NEW YORK, NY.- Phillips launched its Spring Photographs season with an Evening and Day sale of the single-owner collection The Curious Collector: Important Photographs From The Collection Of Dr. Anthony Terrana. Spanning the history of photography from the 19th-century to the Present Day, this collection provides a breathtaking overview of the medium, featuring superlative examples by past and present masters.
Among the Evening sale highlights is an exceptional work by Alfred Stieglitz that deftly portrays an intimate moment in his life: Georgia O'Keeffe, New York, 1918, estimated at $300,000-500,000. As a loving ode, the work commemorates one of the most powerful unions in avant-garde American art. As a Modernist masterpiece, the work embodies the tenets of Modernist portraiture championed by Stieglitz. The work is a platinum palladium print, which further heightens the rarity and delicacy of the moment shared by Stieglitz and his paramour.
Other classic highlights include Irving Penn’s timelessly elegant Harlequin Dress (Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn), 1950, estimated at $300,000-500,000; Robert Frank’s groundbreaking image Trolley, New Orleans, 1955-1956, estimated at $200,000-300,000; Diane Arbus’s rare-to-the-market lifetime print Identical Twins Cathleen (l) and Colleen, Roselle, N.J., 1967, estimated at $180,000-220,000; Paul Strand’s atmospheric Pictorialist scene, Venice, Italy, 1911, estimated at $180,000-220,000; László Moholy-Nagy’s quintessentially Modernist Lyon Stadium, circa 1929, estimated at $90,000-120,000; André Kertész’s early print of The Stairs of Montmartre, Paris, 1926, estimated at $120,000-180,000; Imogen Cunningham’s alluring Calla with leaf, circa 1932, estimated at $80,000-120,000, and Man Ray’s portrait of the Surrealist icon, Max Ernst, 1935, estimated at $50,000-70,000. The above works will be among the selections included in the Evening sale.
Additional early photographs include works by Richard Avedon, František Drtikol, Walker Evans, Charles Sheeler, Margaret Bourke-White, Brassaď and Edward Steichen.
The theme of childhood is continuously revered throughout the collection and was the focus of a 2008 exhibition of the collection at the deCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in Massachusetts titled Presumed Innocence. In addition to the aforementioned example by Diane Arbus, other strong examples celebrating the many complexities and wonders of youth include Southworth and Hawes’s solemn and elegant Edward Hawes Asleep, with Hands Together, 1850, estimated at $70,000-90,000; Sally Mann’s Candy Cigarette, 1989, estimated at $60,000-80,000; Tina Modotti’s A proud little agrarista (Mexican peasant boy), circa 1927, estimated at $60,00-80,000; Helen Levitt’s N.Y.C., 1939, estimated at $30,000-50,000, and Frederick Sommer’s Livia, 1948, estimated at $35,000-55,000. Other examples that address the theme include works by Ilse Bing, Lewis Hine, Vik Muniz, Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Pieter Hugo, Loretta Lux and Vee Speers, among others.
Contemporary photographs from the collection will be lead by two works by one of the leading figures in American color photography, William Eggleston: Untitled (Biloxi, Mississippi), 1972, and Untitled (Near Miner City and Glendora, Mississippi), 1970, each estimated at $70,000-90,000. Other highlights include Lalla Essaydi’s Les femmes du Maroc: Kenza, 2009, estimated at $20,000-30,000; Hiroshi Sugimoto’s North Atlantic Ocean, Martha's Vineyard, 1986, estimated at $20,000-30,000; Walead Beshty’s Three Color Curl (CMY: Irvine, California, Aug 24th), 2010, estimated at $20,000-30,000, and Robert Polidori’s Galerie Basse, Château de Versailles, 1985, estimated at $18,000-22,000. Additional contemporary photographers represented include Thomas Demand, Erwin Olaf, Dash Snow, Alex Prager, Herb Ritts, Mickalene Thomas and Marilyn Minter.
Phillips will offer for the first time in the history of the company works by Contemporary photographers Viviane Sassen, Julie Blackmon and Angela Strassheim.
Dr. Anthony Terrana’s passion for photographs began three decades ago. His collecting journey has been propelled by a strong and ever-evolving sense of curiosity, leading him to discover and add a great number of masterpieces to his collection. Drawn to the warmth and character of early prints as well as the fresh appeal of contemporary prints, Dr. Terrana’s collection reflects his awe and appreciation for the many genres, movements and pioneers of the medium. He resides in New England.
