Andreas GURSKY (born in 1955)
1993 The Digital Code of Parisian Life
2013 SOLD 1.48 M£ including premium
Paris-Montparnasse is the key artwork that opens the major turning point in the career of Andreas Gursky.
Inspired by Bernd and Hilla Becher, he became interested in contemporary architecture. The Immeuble Mouchotte completed in Montparnasse in 1966 is huge with its 18 levels and 750 apartments. It supports the question of the trivialization and dehumanization of modern life, even in Paris.
In 1993, the use of digital techniques in photographic art is new for Gursky. Paris-Montparnasse, 149 x 354 cm, is the result of the mixing of two elementary images.
Compared to conventional photography, the result is amazing. From the left or from the right, the building is endless. Still more important: the perfect alignment of horizontal lines is an unprecedented challenge to the old laws of perspective, a technical feat that is only possible with digital imaging and makes understanding the fascination offered by large later compositions such as Rhein.
Seen from afar, the free or hidden windows constitute some sort of binary grid, which also is well ahead of his time. The visible furnishing and some characters remind us that diversity is still existing despite the uniformity of the living conditions.
A print of Paris-Montparnasse is estimated £ 1M, for sale by Sotheby's in London on October 17. I invite you to play the video shared by the auction house.
POST SALE COMMENT
Good result, £ 1.48M including premium, for this masterpiece by Gursky.
Inspired by Bernd and Hilla Becher, he became interested in contemporary architecture. The Immeuble Mouchotte completed in Montparnasse in 1966 is huge with its 18 levels and 750 apartments. It supports the question of the trivialization and dehumanization of modern life, even in Paris.
In 1993, the use of digital techniques in photographic art is new for Gursky. Paris-Montparnasse, 149 x 354 cm, is the result of the mixing of two elementary images.
Compared to conventional photography, the result is amazing. From the left or from the right, the building is endless. Still more important: the perfect alignment of horizontal lines is an unprecedented challenge to the old laws of perspective, a technical feat that is only possible with digital imaging and makes understanding the fascination offered by large later compositions such as Rhein.
Seen from afar, the free or hidden windows constitute some sort of binary grid, which also is well ahead of his time. The visible furnishing and some characters remind us that diversity is still existing despite the uniformity of the living conditions.
A print of Paris-Montparnasse is estimated £ 1M, for sale by Sotheby's in London on October 17. I invite you to play the video shared by the auction house.
POST SALE COMMENT
Good result, £ 1.48M including premium, for this masterpiece by Gursky.
1996 A Long Quiet River
2013 SOLD 1.92 M$ including premium
Painting, a fine art, and photography, a technical art, intermixed their histories. Copying photos enabled artists to emerge from the constraint of the form to better express their emotions. With Andreas Gursky, photography, inversely, is inspired by the search for the Sublime of the abstract expressionists.
In Gursky's art, the field of view is always unlimited and the texture is a juxtaposition of details, following the theories of Jackson Pollock. With Rhein, he provides a strict and parallel geometry that echoes the new world of Barnett Newman and looks similar as ancient Navajo textiles.
The Rhine river is a natural theme for Gursky, whose artistic vision was created in Düsseldorf. The lapping at the surface of the water forms a crowd just like the spectators in Gursky's Madonna concert. There is no human on Rhein, but the path in the foreground links to our civilization.
Rhein was published in six copies in 1996 in large format, 146 x 181 cm. One of them was sold for $ 2.1 million including premium by Sotheby's on 10 May 2011, another one £ 710K including premium at Christie's on 27 June 2012. A third copy is estimated $ 1M, for sale by Phillips in New York on May 16. Here is the link to the catalog.
The success of Rhein had been immediate. Reworking the same image in a bigger size, more scenic, more unlimited, Gursky published Rhein II in 1999, in six copies, 185 x 364 cm.
Rhein II is a masterpiece of contemporary art. One copy from only two in private hands was sold for $ 4.3 million including premium by Christie's on November 8, 2011.
