Auction No. 298
on 26 October 2018, 6.00 pm
On Friday 26 October, 190 lots of modern and contemporary photography will be auctioned at Grisebach in Berlin.
Several highlights will be on display this evening, including a large vintage print by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. The photogram, created in Chicago in 1939, achieves a powerful pictorial impression in its silky blackness and depth with the bright, energetic centre, in which a strong musicality also resonates. (EUR 50,000/70,000).
Ten years earlier, Edward Steichen captured a sensually seductive still life of flowers. The silky petals seem to be dancing; one can speak of a "portrait" throughout, as it goes far beyond the realistically depictive element. From the estate of the widow Joanna Steichen, this is a museum-quality work. (EUR 50,000/70,000).
"Paradise is elsewhere" is the title of a book. Thomas Struth was able to discover it in his own way in Brazil. On 210 x 271 cm, he has created a monumental work that draws the viewer into the dense, green and lush jungle. (EUR 60,000/ 80,000).
Hiroshi Sugimoto takes the viewer into a drive-in, a drive-in cinema. In his long exposures, the film screen amidst the trees appears white, the film erased as if by magic. A magical spectacle, a questioning of viewing habits and temporality, and for the artist himself a lifelong theme, as "theatres" remain an ever-growing subject for him. (EUR 15,000/ 20,000).
It is not far from the theatre to dance and the stage, exciting vintage works by Frantisek Drtikol, André Kertesz, Edmund Kesting, Alfred Eisenstaedt are juxtaposed with vibrant street scenes by Robert Frank, Berenice Abbott, Weegee, Helen Levitt, Garry Winogrand as well as portrait and nude photography by Man Ray, Erwin Blumenfeld, Helmut Newton, Edward Weston and others.
Vintages by Knud Lönberg-Holm, Evert Marinus van Ojen, Ralph Steiner, Zander & Labisch, among others, document exciting architecture of the 1920s and 1930s.
Two fashion photographs from the estate of Angelica Blechschmidt, the former editor-in-chief of Deutsche Vogue, will be offered for sale, embedded in a fine fashion series with works by Horst P Horst, Jeanloup Sieff, Deborah Turbeville and Walde Huth.
Early photography is also increasingly finding its way into the auction offering, with Dr Richard Neuhauss' photograph "Otto Lilienthal, gliding flight with the large biplane from Fliegeberg" (EUR 6,000/8,000) and Heinrich Kühn's picturesque rubber print "Venice" (EUR 12,000/18,000) being particularly noteworthy.