Directly from the artist Galerie Rudolf Kicken, Cologne G.I.P. (Goro International Press), Tokyo Gert Elfering, Berlin
Catalogue Essay
HELMUT NEWTON: PROVOCATEUR (lots 121-170) showcases a carefully curated selection of 50 exceptional works by the legendary photographer from the personal collection of Simon de Pury. Auctioneer, art dealer, curator and photographer, de Pury is one of the leading figures in the art world and a prominent collector of works by Helmut Newton with whom he enjoyed a fruitful and long-lasting friendship until Newton’s untimely death in 2004. Beyond friendship, de Pury recalls, “Helmut asked me to represent him, and it became a wonderful collaboration. We produced amazing exhibitions together and I had the chance to acquire a number of his photographs for my own collection.” The 50 lots on offer here have been handpicked from this collection.
Dating from 1972 to 1998, the featured works demonstrate the remarkable depth and breadth of Newton’s practice and capture the essence of his playfully subversive visual language. Whether shooting fashion, portraits, nudes or landscapes, Newton skilfully achieved the implied narrative through his acute awareness of context. Many of the works on offer have become icons of sophistication and empowered sexuality. This outstanding offering epitomises Newton’s distinctive interweaving of portraiture, social documentary and the erotic, always with a provocative tone that ensures his lasting hold on our imaginations as one of the greatest photographers of the 20th century.
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.
