Andy Warhol Debbie Harry, 1980

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Piero Bisazza has one passion aside from mosaics — Polaroids. The CEO of Bisazza since 2000, Piero has led his family business to become an international luxury brand as one of the world's leading producers of glass mosaics. In 2012, he and his sister Rosella inaugurated the Bisazza Foundation, a 6,000 square meter exhibition space designed by the architect Carlo Dal Bianco, featuring a permanent collection of works by a wide range of artists, architects and designers, including Marcel Wanders, Sandro Chia and Mimmo Paladino. Recent temporary solo shows have included John Pawson, Candida Höfer and Nobuyoshi Araki.

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Each handmade Bisazza mosaic tile is small and unique—qualities that Piero recognizes as having drawn him to Polaroids: "I like small things." First introduced in 1948, Polaroid technology revolutionized photography by offering instant access to the final print. This spontaneity appealed to Piero as he built his collection of Polaroids. "It's an instinctive collection," he explained. "I plan nothing."

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Piero acquired his first Polaroids after meeting Helmut Newton at Los Angeles' Chateau Marmont in January 2004. In the Collection, Polaroids by Newton constitute the largest number of works by a single artist (lots 8-11, 152-163). Eroticism is an underlying theme that extends to the work of other artists, including Nobuyoshi Araki (lot 7), Paolo Roversi (lots 169-170) and Carlo Mollino (lot 172).

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It's an instinctive collection...I plan nothing.
\n— Piero Bisazza
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Helmut Newton Bergström over Paris, 1976

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Peter Beard Andy Warhol at Home in Montauk, 1972

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Piero's Collection addresses the multitude of ways in which artists use the Polaroid. For Newton, the Polaroid acted as his sketchbook. Andy Warhol took many Polaroids of his subjects in search of the perfect pose that would be immortalized in one of his silkscreens (lots 2-6). Robert Mapplethorpe's Polaroids are often seen as his entry into photography (lot 1), whereas Peter Beard draws on his Polaroids with ink and paint as an extension of his creative process (lots 164-168).

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The featured works from Piero's Collection represent the culmination of nearly 15 years of collecting Polaroids. Spanning our ULTIMATE Evening & Photographs Day Sales this May in London, the selection presents collectors an unrivaled opportunity to acquire unique Polaroid prints that provide an intimate and insightful glimpse into the working practices of 20th and 21st-century masters.

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Robert Mapplethorpe and the Polaroid

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Patti Smith was the first person Robert Mapplethorpe photographed and the only person he photographed more than himself. Mapplethorpe and Smith first met in 1967. As lovers and then as friends, they supported each other through developments in their creative pursuits. In 1970, Mapplethorpe first picked up a Polaroid camera when he borrowed one from fellow artist and Chelsea Hotel neighbor Sandy Daley. "I was Robert's first model and he was his second," Smith recalls in her memoir Just Kids. "The settings and options were limited but it was technically simple and he needed no light meter." While, early on, Mapplethorpe economized on food in order to buy Polaroid film at $3 a pack, in 1971, John McKendry, then Curator of Photography at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, purchased Mapplethorpe his own Polaroid camera and helped the artist to obtain a grant from Polaroid via their Artist Support Program for unlimited film.

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The bulk of Mapplethorpe's Polaroids were taken in 1970-75, and it was during this time that he first discovered his love for photography. "I never anticipated Robert's complete surrender to its powers. I had encouraged him to take photographs to integrate into his collages and installations," Smith writes, "but Robert shifted his focus, the photograph was not a means to an end, but the object itself." Mapplethorpe's Polaroids provide a fascinating insight into his early experimentation with light, composition and representations of the body, which would become the foundation of his later work.

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He was the artist of my life.
\n— Patti Smith
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Robert Mapplethorpe Untitled (Patti Smith), 1973-1975

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In the Polaroid offered here, Patti Smith is partly blurred, caught mid-turn, but her eyes remain fixed on Mapplethorpe, her soulmate. According to Smith, Mapplethorpe "saw more in me than I could see in myself. Whenever he peeled away the image from the Polaroid negative, he would say, 'With you, I can't miss.'" From the very beginning of his appreciation for this instant medium, he photographed his friend, muse and lover Patti Smith, capturing the intimacy that transcended their relationship. This lot is the only Polaroid by Mapplethorpe in the Piero Bisazza Collection.

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Andy Warhol and the Polaroid
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\nDuring the 1970s up until his untimely death in 1987, Andy Warhol's camera of choice for his silkscreen portraits was the Polaroid Big Shot. A close-up camera with a fixed focal lens and built-in flash, the Big Shot was perfect for taking portraits and made it easy for Warhol to quickly take multiple shots of his subject. To prepare for the shoot, women's faces were often painted with white makeup to achieve a smooth appearance and men were posed to conceal any flaws. For most sittings, Warhol was known to go through a few packs of film, and at the end of a shoot, he would select a small number of Polaroids to be sent off and re-photographed in 35mm, printed as 8 x 10 acetates and then re-printed in 40 x 40 to be finally transformed into the silkscreens.

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My idea of a good picture is one that's in focus and of a famous person.f
\n— Andy Warhol
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Andy Warhol Bianca Jagger, Jerry Hall, Grace Jones, Diane von Fürstenberg, 1974-1984

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Most of these portraits were done on commission or trade. Both Roy Lichtenstein and Gilbert & George (lot 5) traded their paintings with Warhol for his silkscreen portraits. The Polaroid was the foundation for his 1970s and 80s silkscreen portraits, and the Big Shot, with its speed and disposability, suited the purpose. These 11 Polaroids, comprising lots 2-6, offer a unique record of the famous faces that populated the world of Andy Warhol, 20th century's preeminent visual artist.

