Icons & Images pairs modern with traditional
Contemporary and 19th century portfolios, albums and individuals black-and-white images and photographs will share the auction block Oct. 17, at Swann Galleries’ Fine Photographs: Icons & Images auction.
NEW YORK — Contemporary images share the stage with 19th-century albums, modernist portfolios and classic black-and-white photographs in Swann Auction Galleries’ auction of Fine Photographs: Icons & Images, Friday, October 17.
The auction will begin at 1:30 p.m. ET, and in addition to live bidding, telephone bids will be accepted, and online bidding will be facilitated by Invaluable.com.
Contemporary art highlights range from Scandinavian artist Simen Johan’s “Untitled #137,”
a digital c-print of a lamb from the series “Until the Kingdom Comes,” 2006, which carries a presale estimate of $9,000 to $12,000, to conservationist-photographer Nick Brandt’s remarkably intimate “Lion Before the Storm I,” pigment print, circa 2006, which is expected to fetch between $18,000 and $22,000.
Other pieces vying for bidders’ attention include a rare self-portrait by Moroccan artist Lalla Essaydi titled “Converging Territories #10,” oversized chromogenic print, which may sell for between $9,000 and $12,000; as well as Richard Prince’s Ektacolor print titled “Upstate,” circa 1995-99, eyeing $15,000 to $20,000; Robert Polidori’s view of houses devastated by Hurricane Katrina, titled “5979 West End Boulevard, New Orleans, September,” could command $12,000 to $18,000; as well as images by William Eggleston, Nan Goldin, Ernst Haas, Stephen Shore, James Welling and Joel-Peter Witkin.
Additional portfolios and groups of photographs include Hiroshi Sugimoto’s magnificent portfolio “Time Exposed,” with 50 plates of sublime studies of seascapes. The lot may reach $8,000 to $12,000 before the gavel falls. A selection of 17, circa 1960s, images by Ralph Eugene Meatyard, most showing children in rural environs could rise to $20,000 to $30,000; while “Roy DeCarava,” portfolio comprised of 12 stunning, hand printed dust-grain photogravures including many iconic images of Harlem, 1950-79, may see $50,000 to $75,000.
A presentation folio with a sequence of 10 Leni Riefenstahl photographs relating to Olympic diver Marjorie Gestring at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, with elegant images of Gestring in air mid-dive, and the young gold medalist before and after her successful dives, was signed and inscribed by Riefenstahl to Gestring and dated 1937, and may soar to $12,000 to $18,000 before finishing.
For more information, visit www.swanngalleries.com, call 212-254-4710 or email swann@swanngalleries.com.
