Tucson, AZ — The most comprehensive exhibition to pay homage to New York’s legendary LIGHT Gallery is on view at the Center for Creative Photography through May 9, 2020. The Qualities of LIGHT: The Story of a Pioneering New York City Photography Gallery showcases the work of more than 20 photographers whose work rose to prominence during the gallery’s run from 1971 to 1987, including Ansel Adams, Harry Callahan, Linda Connor, Emmet Gowin, Betty Hahn, Eikoh Hosoe, Ray Metzker, Duane Michals, Stephen Shore, Aaron Siskind, and Garry Winogrand. The exhibition is accompanied by a documentary film, symposium, and dedicated app.
 
LIGHT Gallery grew to become an epicenter for art photography back when photography was only beginning to be considered an art, offering exclusive representation for contemporary photographers for the first time and allowing them to build careers as independent, full-time artists. The Gallery’s exhibitions drew such notables as Patti Smith, Robert Mapplethorpe, Sam Wagstaff, Andy Warhol’s factory crowd, Diane Keaton and Vicente Wolf.
 
“LIGHT Gallery played a critical role in photography’s legitimization and pioneered new approaches to its sale and presentation,” said Rebecca Senf, Chief Curator, Center for Creative Photography. “There is no question that LIGHT made an undeniable and lasting impact on the way photography is understood today.”
 
The exhibition coincides with the debut of a short documentary film, LIGHT: When Photography Was Undiscovered, 1971-1987, by renowned filmmaker Lisa Immordino Vreeland. The Center plans to produce a publication based both on the exhibition and a recent symposium that explored the Gallery’s influence and legacy and featured talks, tours, and a panel discussions with leading curators, gallerists, photographers, and scholars from across the country.
 
Founded by Tennyson Schad in 1971, with its first location at 1018 Madison Avenue, LIGHT Gallery expanded in 1976 with a move to a larger location at 724 Fifth Avenue where it was located until it closed in 1987.
 
The Center for Creative Photography is uniquely positioned to present the exhibition about LIGHT as it counts among its 279 archives those of LIGHT gallery itself, founding director Harold Jones, and many of the gallery’s artists including Tom Barrow, Arthur Bell, Wynn Bullock, Harry Callahan, Barbara Crane, Joe Deal, Robert Heinecken, Bea Nettles, Aaron Siskind, Todd Walker, Jack Welpott, and Garry Winogrand. The Center shares a founding director with LIGHT: Harold Jones, the first director of LIGHT in 1971, was recruited by the University of Arizona and appointed as the inaugural director of the Center for Creative Photography in 1975.
 
Anne Breckenridge Barrett, Director, Center for Creative Photography said, “LIGHT’s contribution to photography is unmatched, and the Center for Creative Photography is proud to exhibit photographs as well as numerous other objects from our unparalleled archives to tell the story. This is another example of how the Center is unique in its holdings and can produce exhibitions that can only come from our institution.”
 
The LIGHT Gallery’s extensive legacy includes four former staff members who own leading photography galleries in New York City today: Robert Mann of Robert Mann Gallery; Peter MacGill of Pace/MacGill Gallery, Laurence Miller of Laurence Miller Gallery, and Rick Wester of Rick Wester Fine Art.
 
The Qualities of LIGHT includes work by contemporary photographers represented by the four New York City gallery owners who worked at LIGHT, including Christopher Colville, Lilly McElroy, Eric Pickersgill, Donna Ruff, JoAnn Verburg, and Cassandra Zampini. LIGHT Gallery was known for their flat files, which made the gallery inventory accessible to visitors, and the exhibition will offer photographs by contemporary photographers in flat files that can be handled by visitors. The exhibition will also map the influence of LIGHT Gallery with a photography network map outlining the interconnected-ness of LIGHT’s community and the central position it occupied in relation to museums, galleries, and universities in New York and across the country. A LIGHT Lab will provide an interactive space with catalogues, news articles, a workshop for contributing to the network map, a digital space for further exploring the exhibition content, and related material about the Gallery’s storied role. The exhibition is complemented by a new app, CCP Interactive, which will present audio, images, and documents, allowing visitors in gallery and those at a distance to explore the exhibition in more depth.
 
