5th Photo Auction on November 12th 2011 at 6 p.m. (CET)

Our next WestLicht Auction will be held on November 12th, 2011. Once more we have been able to compile a world class collection of cameras and international photographs for you.
Berenice Abbott, Richard Avedon, Henri-Cartier Bresson, Robert Capa, Robert Doisneau, Elliott Erwitt, Wilhelm von Gloeden, Philippe Halsman, Horst P. Horst, Germaine Krull, Helmut Newton, August Sander, Jan Saudek , Bert Stern and Josef Sudek.

Austrian photography with vintage prints by Trude Fleischmann, Franz Hubmann, Rudolf Koppitz, Heinrich Kühn, Inge Morath, Moriz Nähr and Anton Josef Trčka.

Young contemporary photography by Judith Huemer, Sabine Jelinek, Markus Oberndorfer, Klaus Pichler, Gerlinde Miesenböck, Agnes Prammer, Lois Renner, Eva Schlegel and Werner Schrödl.


HIGHLIGHTS

Wilhelm von Gloeden (1856–1931)
›Cain‹
Taormina, Sicily c. 1900
Mat albumen print, Vintage, printed 1913
39,3 x 29 cm (15.5 x 11.4 in)
Signed, dated (print date) and annotated by the photographer in ink in the image lower left, photographer’s stamp on the reverse
€ 15,000 / € 25,000–30,000

This rare large-format print of Wilhelm von Gloeden’s Cain is one of his best known nudes taken in nature. The image of the young man sitting in an Arcadian landscape with his legs pulled up to his chest was pictured in similar ways by several other well-known photographers, such as Rudolf Koppitz or American photographer Fred Holland Day. The painting Naked Young Man at the Shore (1836) by Jean Hippolyte Flandrin can be seen as model for this pose. Gloeden is one of the founding fathers of homoerotic photography and was depicting scenes from antiquity with youths from the Sicilian town of Taormina as early as 1880. Taormina was also where he spent a large part of his life. Many of the nudes of boys were confiscated and destroyed by the police under Mussolini, under the accusation of being pornographic material. Only during the 1960s, in the course of the sexual revolution, his œuvre was rediscovered and finally exhibited at the documenta 6.



Emma Bacher (1867–1948)
Gustav Klimt mit Freunden am Bootsteg / with friends at a landing stage
Attersee c. 1903
Vintage collodion print, mounted on original cardboard
9 x 11,5 cm (3.5 x 4.5 in)
€ 6,000 / € 10,000–12,000

Emma Bacher, wife of Paul Bacher, owner of Miethke gallery, took over the business after her husband’s death in 1910 and later got married to Richard Teschner. She was one of the first female amateur photographers at Attersee. The daughter of Friedrich Paulick maintained a close friendship to Gustav Klimt and the Flöge family, who often spent their summers at her father’s estate. The two photographs of Klimt are the only known vintage prints of these images. One of them shows the famous painter with his long-time companion Emilie Flöge and her siblings Hermann, Helene and Pauline on the landing stage in Litzlberg. The sisters are conversing with Paul Bacher and his brother Edi, who are sitting in a rowing boat. The unusually well-preserved contact print was taken with a large format camera and is striking for its strong focus and contrast.


Anton Josef Trčka (1893–1940)
Die Fotografin / The photographer Olga Wlassics (Atelier Manassé)
Vienna 1933
Vintage silver print, mounted on original cardboard
22,5 x 16,5 cm (8.9 x 6.5 in)
Photographer’s »Ringwerkstätten / B-45-6-86 / Wien, 8. Alserstr. 35« stamp on the cardboard, dated by the photographer in pencil on the mount
€ 5,000 / € 8,000–10,000

The so far unknown studio portrait by Trčka of photographer Olga Wlassics was taken in his studio in Vienna (Alserstraße) in 1933. Olga Spolarics, born in Budapest in 1895 founded the »Atelier Manassé« with her husband Adorján Wlassics in 1924. Their studio was well-known for its glamorous images. Research has so far not discovered any links between Olga Wlassics and Trčka, but this photograph proves that they must have known each other. The better known published self-staged photographs of Wlassics usually depict her as a vamp or a diva. It is hence quite astonishing that the photographer let herself be portrayed in a quite conservative way by Trčka, even though he was well-known for his expressive portraits of artists. The stamped vintage print originates from the estate of the nephew of Anton Josef Trčka.


Rudolf Koppitz (1884–1936)
Akt am Meer / Nude at the seaside (Anna Koppitz)
1923
Vintage silver print
16,4 x 22,8 cm (6.5 x 9 in)
Photographer’s blindstamp in the image lower right, Photographer’s »Prof. Rudolf Koppitz, Photo-Werkstätte, Wien, V. Zeinlhoferg. 8« stamp on the reverse, annotated in an unidentified hand in pencil on the reverse
€ 3,000 / € 5,000–7,000


Josef Sudek (1896–1976)
Moldau mit Nationaltheater / with national theater
Prague c. 1948
Vintage silver print, contact print
22,5 x 27,8 cm (8.9 x 10.9 in)
Signed and dated »1946-48« by the photographer in ink in the margin, annotated in pencil in an unidentified hand on the reverse
€ 4,000 / € 7,000–9,000

Berenice Abbott (1898–1991)
Freiheitsstatue / Statue of Liberty
New York c. 1932
Vintage silver print, mounted on original cardboard
24,5 x 18,9 cm (9.6 x 7.4 in)
Photographer’s »Photo Berenice Abbott, 1 W 67th ST., N.Y.C.« studio stamp on the reverse, diverse annotations by Abbott in pencil on the reverse
€ 6,000 / € 10,000–12,000

This photograph of the Statue of Liberty, taken from an exceptionally steep angle from below, is an early New York shot by Abbott. Most likely it was taken around 1932, shortly after Abbott returned from Europe, before she had started work on her photo series Changing New York. On the reverse it is marked with Abbott’s stamp from the time at the New Yorker address 1st West 67th Street, where she worked between 1930 and 1932. The address was crossed out with pencil and replaced by »50 Commerce St.«, this makes it likely that this print was made during the time she moved studios.

Judith Huemer (* 1969)
›Balcony Session‹
2007
Chromogenic print, framed
28 x 21,2 cm (11 x 8.3 in)
Signed, titled, dated, and numbered by the photographer on the reverse, edition no. 3/3
€ 900 / € 1,100–2,100

In Judith Huemer’s always auto-biographically founded work everything revolves around movement, dynamics and the definition of space. In Balcony Session – and continued in Balcony Session Constructed and Be the One – her own physicality is mirrored in the physicality of buildings or an entire city. The legs are Judith Huemer’s, the city is New York. Far away objects become connected to things in close proximity, like the towering heights of skyscrapers symbolized by her legs sticking up into the air. Huemer reflects everyday scenes, her own body and her immediate environment. Hence all her pieces can be seen as a reaction and she herself is always the starting point of her work.