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Nobuyoshi Araki and the Polaroid

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In 2009, after Piero Bisazza had started collecting Polaroids by Nobuyoshi Araki, he invited the Japanese photographer to shoot a campaign for his mosaic company Bisazza. "I've always admired Araki's photographic style, in particular, his use of color," Piero explains. "In our advertising campaign, Araki was able to harmoniously match the brilliance of the golden mosaics with the vivid colors of the models' kimonos." Eight years later in 2017, the Bisazza Foundation presented a solo exhibition of Araki's work from the 1970s onwards with his Tokyo, kinbaku [bondage] and flora images, as well as his more recent work such as his 2014 Love on the Left Eye series. The exhibition featured an installation around Araki's 2009 Bisazza campaign with a video of the artist painting onto the mosaic tiles and creating the advertising images.

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Why do they come across as erotic? Because I shot them. That’s what my photos are.’
\n— Nobuyoshi Araki
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Highlights from Nobuyoshi Araki 36 Polaroids, n.d.

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The Polaroid camera is one of the many tools Araki uses to sustain his prolific output. Throughout his unrivaled six-decade-long career, Araki, who will be 78 in May this year, has documented the people, events and sights that move him. He is constantly in the act of image-making and re-examining what it means to take photographs. Each taken with a Polaroid 600 camera, the featured lot features 36 unique Polaroids of nudes, bondage and flowers, and together celebrate Araki's distinctive eroticism.

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Helmut Newton and the Polaroid
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\nHelmut Newton started taking pictures with the Polaroid camera in the 1970s, using it to test lighting conditions and see instantly how a situation would appear photographically. After a day of shooting, he would come home and share his Polaroids with his wife June, who would sometimes use them as place cards at dinner parties. In 1992, Newton decided to officially position these works within his oeuvre and published Pola Woman, a personal project that showcased his Polaroid prints. The Polaroids in the book were accompanied by Newton's short captions about the shoot or the model, emphasizing his intimate relationship to these images.

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Arielle was one of my favorite girls at the time. She made my camera sizzle...
\n— Helmut Newton
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Helmut Newton Arielle for Amica, Milan, 1982

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Many of the Newton Polaroids found in the Piero Bisazza Collection are the actual prints reproduced in Pola Woman. Such examples in the sale include the cover of Pola Woman, Arielle for Amica, Milan, Prunella and Sylvie on the Quai d'Orsay for Playboy and the first Polaroid in Pola Woman, Modelling Fashion for Vogue Hommes. Polaroids of such quintessential Newton images as Bergström over Paris and Sylvia in My Studio are also featured. Together, these works offer a captivating insight into how ideas were formed in Newton's restless imagination and reveal the eye of a master photographer.

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Browse our catalogue for the full selection of POLAROIDS from the Piero Bisazza Collection in the Photographs Day Sale.

\n","publishDate","2018-05-01T20:05:55.000000Z","coverPosX","coverPosY","articleUrl","https://www.phillips.com/article/31657755/polaroids-from-the-piero-bisazza-collection","auctionEditorialID",299,"editorialID",326,"flocklerID",31657755,{"_3671":3693,"_3673":3674,"_3675":3694,"_3658":3695,"_3678":3696,"_3680":3697,"_3682":1336,"_3683":1291,"_3684":3698,"_457":293,"_3686":3699,"_3688":3700,"_3690":3701},"https://flockler.com/thumbs/sites/889/16_001_detail-7cb7e865-6ca0-4bfa-ae86-bfb73a53ea65_s600x0.jpg","We explore the unique and timeless mastery of four works from our ULTIMATE Evening Sale by Helmut Newton, Robert Mapplethorpe, Irving Penn and Peter Beard.","ULTIMATE: A Closer Look at Four Frames That Stand Still","

Detail from Helmut Newton Panoramic Nude with Gun, Villa d'Este, Como, 1989

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In our first-ever Evening edition of ULTIMATE, a tightly curated selection of 27 works range from the late 19th century to the present. Each photograph, carefully selected for its rareness and exclusivity, effortlessly imparts the genius of its creator. Here, we delve further into the artistry and technique of Helmut Newton, Irving Penn, Robert Mapplethorpe and Peter Beard.

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Some people's photography is an art. Mine is not. If they happen to be exhibited in a gallery or a museum, that’s fine. But that's not why I do them. I'm a gun for hire.
\n— Helmut Newton, 2004
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Helmut Newton Panoramic Nude with Gun, Villa d'Este, Como, 1989

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Provocative and erotically charged, Panoramic Nude with Gun, Villa d'Este, Como exemplifies the quintessential Helmut Newton subject: a powerful nude woman wearing polished heels, lipstick, dark glasses and a net veil over her face, pointing a gun directly at the camera. She commands the space with an alluring and fantastical sensuality while projecting a calmly dominant and elegant air.
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\nThis visually arresting image was taken in 1989 during a commissioned shoot for the first calendar published by Max, the glossy Italian monthly magazine. The 1990 Max calendar, featuring 12 models photographed by Newton, included a variant image with the same nude holding the gun down for the month of March. The Max calendar shoot took place at the Hotel Villa d'Este on Lake Como in Italy—here, Newton created his vertical panoramas using a panoramic camera. Four Panoramic Nude images from the 1990 Max calendar, including the image with the gun down, were published and exhibited in 1992 for Archives de Nuit.

