Irving Penn - Photographs New York Wednesday, October 9, 2024 | Phillips
  • Lots 274 to 278 in the present auction come from the collection of pioneering gallerist Brent Sikkema (1948-2024). Sikkema was renowned for championing the work of some of the principal artists of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, including Kara Walker, Vik Muniz, Mark Bradford, Deana Lawson, and many others, and for broadening the market for Latin American art.    

     

    Mr. Sikkema studied photography and filmmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute. After earning his BFA in 1970 he became director of traveling exhibitions, and later director of exhibitions, at the Visual Studies Workshop, the groundbreaking photographic collective in Rochester, New York. In 1976 he relocated to Boston where he worked for Vision Gallery, handling 19th and 20th century photography, later becoming its owner and maintaining an adventurous curatorial program. He made his first foray into the New York City gallery world in 1989, exhibiting in a temporary space. He opened a permanent gallery in 1991; called Wooster Gardens, it quickly became known as a premiere venue for contemporary art. In 1999, Sikkema moved the gallery to Chelsea, partnering with Michael Jenkins under the name Sikkema Jenkins & Co. Sikkema’s generous support inspired loyalty in the artists in his stable, many of whom chose to remain with the gallery even after receiving invitations from the larger mega-galleries.

     

    Phillips is honored to be handling material from his estate. In addition to the photographs offered here, work from his collection will be featured in upcoming Editions and Design auctions this fall.   

    • Condition Report

    • Description

      View our Conditions of Sale.

    • Literature

      The Art Institute of Chicago, Irving Penn: A Career in Photography, p. 177
      Knopf, Irving Penn: Passage, p. 51
      Szarkowski, Irving Penn, cover and pl. 19

    • Artist Biography

      Irving Penn

      American • 1917 - 2009

      Arresting portraits, exquisite flowers, luscious food and glamorous models populate Irving Penn's meticulously rendered, masterful prints. Penn employed the elegant simplicity of a gray or white backdrop to pose his subjects, be it a model in the latest Parisian fashion, a famous subject or veiled women in Morocco.

      Irving Penn's distinct aesthetic transformed twentieth-century elegance and style, with each brilliant composition beautifully articulating his subjects. Working across several photographic mediums, Penn was a master printmaker. Regardless of the subject, each and every piece is rendered with supreme beauty. 

      View More Works

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF BRENT SIKKEMA

274

Ballet Society, New York, March 5

1948
Gelatin silver print, printed 2000.
22 3/4 x 18 5/8 in. (57.8 x 47.3 cm)
Signed, initialed, titled, dated, annotated in ink, credit, Condé Nast copyright credit reproduction limitation and edition stamps on the verso. One from an edition of 13.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$15,000 - 25,000 

Place Advance Bid
Contact Specialist

Sarah Krueger
Head of Department, Photographs
skrueger@phillips.com

 

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

Photographs

New York Auction 9 October 2024