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The remarkable selection of photographs offered in this online auction comes from the collection of Peter C. Bunnell (1937-2021), the pioneering curator, teacher, and photographic historian. All lots are sold with No Reserve and the proceeds will be distributed to six institutions with whom 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.
This work was shown in Peter Bunnell’s groundbreaking 1970 exhibition, Photography into Sculpture at The Museum of Modern Art. Produced as a sequel to Bunnell’s 1968 exhibition Photography as Printmaking, Photography into Sculpture examined the ways artists of the time were utilizing photographic imagery to investigate three-dimensionality. By incorporating form and spatiality, the picture’s subject, literal or symbolic, was transformed. Bunnell wrote, ‘In the last few years artists from a variety of disciplines have embraced a new kind of photography in which many of the imaginary qualities of the photograph, particularly spatial complexity, have been transformed into actual space and dimension, thereby shifting photography into sculpture.’
Installation image, Bea Nettles’s Pleasant Pasture II shown on left, from Photography into Sculpture, Museum of Modern Art, 1970 In 2014, Olivier Renaud-Clément and Hauser & Wirth mounted an exhibition exploring the legacy of Bunnell’s exhibition. The Photographic Object, 1970, included many of the works in the 1970s exhibition, including Bea Nettles’s Pleasant Pasture II. Recounting her process for creating the work, Nettles remarked, ‘At that point, the whole idea was the experimentation and the quilting and making a photographic landscape out of fabric. I hadn’t seen anything like it other than Claes Oldenburg.’
Bunnell began his long career in photography as a student of Minor White’s at the Rochester Institute of Technology in the 1950s and was recruited by White to work on the seminal periodical of artistic photography, Aperture. He joined the staff of The Museum of Modern Art in 1966 as a collection cataloguer, becoming Associate Curator and then Curator of Photography. In 1972, he was hired as the inaugural David Hunter McAlpin Professor of the History of Photography and Modern Art at Princeton University.
Bunnell served as Director of the Princeton University Art Museum from 1973 to 1978, and as Acting Director from 1998 to 2000, while also being the Museum’s Curator of Photography throughout the entirety of his tenure. Bunnell built a broad-ranging collection of photographs at the Museum, the firsthand examination of which became a central element of the student experience in his classes and seminars. Bunnell also assembled a personal collection of photography over the course of his long career that reflects his vast and deep understanding of the medium. Begun in the 1950s, before photography galleries and dealers were commonplace, Bunnell’s collection is a deeply personal one, put together with a sense of joy and curiosity that includes both icons and lesser-known gems spanning the history of photography.
Provenance
Collection of Peter C. Bunnell, Princeton, New Jersey, acquired from the photographer
Exhibited
Photography into Sculpture, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, April-July 1970
Literature
Statzer, Mary, editor. The Photographic Object 1970. Oakland: University of California Press, 2016, p. 173, fig. 64
The Eye That Shapes: Further Selections from the Peter C. Bunnell Collection
36
Lot offered with No Reserve
Pleasant Pasture II
1969
Hand-tinted photographic image on linen, stuffed and stitched.
9 1/2 x 7 3/4 in. (24.1 x 19.7 cm)
Signed, titled, and dated in pencil on the mount; Museum of Modern Art exhibition label on the reverse of the frame.
