The Art Newspaper

Aipad attracts crowds with lower prices and contemporary editions

The annual international photography fair celebrated its 30th anniversary with dealers reporting brisk sales

By Brook S. Mason. Web only
Published online: 22 March 2010

NEW YORK. Hard on the heels of the Armory Show, the 30th instalment of the Aipad Photography Show (18-21 March), organised by the Association of International Photography Art Dealers, opened at the Park Avenue Armory with record crowds.

Seventy-three dealers took part—only up by one exhibitor from the year before—but as a sign of the event’s strong retention rate, only a handful of galleries were new participants. These included Gallery 339 of Philadelphia, Monroe Gallery of Santa Fe, M+B from Los Angeles and private dealer L. Parker Stephenson of Manhattan.

Overall, price points seemed lower for iconic vintage work. At the Carmel, California Weston Gallery, a New York collector bagged a Paul Strand platinum print, Hacienda, Taos, New Mexico, 1921 for $70,000. While pleased, Richard Gadd of Weston noted, “Two thirds of what we brought is priced under $20,000.” Plucked off the stand of Manhattan dealer Lawrence Miller by a Mid-West museum was a Julia Margaret Cameron albumen print Shadow of the Cross, 1865 for $25,000. ”We intentionally brought lower price items,” says Miller who racked up 14 other sales including images by Helen Levitt, Robert Frank and Ray Metzger. Collectors zeroed in on Robert Polidori’s evocative “Versailles” series with the Fifth Avenue Edwynn Houk Gallery. The photographer’s Portrait of Marie Antoinette, 1991 for $25,000 were already sold, as were images by Stephen Shore.

Surprisingly strong in this recovering economy were contemporary editioned prints of earlier work, which generally prove weak upon resale. For example, Eric Franck Fine Art of London sold posthumous Norman Parkinson colour prints for $4,500 while Howard Greenberg of Manhattan sold two gelatin silver prints from Bruce Davidson’s 1959 “Gang” series printed last year at $10,000 a piece.

Even contemporary images speaking of the nation’s ravaged economy were a hit. Chelsea dealer Yancey Richardson sold two of Andrew Moore’s United Artists Organ Screen Detroit, 2008 for $18,500 a piece, and two images by Mitch Epstein of a torched kitchen, Apt. 304, 2001 for $14,000 each. Yet, some dealers lamented the fair falling over spring break with many clients heading to the Caribbean.

Especially prized was major work powered with LEDs and other technology, demonstrating that collectors have abandoned their sense of caution about newer materials. So Chelsea gallerist Bryce Wolkowitz sold Jim Campbell’s haunting Untitled, San Francisco Street Scene, 2010 from an edition of three for $55,000 each; and Shirley Shor’s computer generated Self Portrait also from an edition of three for $20,000. In addition, Korean artist Airan Kang’s whimsical reproduction of books in Lucite lit by LEDs, a play on the notion of illuminated manuscripts in blinding lime green and magenta pink, were a hit scoring multiple sales—one based on a Richard Prince catalogue was snapped up at $4,500. “So far, this fair is equal to the Armory,” says Wolkowitz.