CHICAGO, IL.- On December 11th, Rago / Wright is proud to present Photographic Masterworks from an Important Private Collection, a focused presentation of nearly fifty major works acquired by a discerning collector more than a decade ago. Featuring iconic images by some of the most influential photographers of the 20th century, the collection charts the evolution of the medium through groundbreaking approaches to composition, narrative, and form.

Representing defining movements in the history of photography—and tracing the discipline's expanding role from documenting lived experience to constructing entirely new realities—this selection includes masterworks from artists including Bernd and Hilla Becher, František Drtikol, William Eggleston, Lee Friedlander, Nan Goldin, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Ana Mendieta, Irving Penn, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Edward Weston, and many more, poignantly showcasing the 20th century fluidity of photographic images, fine art, and modern social commentary. Preceding the auction, these works will be exhibited in New York from November 20th to December 11th.

Leading the sale is the largest and most complete set of Lee Friedlander's series The Little Screens (est. $250,000-350,000) to ever appear at auction. Rarely encountered in anything approaching full form, this lot is comprised of 38 gelatin silver prints; in each of the accumulated images, televisions are shown as both lamp and lure, casting an otherworldly glow onto otherwise mundane environments and gesturing towards private spaces increasingly mediated by commercial and political imagery. Today, the collected works stand as one of Friedlander’s most incisive examinations of American life.

Another titan of American photography, William Eggleston, is represented with the 1971 portrait Untitled (Memphis) (est. $150,000–200,000), a vivid color dye transfer print that transforms an ordinary Memphis streetscape into a moment of quiet drama. Shot during the years when Eggleston was refining the dye-transfer process that would revolutionize color photography, the work exemplifies his shift away from documentary convention toward a new, democratic vision of the American South.

Further major works on offer include an exemplary mid-century still life from Irving Penn, Two Liqueurs (est. $100,000–150,000), František Drtikol's pigment print Composition (Nude with Circles) (est. $30,000–50,000), and Felix Gonzalez-Torres's "Untitled" (est. $120,000–180,000). Works that explicitly capture the built environment—albeit in drastically different forms—include examples from Hiroshi Sugimoto's series of long-exposure cinema photographs, such as Proctors Theater, New York (est. $20,000–30,000), as well as Bern and Hilla Becher's seminal Blast Furnaces (A sequence of 9) (est. $70,000–90,000).

“This is an absolutely extraordinary selection,” says Richard Wright, CEO, “that does nothing less than chart the evolution of photography as the defining medium of the 20th century.”