T his October, Sotheby’s London and Paris Photographs departments join forces to present an exciting selection of works from some of the most celebrated names in photography from the 20th and 21st centuries. The European Photographs auction will give both established and first-time collectors the chance to acquire seminal works by masters of the medium including Helmut Newton, Diane Arbus, Wolfgang Tillmans, and Peter Beard.
Portraiture
Whether through a carte de visite or a selfie, portraiture has always been at the center of photography.
- 1924
- 1928
- 1930
- 1949
- 1953
- 1967
- 1985
- 1997
- 2002
- 2014
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1924 - Lot 63AUGUST SANDER | 'PAINTER (GOTTFRIED BROCKMANN)', 1924; AND 'DANCER (RAOUL HAUSMANN)', 1938
Estimate: 3,000 - 5,000 GBP
In a pursuit to document and immortalise the German society of the 20th century, Sander sought out to photograph ‘archetypes’. This was what eventually resulted in his seminal People of the 20th Century series. He divided his sitters into categories in a typological fashion: ‘The Farmer’, ‘The Skilled Tradesman’, ‘The Woman’, ‘Classes and Professions’, ‘The City’, and ‘The Last People’ and ‘The Artists’. In the latter is where we find his magnificent pieces, The Painter and The Dancer -
1928 - Lot 90EDWARD STEICHEN | 'CONRAD VEIDT', HOLLYWOOD, NO. 2 (DOUBLE EXPOSURE WITH LUPE VÉLEZ), 1928
Estimate: 6,000 - 8,000 GBP
During the late 1920s and early 30s, Edward Steichen was arguably one of the most celebrated names in the photography. He was a pivotal figure in the development of celebrity and fashion photography, especially in the United States. However, his exploration with the medium went beyond that as he explored new ways of portraying his well-known subjects. Such is the case in the extraordinary double exposure photograph, Conrad Veidt and Lupe Velez, Hollywood, 1928 (Juxtapositions) . This type of depiction elevated the work into the fine-art realm of photographic prints. -
1930 - Lot 64MAN RAY | 'JEAN COCTEAU WITH SELF-PORTRAIT WIRE STRUCTURE', CA.1925
Estimate: 6,000 - 8,000 GBP
One of the leading figures of the Surrealist movement was undoubtedly Man Ray, who was known primarily as a fashion and portrait photographer. In a contrary manner to painting, photography was very much rooted in the ‘real’ world, and as a result it was up to the artist to modify their creations into becoming a surrealist work of art - such is the case with Jean Cocteau . This photograph depicts Cocteau examining one of his self-portraits, with the shadows being cast onto his face, almost creating a second mask. The piece is printed as a carte postale and is accompanied by text in the lower margin, adding to its poetic and futile nature, very much on par with the spirit of Surrealism. -
1949 - Lot 129SEYDOU KEÏTA | 'UNTITLED (FATHER WITH DAUGHTER)', BAMAKO, MALI, 1949-1951
Estimate: 15,000 - 20,000 GBP
The work of Malian photographer, Seydou Keïta, eloquently portrays the society of Bamako during its era of transition from a cosmopolitan French colony to an independent capital. His portraits, such as Untitled (Father with Daughter) are extremely captivating because they manage to balance both a sense of formality and intimacy with his sitters. Through the use of multiple decorations and props, trademark backgrounds and striking poses, Keïta was able to produce some of the most outstanding portraits of our time. -
1953 - Lot 125RICHARD AVEDON | 'MARELLA AGNELLI, NEW YORK STUDIO', DECEMBER, 1953
Estimate: 40,000 - 60,000 GBP
This striking portrait of Marella Agnelli by Richard Avedon was part of a feature called ‘Beauty of Our Time’ in the April 1954 issue of Harper’s Bazaar. Agnelli’s beauty was not stereotypical, with her long neck and semi-Modigliani almond face. However, Avedon was enamoured by her, “If there’s one thing that moves me, it’s when something unexpected happens in the face or the proportion. The most beautiful woman I ever photographed was Signora Gianni Agnelli.”. This portrait is seminal to the history of fashion because it goes beyond it - there are no accessories or garments in the shot, yet it epitomises a moment in fashion and culture. -