“LIGHT was a community. Nobody had anything to gain, other than linking arms and being together. The more we did that, the more strength we felt, and the more strength we felt, the better job we could do,” said Peter MacGill, also a former employee and intern at the Center.
 
Nearly 50 years later, the field of photography has grown exponentially. Although there are more people working in photography, many of them can trace their own histories back through the community surrounding LIGHT Gallery. The Qualities of LIGHT provides a lens to show how a cultural movement took shape, who the players were, and how ultimately, acceptance for photography as a fine art was won.

Florida — The FABS Study Tour of the Tampa Bay area April 22-26, 2020 is now open to all booklovers to sign up and enjoy. Tour participants will be given free one-year membership in the Florida Bibliophile Society. Membership in a FABS sister club is not required.
   
If you want to take a mini Florida vacation in addition to the Tour, the Hotel Indigo has extended its discount rate for three days prior and three days after the Tour dates. 

The Tour begins with a visit to the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota on Thursday, April 23rd, and includes visits to the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg on Friday, and to USF Special Collections and the Tampa Bay History Center in Tampa on Saturday. The Tour concludes with a beach walk at Fort DeSoto Beach Park on Sunday. The Tour dates coincide with the 39th Annual Florida Antiquarian Book Fair (April 24-26). Tour participants will have the opportunity to go to the book fair twice during the Tour.
     
To see what else you will visit and see during the Tour, please see our Tour Brochure and Registration Form on the Florida Bibliophile Society website: http://www.floridabibliophilesociety.org/fabstour2020

New York — In its early years photography was regarded by many observers as a form of drawing. As an image-making system, the new medium shared something with art; but as a chemical and mechanical process it shared something with science. Drawing: The Muse of Photography, an exhibition at Hans P. Kraus Jr. Fine Photographs, on view January 24 - April 10, 2020, considers parallels between photography and drawing in works by L.J.M. Daguerre, William Henry Fox Talbot, Sir John Herschel, Calvert Jones, and Gustave Le Gray, among others, shedding light on the nature and uses of both. An opening, in association with Master Drawings New York, will be held on January 24 from 4 to 8 p.m.
 
In 1827, the Parisian artist Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre conceived of the dessin-fumée, a process combining the art of drawing using candle smoke with a transfer process that allowed him to obtain a range of close variants from the same image. Blurring these boundaries, Daguerre carefully calibrated the effects of light and chiaroscuro to resemble miniature stage sets, as in Fantaisie, ruined cloister, circa 1827. Aware of Joseph Nicephore Niépce’s experiments with light-sensitive materials, Daguerre traded one of his dessin-fumées for one of Niépce’s engraved plates. Daguerre’s and Niépce’s eventual collaboration resulted in the daguerreotype process, announced in 1839.
 
William Henry Fox Talbot invented photography on paper in part because of his frustration with his inability to draw. In 1833, he first turned to using the camera lucida which, unfortunately, was successful as a drawing aide only in the hands of skilled draftsmen. The great scientist Sir John Herschel proved himself gifted at drawing while still a schoolboy. The camera lucida raised his technical skills to new heights while his artistic talent translated them into beautiful and precise drawings, such as the camera lucida drawing, Rome, from the Pincian Terrace beyond the Villa Medici, signed, titled, and dated 8 August 1824 in ink by Herschel. Many artists of the time used the camera lucida, none more successfully than Herschel himself.
 
Having begun his experiments in 1835, Talbot introduced his new process in 1839 as “photogenic drawing.” As a keen botanist, Talbot’s use of plants as ‘negatives’ was natural, and the results were similar in outline and scale to the finely drawn plates that he admired in his botanical books. The exhibition includes the photogram, Leaf study, a fiery red photogenic drawing made circa 1841.
 