POST SALE COMMENT
With reference to previous results recorded on Rhein I, the estimate was too low. This photo was sold $ 1.92 million including premium.
In Gursky's art, the field of view is always unlimited and the texture is a juxtaposition of details, following the theories of Jackson Pollock. With Rhein, he provides a strict and parallel geometry that echoes the new world of Barnett Newman and looks similar as ancient Navajo textiles.
The Rhine river is a natural theme for Gursky, whose artistic vision was created in Düsseldorf. The lapping at the surface of the water forms a crowd just like the spectators in Gursky's Madonna concert. There is no human on Rhein, but the path in the foreground links to our civilization.
Rhein was published in six copies in 1996 in large format, 146 x 181 cm. One of them was sold for $ 2.1 million including premium by Sotheby's on 10 May 2011, another one £ 710K including premium at Christie's on 27 June 2012. A third copy is estimated $ 1M, for sale by Phillips in New York on May 16. Here is the link to the catalog.
The success of Rhein had been immediate. Reworking the same image in a bigger size, more scenic, more unlimited, Gursky published Rhein II in 1999, in six copies, 185 x 364 cm.
Rhein II is a masterpiece of contemporary art. One copy from only two in private hands was sold for $ 4.3 million including premium by Christie's on November 8, 2011.
POST SALE COMMENT
With reference to previous results recorded on Rhein I, the estimate was too low. This photo was sold $ 1.92 million including premium.
1997 Chicago by Gursky
2013 SOLD for £ 1.54M including premium by Sotheby's
Narrated below with a 2009 Chicago III.
1998 The Skyline of Los Angeles
2017 SOLD for £ 1.7M including premium
The art of Andreas Gursky is unique for his technique and his achievements. His photos displaying an unlimited scenery are formed of a dense pattern of hundreds of elements different from each other even when he uses a digital processing. The observer who moves closer or away from the image has a continuously changing vision like a link between the cosmic world and everyday life.
A student to Bernd and Hilla Becher from 1980 to 1987 at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf where he also teaches since 2010, Gursky uses a large format for the shooting and implements his pictures with an impeccable geometric rigor. Like his mentors he deals with different subjects under similar viewing angles that invite for comparisons.
He is the leading artist for the photographic printing in very large sizes. In chronological order Los Angeles, Cibachrome print 158 x 316 cm prepared in 1998 and exhibited in 1999, is a step between the Rhein-I 146 x 181 cm of 1996 and the Rhein II 185 x 364 cm of 1999. The number 1/6 of Rhein II was sold for $ 4.3M including premium by Christie's on November 8, 2011.
Los Angeles is a bird's-eye view encompassing the entire conurbation at night as a galactic form illuminated from the ground by the human activity and upper-lined by an orange pollution halo that simulates the rotundity of the Earth. Three wide linear avenues join at the horizon in a perfectly symmetrical figure. This bright stripe of the city separates the foreground and the sky made in a same deep black.
Los Angeles was edited in six copies. The number 3/6 was sold for £ 1,48M including premium by Sotheby's on February 27, 2008. Mounted in an author's frame and protected by a Plexiglas, 4/6 is estimated £ 1,4M for sale by Phillips in London on October 6, lot 24.
Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
A student to Bernd and Hilla Becher from 1980 to 1987 at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf where he also teaches since 2010, Gursky uses a large format for the shooting and implements his pictures with an impeccable geometric rigor. Like his mentors he deals with different subjects under similar viewing angles that invite for comparisons.
He is the leading artist for the photographic printing in very large sizes. In chronological order Los Angeles, Cibachrome print 158 x 316 cm prepared in 1998 and exhibited in 1999, is a step between the Rhein-I 146 x 181 cm of 1996 and the Rhein II 185 x 364 cm of 1999. The number 1/6 of Rhein II was sold for $ 4.3M including premium by Christie's on November 8, 2011.
Los Angeles is a bird's-eye view encompassing the entire conurbation at night as a galactic form illuminated from the ground by the human activity and upper-lined by an orange pollution halo that simulates the rotundity of the Earth. Three wide linear avenues join at the horizon in a perfectly symmetrical figure. This bright stripe of the city separates the foreground and the sky made in a same deep black.
