 3 Rossini Street. Several photographic collections from the XIXth and XXth centuries were on sale. Lot 19, “Cranes and Drills”, two hard-mounted albumin prints measuring 34.5 × 24.5 cm dated ca. 1870 and estimated at €600 – 800 sold for €5,000.

Two albumin prints by Eugène Atget “Paris, Place du Caire” and “Angle du boulevard de la Madeleine et de la rue Caumartin” was purchased for €13,500 (not including fees).

Furthermore, Christophe Goeury remarked that buyers were particularly interested in complete albums including “Indes et Ceylan” with 173 albumin prints by several photographers including Bourne that sold for €4,500 or that of Emile Gzell with 200 albumin prints from different countries in Asie that sold for €37,000. Or that by Guillaume Benjamin Duchenne (de Boulogne) on “Mechanism and Appearance of Human Passions” sold for €16,500 (fees excluded). Full results on http://www.millon-associes.com/

Following that of Million, the sale organized at Drouot Montaigne by Serge Plantureux, Binoche and Giquello on Thursday, 18 November, was themed “Chinese Prints, Looking East”. There was a remarkable interest for Alfred Laurens’ Saint Petersbourg album (lot 80) ca. 1870 comprised of 50 albumin prints. Estimated at €6,000 – 8,000, it sold for €62,000. Lot 98, an album by Konstantin Shapiro comprised of 30 albumin prints illustrating Gogol’s “Memoirs of a Madman” estimated at €3,000 – 3,500 sold for €20,000 fees excluded. Lot 146, “Study of a Nude, II”, Moscow, 1930, by Alexandre Grinberg, estimated at €3,000 – 3,500 sold for €22,000. Lot 204, Man Ray, “Mr. Seabrook’s Fantasies”, Paris, 1930, sold for €3,500. Lot 133, “Nude Study”, 1925, by Vladimir V. Lebedev, a vintage silver print estimated at €800 sold for €3,200. Results: http://www.binoche-renaud-giquello.com/

At its Parisian headquarters in the Charpentier Gallery, Sotheby’s Auction House reached a record-breaking figure for a photography sale totaling 2.704 million Euros ($3,671,722). There were also two record-breaking sales for photos by Joseph Sudelka and Manuel Alvarez Bravo. Lot 89, Joseph Sudelka, Still Life (no title) ca. 1952, vintage print, estimated at €18,000-23,000, sold for €300,750 ($400,295) (fees included). Lot 88, another untitled vintage print by Joseph Sudek (vase and dead rose), also from 1952 sold for €228,750 ($310,549) (fees included). Lot 55, “Portrait of the Eternal” ca. 1935 by Manuel Alvarez Bravo, a silver vintage print estimated at €70,000 – 90,000, sold for €228,750 ($$310,549) (fees included). Lot 11, “Notre Dame de Paris, 1923” by Eugène Atget, a vintage albumin print estimated at €40,000 – 60,000 sold for €168,750 ($229,093) (fees included). Edward Weston’s series of nudes, some previously unseen, did not find a buyer at the estimated €50,000 – 68,5000 (without fees). Furthermore, Simone Klein, Director of the Photographic Department for Europe, emphasized the emergence of German photographer Heinz Hajek-Halke’s work of which 11 of the 12 works sold. The vintage print “Monumental Erotica” from 1928-1932 sold for three times its estimated value at €34,350 (fees included). Full Results on www.sothebys.com

The next day, the Christie’s auction at its Parisian base at 9 avenue Matignon offered 65 photographic items and a portfolio from the Richard Avedon Foundation. 65 were sold, generating a total of €5,467,250 fees included. With the highest price being attributed to lot 16, “Dovina with Elephants, evening dress by Dior, Cirque d’Hiver, Paris, August 1955”. This signed exhibition print from 1978 (216.8cm x 166.7cm) originally estimated at €400,000 – 600,000 ($547,908 – 821,862) sold for €841,000 ($1,151,976) (fees included). The next major sale was “Andy Warhol and Group” from October 1969. Three unique signed, dated, and noted prints mounted on isorel estimated at €80,000 – 120,000 sold for €301,000 ($412,301). Then “Andy Warhold, artist, New York City, 20 August 1969”, silver print (150cm x 121.5cm) from 1993 estimated at €80,000 – 120,000 sold for €169,000 ($231,491) (fees included). Or “Stephanie Seymour, model, New York City”, a signed and numbered print from 1992 (155.2cm x 122cm) estimated at €120,000 – 180,000 sold for €265,000 ($362,989). There were also a few notable sales of Richard Avedon’s portfolio and album works during his career. “The Beatles Portfolio” from 1967 sold for €445,000, “Avedon Paris” for €169,000. The “Minneapolis Portfolio” (11 silver prints) edited in 1970 sold for €169,000 while “Family”, 1976, 69 prints made with Rolling Stone Magazine sold for €205,000 (fees included).