The Welshman Calvert Richard Jones, a talented draftsman and marine painter, learned to make photographs from Talbot and they occasionally photographed together. In 1845 Jones travelled to Italy, arriving in Naples at the end of April 1846 where he produced the hand-colored salt print, Soldiers in formation, Naples, 1847, in which Jones expertly fuses his technical skill and artistic talent with his training as a watercolorist. A number of pencil and watercolor drawings by Jones are also on display, including Spithead, his expressive studies of rigging dated 1853.
 
Gustave Le Gray merged photography with drawing to make La Joconde, d’après un dessin d’Aimé Millet, a coated salt or albumen print of 1854-55, from a drawing by sculptor Aimé Millet. Millet’s 1848 drawing of Leonardo’s La Joconde (the Mona Lisa) was commissioned by the French government in order to distribute pictures of this great art treasure around France. This drawing by Millet was possibly made specifically for the camera to photograph more effectively, as the sfumato and varnish on the original painting would have rendered it less suitable for photographic reproduction. The quality of this print attests to the virtuosity and care that Le Gray brought to his photographs; the original passe-partout, an unusual survival, is evidence of his formal presentation. The framer’s label confirms this print was sold by Le Gray from his Boulevard des Capucines address.

Irvine, CA – Suntup Editions, publisher of fine limited edition books and art prints, is delighted to announce the upcoming publication of a signed limited edition of Red Dragon by Thomas Harris, with illustrations by Jason Mowry. Hailed by critics as “gruesome, graphic, and all too realistic,” Red Dragon by Thomas Harris was first published in 1981 and marked a turning point in the way crime novels were written.

The first novel in Harris’s widely acclaimed Hannibal series, Red Dragon added a sense of realism to the crime novel while injecting it with a heavy dose of horror. Harris took criminology classes to prepare for the novel, while working closely with FBI Behavioral Science agents. His extensive research was poured into creating one of the most iconic villains in history: Hannibal Lecter.

In Red Dragon, former FBI profiler Will Graham comes out of retirement to apprehend a serial killer known as “The Tooth Fairy,” but to do so he must enlist the help of Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer with whom he has a dark past.

Harris writes his villains with a profound complexity. This, combined with his attention to the detail of FBI and police operations, added harrowing realism to his novel, and to the genre itself. The success of Red Dragon would lead to two sequels and a prequel in the Hannibal series. The book has been adapted into two feature films; Manhunter in 1986 and Red Dragon in 2002. This is the first signed limited edition of the novel.

ABOUT THE EDITIONS The signed limited edition of Red Dragon by Thomas Harris is presented in three states: Lettered, Numbered, and Artist Gift Edition. The edition measures 6” x 9” and includes eight full color illustrations by Jason Mowry.

Lettered Edition

The Lettered edition is limited to 26 copies and is bound in embossed hornback ruby hide. Endsheets are hand marbled and the edition is printed two color throughout on Strathmore Pastelle paper. The clamshell enclosure is covered in Japanese cloth with a laser-cut acrylic clasp and a foil-stamped spine label. The edition is signed by Thomas Harris and Jason Mowry.  

Numbered Edition

The Numbered edition of 250 copies is bound in a luxurious Japanese iridescent cloth with a blind stamped cover. Endsheets are decorative marbled paper from France and the edition is printed two color throughout on Mohawk Superfine. The slipcase enclosure is covered in a unique brocade fabric with a brilliant metallic sheen. The edition is signed by Thomas Harris and Jason Mowry.  

Artist Gift Edition

The Artist Gift edition is limited to 1000 copies with a dust jacket illustrated by Jason Mowry. It is a full cloth, smyth-sewn binding with two-hits foil stamping, and illustrated endsheets. It is the only edition of the three with the dust jacket, and is signed by Jason Mowry. The edition is housed in an embossed slipcase.

