Photo
for cameras, see Instrument
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Photos 1900s 1910s Photos 1920s 1930s Photos 1970s 1980s Gursky Sherman
Chronology : 1924 1980 1999
List of most expensive photos in Wikipedia.
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Photos 1900s 1910s Photos 1920s 1930s Photos 1970s 1980s Gursky Sherman
Chronology : 1924 1980 1999
List of most expensive photos in Wikipedia.
1905 The Flatiron by Steichen
2022 SOLD for $ 11.8M by Christie's
The aim of the pictorialist tendency is to favor the romantic beauty of a photograph over its documentary content. At the same time, the improvement of the photo-sensitive processes allows new effects, revealing the weakest contrasts and the smallest rays of light from the original negative.
Eduard 'Edward' Steichen meets Stieglitz in New York City in 1900. He is 21 years old. They collaborate closely, and Steichen deepens his research aimed at making photography recognized as an art in its own right.
The success of a photographic image depends on the quality of the entire chain, from the shooting to the processing in the laboratory. Steichen practices the process with gum bichromate, recommended by Demachy. This process makes it possible to reproduce an illusion of colors, in a more subtle way than a simple watercoloring. The first suitable process of color photography will be released by the Lumière brothers in 1907.
Steichen does not shy away from difficulties. One of his favorite themes is moonlight, with its subtle colors. He is a painter and observes these scenes imagining which pigments he can use. In 1904 he takes the plunge. His photograph of a pond in New York is an opportunity to experiment with an ambience effect by applying the gum bichromate in multiple layers.
The task is long and difficult. Steichen achieves three prints of his photo, each time with a different configuration of chemicals and layers. This interesting nocturnal effect, subtitled Moonlight or Moonrise, reveals the moon twice : on the horizon through a sparse wood and by the pale light it brings to the surface of the pond.
One of the prints was donated by Stieglitz in 1933 to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and another by Steichen in 1967 to the Museum of Modern Art. The third print was in a collection which was acquired as a whole by the Met in 2005. Considered as a duplicate in the Met collection, it was put back on the market by the museum.
The Pond - Moonlight, multiple gum bichromate print over platinum 40 x 50 cm, was sold for $ 2.9M by Sotheby's on February 14, 2006, lot 6.
Beside his landscape moonlight view of The Pond, Steichen printed a night cityscape with the same painstaking process, using his 1904 photo of The Flatiron, the 81 m wonder of modern architecture completed in 1902 in New York City.
Both use the color piments in an effect of dark on black with limited spots including the moon over the pond and the light of the carriages in the street. They are great examples of the movement known as Pictorialism for which Stieglitz and Steichen had created in 1903 the Camera Work magazine.
The quantity of prints was limited in both cases by the extreme complexity of the process. Any of them has another tone setting.
Four copies in gum bichromate on platinum are known of the Flatiron. Three of them are kept by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The other copy, in a 48 x 38 cm sheet dated 1905 by the artist, is very dark over black. It was treasured by his family until 1992 and was sold for $ 11.8M from a lower estimate of $ 2M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 4.
Eduard 'Edward' Steichen meets Stieglitz in New York City in 1900. He is 21 years old. They collaborate closely, and Steichen deepens his research aimed at making photography recognized as an art in its own right.
The success of a photographic image depends on the quality of the entire chain, from the shooting to the processing in the laboratory. Steichen practices the process with gum bichromate, recommended by Demachy. This process makes it possible to reproduce an illusion of colors, in a more subtle way than a simple watercoloring. The first suitable process of color photography will be released by the Lumière brothers in 1907.
Steichen does not shy away from difficulties. One of his favorite themes is moonlight, with its subtle colors. He is a painter and observes these scenes imagining which pigments he can use. In 1904 he takes the plunge. His photograph of a pond in New York is an opportunity to experiment with an ambience effect by applying the gum bichromate in multiple layers.
The task is long and difficult. Steichen achieves three prints of his photo, each time with a different configuration of chemicals and layers. This interesting nocturnal effect, subtitled Moonlight or Moonrise, reveals the moon twice : on the horizon through a sparse wood and by the pale light it brings to the surface of the pond.
One of the prints was donated by Stieglitz in 1933 to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and another by Steichen in 1967 to the Museum of Modern Art. The third print was in a collection which was acquired as a whole by the Met in 2005. Considered as a duplicate in the Met collection, it was put back on the market by the museum.
