E-Photo
Issue #161  5/16/2009
 
Soler Y Llach of Barcelona to Auction Off Over 400 Lots of Photographs and Photo Books Over Two Sessions On May 28th

Soler y Llach of Barcelona will offer more than 400 lots of photographs and photo books, divided into two sessions in its spring photographical auction, which will take place on May 28th in Barcelona, Spain. The auction catalogues are available on the company's website at: http://www.soleryllach.com .

The first photographic session will focus on the important collection of photographs put together by the painter Bernardino Montañés during his student days in Rome between 1848 and 1852. The auction consists of 86 photographs taken by Giacomo Caneva and Frédéric Flacheron, two of the most representative photographers of the Café Greco circle in Rome. Among the lots, there is the only known portrait of the photographer and painter Giacomo Caneva, which was taken together with a group of Spanish artists living in Rome and of Mr. Robinson, another of the photographers who belonged to this circle, along with a large number of views of Rome.

The second session will be broader ranging and will consist of photographs and photo books from 1839-2004. The session has been organised chronologically and has been divided into two parts, Fotografías (Photographs) and Fotolibros (Photo Books).

The first part, Fotografías, starts with a group of daguerreotypes taken by Franck and Wigle, there are also photographs by Charles Clifford, Édouard Baldus, Charles-Henri Plaut, John Stewart and Charles Money, among others.

The 20th-century part of the sale starts off with a focus on Spanish photography, with work by some Spanish pictorialist photographers, such as Miguel Goicoechea, José Ortiz Echagüe and Joaquim Plá Janini through between-the-wars photography from some of Spain's most committed avant-garde artists, such as Josep Sala, Pere Català Pic and Antoni Arissa, a photographer whose photographic archive is offered for sale, which is made up of more than 800 negatives.

There is also an important group of photographs by Dora Maar, Bill Brandt, Jaromír Funke, Raoul Hausmann, Arkady Shishkin and Joan Andreu Puig Farran, Baron Adolf de Meyer (a set of portraits), Brassaï, Horst P. Horst, Cecil Beaton Robert Capa (war photos), Agustí Centelles, Boris Kudojarov and Alexander Zhitomirsky (political photomontages).

Humanist photography is also represented including work taken at the end of WWII by Alfred Eisenstaed, Robert Doisneau, Joan Colom and Xavier Miserachs.

There is also work by contemporary artists such as Andrés Serrano, John Coplans, Roland Fischer and Joan Fontcuberta.

Fotolibros, the second area, is composed of more than 100 publications that have been ordered chronologically--from the first news that appeared in the press in 1839 to publications in the 1990s. Books by P.H. Delamotte, Disderi, Moi Ver, Germaine Krull, Jaromir Funke, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paul Strand, Robert Frank, Eikoh Hosoe and Joan Colom, among many others, will be auctioned off in this important sale.

A preview will be held in Madrid at Esparteros, 1-2, on 5/21, Thursday, from 9:30-1:30 pm and 3-7 pm; the preview in Barcelona will be at Beethoven 13, 5/26-27, Tuesday and Wednesday, from 9:30-1:30 pm and 3-7 pm. The auction will be held on May 28th beginning at 5 pm.

The two catalogues of this photography auction can be found on the Soler y Llach web site at: http://www.soleryllach.com . The auction will be held at Soler y Llach, Beethoven 13, 08021 Barcelona, Spain. You can contact the auction house for condition reports, catalogues or to bid by phoning 011-(or from Europe 00)-34 93 201 87 33, or email at: syl@soleryllach.com .