Suntup Editions Since its launch in late 2016, Suntup Editions has garnered the attention of fans, bloggers, and journalists alike. Their stunning premiere projects The Eyes of the Dragon Art Portfolio with Lettered and Numbered Editions signed by David Palladini, along with The Covers Collection, limited edition fine art prints featuring original cover art from the novels by Stephen King, made Suntup Editions the ultimate “one to watch” and one of the fastest rising new printing presses on the scene.

In early 2018, Suntup Editions announced it would publish the world’s first limited edition of Misery, which was released with not only the blessing but bearing the signature of Stephen King himself. This was followed by limited editions including of The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, Horns by Joe Hill, Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, Brother by Ania Ahlborn, I Am Legend by Richard Matheson and The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. Red Dragon will mark Suntup’s tenth book release.

The mission of the press is to publish finely crafted limited editions, by collaborating with some of today’s leading writers, artists, designers, printers and bookmakers to create an edition that is itself, an art object. By incorporating elements of the story into the design and production of the books, their editions offer a unique reading experience.

Publication is scheduled for Fall 2020 and is now available for pre-order at https://suntup.press.

London — UCL has opened submissions for the Anthony Davis Book Collecting Prize, to encourage budding book collectors.
 
The prize is offered by UCL Special Collections and is open to any student studying for a degree at a London-based university.
 
Previously the prize was administered by Senate House Library and proved hugely successful. Eight previous winners found the prize money useful and the addition to their CV’s helped them win places for further study and academic posts at high profile institutions, including Ivy League universities.
 
Similar prizes are run by Oxford and Cambridge and many US universities including Yale, Harvard and Princeton, among other places.
 
The prize is open to students with a themed collection of printed and/or manuscript materials. Its purpose is to encourage collectors among London’s student body who are at an early stage of collecting books, printed materials, and/or manuscripts.
 
The winner will get:
 
·         £600 plus an allowance of £300 to purchase a book for UCL special collections in collaboration with the Head of Rare Books at UCL;
·         an opportunity for the winner to give a talk about the collection as part of the UCL Special Collections events programme;
·         an opportunity for the winner to display or exhibit part of their collection within UCL to inspire other collectors and encourage future applicants for this prize;
·         Winners are entered into the ABA National Book Collecting Prize.
All undergraduates and postgraduates, both part-time and full-time, are encouraged to enter.
 
Entries should be submitted by email to spec.coll@ucl.ac.uk by 5pm (London time) on Wednesday 27 April 2020.
 
Sponsor of the Prize, Anthony Davis, a Lawyer and London graduate, said: “The history of the book is a history of human knowledge and it is vitally important to continue to encourage people to enjoy books or whole areas of human experience will vanish. We have had some wonderful entries and exceptional winners in London over the years and there have been several who have written subsequently to thank us for the opportunity to talk about their books and for the positive effect winning the prize has had on their careers. It is an extremely moving experience meeting these young people and seeing their collections and enthusiasm grow.”
 
Building your collection:
 
·         Your collection must consist of not less than eight printed and/or manuscript items reflecting a common theme, which the collector has deliberately assembled as the start of a collection and intends to grow.
·         The mission of the Anthony Davis prize is to encourage the collecting of books, printed and manuscript materials by students at an early stage in their career so it is focused on the vision, research and theme of the collection and not the collection size, age or value.
·         Past winners include: Musa Igrek from Goldsmiths’ College for his collection ‘Divine Power’ and Lucy Vinten Mattich, an MA student in UCL studying archives, for her collection of household manuals from the 18th to the 20th centuries. Find out more here.
·         Visit UCL Special Collections for more details and to download the application form.

New York — Swann Galleries’s biannual offering of Vintage Posters on Thursday, February 13 presents a banquet of designs, ranging from Art Nouveau works of the late-nineteenth century to Puerto Rican graphic design from the 1960s to mid-2010s. The sale includes premier examples of sporting posters, cycling advertisements, as well as ski and winter destination images.