The Pond - Moonlight, multiple gum bichromate print over platinum 40 x 50 cm, was sold for $ 2.9M by Sotheby's on February 14, 2006, lot 6.
Beside his landscape moonlight view of The Pond, Steichen printed a night cityscape with the same painstaking process, using his 1904 photo of The Flatiron, the 81 m wonder of modern architecture completed in 1902 in New York City.
Both use the color piments in an effect of dark on black with limited spots including the moon over the pond and the light of the carriages in the street. They are great examples of the movement known as Pictorialism for which Stieglitz and Steichen had created in 1903 the Camera Work magazine.
The quantity of prints was limited in both cases by the extreme complexity of the process. Any of them has another tone setting.
Four copies in gum bichromate on platinum are known of the Flatiron. Three of them are kept by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The other copy, in a 48 x 38 cm sheet dated 1905 by the artist, is very dark over black. It was treasured by his family until 1992 and was sold for $ 11.8M from a lower estimate of $ 2M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 4.
1924 Le Violon d'Ingres by Man Ray
2022 SOLD for $ 12.4M by Christie's
Le Violon d'Ingres, a surrealist photo conceived by Man Ray in 1924, has a striking impact by its simple geometry, glamorous display and intriguing title.
It features his model and lover Kiki de Montparnasse seated from the back. The head turned to her left is wearing a Turkish turban and an ear pendant. The voluptuous body in strong contrast with the black background is naked down to the draped hips.
Kiki is here performing the nude Grande Baigneuse by Ingres, later a central figure in le Bain Turc. The title of Man Ray's photo refers to the skill of Ingres for playing the violin, that became a French expression equivalent to the English 'hobby'.
The comparison of the female shape with a violin is reinforced by the fact that the arms are hidden and by the f-holes impressed on her back by reprocessing the original state with Man Ray's own rayograph technique.
The original print finished with the f-holes is a unique gelatin silver print 48.5 x 37.5 cm ink signed and dated 1924 by Man Ray. After being kept for half a century in the collection of its late owners, it was sold for $ 12.4M from a lower estimate of $ 5M by Christie's on May 14, 2022, lot 615.
For further prints the artist rephotographed the original rayogramme with a 5 x 7 inch camera. One of them was used by André Breton to illustrate his dada oriented Littérature magazine in 1924. A silver copy 31 x 25 cm that belonged to Breton was purchased in 1993 by Centre Pompidou.
It was to participate to the tattoo craze when young women had applied Man Ray's f-holes on their back.
It features his model and lover Kiki de Montparnasse seated from the back. The head turned to her left is wearing a Turkish turban and an ear pendant. The voluptuous body in strong contrast with the black background is naked down to the draped hips.
Kiki is here performing the nude Grande Baigneuse by Ingres, later a central figure in le Bain Turc. The title of Man Ray's photo refers to the skill of Ingres for playing the violin, that became a French expression equivalent to the English 'hobby'.
The comparison of the female shape with a violin is reinforced by the fact that the arms are hidden and by the f-holes impressed on her back by reprocessing the original state with Man Ray's own rayograph technique.
The original print finished with the f-holes is a unique gelatin silver print 48.5 x 37.5 cm ink signed and dated 1924 by Man Ray. After being kept for half a century in the collection of its late owners, it was sold for $ 12.4M from a lower estimate of $ 5M by Christie's on May 14, 2022, lot 615.
For further prints the artist rephotographed the original rayogramme with a 5 x 7 inch camera. One of them was used by André Breton to illustrate his dada oriented Littérature magazine in 1924. A silver copy 31 x 25 cm that belonged to Breton was purchased in 1993 by Centre Pompidou.
It was to participate to the tattoo craze when young women had applied Man Ray's f-holes on their back.
1926 Noire et Blanche by Man Ray
2022 SOLD for $ 4M by Christie's
In 1920 Félix Fénéon asks a disturbing question : les arts lointains iront-ils au Louvre (will the distant arts go to the Louvre) ? In the same trend the avant-gardes are imagining new artistic styles reusing African elements.
The Demoiselles d'Avignon whose heads resemble masks appears from then as a precursor of modern art. On the advice of André Breton, Jacques Doucet bought this painting from Picasso in December 1924. Picasso denied an African influence on that seminal example of his own primitive art.
Man Ray is much at ease in this intellectual bustle. In 1924 he takes a photo titled Black and white for which he juxtaposes an African mask with a nude statuette from the German Renaissance.