Los Angeles was edited in six copies. The number 3/6 was sold for £ 1,48M including premium by Sotheby's on February 27, 2008. Mounted in an author's frame and protected by a Plexiglas, 4/6 is estimated £ 1,4M for sale by Phillips in London on October 6, lot 24.
Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1999 Rhein II by Gursky
2011 SOLD for $ 4.3M including premium by Christie's
narrated in 2020
Photographer of the contemporary civilization, Andreas Gursky uses digital image techniques to bring a new vision of the human anthills, in which the individuals are all different while playing absolutely similar roles.
In 1996, with Rhein, he does exactly the opposite. By digital elimination, he empties of all human elements a river landscape taken in Düsseldorf. He thus obtains an original landscape which echoes the minimalist abstractions of the creation of the world by Barnett Newman, the divine horizons of Caspar David Friedrich and the eternal mountains of Hodler.
Rhein is built in a set of horizontal stripes : the gray sky, the opposite side, the slow movement of the river water, the foreground bank divided by a narrow path. The influence of Gerd and Hilla Becher, photographers of the ordinary architecture, is indisputable. The Bechers had taught in Düsseldorf a full-front photography without angular effect.
Rhein was edited in chromogenic print mounted on Plexiglas in six copies, 146 x 180 cm for the image, 186 x 220 cm including the artist's frame. The auction results, including premium, were: $ 2.1M by Sotheby's on May 10, 2011, £ 710K by Christie's on June 27, 2012, $ 1.92M by Phillips on May 16, 2013 and $ 1.8M by Sotheby's on November 12, 2014.
In 1999 the artist reworks his image which was too small and too square to bring the mystical illusion of the infinite. The landscape is stretched for a more panoramic format and the sky is lightened. Rhein II is edited with the same techniques as the previous version, also in six copies, with an image format of 185 x 364 cm in a frame 207 x 386 cm. The number 1/6 was sold for $ 4.3M including premium by Christie's on November 8, 2011, lot 44.
In 1996, with Rhein, he does exactly the opposite. By digital elimination, he empties of all human elements a river landscape taken in Düsseldorf. He thus obtains an original landscape which echoes the minimalist abstractions of the creation of the world by Barnett Newman, the divine horizons of Caspar David Friedrich and the eternal mountains of Hodler.
Rhein is built in a set of horizontal stripes : the gray sky, the opposite side, the slow movement of the river water, the foreground bank divided by a narrow path. The influence of Gerd and Hilla Becher, photographers of the ordinary architecture, is indisputable. The Bechers had taught in Düsseldorf a full-front photography without angular effect.
Rhein was edited in chromogenic print mounted on Plexiglas in six copies, 146 x 180 cm for the image, 186 x 220 cm including the artist's frame. The auction results, including premium, were: $ 2.1M by Sotheby's on May 10, 2011, £ 710K by Christie's on June 27, 2012, $ 1.92M by Phillips on May 16, 2013 and $ 1.8M by Sotheby's on November 12, 2014.
In 1999 the artist reworks his image which was too small and too square to bring the mystical illusion of the infinite. The landscape is stretched for a more panoramic format and the sky is lightened. Rhein II is edited with the same techniques as the previous version, also in six copies, with an image format of 185 x 364 cm in a frame 207 x 386 cm. The number 1/6 was sold for $ 4.3M including premium by Christie's on November 8, 2011, lot 44.
2000 Inside the Grand Hotel
2015 SOLD for £ 1.1M including premium
Architecture had inspired Andreas Gursky from his beginnings. Increasingly massive structures reduce mankind to dwarfism.
'Shanghai' is a photograph made in 2000. The copy 4/6 in c-print on Plexiglas 302 x 207 cm in an artist's frame was sold for £ 290K including premium by Sotheby's in London on 25 June 2009. It is listed again in the same auction room on July 1, lot 49 estimated £ 400K.
