Art Chicago 2008, the centerpiece of Artropolis, brings together over 180 of the world's leading contemporary and modern art galleries, representing 56 international cities from 18 countries to showcase the work of over 2,000 renowned artists, all carefully vetted by a selection committee of some of the most renowned names in the arts' community. Art Chicago offers curators, collectors, artists and art enthusiasts a comprehensive survey of current and historic work, from cutting-edge to modern masters in a wide variety of media, including, of course, photography. The show will occupy the 200,000 sq. ft. 12th floor of the Merchandise Mart.

A 17% increase in applications was received for Art Chicago 2008, with 350 galleries submitting in contrast to 300 the previous year. Additionally, 95% of the 132 exhibitors who participated in the 2007 fair re-applied for 2008--a dramatic increase from the 75% re-sign of the 104 participating galleries in 2006. Under different ownership, Art Chicago 2005 saw only 50% of galleries reapplying.

International representation has been bolstered 36% for 2008, with 30 cities presenting, up from the 22 in 2007.

The strong roster of U.S. galleries continues, with 27 cities represented, a 35% increase over the 20 in Art Chicago 2007.

"In every measurable way," commented Merchandise Mart Senior Vice President Mark Falanga, "Art Chicago is bigger and better. We attribute many of these improvements to the standards established by our selection committee, which was re-instituted in 2007."

"The quality of our 2008 exhibitor list defines Art Chicago as a prominent international contemporary and modern art fair," said Tony Karman, director of sales and development, Art Chicago. "Leading galleries--from Chicago to Seoul, from Paris to Los Angeles--will offer an extraordinary experience for art collectors, curators and art enthusiasts, showcasing works of more than 2,000 artists in a variety of media, including painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, prints and video installations."

My own company, Contemporary Works/Vintage Works, will be exhibiting at Art Chicago in booth 12-659. My cell phone at the show is 1-215-518-6962. We will feature top vintage selections of 20th-century master photographers, including Aaron Siskind, Dorothea Lange, Edward Steichen, Horst, Alfred Stieglitz, Irving Penn, Robert Frank, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Brassai, Jacques-Henri Lartigue, Francois Kollar, Robert Doisneau, Edward Weston, Andre Kertesz, Barbara Morgan, Clarence John Laughlin, Lee Friedlander, Édouard Boubat, Ilse Bing, Walker Evans, Raoul Ubac, Brett Weston, Eugene Atget and many others. We will also have on display some of the most important 19th-century work that we have discovered, including several rare and very early prints by Gustave Le Gray, Edouard Baldus, Charles Negre and a new discovery, Alphonse De Launay. We will also show some of the contemporary work of Lisa Holden and Arthur Tress, as well as Arthur's earlier work.

Numerous other dealers will also feature photography, from vintage works to contemporary.

"The Art Chicago experience allows collectors to view and purchase in the broader context of a city with renowned museums, terrific curators and great collections," said Mart President Christopher Kennedy. "A single location is more convenient, and gives credibility and confidence that all exhibiting galleries have been vetted for quality. Chicago has always been the destination for the thoughtful collector."

The Merchandise Mart will also act as the hub of Artropolis, a city-wide celebration of the arts which attracts thousands of visitors to savor a rich menu of art and entertainment experiences that are unique to Chicago. Educational programs, guided tours, music, theater and dance performances are planned at venues throughout the city, from major museums to small galleries, world-class concert halls to cutting-edge clubs, lakefront parks to exclusive private parties.

Along with Art Chicago, four additional shows will be produced concurrently at the Merchandise Mart April 25-28, 2008. NEXT is a new invitational art fair installed on the 7th floor of The Merchandise Mart. NEXT will offer focused curatorial visions of some of the most important developments in contemporary art.

The Merchandise Mart International Antiques Fair, an established, premier antiques destination, celebrates its 11th year, and will feature a wide range of categories from over 120 dealers from around the globe.

The Artist Project is an art exhibition and sale featuring original work from independent artists undiscovered by the gallery community. The Artist Project provides the opportunity to discover interesting and affordable works directly from the artists.

The Intuit Show of Folk and Outsider Art exhibits self-taught art, outsider art, art brut, ethnographic art, non-traditional folk art and visionary art.

More information on Artropolis is available by visiting http://www.artropolischicago.com .

