Mert & Marcus - Photographs London Friday, May 19, 2023 | Phillips
  • “Ibiza, where Missy Rayder is shot here, is so close to home and was kind of our playground for many years. It has light, you’re not restricted with weather and don’t need to have permits months or weeks before or know exactly what time of day or where we were going to be. It was a place where you could be free and be naked and run around.”
    —Mert & Marcus

    Measuring two metres high, this unique-sized, one-off print of Missy Running was made exclusively in 2016 to mark the 20th anniversary of the collaboration of the dynamic artist duo Mert Alas (b.1971) and Marcus Piggott (b.1971), known as Mert & Marcus. Selected by the artists as a key work that epitomised their black-and-white imagery of powerful women or ‘women with a meaning’ as noted by Mert, Missy Running first appeared in the editorial ‘Physical’ in the 2005 Autumn/Winter issue of Pop magazine. 

     

    Considered two of the most successful fashion photographers working today, Mert & Marcus initially met in London in 1994 amid the vibrant 90s club scene. Due to their shared love of photography and art, they quickly established a creative partnership. Their cover of Dazed & Confused in 1997 was the duo’s first collaborative success, and since then, their alluring images have been featured globally in magazines, including Interview, LOVE, Vanity Fair, Vogue and W, as well as in advertising campaigns for Calvin Klein, Christian Dior, Giorgio Armani, Givenchy, Gucci, Lancôme, Louis Vuitton, Versace and Saint Laurent, among others. Additionally, their work has been exhibited internationally at the V&A, London; the National Portrait Gallery, London; and the New York Public Library.  

    • Provenance

      Phillips, London, Photographs (ULTIMATE), 3 November 2016, lot 76

    • Literature

      'Physical', Pop, Autumn/Winter 2005
      M. Alas & M. Piggott, Mert & Marcus: Tales of the Subconscious, Istanbul: Galerist, 2008, p. 49, 64
      Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, Cologne: Taschen, 2017, p. 23

SPOTLIGHT: A PRIVATE LONDON COLLECTION

131

Missy Running

2005
Archival pigment print, mounted.
Image: 201.5 x 149 cm (79 3/8 x 58 5/8 in.)
Frame: 207.3 x 154.8 cm (81 5/8 x 60 7/8 in.)

Signed in ink, printed title, date and number 1/1 on an artist label affixed to the reverse of the frame.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
£30,000 - 50,000 

Sold for £57,150

Contact Specialist

Rachel Peart
Head of Department, London
RPeart@phillips.com

Yuka Yamaji
Head of Photographs, Europe
YYamaji@phillips.com

General Enquiries
+44 20 7318 4092

Photographs

London Auction 19 May 2023