The artwork expresses the atmosphere of a new international hotel. The features are generally similar from one hotel to another in the same group for not disturbing the customers, but the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Shanghai is remarkable in its excess: it fills the upper 36 floors in a tower which totals 88.
The hollow atrium is the subject of this image, in a composition of perfect symmetry. It provides a vertical view of an immensity that can be compared with the Rhein realized by the artist in landscape format in 1996 and 1999.
The impression of perspective, which is perfect, is in fact the result of the rigorous geometric assembly of many elementary photographs taken from different levels. Some characters scattered between various floors are crushed by the grandeur created to serve them.
'Shanghai' is a photograph made in 2000. The copy 4/6 in c-print on Plexiglas 302 x 207 cm in an artist's frame was sold for £ 290K including premium by Sotheby's in London on 25 June 2009. It is listed again in the same auction room on July 1, lot 49 estimated £ 400K.
The artwork expresses the atmosphere of a new international hotel. The features are generally similar from one hotel to another in the same group for not disturbing the customers, but the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Shanghai is remarkable in its excess: it fills the upper 36 floors in a tower which totals 88.
The hollow atrium is the subject of this image, in a composition of perfect symmetry. It provides a vertical view of an immensity that can be compared with the Rhein realized by the artist in landscape format in 1996 and 1999.
The impression of perspective, which is perfect, is in fact the result of the rigorous geometric assembly of many elementary photographs taken from different levels. Some characters scattered between various floors are crushed by the grandeur created to serve them.
2000 A Crowd from Bird's Eye
2017 SOLD for £ 760K including premium
On October 3 in London, Christie's sells May Day IV, a chromogenic photo made in 2000 by Andreas Gursky, lot 7estimated £ 500K. Its monumental size, 152 x 457 cm for the image and 208 x 508 cm overall, exceeds the Rhein II made in the previous year.
Its theme is an unlimited crowd from bird's eye. It precedes the Madonna I of September 2001 with the difference that May Day IV is not really staged in a discernable event. A copy of Madonna I was sold for £ 1.08M including premium by Sotheby's on February 10, 2010.
In terms of artistic style May Day IV may be directly compared with the Los Angeles of 1998 with a sharpness that enables a fully different impression from global to detail. The crowd extending beyond the four sides of the picture brings from far away a Pollock-like vision. In close up view these young people excited in a musical show are all different from each other.
This photo numbered 2/6 previously passed at Christie's on June 27, 2012.
Its theme is an unlimited crowd from bird's eye. It precedes the Madonna I of September 2001 with the difference that May Day IV is not really staged in a discernable event. A copy of Madonna I was sold for £ 1.08M including premium by Sotheby's on February 10, 2010.
In terms of artistic style May Day IV may be directly compared with the Los Angeles of 1998 with a sharpness that enables a fully different impression from global to detail. The crowd extending beyond the four sides of the picture brings from far away a Pollock-like vision. In close up view these young people excited in a musical show are all different from each other.
This photo numbered 2/6 previously passed at Christie's on June 27, 2012.
2001 The Celestial Madonna of Andreas Gursky
2010 SOLD 1.08 M£ including premium
Nobody has forgotten what happened in New York on September 11, 2001. In Los Angeles the same day, Madonna's concert was canceled. It takes place two days later. The singer wears around her waist the stars and stripes of the U.S. flag.
Andreas Gursky takes pictures, and constructs a masterpiece of the new art: digital photography. "Madonna I" is printed in cibachrome in six copies plus two artist's proofs.
As always with Gursky, the monumental dimensions, 282 x 207 cm, do not prevent the very precise details of the image.
The singer faces the immensity. Small (about 12 cm) and excentred, but well standing on a spot light, she dominates the image. In front of her in the semi-darkness of the hall, the audience in singing, their arms raised. Further away from the stage, the crowd is getting confused into a starry sky.
Sotheby's sells on February 10 in London an artist proof dedicated to Madonna, which the singer had kept during some years. It is estimated £ 900 K.