Leading the sale is a collection of over 350 Puerto Rican posters by a veritable who’s who of Puerto Rico’s most renowned painters, designers and graphic artists. Showcasing works by Rafael Tufiño, Lorenzo Homar, José Rosa, Analida Burgos, and Antonio Matorell among a bevy of others, the collection was amassed by a studio assistant of Tufiño, Homar and Rosa in the 1970s and features posters dedicated to a number of subjects, and a spectrum of typographic, geometric and figurative styles. The offering is expected to bring $20,000 to $30,000.

Following up on the recent of Sergio Trujillo Magnenat’s recent market debut with posters for the first Bolivarian Games in 1938, the house is poised to offer a run of posters for various Latin American sporting events, including Magnenat’s Bolivarian Games design featuring a basketball player ($2,500-3,500). Additional highlights include colorful Greco-inspired images for the 1935 and 1946 Juegos Deportivos Centroamericanos ($800-1,200, each); and advertisements for the 1948 World Series of Amateur Baseball in Managua, Nicaragua by Jorge Ampié, as well as an ad for the 1950 games ($800-1,200, each). 

A strong showing of Art Nouveau posters includes advertisements for cycling, and standout works by the genre’s master, Alphonse Mucha. Bicycle images feature Orient Cycles / Lead the Leaders, circa 1895, by Edward Penfield, a rare large poster for the artist, available at $8,000 to $12,000; Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s Cycle Michael, 1896, the first of two posters designed for the British cycling company Simpson, expected to bring $7,000 to $10,000; and Adrien Barrère’s A, Brossard / Le “3 Vitesses” / l’Idéal du Touriste, 1903, estimated at $3,000 to $4,000. Mucha designs include Cycles Perfecta, 1897, and The Flowers, a group of three decorative panels, 1898, both available at $15,000 to $20,000. Also by Mucha are two variations of his highly popular image for Job rolling papers in purple and lavender—both are estimated at $12,000 to $18,000 apiece.

Additional Art Nouveau posters of note include Evelyn Rumsey Cary’s Pan – American Exposition / Niagara, 1901—an American Art Nouveau work based on Cary’s painting Spirit of Niagara—offered at $7,000 to $10,000. Arnost Hofbauer’s II. Vystava Spolku "Manes" / Topicuv Salon, 1898, of which only one other copy found at auction in the last 20 years, carries an estimate of $5,000 to $7,000, and Georges de Feure’s Le Journal des Ventes, 1898, scarce with text, is present at $4,000 to $6,000.

Ski and winter destination posters abound with Emil Cardinaux’s snowy advertisement Winter in der Schweiz, 1921, heading the offering at $12,000 to $18,000. Dwight Clark Shepler’s sleek design for travel to Sun Valley, Idaho via the Union Pacific Railroad is present at $8,000 to $12,000, as well as his image for travel to the ski destination via the Chicago and North Western Line, at $4,000 to $6,000. Sascha Maurer is available with Flexible Flyer Splitkein / Smuggler’s Notch, circa 1935, at $2,000 to $3,000.

Exhibition opening in New York City February 8. The complete catalogue and bidding information is available at swanngalleries.com and on the Swann Galleries App.

Additional highlights can be found here.

New York — Why do we collect? What do we collect? How do we collect? This exhibition encourages visitors to pose these questions as they view the nearly three dozen diverse medieval and Renaissance illuminations dating from the twelfth through the sixteenth centuries.

MASTER DRAWINGS 2020
January 25 to February 1, 2020
Les Enluminures New York 23 East 73rd Street, 7th Floor, Penthouse, New York, NY 10021

ln the first century B.C. the Roman poet Lucretius expressed the idea that likes and dislikes vary from person to person in the form of a proverb, when he wrote in "The Nature of Things": "One man's meat is another man's poison." Following Lucretius, there have been many modifications of this proverb: "One man's trash is another man's treasure" or "One man's pain is another man's pleasure" or "One man's loss is another man's gain." ln art, what lies behind individual choice and preference is the result of complex personal, cultural, and aesthetic patterns.

