SALE: Photographs in New York
LOCATION: Sotheby's, Christie's, Phillips New York
DATE: April 3-5
ABOUT: The black-and-white image is in the spotlight this week, as New York's major auction houses all hold big photograph sales. The big names on top of everyone's catalogue estimates include Irving Penn, Robert Mapplethorpe, Ansel Adams, and Diane Arbus.
The top estimate of the week is Diane Arbus's "A Box of Ten Photographs" — including some of Arbus's most iconic images — at Sotheby's on Tuesday, which could fetch $400,000-$600,000 (of course, in a sense it's a deal because you get 10 photos for the price of one!). The works were printed after Arbus's death by Neil Selkirk, who is also credited in the catalogue. For the nature-lover, Ansel Adam's silvery print of Mount McKinley and Wonder Lake in Denali National Park, Alaska (1947), is the second highest estimate at $200,000-$300,000.
At Phillips on Wednesday, Irving Penn's portrait of his supermodel wife, Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn, "Woman With Roses on Her Arm," from 1950 is estimated to sell for $200,00-300,000. The cover lot, Cindy Sherman's "Untitled Film Still #49," 1979 (est. $300,000-$400,000) from the artist's most famous series, depicts a hostess in a party dress standing alone at the bar with a glass in one hand. The first 28 lots of the sale are actually a separate single-owner sale from a West Coast collector entitled "The Face of Modernism." Alfred Stieglitz's 1918 portrait of Georgia O'Keeffe could bring $200,000-$300,000.
An Irving Penn work tops the estimates at Christie's. The iconic woman with in a chic hat, face fully covered in netting, that he shot for the cover of "Vogue" in 1950 is expected to bring $200,000-$300,000. Estimated at the same price is Christian Schad's collage-like photogram "Untitled, Schadographie Nr. 17" (1919). Christie's is also offering William Eggleston's "Untitled," (1973) estimated to fetch $70,000-$90,000. Earlier this month, the auction house put on a sale dedicated to work by the photographer, which brought in $5.9 million, more than twice the $2.7 estimate.
Sale: Photographs
Location: Sotheby's New York
Date: April 3, 10am
Sale: Photographs
Location: Phillips de Pury New York
Date: April 4, 10am and 2pm
Sale: Photographs
Location: Christie's New York
Date: April 5, 10am and 2pm
OTHER INTERNATIONAL SALES:
Sale: Sotheby's Hong Kong Sales
Location: Hong Kong
Date: March 31-April 4
Sale: Collection Victor Hugo
Location: Christie's Paris
Date: April 4, 11:30am and 2:30pm
Sale: Property from the Estate of Filmmaker Gary Winick
Location: Swann New York
Date: April 4, 10:30am and 2pm
To see work from next week's photography sales, click on the slide show.