Estimate
$700 - 1,000 •
Sold for $5,040
Senior International Specialist
Worldwide Head of Photographs and Deputy Chairwoman
The Eye That Shapes: Further Selections from the Peter C. Bunnell Collection
Online Auction 25 January - 1 February 2023
1No Reserve
Minor White
Sun in Rock
Estimate $4,000 - 6,000 •
Sold for $4,032
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2No Reserve
Minor White
Selected Nature Studies
Estimate $4,000 - 6,000 •
Sold for $5,292
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3No Reserve
Minor White
Peeled Paint, Rochester, New York
Estimate $6,000 - 8,000 •
Sold for $9,450
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4No Reserve
Imogen Cunningham
Selected Portraits of Photographers
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000 •
Sold for $1,197
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5No Reserve
Minor White
Vicinity of Dansville, New York
Estimate $5,000 - 7,000 •
Sold for $3,780
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6No Reserve
Harry Callahan
Eleanor, Port Huron
Estimate $2,500 - 3,500 •
Sold for $4,788
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7No Reserve
Jerry Uelsmann
Room #1
Estimate $1,500 - 2,500 •
Sold for $5,670
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8No Reserve
Harry Callahan
Aix-en-Provence, France
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000 •
Sold for $4,788
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9No Reserve
Paul Caponigro
Selected Images
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000 •
Sold for $5,040
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10No Reserve
Emmet Gowin
Toutle River Valley, Mount St. Helens
Estimate $2,500 - 3,500 •
Sold for $4,410
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11No Reserve
Minor White
Grasses and Mist (Swamp, Mendocino, CA)
Estimate $5,000 - 7,000 •
Sold for $3,528
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12No Reserve
Minor White
Self-Portrait, West Bloomfield, New York
Estimate $2,000 - 3,000 •
Sold for $1,890
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13No Reserve
Brett Weston
New York City
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000 •
Sold for $3,024
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14No Reserve
W. Eugene Smith
Man Walking in the Street, Southside, Pittsburgh
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000 •
Sold for $4,032
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15No Reserve
Brett Weston
Brooklyn Bridge
Estimate $5,000 - 7,000 •
Sold for $7,560
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16No Reserve
W. Eugene Smith
Gateway Center, Pittsburgh
Estimate $2,000 - 3,000 •
Sold for $2,016
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17No Reserve
Elliott Erwitt
Las Vegas
Estimate $700 - 900 •
Sold for $1,386
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18No Reserve
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Mount Aso
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000 •
Sold for $6,048
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19No Reserve
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Tokyo Funeral
Estimate $5,000 - 7,000 •
Sold for $7,560
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20No Reserve
Barbara Morgan
Martha Graham - Letter to the World (The Kick)
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000 •
Sold for $7,560
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21No Reserve
Jacques Henri Lartigue
Selected Images
Estimate $1,000 - 1,500 •
Sold for $3,528
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22No Reserve
Eugène Atget
Selected Images of Paris
Estimate $2,000 - 3,000 •
Sold for $3,276
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23No Reserve
Lewis Hine
Western Union Messenger #55
Estimate $1,000 - 2,000 •
Sold for $882
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24No Reserve
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Pheasants
Estimate $700 - 900 •
Sold for $1,512
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25No Reserve
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
Striking Worker, Assassinated
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000 •
Sold for $5,670
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26No Reserve
Manuel Álvarez Bravo
Trampa Puesta
Estimate $1,500 - 2,500 •
Sold for $1,134
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27No Reserve
Mario Cravo Neto
Heart of Stone
Estimate $2,000 - 3,000 •
Sold for $2,268
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28No Reserve
Laura Gilpin
Fire Ceremony, Mesa Verde National Park
Estimate $4,000 - 6,000 •
Sold for $5,040
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29No Reserve
Barbara Morgan
Selected Photomontages
Estimate $1,000 - 1,500 •
Sold for $1,890
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30No Reserve
Emmet Gowin
Edith
Estimate $2,500 - 3,500 •
Sold for $3,780
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31No Reserve
Doug Prince
Selected Photographic Sculptures
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000 •
Sold for $2,520
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32No Reserve
Ray K. Metzker
Double Frame: Atlantic City
Estimate $2,000 - 3,000 •
Sold for $1,386
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33No Reserve
Jerry Uelsmann
Rock-Tree
Estimate $700 - 900 •
Sold for $2,772
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34No Reserve
Naomi Savage
Selected Variants: Enmeshed Man
Estimate $2,000 - 3,000 •
Sold for $10,080
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35No Reserve
Jerry Uelsmann
Selected Images of Peter C. Bunnell
Estimate $4,000 - 6,000 •
Sold for $2,016
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36No Reserve
Bea Nettles
Pleasant Pasture II
Estimate $700 - 1,000 •
Sold for $5,040
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37No Reserve
Eikoh Hosoe
Selected Images
Estimate $4,000 - 6,000 •
Sold for $5,040
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38No Reserve
Yasuhiro Ishimoto
Selected Images
Estimate $2,000 - 3,000 •
Sold for $3,024
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39No Reserve
Jerry Uelsmann
Selected Images
Estimate $2,000 - 3,000 •
Sold for $2,016
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40No Reserve
Lynton Wells
Six Wizards (Italian Bellflowers)
Estimate $1,000 - 1,500 •
Sold for $4,032
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41No Reserve
Jerry Uelsmann
Selected Images
Estimate $2,000 - 3,000 •
Sold for $2,772
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42No Reserve
Peter C. Bunnell
Selected Images
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000 •
Sold for $1,512
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