NEW YORK, NY.- Phillips de Pury & Company announced the highlights of the forthcoming New York Photographs sale to be held on April 1, 2009.
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Phillips de Pury & Company is committed to offering the best works available to the market by those artists working in the realm of fashion. The selection in this sale exemplifies the company’s endorsement of this genre which continually pushes the boundaries of the medium both in terms of concept and craft.

Richard Avedon’s Avedon/Paris, a portfolio comprised of 11 gelatin silver prints with images of his most famous models including Dorian Leigh and Suzy Parker will be offered with a pre-sale estimate of $100,000–200,000. Made from negatives dating from 1947-1957, this portfolio represents the early and intensely prolific period of the artist’s career. Additionally, the photograph that has become the emblem both of the artist’s early career and the spirit of Christian Dior’s Paris, Dovima with Elephants, evening dress by Dior, Cirque d’Hiver, Paris, August, 1955, will be offered with an estimate of $25,000-35,000.

Contemporary fashion imagery is represented by Philip-Lorca Dicorcia’s, W. September 2000, #2 from Stranger in Paradise, a Fujicolor Crystal Archive print that will be offered with an estimate of $18,000-22,000; Erwin Olaf’s Troy from the 2007 Grief series will be offered with a pre-sale estimate of $18,000-22,000 and David LaChapelle’s Jesus is my homeboy: Last Supper, 2003 will be offered with an estimate between $20,000-30,000.

From her acclaimed fashion series, Cindy Sherman’s, Untitled #122, 1983 will be offered with an estimate between $80,000-100,000. Commissioned in 1983 by Dianne Benson for a spread in Interview magazine, this work marks Sherman’s first foray into the realm of fashion photography. Characteristic of her work, Sherman here appropriates the means of fashion imagery while producing a work that stands in total contrast to it.

Highlights of the sale also include works by leading names in American photography from the 20th and 21st Centuries: Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, Diane Arbus, Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Lee Friedlander, Harry Callahan and Robert Mapplethorpe as well as photographs from international contemporary artists spanning the globe.

Lee Friedlander’s famous Jazz & Blues Portfolio, 1983 (7 dye-transfer prints) is estimated between $40,000-60,000.

Following the successful sales of important works by Robert Mapplethorpe from the Collection of Lisa Lyon in our Fall Photographs sales, the April sale will offer a further selection of works from this esteemed collection. An exceptional portrait of Lisa Lyon, the body-builder and close collaborator of Robert Mapplethorpe, taken in 1982 will be offered with a pre-sale estimate between $15,000-25,000. This arresting portrait renders the poised figure of the sitter from the side, her face swathed in a gauzy veiled hat, recalling the stature of a 19th century female sitter while the lower part of the body elegantly renders the physical strength of the sitter and that of a contemporary female icon with a forceful fist and bulging bicep.

The poetic and mystical work of Robert Parkeharrison will be represented in this sale by two photographs from his series The Architect’s Brother. Skyscraper, 2004 and Cloud Catcher, 2004 will each be offered at an estimate of $8,000-12,000. Phillips de Pury & Company holds the record for the top four prices achieved at auction for this artist.

Other highlights include Hiroshi Sugimoto’s, Metropolitan Orpheum, Los Angeles, 1993, a gelatin silver print will be offered with an estimate between $20,000-30,000; and a selection of works by Nobuyoshi Araki including Personal Sentimentalism in Photography, 2000 estimated between $10,000-15,000 and Marilyn Minter’s, Gasp, 2004 estimated between $8,000-12,000.

This sale also features The Collection of Anabel & E.J. Gonzalez. Represented in this collection of classic and contemporary photographs are photographers Shadi Ghadirian, Edouard Boubat, Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Sally Mann and Francesca Woodman. Highlights include Shirin Neshat’s I am its Secret, 1993 with an estimate of $10,000-15,000; Duane Michals’ Dr. Heisenberg’s Magic Mirror of Uncertainty, 1998 with an estimate of $10,000-15,000; Alberto Garcia-Alix’s, Autorretrato, 1995, estimated between $5,000-7,000 and Kyungwoo Chun’s, Light Calligraphy, 2004, estimated between $5,000-7,000.

This sale will also offer works by contemporary Israeli artists, Adi Nes and Shei Kremer. Kremer will be appearing at auction for the first time with View of a minefield, abandoned Syrian base, Golan Heights, 2007, offered at $4,000-6,000.

Also included in this sale are works by Yinka Shonibare, Un Ballo in Maschera I (A Masked Ball) (video still), 2004, estimated between $15,000-20,000; Vik Muniz’s, Viewing from Chernobyl, Ukraine (Pictures of Air), 2001, estimated between $10,000-15,000 and Matthew Pillsbury’s Sartaj Grill, Saturday, September 6th, 2003, estimated between $4,000-6,000.