Phillips New York to Offer Photographs from the Martin Z. Margulies Foundation, Part II, Alongside October Seasonal Auction

Phillips New York to Offer Photographs from the Martin Z. Margulies Foundation, Part II, Alongside October Seasonal Auction

 

Iconic Works by Renowned Artists to be Showcased, Including

Francesca Woodman, Thomas Struth, Tina Modotti, and Alfred Stieglitz

 

 

 

 Thomas Struth

Selected Images of the Ruhr Valley from Unconscious Places, 1984-1989

Estimate: $100,000 - 150,000

6 of 24 photographs illustrated above

 

 

NEW YORK – 19 SEPTEMBER 2024 –This Fall, Phillips is proud to present two live Photographs auctions in New York, both taking place on 9 October at 432 Park Avenue. Photographs from the Martin Z. Margulies Foundation, Part II, will begin the day at 10am EDT, featuring 122 lots, continuing Phillips' offering of property set to benefit the organization's philanthropic mission. The seasonal Photographs sale will follow at 12pm EDT with over 200 lots. The two auctions will feature a stellar array of work from the 20th and 21st centuries, setting forth a veritable history of the medium from 1900 to today.

 

Vanessa Hallett, Deputy Chairwoman, Americas, and Worldwide Head of Photographs, said, “The wide range of photographs in our fall sales demonstrates the remarkable expressiveness of the medium. Whatever their taste, art aficionados will find a phenomenal selection of masterworks to compete for. We look forward to welcoming new and established collectors alike to our presale exhibition and live auction in New York.”

 

 

Photographs from the Martin Z. Margulies Foundation, Part II

Following Phillips' April offering, the single-owner auction, Photographs from The Martin Z. Margulies Foundation, Part II, will begin the morning session on 9 October. Proceeds from the sale will fund the work of the Margulies Foundation to improve the status of poor, homeless, and marginalized children and families; to address hunger and food security; and to provide for the special needs of veterans. This sale features a single lot of 24 photographs from an important early exhibition by Thomas Struth. Shown at Clocktower Gallery in 1989, this group highlights Struth’s Unconscious Places series, the body of work which first brought him international acclaim. Olafur Eliasson’s The Hut Series, a grid of 56 images, shows the photographer’s enduring concern for the environment, while Hank Willis Thomas’s Seeker delves into issues of race and perception. Ed Ruscha’s Parking Lots and works by Robert Adams, Bernd and Hilla Becher, and Gregory Crewdson show the collection’s strength in images of the built environment, while photographs by Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, and Helen Levitt show its strong humanist focus. 

 

Photographs

 

Francesca Woodman

Self Portrait (with bird), 1976-1978

Estimate: $150,000 - 250,000

Leading the seasonal sale is a previously unknown trove of photographs by Francesca Woodman from the collection of artist Anita Thacher. When Woodman moved to New York City in 1979 she rented a loft directly across the hall from Thacher, an older and more established artist who became a friend and mentor. In return, Woodman gave Thacher a number of photographs including the monumental Self-Portrait (with bird), 1976-1978. With its straightforward presentation of the artist’s body against a quilted fabric background and unconventional use of photographic materials, this print shows Woodman working at her creative best. It is the largest lifetime gelatin silver print by the artist to appear at auction.

 

Phillips is honored to present Important Photographs from a Distinguished American Collection, a choice group carefully curated over decades and focusing on Modernist photography. Tina Modotti’s elegantly composed Telegraph Wires, circa 1925, artfully captures the modernization of Mexico, her adopted country. A suite of rare large-format photogravures by Alfred Stieglitz, experimental work by Francis Bruguiére, and classics by Irving Penn and Dorothy Norman round out this sequence. 

 

The auction features important early work by two of the key figures in 20th-century photography, Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen. Stieglitz’s From the Back Window—291—Snow Covered Tree, Back-Yard, 1915, captures the quiet perfection of a snowy evening from the back window of his gallery and showcases his technical and aesthetic genius. Steichen’s virtuosic Double-Sunflower is a synthesis of aesthetics and craft, while Greta Garbo, Hollywood, 1928, and Spectacles, 1926, illustrate the glamorizing power of his vision. 

 

 

The sale presents a fine group of photographs by Peter Hujar, including his poignant portrait, David Wojnarowicz (Village Voice "Heartsick: Fear and Loving in the Gay Community"), 1983, first seen on the cover of The Village Voice in 1983 for an article about the ravages of AIDS. Peter Beard’s Francis Bacon on his roof @ 80 Narrow Street, London (soon to be lost gambling), during the dead elephant interviews for End-Game, March 1970, celebrates the artists’ complex friendship within its brilliantly embellished and collaged composition. The sale boasts two iconic early Cindy Shermans: Untitled Film Still #18, 1978, and Untitled Film Still #27b, 1979. Other offerings include three seascapes by Hiroshi Sugimoto and an impressive oversized print of his United Nations Headquarters, 1997, as well as work by Robert Frank, Helmut Newton, Gregory Crewdson, Carrie Mae Weems, Thomas Ruff, Wolfgang Tillmans, and many others.

 

Selections from several significant private collections include Photographs from the Collection of David Levy and Amanda Bowman, concentrating on American themes in images by Mitch Epstein, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Diane Arbus, among others. Property from the Estate of Eugene and Dorothy Prakapas presents work that the pioneering gallerists collected for themselves over their long careers. Select groups from the estates of gallerist Brent Sikkema and collectors Inger and Osborn Elliott are also on offer.