Ernesto Pujol, ‘Boy + Dog’ (from “Becoming the Land, Kansas”). Starting bid $50.
Ernesto Pujol works in photography, painting and installation art, among other mediums. His subjects often deals with themes of exile, memories, as well as the concepts of liberty and gender. Pujol’s large-scale photograph, “Becoming the Land,” was commissioned by the Salina Art Center in Kansas. The project's goal was to demonstrate the transformation of the region’s open prairies in strict grids of cultivated farmland.
Thomas Struth, ‘Gasse mit Platanen Wuhan/China.’ Starting bid $50.
Thomas Struth has held an interest in China dating back to his high school years, when he first began researching the Cultural Revolution. He visited China four times between 1995 and 2002, often capturing streets such as this area of Wuhan, which in many ways appears to be a scene out of the 19th century.
David Hockney, ‘The Skater N. Y. Dec. 1982.’ Starting bid $50.
David Hockney’s first foray into photography began in early 1982 when he started working with a Polaroid camera. He quickly switched to a conventional 35mm camera format, which he found more liberating and convenient for his collages, as each individual image wasn’t constricted by the Polaroid’s white borders. With his 35mm work, Hockney had to keep the whole picture in his head and gradually build up the image to create his large-scale photo-collages.
Thomas Struth, ‘Strasse in San Francisco’ (Street in San Francisco). Starting bid $50.
Struth’s carefully considered photographs of vacant streets throughout Europe and the United States were part of an effort to “summarise a city.” In this image, made later in his career and rendered in colour, he builds on his earlier matter-of-fact style in black and white. Here he captures San Francisco’s Chinatown, a quintessential tourist stop.
Hiroshi Sugimoto, California Condor. Starting bid $50.
Sugimoto visited the American Museum of Natural History when he arrived in New York in 1974. Of the exhibits, he recalled: “The stuffed animals positioned before painted backdrops looked utterly fake, yet by taking a quick peek with one eye closed, all perspective vanished, and suddenly they looked very real.” Indeed, the taxidermy condors pictured here are nearly rendered living through the lens of the photographer’s camera.
Nan Goldin, ‘Trees by the river, Munich.’ Starting bid $50.
“The landscapes aren’t simply pretty postcards. They’re often imbued with a kind of melancholia. There’s usually some kind of intense emotional state that inspires the picture. A crisis of loss or a feeling of joy and freedom. A lot of the recent landscapes are infused with a sense of emptiness and loneliness.” –Nan Goldin
Loretta Lux, Study of a Boy 1 and 2 (one of two photos in this lot shown). Starting bid $50.
This photograph by Loretta Lux was the cover image of the 19 April 2004 issue of New York Magazine to illustrate a story about toddler therapy. Set against simple backgrounds, the children in Lux’s photographs appear remote and unengaged but their presence is always powerful.
Gregory Crewdson, Untitled (Sod Mound). Starting bid $50.
In his photographs of suburban scenes, Gregory Crewdson mixes the ordinary with the supernatural to create fantastical and eerie moments. His images suggest a narrative and leave the viewer guessing. Is this the aftermath of a bad landscaping job or an alien invasion? Meticulously staged, each of Crewdson’s photographs results from weeks of complicated planning.
Michal Rovner, Decoy No. 3. Starting bid $50.
For her Decoy series, Michal Rovner distorted radar and surveillance images of The Gulf War. From televised reports, she created photographs of indistinct people with blurred features.
Matthew Barney, Cremaster 3: Plumb Line. Starting bid $50.
Cremaster 3 is the culmination of Matthew Barney’s epic five-part Cremaster cycle. The series consists of five feature-length films intentionally created out of order – Barney made Cremaster 4 first (1994) and Cremaster 3 last (2002) – thereby forming an unconventional and non-linear narrative consisting not only of the films but also of related photographs, sculptures, drawings and books. Filmed in various locations New York including the Guggenheim Museum and the Chrysler Building, Cremaster 3 is set in part in the fantastical, art-deco 1930s.
Sotheby’s From Generation to Generation: Important Photographs from the Ames Collection Online auction brings together nearly 50 photographs by Thomas Struth, Matthew Barney, Nan Goldin, Roni Horn, Joel Sternfeld, David Hockney and more. With estimates ranging from $400 to $50,000, the photographs in this sale offer collectors many opportunities to bring home some big names at affordable price points. Click ahead for 10 photographs with estimates below $10,000.
From Generation to Generation: Important Photographs from the Ames Collection Online
5–18 December | Online