Jeudi 20 Novembre 2014 11:02:28 par actuphoto dans Ventes

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of our photography auctions, this autumn Lempertz will be offering numerous particularly fine classics of 20th and 21st century photography.

Andreas Gursky’s spectacular 1989 shot of the tourist ferry "Maid of the Mist" at the base of the Niagara Falls is one of the highlights of these season’s photography auctions. The chromogenic print from an edition of 12 will be coming up for sale as part of the CONTEMPORARY ART + PHOTOGRAPHY auction on Saturday 29 November (lot 547 / 60,000 – 80,000 €).

Andreas Gursky, Niagara falls, 1989. Chromogenic print on plastic board.
75 x 58 cm (100.8 x 83.5 cm). From an edition of 12. Estimate 60,000 – 80,000 €

 

This piece of the "Becher School" will be accompanied on the same day by the works of numerous other contemporary photographic artists, including a boxed portfolio with 350 prints by Martin Parr from his "Common Sense" series (lot 795 / 8,000 – 10,000 €), Jürgen Klauke’s self-portrait with a black wig from the "Ästhetische Paranoia" series (lot 667 / 8,000 – 10,000 €), Thomas Demand’s "Bierdeckel" from an edition of three (lot 815 / 7,000 – 9,000 €), Bettina Rheims’ sexually indifferent shot "Valérie II" from the series "Les Espionnes" (lot 764 / 7,000 – 8,000 €) and Araki’s portrait of his muse "Kaori", a large-format cibachrome print from 2004 (lot 763 / 7,000 – 9,000 €).
 

Nobuyoshi Araki, Kaori, 2004. Cibachrome print on aludibond. 74 x 92.6 cm. Estimate 7,000 – 10,000 €
 

The classic PHOTOGRAPHY auction, beginning on Friday 28 November at 3 pm, also offers numerous rarities and highlights, including several albums of historic topographic and aerial views taken by British and German participants in WWI, marking the 100th anniversary of its begin in 1914 (lots 5 and 6 / 800 – 1,500/2,000 €). Following up on the exhibition "Between Heaven and Earth – Views of Cologne in the Post-War Era" held by Lempertz as part of the "Internationale Photoszene"-Festival during the Photokina, we will be offering a total of 29 prints by famous and less well-known photographers illustrating everyday life after the war and the rebuilding of the city on the Rhine (lots 34-46 / 700 – 2,000 €).

The focus of this autumn’s auction lies with post-war photography: Highlights include a 1956 vintage print of a skull from Brassai’s "Graffiti" series (lot 51 / 5,000 – 6,000 €), two South Italian street scenes by Henri Cartier-Bresson (lots 56/57 / each 3,000 – 4,000 €), "Nude, Campden hill, London" by Bill Brandt (lot 128 / 3,000 €), two atmospheric city views from the series "Pariser Formen" by Otto Steinert (lots 47 and 48 / each 5,000 – 7,000 €) as well as works by his "fotoform" colleague Peter Keetman (lots 79-81 / 1,800 – 2,000 €).

Peter Keetman, (Augen-)Blick, 1961. Gelatin silver print, printed 1970s.
30.2 x 23.2 cm. Estimate 1,900 €

We will also be offering a number of pieces by American photographers, the highlights of which include the nude "Thomas" taken in 1987 by Robert Mapplethorpe, here as a platinum print from a 2001 edition of five (lot 124 / 15,000 – 20,000 €), a nocturnal panorama of Manhattan by Andreas Feininger (lot 70 / 3,000 €), the 1978 vintage print "Sick of Goodby’s" by Robert Frank (lot 116 / 8,000 – 10,000 €) and a large-format portrait of two young ladies with Down syndrome by Diane Arbus (lot 106 / 4,000 – 5,000 €).

Luigi Ghirri’s colour photographs, such as his tender image of a figure of "Psyche" in the Archaeological National Museum in Naples (lot 101 / 2,000 – 2,500), are considered the European equivalent of the American "New Color" movement, which is here represented by works from Stephen Shore (lots 148 and 722/723 / 1,500 – 2,500/3,000 €). The latter part of the Lempertz "Photography" auction is made up in equal parts of colour and black and white photography and will, as always, be closed by the "Contemporary Photography (up to 2,500 €)" section including names such as Thomas Ruff (lots 150-152 / 700 – 1,500 €), Gregor Schneider (lot 154 / 2,000 – 3,000 €) and Wolfgang Tillmans (lots 157-159 / 2,200 – 2,500 €).