AMSTERDAM.- The sale of Photographs at Sotheby's Amsterdam on 13 March 2007 was highlighted by a portrait of Clint Eastwood by photographer Anton Corbijn that was sold for 18.000 euro, a world auction record for the artist. The portrait from 1994, signed, titled 'Clint' and numbered 18/20, was estimated 4.000-6.000 euro.

Sotheby’s Amsterdam offered in her annual sale of Photographs an unusual and large collection of works by the Czeck photographer Jan Saudek. No less than forty-two large prints of Photographs from the 1970s up to the 1990s, from a European private collection, give a wonderful overview on the interesting oeuvre of this artist.

Jan Saudek - Inspired by Edward Steichen's exhibition "The Family of Man", Jan Saudek ( Prague , 1935) decided to become a photographer and portray his contemporaries. His Photographs, first in black-and-white, later hand-coloured, are about sexuality and the relationships between man and woman, age and youth, clothes and nakedness. The people that he used as models were ordinary people. Some of his pictures explore dreams more than reality, although they are strongly rooted in the portrayed individuals.

The Photographs in the collection vary from Saudek’s early, black and white images such as On the road from 1964 to his later, hand coloured prints, such as New York New York from 1985.

The use of hand-colouring often produces a dreamlike, less realistic effect. One of the reasons for Saudek to experiment with this technique was the difficulty to obtain colour film in communist Czechoslovakia . Saudek often antedates his images to the 19th century, an artistic liberty that is characteristic for his work. In de 1970 he discovers the ‘decaying cellar wall', which is to become a synonym of his artistic work.

Saudek’s pictures are about life; sometimes pathetic, sometimes a little rude, sometimes humoristic. In his ‘theatre of life’ he focuses on the basic relationships of members of the family. He depicts the problems of childhood and adolescence as tormenting phantoms. His work seems a quest for love, liberty and emotional reassurance.