Another photograph by the same artist appears in May 1926 in the French edition of Vogue magazine. Titled Visage de nacre et masque d'ébène (Face in mother-of-pearl and ebony mask), it displays Kiki de Montparnasse with a Baule mask. With her eyes closed, Man Ray's muse has her head resting on a table on which the African object is held upright by her hand.
This image which is simply composed of two perfect ovals opens a vision of the opposites in the best surrealist tradition : white and black, Europe and Africa, horizontal and vertical, living and object. Its title became Noire et Blanche in 1928 without the agreement of the author.
The very first silver print of this photograph, 21 x 28 cm, was carefully prepared by the artist including many reworks to meet his ideal of perfection. Immediately acquired by Doucet, it makes Noire et Blanche appear as a response by Man Ray to the Demoiselles d'Avignon. This print was sold for € 2.7M by Christie's on November 9, 2017, lot 8.
Always keen to his own promotion, Picasso no longer neglects the African trend. He highlights a posteriori the Demoiselles d'Avignon as the cornerstone of Cubism and looks for a young blonde muse with a flat nose. She will be Marie-Thérèse.
A gelatin silver print 17 x 23 cm of the photo later known as Noire et Blanche was sold for $ 4M from a lower estimate of $ 1.8M by Christie's on November 17, 2022, lot 10.
It had been prepared by Man Ray in 1926 in his darkroom in Paris by enlargement from the original negative.
Acquired by his feature muse Kiki, it is inscribed by her ‘La femme aux yeux clos a une grande admiration pour la femme aux yeux ouverts’ (the woman with closed eyes is in admiration for the woman with opened eyes), so witnessing the increasing influence of tribal art on modern art.
Slight hand retouches were made by the artist on this print and on his copy negative for larger contact prints. A similar early print is kept at the MoMA. About 24 prints were made overall.
The Demoiselles d'Avignon whose heads resemble masks appears from then as a precursor of modern art. On the advice of André Breton, Jacques Doucet bought this painting from Picasso in December 1924. Picasso denied an African influence on that seminal example of his own primitive art.
Man Ray is much at ease in this intellectual bustle. In 1924 he takes a photo titled Black and white for which he juxtaposes an African mask with a nude statuette from the German Renaissance.
Another photograph by the same artist appears in May 1926 in the French edition of Vogue magazine. Titled Visage de nacre et masque d'ébène (Face in mother-of-pearl and ebony mask), it displays Kiki de Montparnasse with a Baule mask. With her eyes closed, Man Ray's muse has her head resting on a table on which the African object is held upright by her hand.
This image which is simply composed of two perfect ovals opens a vision of the opposites in the best surrealist tradition : white and black, Europe and Africa, horizontal and vertical, living and object. Its title became Noire et Blanche in 1928 without the agreement of the author.
The very first silver print of this photograph, 21 x 28 cm, was carefully prepared by the artist including many reworks to meet his ideal of perfection. Immediately acquired by Doucet, it makes Noire et Blanche appear as a response by Man Ray to the Demoiselles d'Avignon. This print was sold for € 2.7M by Christie's on November 9, 2017, lot 8.
Always keen to his own promotion, Picasso no longer neglects the African trend. He highlights a posteriori the Demoiselles d'Avignon as the cornerstone of Cubism and looks for a young blonde muse with a flat nose. She will be Marie-Thérèse.
A gelatin silver print 17 x 23 cm of the photo later known as Noire et Blanche was sold for $ 4M from a lower estimate of $ 1.8M by Christie's on November 17, 2022, lot 10.
It had been prepared by Man Ray in 1926 in his darkroom in Paris by enlargement from the original negative.
Acquired by his feature muse Kiki, it is inscribed by her ‘La femme aux yeux clos a une grande admiration pour la femme aux yeux ouverts’ (the woman with closed eyes is in admiration for the woman with opened eyes), so witnessing the increasing influence of tribal art on modern art.
Slight hand retouches were made by the artist on this print and on his copy negative for larger contact prints. A similar early print is kept at the MoMA. About 24 prints were made overall.
1977-1980 Untitled Film Stills by Sherman
2014 SOLD for $ 6.8M by Christie's
Photography and cinema are lies. Cindy Sherman began her series of Untitled Film Stills in 1977, aged 23. She is not an actress and her photos are not linked to any movie. However, she is directly inspired by European cinema : Hitchcock, Bardot, Loren.