So, we encourage visitors to this exhibition, as they appreciate the miniatures on the walls, to ask themselves what their "personal thing" is and, perhaps, to ask themselves why. Will it be the sheet from a Choir Book that depicts Job visited by his wife painted with an in-tense palette and bright gold leaf by the Second Master of the Strozzi Breviary? While Job reclines in bed, sores covering his body, fantastic hybrid figures with bearded faces inhabit the margin and a musician plays kettle drums in the lower right. Those with back-grounds in the practice of art might be drawn to the skillful portrayal of the faces and drapery, reminiscent of ltalian gold ground panel painters. Musicians might appreciate the implied contrast between the sacred music sung in church and the secular music that reverberates in the ltalian courts and city streets.

Dramatic moments are vividly depicted in a full-page miniature from the thirteenth century showing scenes from the Lives of Four Apostles. Even if the stories, which entail episodes of boiling, flaying, and goring of saints, are mostly unfamiliar to a modern audience, viewers cannot help but be struck by the bold rendering of the figures who stand out on the thick gold ground, contained by the blue border, as though on the stage in a theatre. A limited palette of blue, brownish-red, and green and sparse modelling creates color fields with-in each of the pods divided on two registers. What's your pleasure? Does the abstract rendering of this miniature capture your attention? Or perhaps its historical context in Paris in the age of the Cathedrals strikes a chord?

Bold color and vivid hatching characterize another French miniature that presents a realistic depiction of the Virgin nursing the Christ Child. The naturalism of the scene is enhanced by the window-like ledge behind which the half-length figure stands framed by architectural pilasters. Details such as the jewels in her crown and the creamy tone of her skin encourage not only devotion but appreciation, as she appears to inhabit our own space. This fifteenth-century painter was active to the southeast of Paris between Lyon and Grenoble. If realistic portrayals are more your "personal thing," then perhaps this page will captivate you.

A multitude of other factors can influence your "personal thing" --the subject matter, color, historical period, rarity (for connaisseurs already familiar with this sector of the art market), even framing. Come and gaze at these high-quality illuminations from France, Germany, Austria, and ltaly, learn more about this rare field, and tell us what is your "personal thing." As an unusual experiment we will keep a tally (anonymous of course) of what each visitor chooses and announce the "personal things" on our website after the show. The results will undoubtedly be interesting and infinitely diverse.

London — Frank, radical and unashamedly feminist, Anne Brontë’s ground-breaking masterpiece The Tenant of Wildfell Hall sent shockwaves through Victorian England and remains strikingly modern today. This beautiful new edition of Brontë’s masterful novel is published by The Folio Society to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the author’s birth.

The story follows the mysterious and beautiful Helen Graham, who has recently moved into Wildfell Hall. Curious speculation turns into nasty rumours as the town deliberates on who she is, where she has come from, and what has happened to her husband...

Critically received on publication, the novel was withdrawn for years after Anne’s death, and later widely published with major editorial omissions. For this stunning anniversary edition, we returned to the first printing and have included Anne’s heartfelt preface in which she defends her work. Also included is a new introduction exclusive to this edition by novelist Tracy Chevalier, who examines the reason behind the novel’s initial negative reception: ‘Wildfell Hall is a different, wilder beast – perhaps too wild for its time.’

Beautifully bound, and full of captivating illustrations by Valentina Catto, this edition’s binding and artwork blends classic artistic techniques with a contemporary edge, perfectly marrying itself to Brontë’s radical voice.

Published in series with her sisters’ most accomplished novels, Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, this new edition recognises Anne’s literary achievements as equal to those of her sisters, and completes the trio of their most celebrated works.

Product information
Bound in printed and blocked buckram; Set in Adobe Caslon Pro; 488 pages; 8 full-page colour illustrations; Plain slipcase; 91⁄2 ̋ x 61⁄4 ̋; UK £39.95 US $67.95 Can $72.95 Aus $82.95

Los Angeles – The J. Paul Getty Museum presents In Focus: Platinum Photographs, featuring more than two dozen striking prints made with platinum and the closely related palladium photographic process.

