Danny Lyon - Photographs from the Martin Z. Margulies Foundation New York Thursday, April 4, 2024 | Phillips

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  • “In my America, people were all different, they were handsome, and everything around them was beautiful, and most of all, they were free.”
    Danny Lyon

    Having started riding motorcycles around the University of Chicago in 1963, photographer Danny Lyon joined the Chicago Outlaws Motorcycle Club to further immerse himself within the counterculture. Chronicling the Club from 1963 to 1967, The Bikeriders magnifies and elevates these outcasts of American society, capturing their cool nonchalance and the unabashed freedom of their lifestyle. The work distills Lyon’s photographic practice of saturation reporting – personally embedding himself within his subject and becoming an insider, all while remaining ever the observer. The material from the series culminated in Lyon’s first book, The Bikeriders (1968), now considered one of the defining photobooks of the 1960s. The series taps into America’s fascination with biker culture and is aligned with Hunter S. Thompson’s 1969 book Hell’s Angels and such classic films as The Wild Ones and Easy Rider. It serves as the inspiration for the forthcoming film The Bikeriders to be released in June 2024.

    • Provenance

      Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York

    • Exhibited

      Danny Lyon, Sala Municipal de Exposciones de San Benito, San Benito, 6 November 2013 – 12 January 2014; Foto Colectania, 24 January - 17 April 2014
      Shared History: Photographs from the Martin Z. Margulies Collection, Ritter Art Gallery, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, 24 January – 7 March 2020

    • Literature

      Cox, Danny Lyon: Message to the Future, p. 119, 121, 123

37

The Bikeriders

1963-1966
A suite of 50 gelatin silver prints, printed 2006.
Varying sizes from 10 1/4 x 10 in. (26 x 25.4 cm) to 18 1/2 x 12 1/2 in. (47 x 31.8 cm)
Each signed in pencil and with the 'Bleak Beauty' printing information stamp on the verso.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$40,000 - 60,000 

Sold for $50,800

Contact Specialist

Caroline Deck
Senior Specialist, Photographs
cdeck@phillips.com

Vanessa Hallett
Worldwide Head of Photographs and Chairwoman, Americas
vhallett@phillips.com

Photographs from the Martin Z. Margulies Foundation

New York Auction 4 April 2024