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My lips were black. I remember using eyebrow pencil on my lips.
\n— Jean Patchett on her shoot with Irving Penn
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Irving Penn Black and White Vogue Cover (Jean Patchett), New York, 1950

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The legendary Irving Penn photographed at Vogue for over six decades, during which time he created an unprecedented 165 covers. Black and White Vogue Cover (Jean Patchett) graced the cover of the April 1st issue in 1950 of American Vogue. It was Penn's first cover in black and white and the magazine's first cover since May 1932 to be without color. Vogue's influential Art Director Alexander Liberman called Penn's photographs 'stoppers' for their arresting quality that would stop you in your tracks. This attribute is epitomized in Black and White Vogue Cover, which has undeniably become one of Penn's most enduring images.

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At a time when his peers were creating fashion photographs with ornate settings, Penn's minimalist approach was unconventional and distinctive. He replaced indulgent sets with plain backdrops that enabled him to extract the essence of his subjects. Black and White Vogue Cover perfectly exemplifies his emphasis on form, shape and line. Jean Patchett, the subject of this image and one of Penn's favorite models, recalled his brilliance in constructing an entirely monochromatic vision: "My lips were black. I remember using eyebrow pencil on my lips."

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I get something out of flowers that other people don't get...I love the pictures of flowers more than I love real flowers.
\n— Robert Mapplethorpe
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Robert Mapplethorpe Double Tiger Lily, 1977

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Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, 1989

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In 1977, Robert Mapplethorpe made his first significant impact on the art world with his twin solo shows in New York: Portraits at Holly Solomon Gallery and a selection of male nudes and S&M images at The Kitchen. Later that year, Holly Solomon followed with Flowers, which debuted Double Tiger Lily, 1977, a unique, early masterwork. The total number of works included in the Flowers show is unknown. Aside from Tulips, which has twice appeared at auction, Double Tiger Lily is the only other known work from the show to date. At a time when the art market made clear distinctions between art and photography, Mapplethorpe sought to present his photographs as art with his intricate frames. For him, the frame was not merely the means by which to formally present a photograph but formed a crucial part of his artistic practice.

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Mapplethorpe's approach to flowers was similar to the way in which he photographed his human subjects in that he frequently isolated them in the frame, as seen here. Embracing the sexuality of flowers, they became a permanent fixture in Mapplethorpe's oeuvre.

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We may be sure that [civilized man] will so disturb the nicely balanced relations of organic and inorganic nature...
\n— Alfred Russel Wallace
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Peter Beard Downwind on the Tiva Lugga, 1965

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If Peter Beard's legendary 1965 publication The End of the Game could be condensed into a single work, it would be this monumental composition Downwind on the Tiva Lugga. Taken in 1965, the panoramic photograph features the dry river Tiva in Kenya's Tsavo region. At the time, Beard was working in Tsavo East National Park, where he witnessed and recorded the tragic die-off of elephants — the animal most deeply ingrained within The End of the Game. Yet, contrary to his harrowing images of animal corpses and bones, this seemingly peaceful landscape recaptures 'the life and spirit of a once unspoiled continent'. In this one moment captured by his camera, Africa's wildlife exists in harmony with its natural environment.

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Written across the Kenyan sky in Beard's distinctive hand are the words of British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913): "It seemed sad that, on the one hand, such exquisite creatures should live out their lives, doomed for ages yet to come to hopeless barbarism, while on the other hand, should civilized man ever reach those distant lands and bring moral, intellectual and physical light into the recesses of these virgin forests, we may be sure that he will so disturb the nicely balanced relations of organic and inorganic nature as to cause the disappearance and finally the extinction of these very beings whose wonderful structure and beauty he alone is fitted to appreciate and enjoy" (The Malay Archipelago, 1880).

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Beard's appropriation of Wallace's quote provides the narrative to this poignant work — man's unique ability to appreciate and inevitably destroy the wonders of the natural world.

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ULTIMATE Evening Sale is on view at 30 Berkeley Square 10-17 May ahead of the 18 May auction.

\n","2018-05-07T18:08:35.000000Z","https://www.phillips.com/article/31724674/ultimate-a-closer-look-at-four-frames-that-stood-still",304,331,31724674,{"_3671":3703,"_3673":3674,"_3675":3704,"_3658":3705,"_3678":3706,"_3680":3707,"_3682":1527,"_3683":464,"_3684":3708,"_457":381,"_3686":3709,"_3688":3710,"_3690":3711},"https://flockler.com/thumbs/sites/889/19_003-d0797b6d-b01a-47bd-a72b-b388449614a4_s600x0.jpg","Exclusive this season in London: Photographs by Ishiuchi Miyako, Kunié Sugiura and Tamiko Nishimura continue the growing narrative around 1970s Japanese photography.","1970s Japanese Photography: Celebrating Three Women Artists","

Unique gelatin silver print from Ishiuchi Miyako 絶唱、横須賀ストーリー Yokosuka Story, 1976-1977, a collection of 22 unique prints

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Exclusively at Phillips London, ULTIMATE is a unique selection of photographs, photo-based works and video. In this first Evening edition, we have curated a tightly edited collection of 27 outstanding works, dating from the late 19th century to the present, and ranging from rare masterworks to exclusive collaborations.

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Following up on our recent world auction records for Masahisa Fukase and Seiji Kurata, we continue our celebration of 1970s Japanese photography with exceptional works by Ishiuchi Miyako, Kunié Sugiura and Tamiko Nishimura, three women artists whose creative output can be described as highly subjective and deeply personal.

