PHOTOGRAPHY MARKET APRIL, 2012

ArtMarketInsight [Apr 2012
 Via ArtPrice
 

Photographs [Apr 12]

Sotheby's photography sale on 6 April last year (2011) was particularly successful, generating a sales revenue of $4.5 million (excluding fees) and 82% of the works sold. Two days later (8 April), its rival Christie’s generated nearly as much ($4.2m) from a photography sale, and then on 9 April 2011, Phillips de Pury & Company ended the week with a massive photography sale (259 lots, 90% sold) that generated $4.6m. Together the three leading auction houses generated $13.3m from their New York Photography sales in April 2011. A year later, this figure has been revised downward by $1m primarily due to a sharp decline at Sotheby's, whose unsold ratio rose from 18% to 31%. The other two auctioneers maintained their sales figures with $4.2m at Phillips de Pury & Company on 4 April 2012 (19% unsold) and no less than $5.38m at Christie's on 5 April 2012 (19% unsold).

The Sotheby's total would not have been so low had it not failed to sell its star lot: a box containing 10 photographs of Diane ARBUS, each numbered as one of a limited series of 50. These photographs, taken by Neil SELKIRK in the early 1970s (Diane Arbus died in 1971) were estimated at between $400,000 and $600,000. And yet the most famous pictures of this limited edition can fetch $80,000 at auctions, as we saw with Identical twins acquired in April 2010 at Phillips de Pury & Company. The same subject, printed during the artist’s lifetime and signed by the artist, fetches between $200,000 to $400,000 on average! If the classic favourites such as Ansel Easton ADAMS, William Henry Fox TALBOT, Robert FRANK, Irving PENN and Robert MAPPLETHORPE sold without much trouble, more contemporary signatures have not yet caught up with their 2007 prices. For example, Andres SERRANO’s Black Mary (100.3 x 68.6 cm, limited edition of 10) did not reach its low estimate of $30,000, although it fetched $34,000 in 2001 and $36,000 in 2007.

Christie's did better thanks notably to 25 photographs by Irving PENN. His famous Black and white Vogue Cover reached $360,000, the second best hammer price for this very graphic 1950 photo (the best was $400,000 in April 2008 at Christie's). In fact, the old Vogue cover generated the best result of the three days of sales dedicated to photography.

Earlier this year, on 12 March 2012, Christie's New York dispersed no less than 36 photographs by William EGGLESTON of which 16 found buyers between $100,000 and $480,000. The work of this pioneer of colour in art photography rose in value by 23% between 2004 and 2008. The subsequent contraction in his prices over the 2009-2010 period provided an excellent buy opportunity. Nowadays his small formats are reaching unprecedented prices, such as his Untitled (1973) (21.1 x 47.7 cm) which seems to crystallise the America of the 1970s and which fetched $200,000 on 5 April against an initial estimate of $70,000 – $90,000. Indeed, Christie's mammoth photography sale in New York on 5 April offered another 15 works by William EGGLESTON, most of which were priced between $5,000 and $15,000. Other notable results at the Christie's 5 April Photographs sale included $180,000 for Schadographie Nr. 17 by Christian SCHAD, champion of the New Objectivity, well known for his paintings, setting a new record for a photo by the artist.

The collectors of legendary photographs hotly contested Helmut NEWTON’s famous Self Portrait with Wife and Models ($75,000, whereas his less famous shots generally fetch between $9,500 and $12,000) and Robert FRANK’s Trolley - New Orleans which sold for $360,000 against a high estimate of $150,000. There was also a lot of 29 photogravures by Edward STEICHEN which fetched $100,000. Meanwhile, the Contemporary signatures maintained their prices next to the great classics and works signed by Massimo VITALI, Adam FUSS, Vik MUNIZ, Candida HÖFER or Hiroshi SUGIMOTO found buyers for between $45,000 and $55,000.

The prices of pictures from the 1960s to 1980s have also climbed steeply: Phillips de Pury & Company recorded an impressive record for Candy Cigarette (1989, ed. 25) by Sally MANN which sold for $220,000 against a high estimate of $60,000, as well as a new record for Francesca WOODMAN whose Untitled, Rome,1977, was acquired for $140,000 against an estimate of $15,000 to $20,000. Above all, there was a result of $520,000 for Cindy SHERMAN’s Untitled Film Still # 49(1979) against an estimate of $400,000!

As usual, these mammoth sales also offered plenty of affordable works such as chromogenic prints by the famous Cindy Sherman or albumen prints by Eugène ATGET from $2,000.

The next major photographs auctions will be held in London in May: Christie's will be offering a hundred lots estimated between £30,000 and £120,000 on 16 May with a Diptych by Andreas GURSKY (Art Market Confidence Index, est. £80,000 - £120,000), the Guggenheim Museum, New York seen by Hiroshi SUGIMOTO (est. £70,000- £90,000) or a large format print of Helmut NEWTON’s Self-Portrait with Wife and Models ‘Vogue’ Studios, Paris 1980 (est. £70,000 - £90,000).

A week before these sales, the world of Contemporary photography will be looking forward to Christie's Post-War & Contemporary Art Evening Sale in New York on 8 May which includes an Untitled # 96 by Cindy SHERMAN from her Centerfold series (1981). Recall that another copy of the same work fetched no less than $3.4m in May 2011, becoming for a while, the world’s most expensive Contemporary art photograph. The copy submitted for auction on May 8th will be a good test of the high end of the art photography market.

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 Related: Drutt Report - Photography Reconsidered

PHOTOGRAPHY MARKET 2011



We received a New Year's email from Penelope Dixon and Associates announcing the relocation of their headquarters to New York City. The newsletter also offered a review of the state of the photography market as we enter 2011.

"We also thought we would take the opportunity to share a brief synopsis of our market analysis for 2010 as follows:


Although the broader art market saw a decline in value throughout 2009, photography remained relatively stable in 2010 with auction values throughout the year that were close to 2008 levels. In addition to sales at auction, photographs offered at shows such as AIPAD (Association of International Photography Art Dealers) and Art Basel Miami Beach have been realistically priced which has helped to spur sales for galleries and dealers.

In the first half of 2010, the photography market continued to show signs of stability and growth with a notable sale of Irving Penn works at Christie’s, New York in April where every photograph sold, many for considerably more than the estimates. In addition, were the sale of the Polaroid Collection at Sotheby’s in June and the Avedon sale at Christie’s in November, both of which saw new auction records for several artists. An analysis of auction sales over the past year indicates that that global photography sales have returned to levels seen just prior to the peak of the market. This trend will hopefully continue throughout 2011, providing further new growth in the photography market."

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