POST SALE COMMENT
Good price, but remaining very close to the estimate. I hoped that this encounter between Gursky and the show business should be more profitable. This photo has been sold £ 1.08 million including premium.
Andreas Gursky takes pictures, and constructs a masterpiece of the new art: digital photography. "Madonna I" is printed in cibachrome in six copies plus two artist's proofs.
As always with Gursky, the monumental dimensions, 282 x 207 cm, do not prevent the very precise details of the image.
The singer faces the immensity. Small (about 12 cm) and excentred, but well standing on a spot light, she dominates the image. In front of her in the semi-darkness of the hall, the audience in singing, their arms raised. Further away from the stage, the crowd is getting confused into a starry sky.
Sotheby's sells on February 10 in London an artist proof dedicated to Madonna, which the singer had kept during some years. It is estimated £ 900 K.
POST SALE COMMENT
Good price, but remaining very close to the estimate. I hoped that this encounter between Gursky and the show business should be more profitable. This photo has been sold £ 1.08 million including premium.
2007 Pyongyang IV by Gursky
2010 SOLD for £ 1.33M including premium by Sotheby's
narrated in 2013 before the sale of a Pyongyang II by Christie's (see below)
Using digital techniques, Andreas Gursky has managed to drown the individual in the mass. Although all the characters are differentiated, his work is the absolute opposite of the portrait. All gatherings of crowds inspire him: stock exchange, music hall, political events, sports.
His technique is unique. However, the expression of a visual message by a multitude exists also in the most secretive country in the world. In Pyongyang, the Arirang festival glorifies the history and politics of Korea with thousands of gymnasts and children. Each one is trained to his role played with the rigor of a military parade in a synchronized set.
In 2007, Arirang was exceptional. The number of players has probably reached 100,000. Behind the gymnasts, the political message is a huge mosaic of colorful paddles waved by 30,000 children, building figurative themes that are modified throughout the show.
Also in 2007, tourists were allowed for a restricted access to this festival whose main goal is to exacerbate the local patriotism. Gursky realized five compositions including a diptych.
Pyongyang IV, Cibachrome 304 x 207 cm, shows the gymnasts in tight ranks, with the earth as a cake in honor of the 95th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung. It was published in seven copies. One of them was sold for £ 1.33M including premium by Sotheby's on 15 October 2010, lot 6.
The Pyongyang II diptych was edited in six copies. One of them was sold for $ 960K by Christie's on September 26, 2013.
His technique is unique. However, the expression of a visual message by a multitude exists also in the most secretive country in the world. In Pyongyang, the Arirang festival glorifies the history and politics of Korea with thousands of gymnasts and children. Each one is trained to his role played with the rigor of a military parade in a synchronized set.
In 2007, Arirang was exceptional. The number of players has probably reached 100,000. Behind the gymnasts, the political message is a huge mosaic of colorful paddles waved by 30,000 children, building figurative themes that are modified throughout the show.
Also in 2007, tourists were allowed for a restricted access to this festival whose main goal is to exacerbate the local patriotism. Gursky realized five compositions including a diptych.
Pyongyang IV, Cibachrome 304 x 207 cm, shows the gymnasts in tight ranks, with the earth as a cake in honor of the 95th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il Sung. It was published in seven copies. One of them was sold for £ 1.33M including premium by Sotheby's on 15 October 2010, lot 6.
The Pyongyang II diptych was edited in six copies. One of them was sold for $ 960K by Christie's on September 26, 2013.
2007 Pyongyang V by Gursky
2014 SOLD for £ 1.08M including premium by Sotheby's
narrated in 2020 before the sale of a Pyongyang II by Sotheby's (see below)
The Arirang Mass Games are regularly organized in Pyongyang to exalt the North Korean patriotism. It is both collectivist and popular : the performers are also the spectators and each participant has rehearsed for months the gestures to be executed for being totally integrated within the crowd. There can be nothing similar. Nowhere.
