Photography - Famous musicians portraits

Crowning the regular Photography Auction stood three portraits of significant personalities from the field of music by Anton Corbijn, including his famous portrait of ‘U2’ featuring the singer Bono and his wife Nassim, used for the cover of the 1991 album ‘Achtung Baby’; a German collector raised the shot up to € 10,700 (lot 644, € 5/6,000). A result of € 11,300 each was seen for ‘Dave Gahan’, Hamburg from 1992, and ‘Bryan Ferry’, Miami from 1992, going to a Dutch collection (lots 642/643, each € 5/6,000).

Tracey Moffat also stood out with ‘Something More #5’. This shot is from her series ‘Something More’ which brought the Australian photographer international attention. It has now been taken on by collector for € 10,000 (lot 649, € 8/10,000). Success was also seen for Andreas Mühe with the photograph ‘Amanda’, taken in Berlin in 2006, which sold for € 7,060, and ‘Kreuzigung’, € 6,300, taken in Cologne in 2009 (lots 676/677, each € 5,000).

Man Ray was represented by the elegant ‘Portrait en profil’ of the chic Karin Kluth. It was shot in Paris in 1929, where the German-born artist presented her work in the Galerie Georges Bernheim that same year. The shot was sold for € 8,800 to a German collector (lot 545, € 8/10,000). Probably also taken in Paris was Brassaïs’ nocturnal shot of shiny asphalt, transformed into a graphic-like pattern in the narrow picture space, which changed hands for € 6,600 (lot 549, € 5/6,000).

Helen Levitt was present with several works, all titled ‘New York’. One shot from 1940 reached € 6,300, whilst a C-print from 40 years later achieved € 8,200 (lots 564/597, each € 4,000). Lee Friedlander was prominent with his famous image taken in ‘New York City’ featuring a ‘self-portrait’-shadow on a lady’s fur collar. This image sold for € 6,300 (lot 599, € 5/6,000).

T. Lux Feininger saw a rise from € 4,000 to € 6,300 for his 1927 shot of the Bauhaus music capelle, taken in Dessau in 1927 (lot 522).

Maurizio Cattelan’s large-format ‘Untitled’ was created following a 1999 performance of ‘Project#65 – Maurizio Cattelan’ in New Yorks’ MoMA: The performance consisted of a performer wearing a costume and an oversized head mask with the features of Pablo Picasso in his later years, mingling with museum visitors as a ‘caricature’ of this greatest of modern artists, talking to them in pantomime and posing for photographs. The work was sold under provision for € 90,000 (lot 44, € 100/150,000).

Candida Höfer’s imposing shot of the ‘Biblioteca universitaria di Bologna’ has now moved to an American collection for € 41,600 (lot 90, € 30/40,000).

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at 0221/92 57 29–30.

Edgar Abs
Press and public relations
Cologne, June 2022