DEVELOPING CONNOISSEURSHIP: PHOTOGRAPHY in New York City A new connoisseurship course focused on photography will be led by photography expert Lorraine Anne Davis, AAA. This intensive two-day workshop will take place on Wednesday, April 25, and on Thursday
News-Antique.com - Apr 05,2007 - A new world record for a single photograph was set on February 7, 2007 for Andreas Gursky's “99-cent II,” a large-scale digital diptych: $3.4 million - at Sotheby's in London. What’s it all about? A new connoisseurship course focused on photography will be led by photography expert Lorraine Anne Davis, AAA. This intensive two-day workshop will take place on Wednesday, April 25, and on Thursday, April 26.
We will begin on Wednesday, April 25, at Sotheby's with a tour of “Photographs from the Private Collection of Margaret W. Weston.” Maggie Weston was married to Cole Weston, the youngest son of Edward Weston. Maggie has owned the Weston Gallery in Carmel, California and has been a serious (and well-connected) dealer and collector for many, many years. This sale promises to be one of the highlights of the 2007 photography art market, with prime, blue-chip works coming up for sale and all the big players at the auction. We will have a walk-through of Maggie Weston's sale and their regular photography sale which will be on view at the same time. We will inspect several pieces first-hand, taking them out of their frames to get a closer look and Ms. Davis will discuss the various aspects of judging and identifying a photographic print. In addition, Ms. Denise Bethel, Dept. Head, Photography, will give us a short tour and talk to us about Sotheby's Photography Department and the current photography market climate.
After lunch, we will reconvene at the Andrew Roth Gallery nearby to see an exhibition of Robert Heinecken's seminal "photo-graphist" magazine works. Heinecken represents a cross-over between photography and graphic arts and was far ahead of his time. He died in 2006 and his work is now becoming extremely collectible.
That evening, as an optional component to the program, we will attend the Maggie Weston Sale which will begin at 6:00 p.m. at Sotheby's - there may be some record breakers....so perhaps we can hazard a few guesses on possible hammer prices in the morning and see how close we get. Ms. Davis will be there to answer questions and point out some of the important curators, collectors and dealers that are bidding.
On Thursday, April 26, we will assemble in the morning at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for a visit to the museum’s Prints and Photographs Room which will be reserved for our group; a selection of photographs from the collection will be out for us that will span the history of photography and the mediums used. Participants will receive a glossary of terms and a time-line for reference. Ms. Davis will give a brief talk about the history of photography and we will look at as many processes as possible.
After lunch, we will view “Discovering Tutankhamen: The Photographs of Harry Burton,” and discuss the problems of appraising a photography archive. On November 4, 1922, after a seven-year search, the British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered the tomb of the pharaoh Tutankhamen. On November 24 in the presence of
