Edward Burtynsky - Photographs London Tuesday, November 23, 2021 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Donated by the artist

  • Literature

    Burtynsky: Water, Göttingen: Steidl, 2013, p. 177

  • Catalogue Essay

    This image is from the series Water by Edward Burtynsky. Focusing on water as essential to our survival, the project takes us over gouged landscapes across the world. It captures the ominous colours and biomorphic shapes of fractal patterned delta regions, rigid and rectilinear stepwells, massive circular pivot irrigation plots, aquaculture, and social, cultural and ritual gatherings.

    Edward Burtynsky (b.1955) is regarded as one of the world's most accomplished contemporary photographers. His remarkable photographic depictions of global industrial landscapes represent over 40 years of his dedication to bearing witness to the impact of humans on the planet. His imagery explores the collective impact human civilisation is having on the surface of the planet – an inspection of the man-made systems imposed onto natural landscapes. His photographs are included in the collections of over 60 major museums around the world, including The Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Guggenheim Museum in New York and the Tate Modern in London. Burtynsky has received numerous awards during the course of his career, most recently a Royal Photographic Society Honorary Fellowship in 2020.

  • Artist Biography

    Edward Burtynsky

    Canadian • 1955

    Universally termed 'industrial landscapes', Edward Burtynsky's photographs are rooted in the complex, symbiotic and, at times, destructive relationship we have with the earth. In depicting his subjects, Burtynsky balances an exacting, documentarian objectivity with a breathtakingly finessed beauty. His oversized works, whose subjects include quarries in Vermont, shipyards in China and oil refineries in Canada, have a sense of grandiosity and monumentality. There is an initial visual appeal of vibrant colors, details and scale; however, on closer inspection, the environmental dilemma unfolds. They are introspective and meditative, capturing a 'contemplative moment' where landscapes provide visual and emotional resonance.

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PROPERTY SOLD TO BENEFIT THE IAN PARRY SCHOLARSHIP

101

Thjorsá River #1, Southern Region, Iceland

2012
Chromogenic print, mounted.
Image: 99.5 x 133 cm (39 1/8 x 52 3/8 in.)
Frame: 104 x 137.5 cm (40 7/8 x 54 1/8 in.)

Signed in ink, printed title, date and number AP1 on an artist label affixed to the reverse of the mount. One from a sold-out edition of 9 + 2 APs.

Estimate
£12,000 - 18,000 

Sold for £30,240

Contact Specialist

Rachel Peart
Head of Department, London

Yuka Yamaji
Head of Photographs, Europe

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Photographs

London Auction 23 November 2021