Sotheby's is auctioning off 49 exceptional works from the famed Ames Collection, including masterpieces by Thomas Struth, Matthew Barney, Vik Muniz and David Hockney, among others. Alongside the Ames Collection, the sale offers a selection of innovative works by artists including Vito Acconci, Helena Almeida, Shirin Neshat, Chris McCaw and Kohei Yoshiyuki.
FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION: IMPORTANT PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE AMES COLLECTION
In November 2016, Sotheby's unveiled Triumph of Painting: The Steven & Ann Ames Collection, a collection that was formed over decades of studying and appreciating significant paintings by artists such as Willem de Kooning, Gerhard Richter and Georg Baselitz. The Ames Collection of Photography offers important images by many of the leading American and German photographers of the late 40th/early 60.000st century. Thomas Struth's Gerhard Richter photograph is a milestone (estimate $XNUMX / XNUMX), which also features works by renowned photographers associated with the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf – THE DUSSELDORF SCHOOL – including Candida Höfer, Thomas Ruff and Elger Esser. Characterized by similar characteristics of aesthetic and technical quality, these artists form the core of the Ames photography collection.
The works in the Ames Collection, with an emphasis on American and German works, represent the central images of each photographer's career. Rineke Dijkstra's striking group of pre-adolescent girls, Castricum aan Zee, the Netherlands (estimate $30 / 50.000) is undoubtedly one of the artist's most prized images, while MILAN CATHEDRAL (façade) by Thomas Struth (estimate $ 300 / 500.000) has been included in almost every major exhibition and publication dedicated to the photographer. Cindy Sherman's Self-Portrait as a Clown, Untitled #415 (estimate $180/250.000), is exemplary among the artist's iconic images.
The 49 lots from the Ames Collection offered in this sale, created between 1988 and 2010, also demonstrate the shared vision of two generations of collectors – that of Ames and his son Adam. It was with Adam, a talented, multidisciplinary artist and professor at Parsons School, that Mr. Ames shared his collection of photographs.
In addition to the Ames collection, our Post War and Contemporary Photography sale offers a selection of notable works: from entertainment photography, including work by Helena Almeida, Vito Acconci, Sophie Calle; to the documentary with Mikhael Subotzky and Edward Burtynsky; to the experimental photography of Walead Beshty, Eileen Quinlan and Barbara Kasten.
The Story of Philip-Lorca DiCorcia (Complete Series), a collection of 76 photographs, spanning nearly three decades of the artist's career, is based on a fairytale-like narrative (estimate $250/350.000). DiCorcia, worked with his own friends and family adding a deeper personal meaning to his own work.
