Upcoming Highlights – Photographs: Art & Visual Culture

At Auction February 21

Complete Catalogue

This auction features Robert Frank’s Yom Kippur, East River, New York, 1955, printed 1971; Robert Mapplethorpe’s Roy Cohn, 1981; André Kertész’s signed vintage carte-postale portraits of Mrs. Edwin Rosskam, 1927, and a suite of eight photographic postcards from the Société Anonyme exhibition of 1920. Work by Edward S. Curtis includes the stunning orotone Before the Storm (Apache), 1906, as well as a striking group of 18 cyanotypes from 1910-14.

Tina Barney’s incredible The Hands from the 2002-04 series The Europeans headlines the contemporary offerings, which also includes Mary Ellen Mark’s Polaroid Heather and Kelsey Dietrick, Twinsburg, Ohio, 2002. Stunning examples of abstraction and modernism include Aaron Siskind’s oversized Jerome, Arizona (peeled paint), 1949, printed 1970s; Edward Weston’s vintage Taliesin West, Phoenix, Arizona, 1941, initialed and inscribed; and Paul Strand’s Shop, Le Bacares, Pyrénées, 1951; printed 1960s.

Numerous examples of visual culture complete the sale: a series of women wrestlers, an archive of mid-century Mobil oil gas stations in the Midwest and Western United States, an extensive NASA archive, a color typological album documenting cars available for use in MGM films, and a sign painter’s album with more than 200 Polaroids of custom work.

Fine Photographs

monochrome portrait of a woman cleaning window blinds

Lot 144: Fan Ho, Cleaning, unique silver print, 1950. Estimate $10,000 to $15,000.

bright yellow and blue abstraction of flora

Lot 237: James Welling, 001, C-print on metallic paper, 2006. Estimate $2,000 to $3,000.

Lot 224: Irving Penn, Ospedale, platinum-palladium print, 1980, printed 1981. Estimate $12,000 to $18,000.

Lot 229:Malick Sidibe, group of 38 silver prints in custom frames, 1964-2001. Estimate $30,000 to $45,000.

Cartes-Postales

front and back of a postcard by Bragaglia

Lot 48: Anton Guilio Bragaglia, six photomechanical postcards with facsimile signatures, 1911-13, printed 1932. Estimate $30,000 to $45,000.

Lot 55: André Kertész, Mrs. Edwin Rosskam, two silver prints on carte-postale paper, 1927. Estimate $10,0000 to $15,000.

Lot 49: Société Anonyme, Inc, group of nine postcards, including eight real photo postcards, 1920-30. Estimate $25,000 to $35,000.

Edward S. Curtis

Lot 26: Edward S. Curtis, Horse Capture, Atsina, unique copper plate for The North American Indian, 1908. Estimate $60,000 to $90,000.

three cyanotype prints of Native American peoples

Lot 31: Edward S. Curtis, suite of 18 cyanotypes, with images of the Kwakiutl, Cheyenne, Cowichan and Flathead, 1910-14. Estimate $25,000 to $35,000.

Nineteenth Century

sepia bust portrait of Harriet Beecher Stowe

Lot 14: John Whipple, Harriet Beecher Stowe, salt print from a calotype negative, 1853. Estimate $10,000 to $15,000.

sepia portrait of a little girl reading on a couch

Lot 2: Lewis Carroll, Xie Kitchen, albumen print, circa 1872. Estimate $8,000 to $12,000.

Photobooks

image of the colophon and a portrait from the portfolio

Lot 113: Ansel Adams, Taos Pueblo, limited first edition, signed, with 12 silver bromide prints, 1930. Estimate $30,000 to $45,000.

Visual Culture

Lot 312: NASA archive with 351 photographs, silver & chromogenic prints, 1960-2002. Estimate $6,000 to $9,000.

Lot 299: John F. Kennedy in his motorcade about two minutes before his assassination, chromogenic print, 1963, printed 1964. Estimate $2,000 to $3,000.