Auction: Phillips Photographs New York, 8 April 2021
101, Dinh Q. Lê, Untitled (helicopter, Apocalypse Now, prayers), 2000, Cut and woven chromogenic prints and linen tape. 39 3/8 x 60 in. (100 x 152.4 cm), Overall 47 x 67 in. (119.4 x 170.2 cm), Accompanied by a gallery Certificate of Authenticity. Estimate $15,000 - 25,000, SOLD FOR $63,000
By Trevor Bishai
Two hundred and fifty-six works of art made up the catalogue for the Photographs auction at Phillips in New York on April 8. Featuring works created over a period of a hundred years, from artists around the globe, the auction represented a comprehensive survey of some of the greatest works in photography from the last century. While history and notoriety are perhaps the most dominant themes of the catalogue, some works in particular comment on the relationship between Western media and those it portrays.
Works by several of the most well-known photographers throughout history make an appearance at the auction. A mighty eleven works by Robert Frank, nine by Ansel Adams, seven by Bill Brandt, and five from Robert Mapplethorpe feature in the catalogue, including many more by the likes of Alfred Stieglitz, André Kertész, Berenice Abbott, Man Ray, Richard Avedon, and William Eggleston.
Several of the works on auction are also notable for having been on the cover of groundbreaking photobooks. Robert Frank’s seminal 1958 book The Americans, after which Frank was described as a modern-day de Tocqueville for his distanced, anthropological study of American society, featured his famous photograph “Trolley – New Orleans” on the cover of the first American edition. This iconic photograph of the windows of a street trolley, reflecting the racial segregation he witnessed in the American South, is prominently on display at the auction along with five other images from Frank’s book. In addition, Alec Soth’s “Charles, Vasa, Minnesota” (2002) is instantly recognizable as the cover of his highly acclaimed Sleeping by the Mississippi, which was published in 2004. As such, any photobook enthusiast would be very pleased by many of the works in the catalogue.
165, Sandy Skoglund, The Cocktail Party, 1992, Dye destruction print, mounted. 48 1/8 x 65 in. (122.2 x 165.1 cm), Signed, titled, dated and numbered 16/30 in ink on the recto. Estimate $6,000 - 9,000, SOLD FOR $8,190
The importance of some of these images for the history of photography extends beyond photobooks. One of the most striking and historically important images on display is André Kertész’s “Nature Morte, Chez Mondrian,” dating from 1926. A very small gelatin silver print measuring 3 5/8 by 4 3/8 inches, this striking image displays two pairs of eyeglasses next to a pipe and ashtray on the corner of a table. The simple objects in this image sublimate into a beautiful, cohesive composition through their careful placement and subtle geometry. Kertész’s ability to create such an impressive visual poetry with such small, simple objects situates this work firmly in the modernist aesthetic tradition. Kertész’s relationship to this aesthetic movement is also suggested by the work’s title—“Still Life, Mondrian’s Studio” in English—a reference to Kertész’s friendship with Piet Mondrian, the Dutch pioneer of modernist painting.
Kertész’s work marks the acceptance of photography into the world of fine art, which was dominated by the modernist movement at the time, combining a richness of aesthetic merit with historical narrative.
While most of the works on auction are standard photographic prints, one artist’s stands out in its defiance of the conventional definition of a photograph. In his signature practice, Dinh Q. Lê cuts several chromogenic prints into very thin strips, and then weaves them together, fastening the final work with linen tape. Highly conceptual and visually interesting, his images blend photography with textile art, in reference to the culture of weaving prevalent in his native Vietnam. Two of Lê’s works are on sale—"Untitled, (helicopter, Apocalypse Now, prayers)” (2000) and “Altarpiece #3” (2001). In the former, a film still from Apocalypse Now, the 1979 Vietnam War drama, is overlayed on images of Vietnamese children. Lê emigrated to the United States during the war, adding a close biographical connection to his work. Considering Lê’s personal connection to armed conflict in light of a Hollywood portrayal of it highlights tensions between historical memory in popular culture and in personal life.
133, Simon Norfolk, Large Hadron Collider No. 2, CERN Labs, Switzerland, 2007, Chromogenic print. 39 1/2 x 49 1/2 in. (100.3 x 125.7 cm), Signed, dated and numbered 7/10 in ink on a Certificate of Authenticity affixed to the reverse of the mount. Estimate $5,000 - 7,000, SOLD FOR $4,410
The Phillips auction also included another image that comments on this disconnect between mass media and personal memory. Steve McCurry’s famous “Sharbat Gula, Afghan Girl, Pakistan” (1984) is a portrait of a young girl of Middle Eastern descent, wearing a dark red headscarf over a teal background. What is perhaps most noticeable about this photograph is the subject’s arresting gaze: her brilliant green eyes staring vigorously into the lens has prompted critics to liken the photograph to the Mona Lisa. Interestingly, this photograph was never intended to be introduced to the fine-art world, as Steve McCurry took it as a photojournalist in Pakistan in December of 1984. The photograph was put on the cover of National Geographic in June 1985, and soon became a famous symbol of political conflicts in the Middle East, eventually being named the “most recognized photograph” in the history of the magazine. But while this image proliferated around the West in order to garner compassion and awareness, the subject of the image had no idea it existed until years later when a team of experts went to find her. This photograph is therefore much more than just a beautiful portrait, as it is imbued with a history that comments on the fraught relationship between foreign subjects and Western viewers. Given the fact that the photograph was published without the subject’s consent, McCurry’s photograph suggests a large disconnect between Western media and the lives of those it portrays.
106, Steve McCurry, Sharbat Gula, Afghan Girl, Pakistan, 1984, Chromogenic print, printed later. 21 1/4 x 14 1/8 in. (54 x 35.9 cm), Signed and annotated in ink on the verso., Estimate $12,000 - 18,000, SOLD FOR $12,600
Thursday’s auction therefore boasts a rich collection of famous photographs that would be instantly recognizable to any enthusiasts on the history of photography in addition to several works that both comment on more contemporary sociopolitical themes and are subjects of continuing controversy. Considering the work of Dinh Q. Lê and Steve McCurry, we find several photographs in the Phillips collection that comment on the relationship between the Global South and the West in the context of photography. This is done in different ways: with Lê's work, we are presented images that make a very intentional reference to this relationship with their visual content; with McCurry, the relationship is laid bare through the history of the image itself. But in spite of these differences, this thematic current runs through much of the collection, even more so than in just these photographs. All in all, Phillips showcases a large selection of works combining aesthetic and historical value.