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Ishiuchi Miyako

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"Yokosuka was like a deeply haunting feeling of brutality, and onto hundreds of pure white photographic paper, I spewed it out in deep blacks," wrote artist Ishiuchi Miyako in Yokosuka Story, 1979.

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In the autumn of 1976, Ishiuchi Miyako, a 29-year-old self-taught photographer, journeyed to her hometown of Yokosuka to photograph the port city where she had lived from the age of 6 until 19. Her thirteen years in Yokosuka — the site of the largest U.S. naval base overseas — were tainted by grim memories of World War II and tensions caused by a dominant U.S. presence. It was her lingering loathing of Yokosuka that led her to choose it as the subject of her first major project, and photography was her tool of self-expression with which she purged her unwanted feelings and dark memories of her hometown. Her debut Yokosuka Story was born of this act of expelling her inner turmoil.

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I am photographing the city of Yokosuka, but actually, I am not photographing the city of Yokosuka.
\n— Ishiuchi Miyako
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Unique gelatin silver print from Ishiuchi Miyako 絶唱、横須賀ストーリー Yokosuka Story, 1976-1977, a collection of 22 unique prints

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In Yokosuka Story, Ishiuchi presents a fictional Yokosuka rendered in black and white. Dark, grainy and off-kilter, her photographs are quietly unsettling. Juxtapositions of close-up and faraway views, straight and oblique angles, derelict buildings and solitary figures reflect the tensions she felt growing up in the turbulent base town. On completing her project in March of 1977, Ishiuchi showed 100 Yokosuka photographs to Nobuyoshi Araki, whose introduction to Jun Miki, photographer and director of Nikon Salon, resulted in her maiden solo show 絶唱、横須賀ストーリー Yokosuka Story from 26 April to 1 May at Nikon Salon in Ginza, Tokyo.

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In 1978, Ishiuchi created the publishing company Shashin Tsūshinsha, financed with the three million yen her father had saved for her wedding, to self-publish her first two photobooks, which included Yokosuka Story. The following year, 1979, was historically significant for Ishiuchi who became the first woman to receive the Kimura Ihei Award, the most coveted photography award in Japan, and the only woman artist to be included in the group exhibition Japan: A Self-Portrait at the International Center of Photography in New York, which marked the first presentation of her work abroad. This was also the same year in which she created the present work as part of nearly 100 unique cabinet-card-sized prints of Yokosuka Story for a Nikon Salon exhibition in Paris that never took place. Thin black borders frame each small photograph, and together, the 22 images can be read as a narrative — Ishiuchi's own Yokosuka Story — woven with memories, experiences and histories.

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One of Japan's leading artists, Ishiuchi represented Japan at the 2005 Venice Biennale and is a multiple award winner, including the 4th Kimura Ihei Award (1979), Japan's Medal with Purple Ribbon (2013) and the Hasselblad Award (2014). Her work has been exhibited internationally since 1979, and recent museum retrospectives include Ishiuchi Miyako: Postwar Shadows at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (2015-16) and Ishiuchi Miyako: Grain and Image at the Yokohama Museum of Art (2017-18). Her work is held in many prominent institutions, including the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; Yokohama Museum of Art; Tokyo Photographic Art Museum; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; and Tate Modern, London, which holds 40 unique cabinet-card-sized prints from Yokosuka Story.

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Kunié Sugiura

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In this remarkable work by New York-based Japanese artist Kunié Sugiura, two canvases are assembled side by side: one, measuring 191 cm wide, is painted with black acrylic, and the other, measuring 102 cm high, is printed with a black-and-white photograph. As the title, View from Dakota, suggests, the vertical view of the northwest corner of Central Park West, seen from an elevated perspective, was taken from the Dakota—Manhattan's iconic co-operative building. Addressing the materiality of photographic emulsion in her work, Sugiura has combined photography and painting to create a unique visual experience.

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New York was very essential to me; I couldn't think of being in another place. I appreciate the time I have spent here.
\n— Kunié Sugiura
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Kunié Sugiura View from Dakota, 1979

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During the 1960s, Sugiura studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) under Kenneth Josephson, who influenced her to become the only undergraduate in her class to major in photography. At a time when Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg were creating silkscreens on canvas, Sugiura began printing photographs onto canvas, driven by a desire to equate photography with painting. After graduating from SAIC in 1967, Sugiura moved to New York, where she has lived and worked for the past five decades. Her work was first exhibited in 1972 in the Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting at the Whitney Museum of American Art. As her creative process evolved, she discovered a new visual dynamic by arranging photographic images alongside monochrome paintings. In this body of work termed 'photo-painting', Sugiura created a synergy between the two media.

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View from Dakota is among the largest of Sugiura's unique 'photo-paintings' and is her most significant work to be offered at auction. Sugiura has exhibited internationally and her work resides in many prominent institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; and Tate Modern, London. Her first major retrospective will be held at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum from 24 July to 24 September 2018.

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Tamiko Nishimura

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This unique しきしまShikishima triptych by Tamiko Nishimura consists of three highly emotive photographs taken in 1970-71 during her travels in the Hokkaidō, Tōhoku and Hokuriku regions of Japan. Her longing to visit these faraway places began during her childhood in Tokyo and her fascination with pictures of snowy landscapes and matsuri [festivals] depicted on the postcards her father would send her from his frequent business trips. After graduating from Tokyo Photographic College (currently Tokyo Visual Arts College) in 1969, the 21-year-old Nishimura set off on her first of many journeys around Japan.

