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20th WestLicht Photo Auction Preview

The facets of photography, the facets of life: The 20^th WestLicht Photo Auction demonstrates the fascinating variety of photography, which 180 years ago radically changed our view on the world. Icons, classics and masterpieces from the early days of the medium until today will be up for auction on 12 October. For the first time, a WestLicht Photo Auction will take place at OstLicht Gallery.

Ilse Bing looking into her camera in her famous self-portrait with Leica from 1931 is as much an expression of the movement of the so-called Neues Sehen as it underlines the then newfound confidence of women.

Richard Avedon deliberately tackled a taboo topic when in 1963 in his studio he took the portrait of poet Allen Ginsberg and his partner Peter Orlovsky arm in arm and both naked. The picture quickly became an icon of the gay rights movement. The print on offer (59.5 x 49.8 cm) is signed by Avedon, Ginsberg and Orlovsky.

An early master of the medium is Roger Fenton (1819–1869), as demonstrated in his self-portrait from 1855 in Zouave uniform, holding a rifle and smoking a cigar. The salt paper print is in an exceptionally good condition.

Two exemplary works of art photography are up for auction with »Distortion #40«, Paris 1933 by André Kertész and »Bewegungsstudie« (movement study) by Rudolf Koppitz from 1925. The latter has long become a hallmark of Austrian photography, which is further prominently represented by works of Josef Trčka, Franz Hubmann and Inge Morath.

Henri Cartier-Bresson had asked artist Henri Matisse to sit for him in 1944 and what emerged from this session were to become the most famous portraits of the old painter in his »Villa Le Rêve«, surrounded by birds and wearing a turban most of the time. An especially touching motif from this series is now on offer.

His colleague at Magnum Photos agency, Elliott Erwitt, further explores the potential of photography, showing an atmospheric view on Empire State Building emerging from the fog in 1955 and with a wink watching a couple kissing on a Californian beach through the rear mirror of their car.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE AUCTION 

Lot 1. ROGER FENTON (1819–1869) Self-portrait in Zouave uniform, 1855

Lot 10. RUDOLF KOPPITZ (1884–1936) ‘Bewegungsstudie’ Movement Study, Vienna 1925

Lot 24. ANDRÉ KERTÉSZ (1894–1985) »Distortion #40«, Paris 1933

Lot 27. ILSE BING (1899–1998) Self-portrait with Leica, Paris 1931

Lot 57. HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON (1908–2004) Valencia, Spain 1933

Lot 60. HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON (1908–2004) Henri Matisse, Vence, February 1944

Lot 79. ELLIOTT ERWITT (* 1928) Empire State Building, New York 1955

Lot 80. ELLIOTT ERWITT (* 1928) California, USA 1955

Lot 83. VIVIAN MAIER (1926–2009) New York, 1954

Lot 113. RICHARD AVEDON (1923–2004) Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky, Poets, New York City, December 30th, 1963

Lot 164. NAN GOLDIN (* 1953) ‘Nan at the hospital after battering‘, Berlin 1984

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