Helmut Newton - Photographs London Wednesday, May 17, 2017 | Phillips

Photographs

London Auction 18 May 2017

  • Provenance

    Private Collection, New York
    Christie's, New York, 23 April 2007, lot 227

  • Literature

    Helmut Newton: Private Property, Munich: Schirmer/Mosel, 1989, pl. 15
    H. Newton, Autobiography, London: Gerald Duckworth and Co. Ltd. 2003, p. 225

  • Catalogue Essay

    Helmut Newton’s Private Property Suites I, II and III (1984) are a compilation of images taken between 1972 and 1983. Part irreverent, part sardonic, and wholly unapologetic in their celebration of beauty and eroticism, these 45 works embody Newton’s distinctly seductive style. While each Suite was intended as an edition of 75, this was never realised and only 25 printings were made.

    The following eight lots are highlights from Suite I and III. Two Pairs of Legs in Black Stockings (lot 13), taken from a floor-level, tilted angle, implies the hidden control exercised by its female protagonists. In Hotel Room, Place de la République (lot 14), the model tied to the bed highlights Newton’s fascination with fetishism and sadomasochism. Winnie at the Negresco (lot 15) contrasts the model’s bare body against the lush fur coat. Roselyne in Arcangues (lot 19), taken during the four days that Newton and the model spent in a chateau in France, demonstrates Newton’s presentation of women as simultaneously empowered and fetishised. These works showcase Newton’s use of photography to evoke erotic fantasies of desire and domination.

  • Artist Biography

    Helmut Newton

    German • 1920 - 2004

    Helmut Newton's distinct style of eroticism and highly produced images was deemed rebellious and revolutionary in its time, as he turned the expected notion of beauty, depicted by passive and submissive women, on its head. Depicting his models as strong and powerful women, Newton reversed gender stereotypes and examined society's understanding of female desire.

    Newton created a working space for his models that was part decadent and part unorthodox — a safe microcosm in which fantasies became reality. And perhaps most famously of all, Newton engendered an environment in which his female models claimed the space around them with unapologetic poise and commanding sensuality. His almost cinematic compositions provided a hyper-real backdrop for the provocative images of sculptural, larger-than-life women, and enhanced the themes of voyeurism and fetishism that run throughout his work.

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14

Helmut Newton

Hotel Room, Place de la République, Paris

1976
Gelatin silver print from Private Property Suite I, printed 1984.
36.2 x 24.1 cm (14 1/4 x 9 1/2 in.)
Signed, numbered 6/75, 15, I in pencil and copyright credit reproduction limitation stamp on the verso.

Estimate
£7,000 - 9,000 ‡

Sold for £15,000

Contact Specialist
Genevieve Janvrin
Co-Head of Photographs, Europe
+44 20 7901 7996

Yuka Yamaji
Co-Head of Photographs, Europe
+44 20 7318 4098

Photographs

London Auction 18 May 2017