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I think I've been drawn to what lies beyond the union of seer and seen, wanting to give shape to things that fall apart soon after they're photographed. Or perhaps it's the ineffable attraction to the unseen.
\n— Tamiko Nishimura
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Tamiko Nishimura しきしま Shikishima, 1970-1971

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The left image of empty railway tracks was taken in spring 1971 in Asahikawa, Hokkaidō, the northernmost of Japan's four main islands. Of this photograph, Nishimura remembers, "I was fascinated by the open landscape. Looking at the empty tracks, I imagined that the end of the line was Cape Sōya, the northernmost point of the island of Hokkaidō." The young woman in the center was taken in summer 1970 in Aomori prefecture in Tōhoku region of Northeast Japan. She recalls, "I was photographing while in a taxi using a telephoto lens. When the taxi stopped at a red light, a face of a woman standing on the pavement jumped into my frame and I pressed the shutter. It was a fleeting moment so this is the only shot." On the right is an almost abstract seascape taken in winter 1970 in Ishikawa prefecture in Hokuriku region of Northwest Japan. She visited the Uchinada sand dunes, where this image was shot, to see the relics of the ammunition storage facilities, which played a part in the 1952 'Uchinada Battle' and the ensuing anti-US military base campaign.

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After her Hokkaidō trip in spring 1971, Nishimura returned to Tokyo where she printed the three large prints offered here. Using leftover photographic papers from her 1969 graduation exhibition, she printed her three most favorite images at the time, representing three separate journeys, and pinned them to her wall at home. The pinholes, which are visible in the corners of each print, reveal the history of these prints. In 1972, she received an unexpected call from her alma mater Tokyo Photographic College with an offer to publish her first photobook, which resulted in しきしまShikishima (1973), now a rare photobook. The title is an epithet used in classical Japanese Waka poetry for Yamato, the ancient name for Japan, and the book showcases her series of photographs taken in 1969-72 on her journeys around Japan's Hokkaidō, Tōhoku, Hokuriku, Kantō, Kansai and Chūgoku regions. Working on image selection, sequencing and editorial design, Nishimura self-produced Shikishima.

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Nishimura's language of expression is poetic, spiritual and deeply personal, as discerned in this unique, early triptych. This is an unparalleled opportunity to acquire an important early work by Tamiko Nishimura, still relatively unknown outside of Japan, as the market for Japanese photography of the 1970s continues to unfold.

\n","2018-05-08T20:31:48.000000Z","https://www.phillips.com/article/31938429/1970s-japanese-photography",307,334,31938429,{"_3671":3713,"_3673":3674,"_3675":3714,"_3658":3715,"_3678":3716,"_3680":3717,"_3682":1527,"_3683":464,"_3684":3718,"_457":186,"_3686":3719,"_3688":3720,"_3690":3721},"https://flockler.com/thumbs/sites/889/23_001-063b2438-1d57-4e6a-82aa-b36394ae895f_s600x0.jpg","In a special interview between artist Mika Ninagawa and Yuka Yamaji, Co-Head of Photographs, Europe, we are invited into Ninagawa's distinctive world of vivid colors and dense imagery.","Mika Ninagawa: In Conversation","

Mika Ninagawa earthly flowers, heavenly colors, executed 2018

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In our first Evening edition of ULTIMATE, we are thrilled to premiere earthly flowers, heavenly colors, 2018, a unique installation by Mika Ninagawa. The subject sakura [cherry blossoms] is one of the artist's signature motifs. In this dynamic work—seemingly contrasting notions of life and death, natural and artificial—the traditional and contemporary converge. Through this portal, we are invited to enter Ninagawa's distinctive world populated by vivid colors and dense imagery.

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In Mika Ninagawa: In Conversation, Phillips' Yuka Yamaji and the artist discussed beginnings, her springtime addiction to sakura and why she photographs.

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For over two decades, Mika Ninagawa has walked her own path, becoming the first and only woman photographer to have attained pop icon status in Japan. Daughter of acclaimed theatre director Yukio Ninagawa, she first came to prominence in the late 1990s as one of the leading lights of Japan's 'Girly Photo' movement. Her work was first exhibited outside Japan in 1997 at the iconic Parisian concept store Colette, and in 2001, at the age of 29, she received the 26th Kimura Ihei Award (Japan's most prestigious photography award). Since then, Ninagawa has gone on to set new museum attendance records in Japan with her traveling exhibition Mika Ninagawa: earthly flowers, heavenly colors in 2008-10, as well as in Taiwan with her first overseas retrospective, which was presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei in 2016.
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\nBranching out into filmmaking in 2006, Ninagawa has directed two successful feature films to date — Sakuran (2007) and Helter Skelter (2012) — and is set to release two new films in 2019. In 2014, she was appointed to the executive board of the 2020 Tokyo Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games by virtue of her contributions to Japanese art and culture. Ninagawa has published extensively, including nearly 100 photobooks to date, and her work is held in many prominent collections, which include the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, Huis Marseille, Amsterdam and UBS Art Collection.

