ARGENTIC will have marked the world of Parisian photography. For 17 years, the site and then the gallery exhibited the big names in photography, revealing a passionate gaze, that of its founder Eric Boudry. It is the work he selected that will be offered to collectors during the auction on April 13th, 2023 at the Hôtel Drouot.
“If I had to remember only one quote on photography, it would be that of Paul Strand, inscribed at the opening of his exhibition at the American Art Museum of Giverny, in 2006: “I want to arouse great emotions from small things…”
This sentence sums up everything I love about these images accumulated over more than 40 years and it is still present in the work of the photographers I had the honor and joy of knowing and then exhibiting.
After around thirty exhibitions devoted mainly to French photography, it is my turn to pass the baton to you. Today, I part with the fund of the ARGENTIC gallery, with the pleasure of being able to show you one last time these “little things”, these fragments of eternity.
On the occasion of this sale will be presented nearly 400 works by Claude Batho, Édouard Boubat, Brassaï, Denis Brihat, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Lucien Clergue, Jean Dieuzaide, Elliott Erwitt, Irina lonesco, Izis, Jean-François Jonvelle, Josef Koudelka, Bernard Plossu, René-Jacques, Marc Riboud, Willy Ronis, Roger Schall, Jean-Pierre Sudre, Sabine Weiss as well as the photographs of Robert Doisneau from the Porcile Collection.
I invite you to discover them in this catalog and see them on display at the Hôtel des Ventes de Drouot where I would have great pleasure in meeting you or seeing you again. Thanks to you, these photographs will continue their lives towards other horizons. Because, after all, it is not we who are looking at them, but they are looking at us.”
Eric Boudry
Founder of the ARGENTIC site and gallery (2005-2022)
Exhibition: Tuesday April 11 11 a.m.-6 p.m., Wednesday April 12 11 a.m.-6 p.m. and Thursday April 13 11 a.m.-12 p.m.
Sale: Thursday April 13, 2023 2 p.m.
Drouot Paris – Room 15
Hotel Drouot – 9, rue Drouot 75009 Paris, France
Complete catalog and registrations: https://drouot.com/v/136967-