Drawn from the museum’s collection, the exhibition explores the wide variety of visual characteristics that have come to define the allure and beauty of this medium, which include a velvety matte surface, wide tonal range, and neutral palette. Introduced in 1873 by scientist William Willis Jr. (British, 1841-1923), the use of platinum was quickly embraced by both professional and amateur photographers alike and helped to establish photography as a fine art.

The visual qualities of each print could be individualized by changing the temperature of the developer or adding chemicals such as mercury or uranium. Photographers further enhanced their works by using an array of commercially available papers with rich textures and by employing inventive techniques such as the application of pigments and layered coatings to mimic effects associated with painting and drawing.  

Platinum printing became widely associated with Pictorialism, an international movement and aesthetic style popular at the end of the 19th century. Advocates of Pictorialism favored visible marks of the artist’s hand that might be achieved by manipulating either the negative or the print, or both. These hand-crafted prints differentiated themselves from the crisp images produced by commercial photographers and snapshots made with hand-held cameras recently introduced by Kodak.

Among the works on view is a triptych of a mother and child by Gertrude Käsebier (American, 1852–1934), one of the most technically innovative photographers associated with Pictorialism, an atmospheric nude by Edward Steichen (American, born Luxembourg, 1879–1973), and a view of Venice by Alvin Langdon Coburn (British, born United States, 1882–1966). Other images by Paul Strand (American, 1890–1976) and Karl Struss (American, 1886–1981) incorporate geometric forms or unusual vantage points to introduce abstraction into their compositions.

The popularity of platinum paper declined in the years leading up to the First World War. The soaring price of the metal forced manufacturers to introduce alternatives, including papers made with palladium and a platinum-and-silver hybrid. As platinum became crucial in the manufacture of explosives, governments prohibited its use for any purpose outside the defense industry. The scarcity of materials and eventual shifting aesthetic preferences led many photographers to abandon the process in favor of gelatin silver prints.

Interest in the process was renewed in the mid-20th century, and a relatively small but dedicated number of photographers continue to use the process today. The fashion photographer Irving Penn (American, 1917-2009) began hand coating papers with platinum in the 1960s and created prints that simultaneously emphasize intense and detailed shadows and subtle luminous highlights. More recent examples include a double portrait by artist Madoka Takagi (American, born Japan, 1956-2015) featuring herself, arms crossed and a shirtless man covered in tattoos, both gazing stoically into the camera’s lens; a suburban night scene by Scott B. Davis (American, born 1971); and an experiment in abstraction by James Welling (American, born 1951).

In Focus: Platinum Photographs is on view January 21-May 31, 2020 at the J. Paul Getty Museum. The exhibition is curated by Arpad Kovacs, assistant curator of photographs at the museum.

New York –– The 80th auction from Poster Auctions International
includes an array of fascinating designs: black images, circus and Wild West, San Francisco rock, World War I, early Israeli designs, and iconic works from Jules Chéret, Leonetto Cappiello, Alphonse Mucha, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and more.

The Rare Posters Auction will be held live in PAI’s gallery at 26 West 17th Street in New York and online at posterauctions.com. The auction will begin promptly at 11am EST.

Jack Rennert, president of Poster Auctions International, Inc., said, “These images are vital expressions of the concerns, delights, interests, and cultural trends of a particular place and time. The posters in this auction cover the years 1865 to 1968, with estimates ranging from $600 to $90,000—there is truly something for everyone.”

For Black History Month, the auction will begin with 41 black images, many of which are from the Keith Williams collection. Ranging from pejorative to luminous, they reveal the severity of racism in early advertising as well as the later celebration of black icons including Josephine Baker. Notable lots include Paul Colin’s reverential portrait of the French-Algerian actor Habib Benglia in his 1928 Benglia (est. $3,000-$4,000) and a touching World War I recruitment ad, Colored Man is No Slacker (est. $800-$1,000).