1967 - Lot 84IRVING PENN | 'DAHOMEY CHILDREN', 1967
Estimate: 15,000 - 20,000 GBP
In 1967 Irving Penn photographed in Dahomey Africa, now the Republic of Benin, for American Vogue. This body of work includes landscape photographs, depictions of clay sculptures of the deity Legba, and iconic portraits of the native people, such as Dahomey Children . For these portraits, Penn made us of his emblematic portable studio, which was comprised of a neutral backdrop and natural light. This approach was something he used recurrently during his practice both in his fashion and documentary work. -
1985 - Lot 18THOMAS RUFF | 'UNTITLED (BERND JUNGER)', 1985
Estimate: 18,000 - 25,000 GBP
The subjects in Thomas Ruff’s series Portraits do not read like open books, offering a piece of their thoughts to the viewer. On the contrary, Ruff standardised his technique when taking these photographs, such as Untitled (Bernd Jünger) ,1985 , by shooting every sitter in the same way, in front of an austere backdrop, and printed in an oversized format. Ruff wanted to move away from the romantic idea of the portrait and formalise them in a way that is reminiscing to topographic work, something very much influenced by his mentors Bernd & Hilla Becher. -
1997 - Lot 50WOLFGANG TILLMANS | 'SELBST PORTRÄT', AUGUST 1997
Estimate: 3,000 - 5,000 GBP
Within Wolfgang Tillmans’ all-encompassing photographic practice, he is well-known for his candid, intimate and honest portraits, usually depicting those closest to him. However, in Selbst Portrat , the sitter becomes the artist. This self-portrait although a contemporary work, is very much rooted in the traditional fashion of artist’s before him such as Rembrandt. The viewer sees Tillmans at ease, showing barely no type of emotions, remaining in control of the shot englobed by the throne-looking armchair. Tillmans is able to produce images that are disquieting through their unstable use of the familiar and the unknown – describing his work, he has said, “I want the pictures to be working in both directions.” -
2002 - Lot 55CINDY SHERMAN | UNTITLED, 2002
Estimate: 40,000 - 60,000 GBP
Famed for her conceptual self-portraits, it would pointless to tackle the work of Cindy Sherman in an attempt to search for her ‘self’ within it. Sherman is considered one of the defining artists of the Pictures Generation, a group of artists who, beginning in the 1970s, synthesised shrewd explorations of identity with the changing face of mass media and popular American culture. As is the case in Untitled 2002-2008 , the artist makes use of garments, wigs and other objects as props to become and perform a new persona. As Chuck Close says, ‘Cindy always has to have role… there is no ‘real’ Cindy in any of that work. She’s perhaps the art world’s greatest actress’. -
2014 - Lot 110RICHARD LEAROYD | 'AGNES', 2014
Estimate: 40,000 - 60,000 GBP
Richard Learoyd’s sublime portraits, such as Agnes, 2014 , are unique cibachrome prints created using a camera obscura. His London studio is comprised of two rooms, one where the subject sits, the other is a light-sealed room with an opening for a lens and a wall where the light-sensitive paper rests. Once the paper has been exposed, it immediately is developed in-house and let to dry. As Learoyd puts it, “I see my work more in the lineage of the French—referring to daguerreotypes: those non-reproducible photographic objects whose multi-planed surface and miraculous depth of field fascinate me. With my work I am interested in the moment when the image becomes dye and colour, when the illusion of it being a reflection or projection breaks down. I think you get that sense with daguerreotype images: you see the object before the illusion. With my pictures, the illusion is very strong and breaks suddenly, and often only momentarily, which is something I like.”
Everyday Intimacy by Wolfgang Tillmans
In a conversation with curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, Wolfgang Tillmans explained, “It’s an emotional impulse to capture something—to represent a powerful presence as I have encountered it, but also to make a copy of it. I want to preserve it and to say, “This is true, this is important, I want there to be more of this.”
