Sotheby’s October 3rd Photographs auction in New York featured a range of material from the 19th to 21st centuries. Strong examples of Surrealism by Hans Bellmer, Jindrich Styrsky, Man Ray, and Raoul Ubac are on offer. An eclectic selection of daguerreotypes from the 1850s to the present day was available, from a portrait of Commodore Matthew C. Perry to a study of Butterflies by Adam Fuss. The auction included a rare suite of 30 mammoth-plate albumen prints of Yosemite Valley by Charles Leander Weed. A complete bound set of Alfred Stieglitz’s photographic quarterly, Camera Work, was on offer, with all but the last issue coming originally from the collection of photographer Arthur Siegel.
Modernism was represented in works by Paul Strand, Imogen Cunningham, and in four Edward Weston photographs originally purchased by Ichiro Misumi from The Museum of Modern Art and from Weston himself. Three-dimensional works such as Brett Weston’s carved wood sculpture of An Abstraction of a School Desk and A Pair of Needlepoint Cushions by George Platt Lynes added some unexpected variety to the auction. Also available was a selection of portfolios by Eliot Porter, Brett Weston, Louis Faurer, and Elliott Erwitt. A mural-sized print of Peter Beard’s Rothschild’s Giraffes from The Uganda Line presented a rich array of color illustration that typifies Beard’s work. Contemporary offerings included Cindy Sherman’s Untitled #19 and Untitled #83, as well as works by Doug and Mike Starn, Marilyn Minter, and Robert Polidori, among others.
Among the highest realized prices:
Lot 25
Charles Leander Weed
Yosemite Valley and Big Tree Views
LOT SOLD. $374,500 (Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium)
Lot 137
Hans Bellmer
Self-Portrait with Die Puppe
LOT SOLD. $374,500 (Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium)
Lot 192
Cindy Sherman
Untitled Film Still #83
LOT SOLD. $182,500 (Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium)
Lot 198
Cindy Sherman
Untitled #19
LOT SOLD. $182,500 (Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium)
Lot 218
Peter Beard
’Rothschild’s giraffes from the Uganda line’
LOT SOLD. $182,500 (Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium)
Lot 80
Imogen Cunningham
1883-1976
’NUDES’ (TWO SISTERS)
LOT SOLD. $110,500 (Hammer Price with Buyer’s Premium)
Gilles Decamps