30 more World War I posters are featured: mostly American designs, and all powerful. Of particular note are Christy’s Gee!! I Wish I Were a Man (est. $1,400-$1,700) and several works by Flagg, including Wake Up, America! (est. $6,000-$8,000) and I Want You for U.S. Army (est. $5,000-$6,000).

Decades later, America experienced the rock ’n’ roll revolution and a new wave of poster design. Experimental imagery broadened possibilities, such as Tom Wilkes’ Monterey Pop Festival (est. $4,000-$5,000), Rick Griffin’s The Doors (“Pay Attention”) (est. $1,200-$1,500), and Randy Tuten’s Jefferson Airplane / Quicksilver Messenger / Santana (“Winterland”) (est. $2,000-$2,500)—all in mint condition.

As always, transport posters for bicycles, aviation, and automobiles are featured. Highlights include the ethereal Cycles Gladiator by an unknown artist (est. $25,000-$30,000), Penfield’s charming Orient Cycles (est. $8,000-$10,000), Mazza’s impressive Milano Circuito Aereo Internazionale (est. $14,000-$17,000), and Philibert’s rare and magical Claire de Lune / Michelin (est. $4,000-$5,000).

For collectors of Art Nouveau, treasures abound. Bonnard’s ebullient France-Champagne continues to delight (est. $20,000-$25,000); Bouisset’s maquette for Chocolat Menier / “Rialta” shows another charming take on the wall-writing girl (est. $12,000-$15,000); 18 works from Chéret dazzle, including his two-sheet Palais de Glace (est. $6,000-$7,000) and Folies-Bergère / Loïe Fuller (est. $5,000-$6,000); and Orazi harkens grandeur with Théâtre de Loïe Fuller (est. $20,000-$25,000).

Of course, Alphonse Mucha continues to reign supreme with 30 lush Art Nouveau designs. Notable quartets include the large-format 1896 Seasons (est. $40,000-$50,000) and his illustrious Precious Stones (est. $70,000-$90,000). His most iconic works will also be available: La Dame aux Camelias (est. $30,000-$35,000), both designs for Job (1898 est. $7,000-$9,000; 1896 est. $17,000-$20,000), and the finest specimen of F. Champenois / Reverie, with text (est. $17,000-$20,000).

Similarly, the Belle Epoque works of Toulouse-Lautrec are guaranteed to delight, including Ambassadeurs / Aristide Bruant and Confetti (both est. $40,000-$50,000), Salon des Cent (est. $30,000-$35,000), L’Aube (est. $17,000-$20,000), and La Vache Enragée (est. $20,000-$25,000).

Choice Art Deco images are also included. 38 works from Cappiello range from the most beloved to the rarest: Cachou Lajaunie (est. $2,000-$2,500), La 15HP Bellanger (est. $15,000-$20,000), “Ca-bloc” (est. $7,000-$9,000), and a wonderful maquette for Cognac Monnet (est. $30,000-$40,000).

Further remarkable works include: Cassandre’s Étoile du Nord (est. $17,000-$20,000), Dupas’ Bal des Étudiants (est. $40,000-$50,000), Kauffer’s Flight / Daily Herald (smaller format; est. $30,000-$40,000), Lauro’s Trouville (est. $8,000-$10,000), Loupot’s Plantol and PKZ / Burger-Kehl & C. (both est. $12,000-$15,000), and Schnackenberg’s Deutsches Theater (est. $8,000-$10,000).

Modern and contemporary designs will also be available, including works by Keith Haring, Roy Lichtenstein, Pablo Picasso, Bernard Villemot, and Andy Warhol.

Public viewings will be held daily from February 7-22. For more information, visit www.posterauctions.com or www.rennertsgallery.com. Or, you may call the gallery at (212) 787-4000. The 200-page, full-color catalog is available for $40. You may call or visit our website to order a copy.

Jack Rennert, president of Rennert’s Gallery / PAI, is the world’s foremost authority on rare original poster art, and is the author of over a dozen books on the subject, including the catalogue raisonée for the “father” of modern French poster art, Leonetto Cappiello.