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\nBeginnings.
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\nYuka Yamaji: When we were walking together in London on your recent visit, we kept losing you whenever something would catch your eye and you would stop to shoot it. When did you first realize that you were addicted to photography?
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\nMika Ninagawa: I was in primary school. My father was a theatre director and my mother was an actress, so I wanted to become a person who can express something as soon as possible. I think it was a very primitive desire, a feeling close to impatience. I did a lot of things like drawing and crafting, but taking photographs became a special thing.
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\nYY: And what kind of pictures were you taking?
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\nMN: When I was about ten years old, I used an ordinary point-and-shoot camera to photograph my own reflections in the mirror or my much-loved Barbie dolls on top of volcanic rocks, which I also loved! [Laughs]
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\nYY: What drew you to this particular medium?
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\nMN: How emotion and expression are directly connected...my emotions were captured, as if no impurities existed between what I felt and the camera, and that made me become increasingly addicted to photography. Even to this day, when I concentrate, I feel the boundary between what I am shooting and myself gently disappearing.

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I wanted to become a person who can express something as soon as possible. I think it was a very primitive desire, a feeling close to impatience.
\n— Mika Ninagawa on her passion for photography
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YY: Tokyo in the late 1990s saw the rise of「女の子写真」[Onnanoko shashin], the 'Girly Photo' movement, which was characterized by images reflecting the personal and the everyday taken by young women photographers, and you were brought into the limelight as one of its stars. What was that like?
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\nMN: Because I wanted to quickly become a person who expressed something, it was a very lucky movement for me. But at the same time, I was in a very dangerous situation of being easily consumed. I was conscious of that from the onset. But I also thought that if I were to be consumed by this then it was just that, so I consciously decided to ride the flow. It was a trend, but it was also a chance for my work to be seen.
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\nYY: Did you identify yourself with this movement and with your contemporaries Yurie Nagashima and Hiromix? Did you feel then that you were part of a shared female experience?
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\nMN: I don't know about the other two, but I think that each of us harbored complicated feelings. And I imagine it was quite difficult to swim without being swallowed by that current as I don't think most of the legions of 'girly' photographers who were there at the time are still working today.
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\nYY: How did 'Girly Photo' begin?
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\nMN: I think it was the same for everyone…they started not because it was a fad, but there was this atmosphere at the time, and many young women incidentally started to photograph. Taking a photograph was somehow seen as something 'sparkly'.
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\nYY: How do you see this experience today, 20 years later?
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\nMN: The experience of being in that whirlpool of craze was a good one. All that I felt at the time — the fear of being consumed, people's desires, the intense envy of the boys, the fact of being a woman — greatly influenced my photographs that followed, as well as the movies I make.

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YY: In 2001, you became a recipient of the 26th Kimura Ihei Award together with Yurie Nagashima and Hiromix. It was the first and the only time that the award was given to three photographers — to three young women photographers. How was that experience? You were only 29 at the time?
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\nMN: I thought, 'Why am I not alone?' I felt very dissatisfied. But I wanted to use this experience as a springboard for becoming an unrivaled existence.
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\nYY: Did you see an immediate impact?
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\nMN: My photobook sold well. [Laughs] It also increased name recognition.
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\nearthly flowers, heavenly colors
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\nYY: This is your first installation that has been conceived and executed as a stand-alone work, outside of an exhibition context. What drew you to create this installation?
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\nMN: When I'm focused on shooting, I sometimes feel that I am becoming more and more absorbed into the scenery seen from the viewfinder. For instance, if I'm photographing cherry blossoms, it's as if I'm inside the cherry blossom or I've become the cherry blossom, existing at the boundary between this world and the other world. This feeling of my own contours melting...that nothing else exists in this world besides myself and what is photographed is unique to this process. I started this installation in order to experience this feeling and to share it.
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\nYY: Your installation is called earthly flowers, heavenly colors. What is the meaning behind your title?
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\nMN: The title refers to that boundary between the two worlds where I sometimes find myself when shooting. Heaven and earth are closer than we imagine. Heavenly views can be found in the everyday as long as you can spot them.
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\nYY: In the featured work, you have layered different images, colors, forms, perspective and materials. How did you arrive at the concept of layering in your installations?
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\nMN: When we experience something, a lot of information comes in at the same time and it all becomes one experience. I sometimes show a single photograph but it's more common for me to show a number of images together.
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\nYY: The 'earthly flower' represented in this work is sakura [cherry blossom]. When I read your father Yukio Ninagawa's obituary in The Guardian, it mentioned that his first theatre production in the UK was Macbeth at the 1985 Edinburgh festival, which caused a sensation with its cherry blossom-filled visual imagery. Do you recall when you first saw this production?
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\nMN: My father's Macbeth premiered in 1980, so I was eight years old at the time. In the opening scene, the threatening yet beautiful sakura seems almost alive as it sways in the wind and its petals fall…a frighteningly beautiful image of sakura.
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\nYY: It's clear that you vividly remember the sublime imagery of sakura. Did it somehow inform your own gravitation to sakura in your image-making?
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\nMN: That imagery is likely one of the reasons why I continue to relentlessly photograph sakura.
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\nYY: In Japanese history, culture and art, sakura is richly symbolic.
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\nMN: There is a legend in Japan that corpses are buried under the sakura trees. It comes from the opening line of the short story 'Under the Cherry Trees' by the modernist Motojirō Kajii. Sakura is a flower with mysterious appeal and one is convinced that there should be a reason why they can bloom such frighteningly beautiful flowers.
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\nYY: What meaning does it hold for you?
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\nMN: I photograph sakura every year, and each year, what I capture is surprisingly different, which is one of its distinctive features. For me, photographing sakura is akin to the act of digging out my insides. By photographing the same motif over and over again, I feel that I'm getting closer to my inner self. When spring comes, I have to bear the suspense of wondering when sakura will bloom. During the sakura season, I run around photographing it.
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\nYY: How is this year's sakura?
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\nMN: I’ve just come back from photographing it. Sakura in Japan is in full bloom right now and I'm shooting it from early morning until evening. I can only imagine that I'm possessed by something. [Laughs] During this time, it feels as if I'm photographing until I collapse. I'm struggling to express in words the sense of unity or the enjoyable sensation of 'I feel good' that can only be experienced when photographing sakura.

