Lot 2007 Diane Arbus « TWO LADIES AT THE AUTOMAT, N.Y.C » 1966. Gelatin silver print by Neil Selkirk, 1980
Villa Grisebach Auktionen Fasanenstraße 25 10719 Berlin Allemagne
312 lot numbers of modern and contemporary photography will be sold on Wednesday, May 28, at Villa Grisebach in Berlin.
Leading the sale is Irving Penn’s 1970 “3 New Guinea Men, (2 with Pipes),” a group portrait shot during a traditional dance festival, in a platinum palladium print of 1983. The portrait of the tribe members in noble embellishments, who in the photographer’s mobile tent studio assume a pose of highest concentration, is one of Penn’s most formidable works (€ 35,000/45,000).
From the estate of Otto Steinert, one of the pioneering German photographers of the post-war era, two of the most well-known subjects will be sold that document his preoccupation with finding way of personal photographic expression: “Rhythmus und Struktur,” 1951 (€ 20,000/30,000) and “Appell,” 1950 (€ 18,000/22,000).
Other highlights of modern photography are Diane Arbus’ “Two ladies at the automat, N.Y.C.” (€ 10,000/15,000), Henri Cartier-Bresson’s nude “Leonor Fini” (€ 8,000/12,000), Julius Shulman’s “Case Study House # 22” (€ 10,000/15,000) and vintage prints by Martin Munkácsi: “Meeresstrand vor dem Ungewitter,” 1930 (€ 12,000/15,000) and Helmar Lerski: “Türkischer Jude” from the series “Jüdische Köpfe,” 1931-1932 (€ 4,000/5,000). Works by Eugène Atget, Ilse Bing, Édouard Boubat, Brassai, Robert Capa, Andreas Feininger, Peter Keetman, Arthur Leipzig, Duane Michaels, Alexander Rodchenko, August Sander, Malick Sidibé, and others round out this part of the auction.
A special section of the catalog is devoted to "Czech Photography from an Austrian Private Collection". The group of 38 photographs includes works by renowned Czech names, like František Drtikol, Jaroslav Rösser or Josef Sudek. Alongside these unusual works by less well-known photographers, like Josef Bartuška, Ladislav Emil Berka or Jaroslav Kysela, can be discovered (estimates from € 300/500 up to € 2,000/3,000).
The highlights of contemporary photography are Rineke Dijkstra’s portrait of a girl, “Odessa, Ukraine, August 10” (€ 20,000/30,000), Helmut Newton’s “Domestic Nude III” (€ 20,000/30,000) and “Jodie Foster, Hollywood” (€ 15,000/20,000), Roger Ballen’s famous photograph of the twins “Dresie and Casie“ (€ 15,000/20,000) and Elger Esser’s magic landscape, “Passage du Gois” ( € 15,000/20,000), the portfolio “Selbstbemalung II” by Günter Brus (€ 12,000/15,000), two works by Hiroshi Sugimoto from his “Seascapes” series (€ 15,000/20,000, each), as well as works by Gregory Crewdson, Nan Goldin, Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer, Boris Mikhailov, Ricarda Roggan, Jörg Sasse, Thomas Ruff, Michael Wesely, Tom Wood, and others.
Lot 2269 - Helmut Newton « JODIE FOSTER, HOLLYWOOD » - 1987. Gelatin silver print, 1998