Finally on Sunday, November 21 at 2pm, Ader Nordmann auctioned off 338 lots of vintage, modern, and contemporary prints totaling €332,000 fees excluded. One sale confirming the enthusiasm for albums combining lots 57 and 58 in one album of 121 nudes on albumin paper dated 1890 and an album with prints and Japanese photographs reached €35,000 fees excluded. A sale that revived post-war humanistic photography with €6,500 (fees excluded) for a later print of Henri Cartier Bresson’s 1932 “Derrière la Gare St Lazare”. €1,900 for “Les Premières Neiges du Luxembourg” ca. 1955, an unsigned vintage print by Edouard Boubat (lot 201). Lot 230, “Regards d’acier”, a signed and dated vintage print by Josef Koudelka reached €5,000. Man Ray’s photogramme, lot 149, a photographic print from the movie “Fernand Leger, le ballet mecanique”, 1924, auctioned for €27,000. Or €5,700 for François Kollar’s “Fernande Kollar in the Mirror” (lot 148), a vintage color slide on a silver leaf background. A unique item measuring 25 × 20 cm dating back to 1955. And €12,000 for a 1975 silver print (30 × 40) “Silvana Mangano” by François-Marie Banier. Catalogue on http://www.ader-paris.fr/

For memory, the Piasa sale on Friday 19 November at 3pm in the hall 5 at the Hotel Drouot. Little interest was manifested for the 331 lots on auction, explaining why only 1/3 found buyers. Results on http://www.piasa.fr/

One more thing, Helmut Newton, “Domestic nude V: In my livingroom, Chateau Marmont, Hollywood, Los Angeles, 1992” has been sold for 225,850 € at Bukowskis, the swedish auction house in Stockholm on the 17th of november 2010.

Bernard Perrine, correspondant de l’Institut de France

Related: Thoughts On The Record Fall Auctions

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

THOUGHTS ON THE RECORD FALL ART AUCTIONS

We reported on the numerous record-setting and exuberant sales in this Fall's art auctions on our Twitter feed, which scrolls on the right side of this page. Now that the dust has settled, the "experts" are trying to make sense of the extraordinary results.

The just-completed Contemporary sales totaled over $1 BILLION dollars in sales (with Andy Warhol accounting for over $200 million alone); the Impressionist/Modern sales about another half - BILLION; and almost as an afterthought a Qianlong-dynasty vase sold for $85.9 MILLION dollars.


The Fall photo auctions in New York brought in $16 million.



We are often asked, "what does the broader art market have to do with the photography market?". In our judgement, a lot. It wasn't long ago that the argument existed whether photography was "art" or not. At least we are beyond that phase!


Two observations:

Richard Prince’s “Marlboro Man" (Untitled, Cowboy), below, set a record for a photograph when it sold for $3,401,000 at Sotheby’s in New York in 2007. Prince’s “Cowboy” series consisted of old Marlboro cigarette print ads that he re-photographed. And the Marlboro man was based on a LIFE magazine cover of a photograph by Leonard McCombe of a real cowboy.







The $63.36 million realized on last Monday at Phillips, de Pury by Andy Warhol's “Men in Her Life?” was done in silk-screen technique: the dark black and white picture endlessly repeats a photographic image published in LIFE magazine on April 13, 1962.





The prices for the "masters" of photography are a fraction of the prices for the masters of art. 

Photography's impact, relevance, influence, and relationship to the broader fine art field is still in its infancy.