S otheby’s seasonal spring Photographs auction includes work by many masters of the medium, and features a range of material from the 19th to 21st centuries. Classic American photography is well-represented in works by Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Walker Evans, and Berenice Abbott. Iconic fashion and portraiture include photographs by Richard Avedon, Horst P. Horst, Irving Penn, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Annie Leibovitz. Contemporary offerings include large-scale photographs by Matthew Brandt, Catherine Opie, Alex Prager, Rineke Dijkstra, and Massimo Vitali. Significant 19th century photographs include seminal images by Julia Margaret Cameron, Carleton E. Watkins, and Eugène Cuvelier. These photographs, as well as ones by Josef Koudelka, Robert Adams, Frederick Sommer, and William Eggleston, will be available for viewing by appointment during our pre-sale exhibition at Sotheby’s New York from April 3rd to April 6th.
Online bidding will be open from March 29th to April 7th. Please contact the Photographs Department at +1 212 894 1149 for more information about lots in the sale, to set up a viewing appointment, or for bidding assistance.
Sotheby’s is pleased to present Property of a Prominent Corporation, featuring photographs from the late 19th century through the early 21st century. This wide-ranging collection includes Vik Muniz’s monumental take on Jackson Pollock’s Convergence, Edward Weston’s magnificent dune study, and several important contemporary portfolios, among other offerings.
The Photographs auction features penetrating portraits of Marilyn Monroe, Nicole Kidman, Miles Davis, Muhammad Ali, Mick Jagger, Millie-Christine McKoy, and many more.
Photographers have long explored the timeless genre of the still-life. Imaginative and curious renderings of these enduring close-ups are exemplified by the works of Frederick Sommer, Walker Evans, Alma Lavenson, Clarence John Laughlin, Paul Outerbridge, and Matt Lipps.
Holding on to the hope that we will be together again soon, we look forward to days without social distancing when we can dance, socialize, play sports, and hop on a train. Alex Prager, Malick Sidibé, Charles Nègre, Massimo Vitali, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Sebastião Salgado capture scenes of gatherings and bustling crowds.
Landscape photography brings far-flung geographic locations within one’s field of vision. From Carleton E. Watkins’ 19th century renderings of Yosemite to Sally Mann’s moody visual meditations of the deep south, these artists let us behold Mother Nature’s beauty.
Defunct movie theaters in Havana; a library at Harvard; views of 1930s New York City – photographs by Ahmet Ertug, Abelardo Morell, Berenice Abbott, and Carlos Garaicoa, among others, let us explore feats of modern architecture from the comfort of our homes.