ART CHICAGO EVENT SPECIFICS

Dates: Friday, April 25 – Monday, April 28, 2008
(Opening Night Preview Party: Thursday, April 24)
Times: Friday, April 25: 11 am-7 pm
Saturday, April 26: 11 am-7 pm
Sunday, April 27: 11 am-6 pm
Monday, April 28: 11 am-4 pm
[Thursday, April 24: Opening Night Preview Party. Tickets are $100.]
Location: The Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL
Tickets: $20 for entry to all five shows. $25 for multiple day pass
Information: http://www.artchicago.com or 1-312-527-4141

 

On Thursday, May 29th at 3pm Villa Grisebach will begin this year's spring sales with a photography auction that will include approximately 300 classic and contemporary photographs.

A special emphasis has been placed on rare and extraordinary vintage German photographs from the 20th century, e.g. a large print by Aenne Biermann titled "Anthurie" (1927-29) from the estate of the artist (6,000-8,000 euros), a composition with nude as a light-montage enlarged through silk by Heinz Hajek-Halkes, 1930-36 (4,000-6,000 euros), Edmund Kesting's "Aschermittwoch 1945" (Ash Wednesday 1945) from the series "Totentanz" (Dance of Death) (4,000-6,000 euros) or Otto Steinert's "Pont Neuf, Paris" from 1949 (6,000-8,000 euros).

Further highlights of classic photography include, among others, Martin Munkácsi's "Leni Riefenstahl beim Skilaufen" (Leni Riefenstahl skiing) from 1930-31 (10,000-15,000 euros), Paul Strand's "St. Hippolyte" from 1950 (10,000-15,000 euros), Horst P. Horst's "American Nude" (8,000-10,000 euros), four "Wassertürme" (Watertowers) by Bernd and Hilla Becher (8,000-10,000 euros), Behn Shahn's "A deputy with a gun on his hip during the Sept. 1935 strike in Morgantown, West Virginia" (6,000-9,000 euros) or Roman Vishniac's "Warsaw" from 1937 (6,000-8,000 euros).

Many other well known photographers are featured in the sale, such as Hans Bellmer, Andreas Feininger, André Kertesz, Albert Renger-Patzsch and August Sander, but interesting discoveries can also be made, for example, the portfolio "Africa Orientale Italiano" by Georg Schultze from 1939 or a portrait of Lilian Seeley (a large waxed gum print) by George H. Seeley (5,000-7,000 euros) from 1910.

Highlights from the contemporary photography selection include Peter Lindbergh's Portfolio from 2001 with 10 platinum-palladium prints of his most famous images (42,000-48,000 euros), followed by Hiroshi Sugimoto's "Fagus Shoe Last Factory--Walter Gropius" (14,000-16,000 euros), William Eggleston's dye transfer "Dust Bells, Green Bureau" (12,000-15,000 euros) and Tracey Moffatt's "Something More #5" (10,000-15,000 euros). Furthermore, outstanding photos by Robert Mapplethorpe, Sarah Moon, Shirin Neshat, Helmut Newton, Bettina Rheims and Jörg Sasse are also featured.

A printed catalogue is available from the auction house, and it can also be viewed on their website a few weeks before the actual auction. A preview exhibition of selected works from the collection will be held at Villa Grisebach Auktionen GmbH, Fasanenstraße 73, 10719 Berlin from May 24-28, Sat.-Tue. 10am-6:30pm, Wed., 10am-5pm. For details, see http://www.villa-grisebach.de . For more information, contact Franziska Schmidt (head of the photography department), phone: +49 30 885915-27; fax: +49 30-885915-4627 (from the U.S. dial 011 then the number); or email: f.schmidt@villa-grisebach.de .

 

Swann Galleries will hold its auction of Photographic Literature (10:30 am) and Photographs (2:30 pm) on May 15th.

The morning session features rare photo books from the Library of David Raymond. Among the Surrealist titles are Hans Bellmer's Les Jeux de la Poupée, Paris, 1949 ($75,000-100,000); Claude Cahun's Aveux non Avenus, Paris, 1930 ($6,000-7,000); and George Hugnet's La Septième Face du Dé, Poèmes-Découpages, signed and inscribed twice by Hugnet, Paris, 1936 ($10,000-15,000).

This literature auction offers two issues of Camera Work magazine that showcase the work of Paul Strand: Number 48, New York, 1916 ($12,000-18,000); and Number 49/50, the rare final issue, in a 7 ($15,000 to $25,000). These publications were formerly in the collection of Milton Brown, an art historian and friend of Strand's.

Also exceedingly rare are two signed and inscribed volumes by Robert Frank, including a first French edition of Frank's Les Américains, Paris, 1958 with an original photograph ($15,000-20,000) and Lines of My Hand with a Polaroid, Tokyo, 1972 ($4,000-6,000).