Her only theme is herself in ever changing situations that are not related to her real life. After the first group of views, she changes her face, her hair, her age. On each image, she is alone. The gaze is more or less in complicity with the voyeur. When she closes the series in 1980, she had achieved a remarkable overview of the life of any modern young woman.
The edition of the Untitled Film Stills is in black and white 25 x 20 cm with a maximum of ten prints per view. Twenty one photos from a collection were sold together for $ 6.8M by Christie's on November 12, 2014, lot 13. All of them are from the smaller size editions of ten copies.
This group ranges from # 2 to 83, providing an excellent demonstration of the variety in the series : private interiors of 1977, New York, holidays, as well as funny or tragic images such as with the diving mask or the swollen eye. View # 48 is the much beloved hitchhiker.
Her only theme is herself in ever changing situations that are not related to her real life. After the first group of views, she changes her face, her hair, her age. On each image, she is alone. The gaze is more or less in complicity with the voyeur. When she closes the series in 1980, she had achieved a remarkable overview of the life of any modern young woman.
The edition of the Untitled Film Stills is in black and white 25 x 20 cm with a maximum of ten prints per view. Twenty one photos from a collection were sold together for $ 6.8M by Christie's on November 12, 2014, lot 13. All of them are from the smaller size editions of ten copies.
This group ranges from # 2 to 83, providing an excellent demonstration of the variety in the series : private interiors of 1977, New York, holidays, as well as funny or tragic images such as with the diving mask or the swollen eye. View # 48 is the much beloved hitchhiker.
1980 The New Jeff Koons
2013 SOLD for $ 9.4M by Sotheby's
Jeff Koons' first solo exhibition, titled The New, took place in May and June 1980 in New York at the New Museum of Contemporary Art. It consists of Hoover and Shelton vacuum cleaners and household items installed individually in plexiglass display cases, with fluorescent lighting by spotlights and through the rear.
Another step is immediately taken. If a vacuum cleaner is a work of art, the artist himself is also worthy to be admired.
Under the title The New Jeff Koons, he introduces in his series The New a photographic portrait of himself at the age of 4, which he assembles in a fluorescent light box 103 x 78 x 20 cm. This piece will remain unique in its kind, as if it were a prototype intended to explore new avenues of creativity.
Koons is ambitious. The image he displays of himself is a model of kindness devoid of shyness : calm, smiling amiably, dressed and combed neatly. The felt-tip pens symbolize the birth of his artistic genius.
The New Jeff Koons was sold for $ 9.4M by Sotheby's on May 13, 2013 from a lower estimate of $ 2.5M, lot 9. It is the most expensive photo in auction history, $ 5 million more than Gursky's monumental Rhein II.
Another step is immediately taken. If a vacuum cleaner is a work of art, the artist himself is also worthy to be admired.
Under the title The New Jeff Koons, he introduces in his series The New a photographic portrait of himself at the age of 4, which he assembles in a fluorescent light box 103 x 78 x 20 cm. This piece will remain unique in its kind, as if it were a prototype intended to explore new avenues of creativity.
Koons is ambitious. The image he displays of himself is a model of kindness devoid of shyness : calm, smiling amiably, dressed and combed neatly. The felt-tip pens symbolize the birth of his artistic genius.
The New Jeff Koons was sold for $ 9.4M by Sotheby's on May 13, 2013 from a lower estimate of $ 2.5M, lot 9. It is the most expensive photo in auction history, $ 5 million more than Gursky's monumental Rhein II.
1981 Centerfolds by SHERMAN
1
# 96
2011 SOLD for $ 3.9M by Christie's
Cindy Sherman is the only subject of her art, yet she deals with the modern woman in her entirety. Her photos can be grouped in series, but they are all different, for clothing, makeup, location, action, psychology, design.
From 1977 to 1980, the thread was the Film Still as a parody of movie photos in black and white.
Working in color for the first time in 1981, she created the Centerfolds series for a project of Artforum magazine. This set of twelve images 60 x 120 cm is inspired by the photographs published in the center pages of magazines of fashion or charm such as Playboy.
She plays various attitudes and emotions, alone in close up views with a limited surrounding. She thus manages a feminist counterattack against the low level cliched imagery of women in men's magazines while not taking away a female vulnerability.
