Dawoud Bey - Photographs from the Martin Z. Margulies Foundation Part II New York Wednesday, October 9, 2024 | Phillips
  •  “I love to dance. The reason I love to dance is because I love to show how I feel at certain times. I love to be myself. I want to be an artist that can show other kids that they can do anything they can do or put their minds to. But I want to do more than that. I want to be in the music business. I think that if I work hard I can do what I want. Yes, I want to be a dancer, but I have more dreams. I think I can go anywhere.”
     — Joseph

    Dawoud Bey’s series Class Pictures started from a sequence of portraits the artist captured during his 1992 residency at the Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Andover. Over the next 15 years Bey took portraits of high school students across the United States aiming to collect the diverse faces of a generation from different backgrounds. Each sitting took 45 minutes and began with the subject writing a brief autobiography before posing in front of the photographer’s camera. Bey only read their personal statement after the session and this text appeared alongside each portrait in the published book.

     

    Regarding this series, Bey said that he wished 'to create a compelling and significant contemporary portrait of American youth in its various social and human dimensions. I believe that such a group of photographs-with the attendant texts-will constitute a significant record and examination of our time... Rather than viewing young people through a lens of social problematics that generalizes the individual, I intend to make a rich and complex description of these subjects.’

    • Condition Report

    • Description

      View our Conditions of Sale.

    • Provenance

      Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, 2008

    • Literature

      Aperture, Dawoud Bey: Class Pictures, pp. 130-131

58

Joseph, School Of Arts, San Francisco from Class Pictures

2006
Chromogenic print with text panel, flush-mounted.
39 3/4 x 49 1/2 in. (101 x 125.7 cm)
Overall 41 1/4 x 51 1/4 in. (104.8 x 130.2 cm)

Signed in ink on a label affixed to the reverse of the frame. Number 1 from an edition of 4 plus 2 artist's proofs.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$7,000 - 9,000 

Place Advance Bid
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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 Part II

New York Auction 9 October 2024