On the stadium, thousands of gymnasts coordinate their rapid gestures to build global figures of great geometric simplicity and beauty. In the steps thousands of children hold colored cards, in turn assembling the various visual symbols of the North Korean regime.
These people do not have an individual existence. In terms of chemistry, they are the atoms of a single material. In terms of printing, they are the pixels of the image. In Arirang's videos it is impossible to discern a specific feature of a gymnast, neither in gesture nor in costume.
In 2007 Andreas Gursky attends the opening ceremony of Arirang. His technique of reconstructing a global image from photos successively focused on the different distances offers a very high resolution without distortion from foreground to background.
Pyongyang I, III, IV and V display gymnastic figures. A Pyongyang IV 304 x 205 cm was sold for £ 1.33M including premium by Sotheby's on October 15, 2010. A Pyongyang V 307 x 219 cm was sold for £ 1.08M including premium on June 30, 2014, lot 41, also by Sotheby's. Pyongyang III is a panoramic format, 206 x 422 cm. In a phase when the background is inactive, it offers a composition in horizontal stripes that from afar looks like the masterpiece of the artist, the Rhein II of 1999.
Pyongyang II is a diptych of two elements 185 x 237 cm each on Plexiglas 207 x 259 cm. It shows a figure of troops in successive squares with in the background a flight of doves on one view and a pair of Kim Il Sung pistols on the other, meaning that peace is ensured by military force.
The Pyongyang II 4/6 diptych was sold for $ 960K including premium by Christie's on September 26, 2013. The Pyongyang II 6/6 diptych was sold for £ 830K including premium by Christie's on February 14, 2012 and passed at Sotheby's on March 6, 2020, lot 265.
On the stadium, thousands of gymnasts coordinate their rapid gestures to build global figures of great geometric simplicity and beauty. In the steps thousands of children hold colored cards, in turn assembling the various visual symbols of the North Korean regime.
These people do not have an individual existence. In terms of chemistry, they are the atoms of a single material. In terms of printing, they are the pixels of the image. In Arirang's videos it is impossible to discern a specific feature of a gymnast, neither in gesture nor in costume.
In 2007 Andreas Gursky attends the opening ceremony of Arirang. His technique of reconstructing a global image from photos successively focused on the different distances offers a very high resolution without distortion from foreground to background.
Pyongyang I, III, IV and V display gymnastic figures. A Pyongyang IV 304 x 205 cm was sold for £ 1.33M including premium by Sotheby's on October 15, 2010. A Pyongyang V 307 x 219 cm was sold for £ 1.08M including premium on June 30, 2014, lot 41, also by Sotheby's. Pyongyang III is a panoramic format, 206 x 422 cm. In a phase when the background is inactive, it offers a composition in horizontal stripes that from afar looks like the masterpiece of the artist, the Rhein II of 1999.
Pyongyang II is a diptych of two elements 185 x 237 cm each on Plexiglas 207 x 259 cm. It shows a figure of troops in successive squares with in the background a flight of doves on one view and a pair of Kim Il Sung pistols on the other, meaning that peace is ensured by military force.
The Pyongyang II 4/6 diptych was sold for $ 960K including premium by Christie's on September 26, 2013. The Pyongyang II 6/6 diptych was sold for £ 830K including premium by Christie's on February 14, 2012 and passed at Sotheby's on March 6, 2020, lot 265.
2007 Figures at Arirang
2012 SOLD for £ 830K including premium by Christie's
2020 UNSOLD
2007 The Pixels of Arirang
2013 SOLD for $ 960K including premium
Fully narrated above.
The Pyongyang II diptych was edited in six copies. Each print 184 x 237 cm is mounted on Plexiglas. Gyms are gathered in large concentric squares, and the pixels of the children show alternately doves and firearms, two themes that are not contradictory in North Korea.
A copy of the diptych is estimated $ 800K, for sale by Christie's in New York on September 26. Here is the link to the catalog.
The Pyongyang II diptych was edited in six copies. Each print 184 x 237 cm is mounted on Plexiglas. Gyms are gathered in large concentric squares, and the pixels of the children show alternately doves and firearms, two themes that are not contradictory in North Korea.
