Jerry Uelsmann, Room #1, 1963. View lot >
Building on the success of our October 2022 auction of photographs from The Peter C. Bunnell Collection, Phillips now features an additional selection in “The Eye That Shapes,” running from 25 January to 1 February. This is an online-only auction, with all works offered at NO RESERVE.
Now on view — see works in person at Phillips New York | 432 Park Avenue
25 January – 1 February (Closed Sunday, the 29th)
JERRY UELSMANN (b. 1934)
Room #1, 1963
Gelatin silver print, 9 x 13.5″
ESTIMATE $1,500–2,500
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Picked by Sarah Krueger in Photographs
With its evocative layering of imagery, Jerry Uelsmann’s Room #1 is a photograph that I find endlessly fascinating. Beginning in the 1950s, Uelsmann developed a technique for combining multiple negatives into a single photographic print in the darkroom — a labor-intensive process in the decades before Photoshop. While this couldn’t be considered “pure” photography, it is purely photographic. Uelsmann leans into the medium’s ability to capture the details of reality, but he uses these details to create images that transcend the quotidian. His work is the photographic equivalent of Magic Realism, and Room #1 provides a very deep read.
EMMET GOWIN (b. 1941)
Toutle River Valley, Mount St. Helens, 1981
Selenium-toned gelatin silver print, printed 1982, 9.5 x 7.375″
ESTIMATE $2,500–3,500
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Picked by Samantha Siegler in 20th Century & Contemporary Art
Emmet Gowin’s Mount St. Helens photographs are amongst the finest examples from the tradition of aerial photography. Though perhaps a lesser-known side of the artist’s oeuvre, Gowin’s photographs of rugged landscapes are a favorite of mine for their delicate treatment of terrain, handled with same sensitivity with which the artist makes his portraits. Captured just a few weeks following the infamous 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, the present work documents the dramatically rebirthed landscape in a testament to the sublime power of the earth. Focused on a meandering ripple that cuts diagonally across the composition, it is a striking and humbling perspective that finds beauty in the aftermath of the cataclysmic event.
BEA NETTLES (b. 1946)
Pleasant Pasture II, 1969
Hand-tinted photographic image on linen, stuffed and stitched, 9.5 x 7.75″
ESTIMATE $700–1,000
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Picked by Cordelia Lembo in Design
I love that this is a photographic image printed on linen, which has then been stuffed and stitched. Bea Nettles (born 1946) employs various media and techniques to combine photography and craft. I am reminded of the Indonesian tradition of Lawon — a textile art that employs stitching in the resist dye method to create fields of color in silk cloths. As a design specialist, I also think of the embroidered earthenware vessels of Dutch industrial designer Hella Jongerius — another unexpected coupling of craft forms in a contemporary context.
The quilted horizon of Nettles’ work from 1969 also captures my imagination as a twiggy landscape rendered in cool tones so familiar to some of us this time of year. It is for me immediately evocative of a Mark Rothko color field painting. It’s beautiful.
BARBARA MORGAN (1900-1992)
Martha Graham - Letter to the World (The Kick), 1940
Gelatin silver print, printed 1972. 14.5 x 19.625″
ESTIMATE $3,000–5,000
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Picked by Sarah Browne in Editions
What a dynamic image! Only Barbara Morgan could have captured this moment of movement so perfectly!
This image and two others taken by Barbara Morgan between 1935 and 1941 were used as reference images to create Andy Warhol's Martha Graham portfolio. Warhol and Graham had a deep mutual respect for one another and the portfolio was created to help fund Graham's new school of dance. Just a few days after Warhol died, there was a benefit auction celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the Martha Graham Dance Company, with 92-year-old Graham in attendance.
There was a huge celebrity turn out; Halston was seated in the front row of the auction, next to Graham and Liza Minnelli. Halston donated his Martha Graham set to the auction and said, "I wanted to donate the set. It's unfortunate our dear friend Andy just left us. It was so gracious and kind of Andy to do them. We only got the edition in November. It turned out to be his last major series. There are 100 portfolios. It was a $600,000 gift from him to Martha Graham to help the school. I bought the first set, Liza bought the second and Jenny Holtzer bought the third. I like the idea of the arts supporting arts."
Proceeds from this sale will be distributed to six institutions with whom Peter C. Bunnell was associated — Rochester Institute of Technology, Ohio University, Yale University, The George Eastman Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, and Princeton University Art Museum — to establish endowments to support the study of photographic history.
Auction /
25 January – 1 February
Viewing /
432 Park Avenue, New York, NY, United States, 10022 (map)
25 January – 1 February
Monday–Saturday 10:00am–6:00pm
Sunday – Closed
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