A rich selection of Japanese first editions includes Hiroshi Sugimoto's Theaters with a signed photogravure titled U.A. Walker, New York, 1978 ($2,500-3,500); Ken Domon and Shomei Tomatsu's Hiroshima-Nagasaki, Document 1961 ($5,000-7,500); Ikko Narahara's Where Time Has Stopped, Tokyo, 1967 ($1,500-2,500); and Eikoh Hosoe's Kamaitachi, Tokyo, 1969 ($3,500-4,500).

The Photographs session, which starts at 2:30 pm, includes many avant-garde photographs by Maurice Tabard, which were gifted by Tabard to a private European collector. Among these are Film Solarisée, No. 4, 1936 ($80,000-120,000); Magraitis¬ Negative Solarisation [Homme a la guitare], circa 1928 ($30,000-40,000); and Montage Femme, 1929 ($10,000-15,000).

Nineteenth-century highlights include Lewis Carroll's albumen photograph of Annie and Henry Rogers, 1861 ($25,000-35,000); Eugene Piot's 1852 salt print of the Parthenon, Acropolis ($3,500-5,000); and Francis Frith's 1858 albumen mammoth plate print of Mount Serbal from the Wadee Feyran ($7,000-10,000).

For stereo and history buffs there is a rare 1869 Savage and Ottinger albumen stereo of Promontory Summit and the Laying of the Last Rail ($3,500-4,500), plus a stereo daguerreotype of a nude woman in lingerie reading a book ($4,000-6,000).

Twentieth-century highlights include Ansel Adams' the Grand Tetons and the Snake River, silver print, 1942, printed 1970s ($20,000-30,000); Imogen Cunningham's exquisite botanical study, Tower of Jewels, silver print, 1925, printed 1930s, from the Collection of Alexandra R. Marshall ($60,000-90,000); 1939 Helen Levitt's vintage silver print of a Boy with Mask ($10,000-15,000); Harry Callahan's 1972 Cape Cod ($7,000-9,000); Clarence H. White's 1919 platinum Nude Study ($5,000-7,500); André Kertész's 1926 vintage silver print of Gypsy Boys Peering from a Window at the Back of a Wagon ($6,000-9,000); and a Harold Edgerton archive of 26 vintage silver prints, circa 1937 ($20,000-30,000).

For further information, please contact Daile Kaplan, V.P., Director of Photographs, email: dkaplan@swanngalleries.com ; phone: 1-212-254-4710, ext. 21; fax: 1-212-979-1017.

To purchase the catalogue for this and other fine Swann Galleries auctions, click here: http://www.swanngalleries.com/scripts/order_cat.cgi?type=schedule . Catalogues may also be purchased at the galleries.

Visit http://www.swanngalleries.com/photo_graphs.cgi for a complete schedule and the online catalogue, which will be available shortly.

 

On June 14th, more than 400 works of historic, classic and modern photography will be auctioned at Van Ham Fine Art Auctions in Cologne, Germany.

Original prints by internationally well known photographers such as Margaret Bourke-White, Albert Renger-Patzsch and August Sander will be offered, as well as contemporary photography by Lee Friedlander, Candida Höfer, Matthias Hoch, Joachim Brohm and Thomas Ruff and many others. Van Ham will also present a selection of rare photographic literature.

The auction will be held on Saturday, June 14th at Van Ham Fine Art Auctions, Schoenhauser Str. 10-16, 50968 Cologne, Germany, tel.: +49-(0)221-92-58-62-0 or +49 (0)221-92-58-62-28 and fax: +49 (0)221-92-58-62-4 (from the U.S. dial 011 then the number without the zero in parentheses). The preview will be held from 6/6-6/12, M-F, 10 am-6 pm; Sa, 10am-4 pm; Su, 11 am-4 pm.

For further information, email, Markus Eisenbeis, Van Ham's expert at: vm.eisenbeis@van-ham.com or call him at +49 (0)221-92-58-62-13. The online catalogue of the auction will be up shortly at http://www.van-ham.com/en/ . Print catalogues can also be ordered from Van Ham on line or by phone.

 

Prices on several of Contemporary Works/Vintage Works, Ltd. photographers will be going up a bit on May 1st. Both our European-based photographers, Lisa Holden and Stanko Abadzic, will raise their prices in dollars. Holden's large color work will go up about 10-15%, while Abadzic's work will go up on most pieces from $900 to $1,500. Several other pieces that have sold especially well will go up a bit more. The price increases are partially to make up for the difference in the dollar/euro ratio and better equalize pricing in the U.S. and in Europe.

Landscape photographer Mitch Dobrowner will also be increasing prices on May 1st on three selected works: Wind Swept Tree, Civilization and Shiprock Storm.

