PHILLIPS ANNOUNCES HIGHLIGHTS FROM LONDON AUCTION OF PHOTOGRAPHS ON 6 NOVEMBER
AUCTION TO FEATURE PHOTOGRAPHS BY ALEXANDER RODCHENKO, HELMUT NEWTON, IRVING PENN, ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE, AND ED RUSCHA
ALSO INCLUDING THE WORLD PREMIERE OF THE NEW SERIES ON THE SET OF JAMES BOND’S SPECTRE BY ANDERSON & LOW
AUCTION: 6 November 2015 2pm GMT
VIEWING: 30 October – 6 November
AUCTION LOCATION: Phillips, 30 Berkeley Square, W1J 6EX
LINK TO MORE INFORMATION: http://www.phillips.com/auctions/auction/UK040215
LONDON – 26 October 2015 – Phillips is pleased to announce the 6 November Photographs auction which will offer 119 lots showcasing the best of both classic and contemporary photography. The sale will include a strong selection of works by many of the leading artists in the field, including Alexander Rodchenko, Helmut Newton, Irving Penn, Robert Mapplethorpe, Ed Ruscha, Nick Knight, William Eggleston, Florian Maier–Aichen and David Lachapelle, among others. Phillips will offer a special curated section of the Photographs Auction for the third time. This section titled Ultimate, offers unique prints by hand-picked artists. The auction will premiere five photographs made exclusively for Ultimate by Anderson & Low from the set of the recently released James Bond movie Spectre.
A leading highlight is Steps, 1929, by celebrated Russian artist Alexander Rodchenko (1891-1956) (estimate: £140,000 to £180,000). From 1924 until the end of his life Rodchenko, or Rodcha as he preferred to be known, remained fascinated with the medium of photography and was inseparable from his Leica camera. He was attracted to photography’s wide scope and possibilities, which inspired him to build his own dark room for performing his ‘magic’ – conjuring faces of his close collaborative circle, visions of his family and the surrounding streets of Moscow. As he wrote in his diary, ‘I want to take some quite incredible photos that have never been taken before, of life itself, absolutely real, photographs which are simple and complex at the same time, which will amaze and overwhelm people… then it will be worthwhile working and fighting for Photography as an art’’.
IRVING PENN
Pablo Picasso at La Californie, Cannes, France , 1957
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000
Irving Penn's Picasso at La Californie, Cannes, France, 1957, is expected to realise £60,000 to £80,000. According to The Art Institute of Chicago, this striking portrait “...captures more than the man and the elaborate embroidery on the collar of his bullfighter's cape. The tight cropping of Picasso's face and deep highlight and shadow across it flatten the image, mirroring the breakdown of the world into shapes Picasso brought about with Cubism. Ironically, that window onto the world that Cubism eventually shattered in painting is literally reflected in Picasso's left eye. It represents not only the world beyond the viewfinder and studio, but also the tool of the current artist at work — the natural, ideally northern, daylight in which Penn preferred to work.”
ANDERSON & LOW
Shooting Gallery, Old MI6 Building from On the Set of James Bond's Spectre , 2015
Estimate £7,000 - 9,000
As part of Ultimate and coinciding with the release of Spectre, the 24th film in the James Bond franchise, the auction will premiere the captivating new series On the Set of James Bond’s Spectre created by the artist duo Anderson & Low. Having gained exclusive on-the-set access to the film, the artists chose as their subject the spectacular sets for which the Bond films are known; they explore the idea of a constructed narrative, and the relationship between reality and fantasy. The duo had previously created behind-the-scenes portraits around Skyfall, two of which were acquired by the National Portrait Gallery. The November auction will offer five one-off large-scale photographs, each measuring 106.7 x 142.2 cm (42 x 56 in.) and offered with an estimate of £7,000 to £9,000. The photographs from the series include Shooting Gallery, Old MI6 Building; and Palazzo, Rome. Images of the other three photographs will be published on Phillips.com and 007.com at noon London local time on 27 October 2015 after the release of the film.
ROBERT MAPPLETHORPE
Self Portrait , 1980
Estimate £50,000 - 70,000
With his 1950s hairdo, the dark leather jacket and a cigarette in the corner of his mouth, Mapplethorpe portrays himself as the quintessential rebel from a bygone era. We immediately are reminded of another cultural icon James Dean and his 1955 film Rebel Without a Cause. For Certain People, his 1985 book of portraits, Mapplethorpe chose this self-portrait for the cover image.
Prints of this image have been acquired by the following institutions: Guggenheim Museum, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Getty Museum/LACMA, Los Angeles; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Tate/National Galleries of Scotland, UK; and Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid. Consistent with other early prints from the edition, this print, numbered ‘2/15’, is signed, dated and numbered in ink by Mapplethorpe in the margin.
ED RUSCHA
Gasoline Stations , 1962 (detail)
Estimate £40,000 - 60,000
Twenty six Gasoline Stations was the first in a series of seminal photobooks by Ed Ruscha. The present lot is a portfolio comprised of 10 of the 26 images included in the original book (estimate: £40,000 to £60,000).
Ruschaʼs Gasoline Stations draws upon a history of American photography from Walker Evans to Robert Frank, both of whom documented everyday American life in the mid-20th century. Unlike Evans and Frank, who found their subject matter in distant parts of the United States, Ruscha stuck to the familiar. He started this project when he decided on the title, and only then did he begin to photograph the gas stations. At a time when the automobile signaled affluence and freedom, Ruscha by chance through a journey from his hometown of Oklahoma City to college in California created the American dream of going west via recording the pit-stops that lined the now iconic Route 66. Gasoline Stations exploits the banality of the content to celebrate the rich associations of car and highway culture during the second half of the 20th century.
HELMUT NEWTON
Self Portrait with Wife and Models, Paris, 1981
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000
Helmut Newton created a world as coherent as any novelist or as arresting as any visionary painter. Astoundingly, he built this world with great success within the confines of fashion photography. From inside this soft, sensual and humorous tableaux, he creates a place inhabited by larger-than-life women who dominate their domestic arenas with varying degrees of fetish. In the oversized contact sheet entitled Self Portrait with Wife and Models, we are privileged to witness the creation of one of these tiny utopias: the master and his muse, exposure of naked skin, the repetition and rhythm of curves and spikey heels, and finally, the realisation that everyone in the image has become the model.
Phillips is a leading global platform for buying and selling 20th and 21st Century art and design. With dedicated expertise in the areas of Art, Design, Photographs, Editions, Watches, and Jewelry, Phillips offers professional services and advice on all aspects of collecting. Auctions and exhibitions are held at salerooms in New York, London and Geneva, while clients are further served through representative offices based throughout Europe, the United States and Asia. Phillips also offers an online auction platform accessible anywhere in the world.
*Estimates do not include buyer’s premium; prices achieved include the hammer price plus buyer’s premium.
VISIT US AT WWW.PHILLIPS.COM
Contacts:
LONDON
Alex Godwin-Brown
Head of Press, Europe
agodwin-brown@phillips.com
+ 44 20 7318 4036
NEW YORK
Michael Sherman
Chief Communications and Public Relations Officer
msherman@phillips.com
+1 212 940 1384
HEADQUARTERS
450 Park Avenue
New York NY 10022
+1 212 940 1200
30 Berkeley Square
London W1J 6EX
+44 20 7318 4010