Our “pick of the week” (Photography)

[29/10/2021]

From over 3,000 photographs presented by our partner galleries on our website (https://www.artprice.com/marketplace) this week’s selection by Artmarket’s teams focuses on a couple of Contemporary photos.

The work of several artists – including that of Denis Darzacq (represented by Galerie RX), Valérie Jouve and Liu Bolin – questions the place of the individual in society.

Dubbed “the invisible man” or “the chameleon man”, Liu Bolin is known internationally for photographs that demonstrate his particular talent for concealment. In 2005, Bolin’s series of works that feature him ‘blending into the landscape’ was prompted by a particular event: the artist’s studio was destroyed by the Chinese authorities during Beijing’s preparations for the 2008 Olympic Games. Today there is strong demand for his work and Bolin has enjoyed genuine success on the auction market. The results hammered so far this year 2021 have been better than usual, already posting an annual turnover record and a new personal best of $76,000 for a photographic fresco sold earlier this year in the Netherlands: ‘Hiding in the City’, from his series ‘Dragon series’ (2010).

“I have decided to blend in with the environment. Some would say that I disappear into the landscape; I would say that it is the environment that grabs me. ” Liu Bolin

Valérie Jouve focuses on everyday life and people in urban spaces. One of her most famous images is this Sans Titre (Les Personnages avec E.K.) shown a few years ago by the Xippas and Anne de Villepoix Galleries in Paris but also at the Reina Sofía Museum (Madrid) and at the Petit Palais (Paris, 2018-2019). Valérie Jouve’s works is extremely rare at auction, so here is a rare opportunity to acquire one of her large format works (from an edition of 3 with 2 artist’s proofs).

“With photography, I needed to build propositions in the visibility of the world.” Valérie Jouve

The complex and extremely sophisticated compositions by photographer Erwin Olaf began to be recognized in the late 1980s. They have since become very well known. The Dutch artist’s work has been exhibited in lots of museums around the world, including the Bilbao Museum in Spain, the Modern Art Gallery in Bologna (Italy) and the Rijksmuseum in the Netherlands. His works have also integrated dozens of major collections. Under the title The Bank – The Successor, the photograph presented here is a recent work. It has been shown notably as part of the Palm Springs collection at the Den Haag Gemeentemuseum (Netherlands) and at Art Paris Art Fair (Rabouan Moussion gallery, 2019) where it enjoyed a high level of public and media enthusiasm. The work is an extremely elaborate composition with a chilling and powerful symbolism…