NEW YORK, 4 October 2019 – Sotheby’s annual fall auctions of Classic and Contemporary Photographs concluded yesterday in New York, with 120+ works selling for an overall total of $4.3 million. Emily Bierman, Head of Sotheby’s Photographs Department in New York, commented: “We are thrilled with the results from our Contemporary and Classic Photographs sales. It is especially exciting to see both sales led by women artists, including a new auction record for Francesca Woodman. We saw strong results for key works from the 19th Century, notably Albert Frisch’s series of rare photographs of the Amazon region which has never before in its entirety appeared at auction – and are so delighted that these important photographs will be returning to Brazil at the Instituto Moreira Salles. It was a pleasure to offer at auction for the first time the work of Kansuke Yamamoto, whose Reminiscence established an impressive new record for the artist. Across our Contemporary and Classic Photographs sales, there was great interest and enthusiastic bidding, with a particular focus on American masters and portraiture.  We look forward to continuing this momentum in the spring.”

CLASSIC PHOTOGRAPHS
Auction Total: $4.3 Million

Yesterday’s Classic Photographs sale was led by Francesca Woodman’s Polka Dots, which soared to $200,000 after competition from 6 bidders (estimate $50/70,000), and established a new world auction record for the artist. Photographed in 1976, during the artist’s years at Rhode Island School of Design, Polka Dots offers a rare glimpse of Woodman unabridged, engaging directly with the camera, her gaze disquieting, confrontational, and yet vulnerable.

Three other works by Woodman were 100% sold, including Untitled (Rome) which fetched $87,500 (estimate $50/70,000) and brought the artist’s total for the sale to $343,125. 

Albert Frisch’s set of 98 albumen prints from his expedition to Brazil’s Upper Amazon in 1867-68 sold for $81,250 to the Instituto Moreira Salles, Brazil – establishing a new world auction record for the artist. Originally published 150 years ago in 1869 under the title Résultat d’une expédition photographique sur le Solimões ou Alto Amazonas et Rio Negro, these prints represent the earliest and most comprehensive photographic survey of the Amazon region.  While Frisch documented the natural flora and fauna, the greatest number of images depicts the indigenous inhabitants of the Ticuna, Miranha, Caixana, and Umpqua tribes, among others. Until today, no other complete catalogue of Amazonas photographs has appeared at auction.

The auction also saw strong prices for iconic works by the foremost American photographers of the 20th century, including Walker Evans’ definitive portrait of Floyd Burroughs which sold for $150,000 (estimate $80/120,000), a large-format gelatin silver-print of Robert Mapplethorpe’s Tulips, which realized $93,750, an extremely rare vintage print of singer Marian Anderson by Richard Avedon, which achieved $87,500, and Lewis Baltz’s Santa Cruz, which established a new record for a single print by the artist at $68,750. Harold Edgerton’s vibrant portfolio of Ten Dye Transfer Photographs also established a new record for the artist at auction, selling for $60,000 (estimate $10/15,000).

CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHS
Auction Total: $1.9 Million

Last week’s Contemporary Photographs auction was led by two prints from Cindy Sherman’s groundbreaking series, Untitled Film Stills. Made over the course of three years (1977-1980), the seventy images in this series depict the artist dressed in various female guises and are the artist’s most well-known and celebrated body of work. The black and white photographs firmly established Sherman’s artistic practice of using her own body as the main element in the expanding corpus of portraits she continues to make. After much competitive bidding, The Princeton University Art Museum acquired Untitled Film Still #10 for $300,000, establishing it as the top lot of the sale (estimate $120/180,000). Wearing a hairstyle reminiscent of a Dorothy Hamill wedge cut, the work is considered one of Sherman’s most powerful interior scenes. Untitled Film Still #45, snapped during Sherman’s family vacation in Arizona, fetched $162,500 (estimate $120/180,000).

The sale also saw enthusiastic bidding for Peter Beard’s Large-Maned Lion at Cottar's Camp, which achieved $106,250 (estimate $40/60,000), as well as photographs by David Yarrow, whose works 78 Degrees North, Svalbard, Norway and The Old Testament, DinoKeng, South Africa performed above their high estimate to achieve $81,250 and $52,500 respectively.