Contemporary Living

Auction: Wed, 22 July 2015 10am & 2pm

Viewing: Sat, 18 July 10am – 5pm | Sun, 19 July 10am – 5pm | Mon, 20 July 10am – 5pm | Tue, 21 July 10am – 5pm

e-Catalogue: sothebys.com/ContemporaryLiving

Specialist: Emily Bierman | Tel +1 212 894 1149 | Email: emily.bierman@sothebys.com

On 22 July 2015, Sotheby's will present its inaugural auction of Contemporary Living, a sale of Photographs, Prints, and Design. Comprising approximately 250 objects from the 20th and 21st centuries with estimates ranging from $300 to $300,000, the auction features works by Diane Arbus, Helmut Newton, Andy Warhol, Ellsworth Kelly, Mies van der Rohe, George Nakashima, and more. The sale will be on view in our New York galleries from 18 July through 21 July.

Vibrant and saturated color photographs punctuate this sale's offerings, including Ormond Gigli's red-lacquered Lips, made for Time magazine in 1960 (lot 13) and Ernst Haas's Lights of New York City (lot 157), an arresting nighttime view of Manhattan skyscrapers.

Fashion and editorial are well represented with photographs by Horst P. Horst, Francesco Scavullo, Annie Leibovitz, and William Helburn, whose Dovima Under the El (lot 83) was made in 1956 to advertise Vicalaine Sag-No-Mor jersey fabric.

Classic images include Il Tuffatore (lot 2), in which Italian Neo-Realist photographer Nino Migliori captured a diver suspended mid-flight, as well as works by Ruth Bernhard, O. Winston Link, Philippe Halsman, George Tice, and Berenice Abbott.

Among the icons of sports and rock & roll, this sale features Brian Hamill's enduring portrait John Lennon, Dakota, NYC (lot 131), taken on the rooftop of the Beatle's famed Upper West Side Manhattan apartment. Flip Schulke's Ali Underwater (lot 134), made in connection with the September 1961 Life Magazine article 'A Wet Way to Train for a Fight,' features 19-year-old Cassius Clay striking an ideal boxing stance while fully submerged.

Contemporary photography is represented by Elger Esser, Jeff Wall, Robert Polidori, Roland Fischer, Francesca Woodman, Irving Penn, and Larry Clark. A rich selection of Sally Mann's photographs from her Immediate Family and Deep South series is also featured.