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Heavenly views can be found in the everyday as long as you can spot them.
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Mika Ninagawa Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei, 2016

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Image-Maker
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\nYY: How has being born and raised in Tokyo shaped you as an image-maker? And how does it inform your creative output?
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\nMN: Being born and raised in Tokyo where all sorts of things are mixed and consumed at a tremendous speed has greatly influenced my creations. Human desire is one of my big themes and that to me is a very Tokyo-related theme. As a counterpart to Tokyo's modernity, Japan's traditional sense of beauty, the colors found in woodblock prints and kimonos, for example, are also my inspirations.
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\nYY: You have achieved success in a number of industries, including art, film, fashion and music. For a new audience being introduced to you and your work, how would you describe your creative process?
\n
\nMN: Photography is my foundation but I don't believe in tying myself down or creating taboos. The idea that something must be a certain way hinders creativity. Even the thought of wanting to take a good picture is a hindrance. My creative process is closely aligned with a more primitive, intuitive and personal feeling…no extra thoughts are needed between the camera and myself.
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\nYY: You are renowned and sought-after for your unique vision and distinctive visual language. Why do you think audiences find your world so alluring and intoxicating?
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\nMN: Why do they think so? [Laughs] I don't quite understand it myself. What I do know is that when I press the shutter, I want to imprint what I am feeling.
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\nYY: Since your debut in the late 1990s, you have continued to photograph on a near daily basis and have published nearly 100 photobooks to date. Why are you so dedicated to creating photographs?
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\nMN: Hmmm, I don't know. But there are many things that can only be obtained through this process. It's a very primitive emotion and I cannot think of the option of not photographing.
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\nYY: Lastly, what does photography mean to you?
\n
\nMN: It's part of being alive…and a good portion at that.

\n\n

\n","2018-04-30T18:21:49.000000Z","https://www.phillips.com/article/31623055/mika-ninagawa-in-conversation",296,323,31623055,{"_3671":3723,"_3673":3674,"_3675":3724,"_3658":3725,"_3678":3726,"_3680":3727,"_3682":1527,"_3683":464,"_3684":3728,"_457":253,"_3686":3729,"_3688":3730,"_3690":3731},"https://flockler.com/thumbs/sites/889/strausscoachhouse-02-197e411b-e347-436e-878c-62188c98eab9_s600x0.jpg","Deeply rooted in the appreciation of the Renaissance, this collection offers the opportunity to collect exemplary photographs from the most prolific image-makers of the 21st century.","Michel and Sally Strauss Contemporary Photography Collection","

Interior image from the home of Michel Strauss, featuring works by Clifford Ross and Nadav Kander

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The career of Michel Strauss is not to be underestimated. During his near 40 years in the Impressionist and Modern Art Department at Sotheby's London, he was at the forefront of the market and its expansion into what it is today. At the age of 25, the Frenchman joined the Department first as a Cataloguer, swiftly rose to Department Head, then Chairman, and was involved in some of Sotheby's most important and highest-grossing sales.

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Michel was brought up with a deep respect and admiration for art. This was a genetic inheritance from his grandfather Jules Strauss, a distinguished collector of Impressionist painting, and his grandmother, who taught him that to truly appreciate an artwork, one first had to touch it — a tendency that did not delight the guards of the Louvre.

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Interior image from the home of Michel Strauss, featuring works by Nick Waplington and Malerie Marder

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The guiding principle behind Michel and Sally's Contemporary Photography Collection is deeply rooted in the appreciation of the Renaissance. It was Isaiah Berlin, Michel's step-father and a visiting professor, who encouraged the young Michel to study Art History at Harvard, sparking a lifelong interest that would shape the content of the Collection.

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Key Renaissance motifs are featured prominently and reverberate throughout the Collection. From the immensity of landscapes in Clifford Ross' Mountain III and Elger Esser's Loire et Cher to the exploration of light and shadow in James Casebere's Green Staircase #1 and the ornate interiors of Matthias Schaller's Controfacciata, Palazzo Mocenigo, Michel and Sally have assembled works by acclaimed contemporary artists whose recognition and interpretation of their own art historical heritage reflect the Strauss' own fascination and passion in collecting works of this premier calibre.

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James Casebere Green Staircase #1, 2002

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Matthias Schaller Controfacciata, Palazzo Mocenigo, 2007

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A visionary in the realm of art, Michel Strauss has integrated his vast knowledge and acute sensibility to consistently stay at the cutting edge of the field. His unique vision predicted and directed the rhythm and flow in his professional endeavors, and it is with that same insight and discernment that this collection has been lovingly and thoughtfully created.

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This sale represents a rare opportunity for collectors to acquire exemplary photographs from contemporary artists who are being cemented as the prolific image-makers of the 21st century.

