E-Photo
Issue #172  5/22/2010
 
Belgium Auction House Pierre Berge Holds Major Photo Auction On June 16

Pierre Bergé & associés of Brussels, Belgium will hold an auction of 251 lots of 19th, 20th and 21st-century photography at 40 Place du Grand Sablon, Brussels at 6 pm, Wednesday, June 16. The public preview will be held June 14-15, Monday-Tuesday from 10 am-6:30 pm; and June16, Wednesday from 10 am-5 pm.

The first part of the auction offers work by some important 19th-century photographers, including the Bisson Frères (architecture), Edouard Baldus, (architecture), Auguste Salzmann (salt prints of Jerusalem), Adolphe Braun (flowers), Félix-Jacques Moulin (an important albumenized salt print of a reclining nude), Nadar (man and cow), Auguste Vacquerie (salt print portrait of Victor Hugo). There are also several albums with photographs of Indian palaces to the streets of Beijing to scenes in Vietnam, as well as images of African villages, and even images of Brussels and Antwerp.

The 20th century is well represented by a number of photographers from the "humanist school", including Doisneau, Ronis, Cartier-Bresson, Kertesz, Brassai, Jahan, Herschtritt, Erwitt, and others.

Willy Ronis is represented in the sale through a major set of 33 works. The immense talent of this photographer, who just died in September 2009 at the age of 99, is currently on exposition in Paris ("Willy Ronis, the Poetry of Engagement" by the Monnaie de Paris in association with the Musée du Jeu de Paume).

Twentieth-century fashion photographers include Horst, Horvat and Blumenfeld.

Many contemporary artists, such as Candida Höfer and Karen Knorr, Beat Struller, Rancinan Gerard and Atiq Rahimi are well represented in auction.

The auction catalogue shows a remarkable portrait gallery of key personalities of the arts, literature and films, who are photographed in the act of creation, in a moment of intimacy, or in total delirium (like Victor Hugo, Alberto Giacometti, Man Ray, Le Corbusier, Mark Chagall, Andre Breton, Marilyn Monroe, Ray Charles, Kirk Douglas, Jean Dubuffet, Jean Cocteau, Françoise Sagan, James Dean, Francis Bacon, Che Guevara, and others).

Photographers with edgy images that have been both reviled and applauded in their time are well represented in this auction including the work of Man Ray, Irina Ionesco, Joel-Peter Wikin, Jan Saudek, Araki, Jock Sturges, Gerald-Petrus Fieret and Marcel Marien.

The contact for this sale is Grégoire Debuire, who can be reached at: +32 (0) 2 504 80 37; email: gdebuire@pba-auctions.com . Pierre Bergé & associés--Bruxelles is located at 40 place du Grand Sablon, 1000 Bruxelles; phone: +32 (0)2 504 80 30; fax: +32 (0)2 513 21 65. The catalogue can either be ordered directly through the auction house or can be seen online at: http://www.pba-auctions.com/html/index.jsp?id=6401 .