In the opus referenced # 96 by Metro Pictures, the young woman daydreams, evasively crumpling a sheet of classifieds for singles. Lying on her back with a bent leg on a Formica floor, she is dressed in colored skirt and pullover like a gentle teenage girl. This simple image provides a deep feeling of contemporary adolescent privacy.
The copy 10/10 of # 96 was sold for $ 3.9M from a lower estimate of $ 1.5M by Christie's on May 11, 2011, lot 6.
From 1977 to 1980, the thread was the Film Still as a parody of movie photos in black and white.
Working in color for the first time in 1981, she created the Centerfolds series for a project of Artforum magazine. This set of twelve images 60 x 120 cm is inspired by the photographs published in the center pages of magazines of fashion or charm such as Playboy.
She plays various attitudes and emotions, alone in close up views with a limited surrounding. She thus manages a feminist counterattack against the low level cliched imagery of women in men's magazines while not taking away a female vulnerability.
In the opus referenced # 96 by Metro Pictures, the young woman daydreams, evasively crumpling a sheet of classifieds for singles. Lying on her back with a bent leg on a Formica floor, she is dressed in colored skirt and pullover like a gentle teenage girl. This simple image provides a deep feeling of contemporary adolescent privacy.
The copy 10/10 of # 96 was sold for $ 3.9M from a lower estimate of $ 1.5M by Christie's on May 11, 2011, lot 6.
2
# 93
2014 SOLD for $ 3.9M by Sotheby's
# 93 is a plunging view down to the reclining blonde woman, like the # 96.
She is in an old fashioned night attire under dark bed sheets but does not sleep. A spot on the cheek looks like a tear drop. The artist denied that she originally wanted to express for the voyeurs the distress of a young woman after a sex assault but she accepted such an interpretation.
The copy 4/10 of # 93 was sold for $ 3.9M from a lower estimate of $ 2M by Sotheby's on May 13, 2014, lot 12.
She is in an old fashioned night attire under dark bed sheets but does not sleep. A spot on the cheek looks like a tear drop. The artist denied that she originally wanted to express for the voyeurs the distress of a young woman after a sex assault but she accepted such an interpretation.
The copy 4/10 of # 93 was sold for $ 3.9M from a lower estimate of $ 2M by Sotheby's on May 13, 2014, lot 12.
1983 Spiritual America by Prince
2014 SOLD for $ 4M by Christie's
Richard Prince is not a creator, he reappropriates the work of others. In 1983 a legal battle between Teri Shields, mother of Brooke Shields, and Gary Gross, a photographer for glamor magazines, brings Prince the opportunity for a conceptual provocation, questionable both in terms of copyright and on mores.
Teri ever knew that her daughter was pretty. Brooke began her career as a model at the age of 11 months. She reached fame at the age of 13, in 1978, with the role of the child prostitute in Pretty Baby. Her career continues in a similar style and Brooke becomes a symbol of sexual permissiveness in that period between birth control pill and AIDS.
The mother wants to recover the rights to photos taken in 1976, collected at the time by Gross in a self-published booklet. The court rules in favor of the photographer. Prince manages to get hold of a copy of Gross's booklet. He is captivated by the ambiguity of an image of the ten-year-old future star standing in a tub full of foam, with her soap covered naked body and her adult makeup.
For his reappropriation of this image, Prince chooses the title of a photo by Stieglitz, Spiritual America. This title openly castigates the excesses of the well-thinking bourgeoisie, which is also the clientele of Pretty Baby's brothel. Prince does not care about Gross, who does not enter a new trial, and the temporarily disowned Shields can no longer intervene.
Prince succeeds in that spectacular demonstration of the lie of images. Very skillfully, he does not appear during the exhibition and does not take a position. The title speaks for itself and visitors must be made to feel guilty : they came on purpose to see a sulphurous photo. His career is launched. He will always keep it on the verge of scandal.
Spiritual America has been edited in ten units plus two artist's proofs in Ektacolor 60 x 50 cm. The copy 10/10 was sold for $ 4M by Christie's on May 12, 2014, lot 19.
Teri ever knew that her daughter was pretty. Brooke began her career as a model at the age of 11 months. She reached fame at the age of 13, in 1978, with the role of the child prostitute in Pretty Baby. Her career continues in a similar style and Brooke becomes a symbol of sexual permissiveness in that period between birth control pill and AIDS.