More News on Photographers We Represent…

Charlie Schreiner's contemporary daguerreotype, "Olivia Waiting", was accepted for the "Artful Nude" exhibit at the Center for Fine Art Photography. Camera Arts also printed "October Corn" in its March/April issue showing selections from the Alternative Processes exhibit at c4ap. Schreiner's was also featured in Norway's Fotografi magazine. Schreiner's images will also go up May 1st from $900 to $1,200 and from $1,500 to $1,800 on his editioned color prints.

Lisa Holden's "Bathers" was chosen by the editors of Art Info as one of their six top picks of the best of the AIPAD show.

 

I will be traveling to the Paris and London photography auctions coming up in May. If you would like me to bring specific prints to see while I am in these cities and would like me to preview and/or bid for items at auction there, please call my office now. While I prefer to know now what you may want me to look over at the auction previews and provide bidding advice and assistance, you can still contact me up to about three days before the actual auction itself by either calling my Associate Director Marthe Smith at 1-215-822-5662 or me directly (after May 10) on my French mobile at 011-33-661-033-387. I will take a train to London on May 11.

My company Vintage Works, Ltd.'s auction services are charged at 5% of the successful hammer price against a minimum of $250 in Europe. The minimum includes items that you are unsuccessful for or those that we warn you off of. The minimum is the same for one item or five items per auction. In other words, it is only $250 total (not per lot) to check out up to five auction lots (for more than five lots, please call). Usually, if you want us to actually bid for you, you will have to fax your details to the auction house with a signed authorization for us to do this. That is one of the reasons why it is best not to wait until the last few days. We never accept competing bids for the same lot and will only accept one client per lot to avoid any conflicts.

 

Photographer Burt Glinn died April 9th in Southampton, NY of kidney failure and pneumonia. He was 82. Glinn was one of the first Americans to join Magnum. He became a member of the agency in 1951 and later served as its president twice, in the early 1970s and again in the late 1980s.

In 1959, late to a photo shoot, Glinn took his best-known photograph, an offbeat one of Nikita S. Khrushchev, which showed only the back of his bald head as he gazed up at the Lincoln Memorial. Glinn had been blocked from a front view by the pack of photographers, but turned this problem into a powerful image.

Glinn worked for several magazines, particularly Holiday, which devoted several complete issues to his work. His photo essay on the South Seas for the magazine won the 1960 Mathew Brady Magazine Photographer of the Year award from the University of Missouri and Encyclopedia Britannica. He traveled to Japan for Holiday in 1961, and then, two years later, went to the Soviet Union to photograph aspects of daily life seldom seen in the West. Pictures from those assignments were collected in two books published by "A Portrait of All the Russia's" (1967) and "A Portrait of Japan" (1968).

Born Burton Samuel Glinn in Pittsburgh on July 23, 1925, he went on to Harvard in 1943, but left after a semester after he was drafted into the Army. He served in the artillery in Germany, and then returned to Harvard to study history and literature, graduating in 1949.

He was mostly self-taught as a photographer. His first work in the field was as a photo assistant at Life magazine. In addition to doing news and documentary work, he also produced memorable photographs of Elizabeth Taylor, Andy Warhol and other celebrities.

He was also a successful commercial photographer. His corporate clients included Pepsico, General Motors and Revlon. He did advertising photography for IBM, TWA and Seagram, among others, and won the award for the best print ad of 1972 from the Art Directors Club of New York for his work for Foster-Grant sunglasses.

His most recent book, "Havana: The Revolutionary Moment," was published in 2002. It includes his famous 1959 photographs of Fidel Castro, along with new pictures he took in Cuba on the 40th anniversary of the takeover.

His work is the subject of a current exhibition by the Seattle Art Museum.

In addition to his wife, who is known professionally as Elena Prohaska, he is survived by his son, Sam of Manhattan, and his sister, Norma Madden of Pittsburgh.

 

JIUAN-JIUAN (J-J, to her friends) CHEN has joined Boston-based PAUL MESSIER, LLC as senior conservator. Chen was formerly a conservator at George Eastman House, where she received her training. Her background now allows Paul Messier, LLC to add daguerreotypes to its list of conservation services.

Toronto photography gallerist STEPHEN BULGER and CATHERINE LASH are delighted to announce a new edition--and it isn't a photographic one, at least not yet. JANE PENELOPE LASH BULGER was born on April 5th, weighing 9lbs., 1oz. Big sister Adelaide will handle all inquiries, according to Steve's happy email announcement. The birth was why Steve missed this year's AIPAD Show. Next show though we want to see lots of pictures, Steve. And hopefully you'll do better than Rudy Kicken. All I got to see of the Kicken's new baby daughter was one photo of the top of her cute head poking out of a blanket on his cell phone!