Modern and Contemporary Photography Auction at Villa Grisebach, Berlin
November 28, 2012
Photographs from pioneers like Karl Blossfeldt and Eugène Atget to contemporary artists like Daido Moriyama, Andres Serrano and Hiroshi Sugimoto span the offerings of 185 lots to be sold at Grisebach’s Modern and Contemporary Photography Auction on Wednesday, November 28 in Berlin.
KARL BLOSSFELDT
Equisetum Hiemale, Winterschatel-Halm, 1900-1910
Gelatin silver-contact print, 1915-1925, 12,8 x 18 cm
(c) Courtesy Villa Grisebach Auktionen, Berlin
In the early years of photography the brothers Paul and Prosper Henry made use of the new technology to gaze at the stars. Their telescopic pictures of “Cassiopée” and “Gémeaux” in albumen prints of 1886 and 1887 unite science with poetry (each € 4,000/6,000). In contrast, Karl Blossfeldt (Schielo 1865-1932 Berlin) worked with extreme close-ups, his photographs of plants became famous. A contact print of “Equisetum Hiemale, Winterschachtelhalm,” 1915-1925, formerly in the Blossfeldt estate, will be offered at an estimate of € 18,000/22,000. Another extremely rare print is the experimental “Fußgängervor Karren (Studie zum ‘Ein-Fuß-Gänger’)”, ca. 1950, a vintage from the estate of Otto Steinert (Sarrebruck 1915-1978 Essen) (€ 20,000/25,000).
ALEXANDER RODCHENKO (Saint Petersburg 1891 - 1956 Moscow)
MUSEUM SERIES PORTFOLIO NUMBER 2: PORTRAITS, 1924–1937
28 Gelatin silver prints, 1997 by A. Lavrentiev and Yuri Plaksin.
From 15,4 x 22,5 cm to 24,4 x 18,4 cm
(c) Alexander Rodchenko, A. Lavrentiev, Yuri Plaksin
Courtesy Villa Grisebach Auktionen, Berlin
Courtesy Villa Grisebach Auktionen, Berlin
Additional highlights of modern photography include vintages by Margaret Bourke-White, “A.T. & T. long line towers,” 1938 (€ 6,000/8,000), André Kertész’s “Têtes Lumineuses,” created in ca. 1929 in the circles of the Paris Surrealists (€ 12,000/15,000) and Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart (Osnabrück 1899 - 1962 Ulm) “Photo-montage No.7,” 1928/1929 (€ 6,000/8,000). Others are Harold Edgerton’s movement study of a tennis player, 1939 (€ 8,000/10,000), Irving Penn’s “Still Life with Grape and Moth, N.Y.,” 1976/1977 (€ 10,000/15,000), "Dunes. Oceano," 1936 by Edward Weston (Highland Park, Illinois 1886-1958 Wildcat Hill) (€ 18,000/22,000), Josef Sudek’s “Steinerner Traum,” 1953 (€ 5,000/7,000) and a still life by Jaroslav Rössler from the 1930s (€ 7,000/9,000).
EDWARD WESTON
DUNES. OCEANO, 1936
Gelatin silver print, 1940s, 19 x 23,9 cm
(c) Edward Weston - Courtesy Villa Grisebach Auktionen, Berlin
The leading lots in the contemporary photography selection are two impressive prints, characteristically reworked with animal blood, by Peter Beard, “Cheetah Cubs” (€ 20,000/30,000) and “Kenya Elephant” (€ 30,000/40,000), Andreas Gursky’s “Singapore II” (€ 15,000/20,000), Robert Mapplethorpe’s “Self Portrait (with Make-up)” (€ 12,000/15,000), 13 C-prints from Thomas Ruff’s “Interieurs” (€ 15,000/20,000), as well as works by Philip-Lorca di Corcia, Axel Hütte, Jürgen Klauke, Annie Leibovitz, Daido Moriyama, Martin Parr, Andres Serrano and many others.
HIROSHI SUGIMOTO
Los Altos Drive-in, from the serie Theathers, 1993
Gelatin silver print, 42,2 x 54 cm (47,9 x 57,7 cm)
(c) Hiroshi Sugimoto - Courtesy Villa Grisebach Auktionen, Berlin
The photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto (b. 1948 Tokyo) will be represented by four works, two from the “Theaters” series (each € 15,000/20,000), and “Farnsworth House” and “Chapel of Notre Dame du Haut” from the “Architecture” series (each € 10,000/15,000). Hiroshi Sugimoto’s large-format “S.C. Johnson Building” (€ 50,000/70,000) will be offered on Thursday, November 29 in Grisebach’s “Selected Works” auction.
Fasanenstraße 25 • D-10719 Berlin
Website: www.villa-grisebach.de