The mother wants to recover the rights to photos taken in 1976, collected at the time by Gross in a self-published booklet. The court rules in favor of the photographer. Prince manages to get hold of a copy of Gross's booklet. He is captivated by the ambiguity of an image of the ten-year-old future star standing in a tub full of foam, with her soap covered naked body and her adult makeup.
For his reappropriation of this image, Prince chooses the title of a photo by Stieglitz, Spiritual America. This title openly castigates the excesses of the well-thinking bourgeoisie, which is also the clientele of Pretty Baby's brothel. Prince does not care about Gross, who does not enter a new trial, and the temporarily disowned Shields can no longer intervene.
Prince succeeds in that spectacular demonstration of the lie of images. Very skillfully, he does not appear during the exhibition and does not take a position. The title speaks for itself and visitors must be made to feel guilty : they came on purpose to see a sulphurous photo. His career is launched. He will always keep it on the verge of scandal.
Spiritual America has been edited in ten units plus two artist's proofs in Ektacolor 60 x 50 cm. The copy 10/10 was sold for $ 4M by Christie's on May 12, 2014, lot 19.
1992 Dead Troops Talk by Jeff Wall
2012 SOLD for $ 3.7M by Christie's
The advertising image is a lie that must have all the appearances of reality. Jeff Wall transposes this observation to photographic art and reportage. He is never a witness to what he photographs. When it lies, a sharp photographic image is more disturbing than the cinema.
From 1977 the Canadian artist is installing his large-scale transparent photographs in front of lightboxes, as if they were in a bus shelter. In a first phase, he recreates complex perspectives, drawing inspiration among others from the Folies Bergères by Manet.
At the start of the 1990s, the development of digital imaging opens up new avenues, making it possible to use multiple photographs without their interfaces being perceptible. For example, he introduces human fragments into otherwise realistic images. Made in 1992, Adrian Walker drawing from a specimen in a laboratory, 119 x 164 cm, passed at Christie's on May 11, 2010.
Also in 1992, Dead Troops Talk was prepared as a documentary on contemporary warfare, in the style of trench photos brought back by soldiers during the First World War. The subtitle is detailed : A vision after an ambush of a Red Army patrol near Moqor, Afghanistan, winter 1986.
Unlike the Death of a Republican Soldier in the Spanish Civil War by Robert Capa, the author does not hide his staging. Soldiers with irreparable wounds turn into zombies to resume their derisory or grotesque activities in groups of two or three. The preparation was complex, including a wooden model for the battlefield and drawings defining the attitudes to be adopted by these talkative dead. The artist simulates a nightmare of war, without political intention.
Dead Troops Talk has been edited in two copies plus one artist's proof. Number 1, 230 x 420 cm, equipped with its lightbox, was sold for $ 3.7M by Christie's on May 8, 2012 from a lower estimate of $ 1.5M, lot 27.
From 1977 the Canadian artist is installing his large-scale transparent photographs in front of lightboxes, as if they were in a bus shelter. In a first phase, he recreates complex perspectives, drawing inspiration among others from the Folies Bergères by Manet.
At the start of the 1990s, the development of digital imaging opens up new avenues, making it possible to use multiple photographs without their interfaces being perceptible. For example, he introduces human fragments into otherwise realistic images. Made in 1992, Adrian Walker drawing from a specimen in a laboratory, 119 x 164 cm, passed at Christie's on May 11, 2010.
Also in 1992, Dead Troops Talk was prepared as a documentary on contemporary warfare, in the style of trench photos brought back by soldiers during the First World War. The subtitle is detailed : A vision after an ambush of a Red Army patrol near Moqor, Afghanistan, winter 1986.
Unlike the Death of a Republican Soldier in the Spanish Civil War by Robert Capa, the author does not hide his staging. Soldiers with irreparable wounds turn into zombies to resume their derisory or grotesque activities in groups of two or three. The preparation was complex, including a wooden model for the battlefield and drawings defining the attitudes to be adopted by these talkative dead. The artist simulates a nightmare of war, without political intention.
Dead Troops Talk has been edited in two copies plus one artist's proof. Number 1, 230 x 420 cm, equipped with its lightbox, was sold for $ 3.7M by Christie's on May 8, 2012 from a lower estimate of $ 1.5M, lot 27.
1999 Rhein II by Gursky
2011 SOLD for $ 4.3M by Christie's
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.
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 by Christie's on November 8, 2011, lot 44. This copy is one from only two copies in private hands.
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.
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 by Christie's on November 8, 2011, lot 44. This copy is one from only two copies in private hands.