A copy of the diptych is estimated $ 800K, for sale by Christie's in New York on September 26. Here is the link to the catalog.
2009 Human Ants at Stock Exchange
2013 SOLD 2.15 M£ including premium
A crowd from a distance is a homogeneous texture. When we come closer, each individual is physically unique, thinking of specific things, busy in personal action, but we may doubt whether their differences have a real meaning.
That impossible duality between individual and crowd captured Gursky's attention throughout his career. Every water drop in the river may also have its specific existence. The frantic bustle of the huge halls of stock exchanges around the world fueled his creativity since 1990.
On June 25 in London, Sotheby's disperses a collection of Stock exchanges by Gursky that enables to track the evolution of his art.
Edited in 1990 in four copies, Tokyo, 129 x 167 cm, estimated £ 500K is a documentary photo in a careful geometry, where people seem to have a personality.
In 1994, Hong Kong, estimated £ 300K, is a diptych. The swarming man is dominated by an implacable geometry that he does not perceive and a fortiori no longer controls. Each element measures 126 x 187 cm.
Chicago in 1997, 145 x 202 cm, estimated £ 700K, is a masterpiece of the new techniques of image processing assisted with computer. The unlimited and homogeneous crowd certainly does not include two identical individuals. Gursky often reused this process, for example in his superb view of Madonna's concert after 11 September 2001.
As he had done between Rhein and Rhein II, Gursky reworked Chicago from his database of images. Made in 2009 from photos of 1999, the monumental Chicago III, 201 x 285 cm, estimated £ 600K, offers to the observer a texture similar as the most careful drippings by Pollock.
The white robes of Kuwait, 2008, 210 x 286 cm, form an abstraction in a lighter tone. This photo is estimated £ 400K.
The above dimensions do not include frames.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
POST SALE COMMENT
The five lots of this remarkable collection have been sold. For Chicago, the logic is the same as previously for Rhein : the highest price goes to the most recent, largest and most worked photo.
Here are the results including premium: Chicago: £ 1.54 million; Chicago III: £ 2.15 million; Tokyo: £ 620K; Kuwait: £ 660K, Hong Kong: £ 480K.
That impossible duality between individual and crowd captured Gursky's attention throughout his career. Every water drop in the river may also have its specific existence. The frantic bustle of the huge halls of stock exchanges around the world fueled his creativity since 1990.
On June 25 in London, Sotheby's disperses a collection of Stock exchanges by Gursky that enables to track the evolution of his art.
Edited in 1990 in four copies, Tokyo, 129 x 167 cm, estimated £ 500K is a documentary photo in a careful geometry, where people seem to have a personality.
In 1994, Hong Kong, estimated £ 300K, is a diptych. The swarming man is dominated by an implacable geometry that he does not perceive and a fortiori no longer controls. Each element measures 126 x 187 cm.
Chicago in 1997, 145 x 202 cm, estimated £ 700K, is a masterpiece of the new techniques of image processing assisted with computer. The unlimited and homogeneous crowd certainly does not include two identical individuals. Gursky often reused this process, for example in his superb view of Madonna's concert after 11 September 2001.
As he had done between Rhein and Rhein II, Gursky reworked Chicago from his database of images. Made in 2009 from photos of 1999, the monumental Chicago III, 201 x 285 cm, estimated £ 600K, offers to the observer a texture similar as the most careful drippings by Pollock.
The white robes of Kuwait, 2008, 210 x 286 cm, form an abstraction in a lighter tone. This photo is estimated £ 400K.
The above dimensions do not include frames.
I invite you to watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
POST SALE COMMENT
The five lots of this remarkable collection have been sold. For Chicago, the logic is the same as previously for Rhein : the highest price goes to the most recent, largest and most worked photo.
Here are the results including premium: Chicago: £ 1.54 million; Chicago III: £ 2.15 million; Tokyo: £ 620K; Kuwait: £ 660K, Hong Kong: £ 480K.
