The Eye of Photography presents artnet’s latest online auction, Face-to-Face: Portraits of Artists, on view from October 13 through 22. This sale features both Modern and Contemporary photography depicting famous artists in both self-portraits and portraits taken by others, with prints by Robert Frank, Robert Capa, John Chamberlain, and Andy Warhol, among others.
Face-to-Face: Portraits of Artists will be live for bidding through October 22 on artnet Auctions:
https://www.artnet.com/auctions/contemporary-editions-1015/
Today, The Eye of Photography presents a selection of prints from the sale.
• Arnold Newman / Willem de Kooning, 1959
Est. 8,000–10,000 USD
This vintage artist’s proof—printed the same year the photo was taken—was given to Willem de Kooning by Arnold Newman at the end of their photo shoot in de Kooning’s East Hampton studio in 1959. De Kooning kept the print until his death in 1997, after which it remained in de Kooning’s studio collection until it was acquired by its present owner in 2001.
• Robert Frank / Giacometti in Paris, 1962
Est. 8,000–12,000 USD
Taken during Robert Frank’s early years working in Paris, Giacometti in Paris is a seminal example of the portraits Frank took of his artistic colleagues. Hunched on a stool in his studio, the sculptor directs his unflinching gaze at the camera. The combination of Giacometti’s expression and the odd, dingy setting produce a mysterious and alluring image.
• John Chamberlain / Chamberlain and Chair (Self-Portrait), 1992
Est. 3,500–4,500 USD
Beginning in 1977, abstract sculptor John Chamberlain experimented with photography using a panoramic Widelux camera. He took many of his photographs without looking through the viewfinder and while moving the camera rapidly through the air, which often resulted in blurry or abstracted images. Late in his life, Chamberlain also delved into digital photography, and used Photoshop to manipulate images from his archive. Though most figures can usually be identified, the surrounding scenes are often blurred beyond recognition in colorful, swirling patterns that evoke his well-known sculptures. In this image, Chamberlain turned the camera on himself, but it is the bright yellow chair—rather than his own distorted figure—that becomes the focal point of the image.
This print was shown in “Wide Point: The Photography of John Chamberlain (1993–94),” an exhibition which traveled to the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton, New York, the Tampa Museum of Art in Florida, and to the Indianapolis Museum of Art.
• Yousuf Karsh / Georgia O’Keeffe, 1956
Est. 12,000–18,000 USD
Yousuf Karsh is widely celebrated for his portraits, which manage to capture both the serenity and seriousness of his famous subjects. Karsh was one of several carefully chosen photographers commissioned to document the life of artist Georgia O’Keeffe during her years outside of New York. Karsh’s portrait Georgia O’Keeffe (1956) depicts the distinguished artist in profile inside her New Mexico home and studio, beneath a dramatic wall-mounted skull with antlers.
• Robert Capa / Picasso and Francoise Gilot, 1948
Est. 3,000–5,000 USD
Picasso and Francoise Gilot is a fine example of Robert Capa’s series of photographs of Pablo Picasso in France. Here, Picasso and his wife are captured on the beach, with the warmth of the scene conveyed through the photograph’s rich tonal range. In this portrait, Capa highlights the significance of women in Picasso’s life, and the role of muse they played in his artistic production.
• Dan Budnik / David Smith, South Field, Terminal Iron Works, Bolton Landing, New York, 1962
Est. 3,000–5,000 USD
From Dan Budnik’s photo-essay on the artists of the 1950s New York School of Abstract Expressionism, this work is an excellent example of the photographer’s masterful portraits. Here, Budnik immortalizes sculptor David Smith as he contemplates his work at his rural studio in New York, where he kept his sculptures like bizarre crops in a field.
• Andy Warhol / Self-Portrait, 1977
Est. 18,000–24,000 USD
For Pop Art icon Andy Warhol, Polaroids were a critical part of his artistic process. In this rare Polaroid self-portrait from 1977, the artist is seated against a neutral background wearing an Interview magazine t-shirt emblazoned with his own signature. Warhol founded the magazine, nicknamed “The Crystal Ball of Pop,” in 1969, and it is still in circulation today. Accompanied by a signed and stamped certificate of authenticity from the Andy Warhol Foundation, this piece reveals a more vulnerable side of the usually inscrutable Warhol.
• Robert Frank / De Kooning, 1962
Est. 8,000–12,000 USD
Taken during Robert Frank’s years shooting in Paris and London, De Kooning is an early example from his series of artist portraits. Frank’s documentation of the artists of his time was wide-ranging, capturing many writers of the Beat generation as well as important New York painters—like Willem de Kooning—in his signature dark, grainy style.
