More Than a Scream

31/05/12 12:40

It was all over the news that Edvard Munch’s painting The Scream was marking a new record in artwork sold at an auction. These stories are chasing each other depending, if another Van Gogh or Rembrandt was found and sold. But what about photography?

There was this record sale of Andreas Gursky’s The Rhein II, the photograph of the river Rhein he had altered by removing a power station that was originally in the picture. It was in the beginning of photoshop use that he applied this way of alteration to his artwork. It’s generally said that the innovative application of photoshop to his image made the phographic artwork so special and eventually so expensive. Photoshop was at that time just evolving and the image is representing this era.
But for the “common photographer” the times became harsh. The galleries were saying that the clients are distrusting photographs, because they assume that photoshop was applied and the image is not real. Removing a power station makes the image not a real impression of the reality, but it makes it very clear a digital artwork. Maybe it’s that leaking clarity what makes the client doubtful and hesitating. Maybe the kind of greener bird and bluer sky one feels are not right makes gallery clients distrustful and not willing to pay a reasonable price and because the internet is full of it. So, what to do?
During the month May several photographs of great photographers were sold at auctions and the result was beyond expectations. A photograph from Helmut Newton tripled the pre-sale estimate and portraiture by Peter Beard was one of the stars at Christie’s. Both of them are great artists and essential in their approach.
The top sales in both areas, the digital artwork and the photographic artwork show that authenticity is rewarded. The digital and photographic work realized top sales and not because the object was so special, but the creation was authentic.

Ute Sonnenberg, www.rohoyachui.com