This comprehensive selection of works by Tillmans touches upon all the main subjects in the artist’s practice - from depictions of his friends, such as Dan, to documentations of his ‘banal’ surroundings as in Window Caravaggio, to his later abstract works, Paper Drop Star.
No matter what the subject is, there is an undeniable presence of intimacy and honesty in the works that is extremely enticing for the viewer. As Tillmans puts it, ”My technical approach has always been that I want to approximate my pictures to what it feels like to look through my eyes."
Spotlight on Women Photographers
During the course of the history of art, women have very often been, and still are, the subject matter of the work. However, when the female presence is also behind the camera, there is a shift in the understanding and meaning of the work.
In works such as Ana Mendieta’s Untitled (from the series Siluetas) or Francesca Woodman’s Untitled (Laying Nude), both of which are arguably self-portraits, express a feeling of solitude and fragility that is empowering, although hurtful, it belongs to them.
Annie Leibovitz’s June Omura and Vivian Sassen’s Mimi, could be classified under the spectrum of fashion photography. In these two depictions it is interesting how each artist makes use of their own gaze by cropping and accentuating particular features in the woman’s body, as a means of re-appropriating their own image. This is also the case in the intimate work by Mona Kuhn, Kai And Luzia.
Contrary to the works above, we find Iho Iho from Cristina de Middel’s seminal photobook and series Afronauts. This beautiful portrait is part of the artist’s seminal photobook and series The Afronauts. The project is a pseudo-documentary that blends fact and fiction in order to tell the story of Edwuard Makuka, a Zambian science teacher, who in 1964 decided to train the first African crew to travel to the moon. His plan was to use an aluminium rocket to put a woman, two cats and a missionary into Space.
This selection of pioneering works all challenge traditional roles in the history of art, through their multiple forms and backgrounds.
Into the Wild with Peter Beard
Through collaged photographs, diary entries, colourful sketches, found ephemera and smears of blood, Peter Beard’s work has documented a wide arrange of subjects with unique and iconic eye.
This selection celebrates some of the late artist’s most iconic and captivating works.
Woman into Man, Paris, 1979
As fashion photographers pushed artistic boundaries in the 20th century, they created seminal images that came to define entire decades. Including works by the likes of Norman Parkinson, Melvin Sokolsky, Jeanloup Sieff and featuring sitters such as Helena Christensen and Kate Moss.
Amongst some of the pre-eminent fashion photographers of the 20th century we find Horst P. Horst. His use of light and surreal illusion was unrivalled, resulting in a sixty year long career. During the 1940s, he predominantly worked at the Condé Nast studio in New York, and is where he shot the beautiful portrait of Carmen Face Massage, 1946. This stunning photograph captures Horst’s delicate and intricate approach to composition. As he famously said in 1984, ‘Fashion is an expression of the times. Elegance is something else again.’
Another iconic works is Richard Avedon’s Nastassja Kinkski and the Serpent, exudes a timeless eroticism. Intertwined with a boa constrictor, grappling with temptation, seduction and power, Kinski is clearly referencing deeply rooted concepts in classical art and mythology, most notoriously the story of Adam and Eve and the serpent that tricked Eve to take an apple from the Tree of Knowledge.
Another quintessential photographer in the field of fashion is Helmut Newton. He drew visual inspiration from fashion, documentaries, eroticism and film noir, skilfully and elegantly synthesising the era of the 1980s. For Newton, his role as a subversive photographer was to “seduce, amuse and entertain”. This notion is perfectly captured in the stunning print Man Into Woman, Paris, 1979.
Architecture and The Great Outdoors
Ever since photography became a portable medium, it moved away from the studios and into the outdoors. This resulted in an exploration of nature and the landscape as seen through the works of Ansel Adams and Sebastiao Salgado. In a similar fashion, other artists turned their lenses to document those entities that were occupying the outdoors, architectural spaces, and their relation with the environment around them. Seminal works pertaining to this subject include photographs by Hiroshi Sugimoto, Thomas Ruff and Bernd & Hilla Becher.