\n","2018-05-08T21:39:29.000000Z","https://www.phillips.com/article/31950958/michel-and-sally-strauss-contemporary-photography-collection",308,335,31950958,{"_3671":3733,"_3673":3674,"_3675":3734,"_3658":3735,"_3678":3736,"_3680":3737,"_3682":1527,"_3683":464,"_3684":3738,"_457":70,"_3686":3739,"_3688":3740,"_3690":3741},"https://flockler.com/thumbs/sites/889/27_001-5b21f14c-f227-4489-9626-d05748230e7b_s600x0.jpg","Watch a segment from the Korean artist's eight-hour video work, now on view at Phillips Berkeley Square prior to our ULTIMATE Evening Sale.","Into the Darkness: Multimedia Artist Kim Heewon's Fascination with Light","

Kim Hee-won Someone's Chandelier 01, 2013. 4K video: Duration 7:50:16 hours. This work is Artist Proof 1 from the sold-out edition of six plus one artist proof.

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We commence with darkness. A hand holding a lit match enters the frame and slowly lights the candles one by one. For over seven hours the candles of the two-tiered chandelier burn until each one has burned out, returning to darkness. Kim Heewon's Someone's Chandelier 01 is a stunning video work that represents its subject in actual scale and in real time. The hypnotic piece—featured as the final lot in our inaugural ULTIMATE Evening Sale in London—induces a feeling of tranquillity in the viewer as the candles gently burn and the light fades.

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Opening segment of Someone's Chandelier 01, courtesy of the artist

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While living in Paris in the early days of his practice, Kim Heewon deliberately turned off his electricity, choosing to live by candlelight. Fascinated by the flickering light and how it made him feel, he embarked on this ongoing series that began with candles before evolving into chandeliers — representing a larger light source and a symbol of luxury in a bygone era. His use of the latest technologies to evoke certain emotions associated with the past enabled him "to connect the past to the present both in function and communication."
\n
\nThis work is the first chandelier video in the series. The chandelier, as seen in the video, was sourced by a European antique collector in Korea and the filmed over more than three days:
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\nThe average burning time for a candle is seven hours, but there are so many variables — the wax may melt in the wrong way, distorting the visibility, for example, or some candles may burn faster or longer than others — that it takes an extensive amount of additional time adjusting and re-filming.

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Stills from Someone's Chandelier 01

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Kim Heewon is a multimedia artist whose creative output spans multiple fields, including photography, video and design. In 2012 he collaborated with New York's Moss, the legendary design mecca, for the Venice Architecture Biennale, and his work has been exhibited at Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Korea.

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His work resides in various collections, including Rossana Orlandi Collection, Italy and National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea.

\n","2018-05-14T16:57:18.000000Z","https://www.phillips.com/article/32239704/kim-heewon",325,351,32239704,{"_3671":3743,"_3673":3674,"_3675":3744,"_3658":3745,"_3678":3746,"_3680":3747,"_3682":1452,"_3683":1564,"_3684":3748,"_457":658,"_3686":3749,"_3688":3750,"_3690":3751},"https://flockler.com/thumbs/sites/889/img_5338-8c6d838f-0b31-4c7d-9101-e77c2e740450_s600x0_c5180x3027_l0x508.jpg","Tour our spring Photographs sales in London in this virtual reality walkthrough from 30 Berkeley Square. On view: Irving Penn, Robert Mapplethorpe, Man Ray, Diane Arbus, Nobuyoshi Araki, Andy Warhol, Mika Ninagawa, Helmut Newton and Tommy Ton.","VR Walkthrough: ULTIMATE Evening & Photograph Day Sales","

Explore a virtual reality walkthrough of our ULTIMATE Evening & Photograph Day Sales in London.

\n\n

Travel through our galleries and browse the inaugural Evening edition of ULTIMATE, featuring an exceptional group one-of-a-kind and unique works by Andy Warhol, Robert Mapplethorpe, Irving Penn, Peter Beard, Mika Ninagawa, Tommy Ton and Helmut Newton, among others.

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From the Day Sale, discover the Michel and Sally Strauss Contemporary Photography Collection and works by Candida Höfer, Karen Knorr, Martin Usborne, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Man Ray and more.

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ULTIMATE Evening & Photograph Day Sales is on view in London at 30 Berkeley Square through 17 May ahead of the 18 May auction.

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Helmut Newton Bergström over Paris, 1976

Peter Beard Andy Warhol at Home in Montauk, 1972

Robert Mapplethorpe Untitled (Patti Smith), 1973-1975

Andy Warhol Bianca Jagger, Jerry Hall, Grace Jones, Diane von Fürstenberg, 1974-1984

Highlights from Nobuyoshi Araki 36 Polaroids, n.d.

Helmut Newton Arielle for Amica, Milan, 1982

Helmut Newton Panoramic Nude with Gun, Villa d'Este, Como, 1989

Irving Penn Black and White Vogue Cover (Jean Patchett), New York, 1950

Robert Mapplethorpe Double Tiger Lily, 1977

Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, 1989

Peter Beard Downwind on the Tiva Lugga, 1965

Ishiuchi Miyako

Unique gelatin silver print from Ishiuchi Miyako 絶唱 、横須賀ストーリー Yokosuka Story, 1976-1977, a collection of 22 unique prints

Kunié Sugiura

Kunié Sugiura View from Dakota, 1979

Tamiko Nishimura

Tamiko Nishimura しきしま Shikishima, 1970-1971

Mika Ninagawa Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei, 2016

Interior image from the home of Michel Strauss, featuring works by Nick Waplington and Malerie Marder

James Casebere Green Staircase #1, 2002

Matthias Schaller Controfacciata, Palazzo Mocenigo, 2007

Stills from Someone's Chandelier 01

Unique gelatin silver print from Ishiuchi Miyako 絶唱、横須賀ストーリー Yokosuka Story, 1976-1977, a collection of 22 unique prints

89

Harry Callahan

Chicago

Full-Cataloguing

Harry Callahan