Forget a thousand words. This picture's worth $2.9 million (photo was of a Long Island pond)

Associated Press ^ | February 14, 2006

[new cruelty]

NEW YORK (AP) -- A photograph of a pond taken by Edward Steichen sold for more than $2.9 million, easily setting a world record for the highest-priced photograph ever auctioned, Sotheby's said.

"The Pond-Moonlight," taken on Long Island in 1904, sold on Tuesday for $2,928,000, including the buyer's premium, Sotheby's spokesman Matthew Weigman said. The buyer's identity was not immediately disclosed.

The photograph shows a pond in a wooded area with light coming through the trees and reflected in the water. Pre-sale estimates priced the photo, which is slightly bigger than 16 inches by 19 inches, at up to $1 million. The only other two prints are in museum collections.

...

Stephen Perloff, the editor of The Photograph Collector, a newsletter about the photography art market, said before the Steichen auction that it would be a "moment of history."

[Ajnin]

It's just one of those things that a rich ass person wants and could care less about parting with almost 3 mil about. I'm working on my master piece right now, it's not even on canvas yet and its already worth $100,000, LOL!

[RunningWolf]

I have taken photos like that. Who would have guessed? /sarc>

[backhoe]

Apparently Steichen did a lot of World War II photos....here is one:

As I recall, FDR appointed him the official photographer of the USN in WWII-- I used to have a book of his pictures from that period. The frontspiece had him on a platform, Speed or Crown Graphic ( press camera, nominally 4 x 5, but also used roll film holders ) in hand, grinning like a Cheshire Cat...

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

You can't fool me. That's a picture of Twin Peaks or the Grand Tetons.

[Liz]

Another photo of the work.

[Fresh Wind]

Hey, I could fix that one up with Photoshop in about 5 minutes!

[KeepUSfree]

Big friggin' deal. They are pictures. Nothing more , nothing less. They have no "real" value because you can print as many as you want - and they are indistinguishable from the original. Idiot art people.

Not trying to offend....but photography is not "art". It is craft - and there is a large difference. It might be pretty, it can sometimes look like art....but it ain't art.

[new cruelty]

It was just four small canvases side by side (each about a foot square), each canvas completely covered in a different solid pastel paint color (chosen apparently at random) with no variations of texture or color, and the title of the work was "The Four Seasons".

Sounds like Mark Rothko's work.

[weegee]

Yep. I've seen it. Nice building. Horrible art.

Some school took some kids (6th graders?) through the Cy Twombly Gallery (why I don't know). I hear that one of the kids put his gum on the chalkboard or rubbed the chalk or something (there are whole rooms filled with chalkboards with looping squiggles on them).

The museum called up Cy to ask about what should be done about the horror. I hear that he was fine with it.

[weegee]

BUMP

It seems you either have to offend, shoot pictures of celebrities (posed or papparazzi), or be dead to make big money in photography.

[weegee]

Most of the art at the Menil belonged to the family. I think they had a lot of oil money going back to the 1930s.

The museum is free (and no "tip jar" by the door although you can become a member if you want to give them money).

I like the Menil's surrealism collection and some other 20th century works they have but also have absolutely no use for some rooms/exhibits of minimal 20th century art they have as well.

They sponsored and collected works from the artists personally (both are dead now).

There are two churches affiliated with the Menil Foundation as well. One is a reconstructed church with mosaics. The other has some more of those canvases you speak of (all black).

But there are world famous paintings in their surrealism collection:

[new cruelty]

I used to visit the Menil Collection every week when I was in college. I recall seeing a rusted metal sculpture of a giant war-lord of sorts. He was loosely clad in armor. His body made of metal roaches, he sported glass testicles and had a bolt of lightening protruding from his rear. As expected, the work was entitled "And lightening shot out of his ass". Truly one of the more interesting pieces of work at the Menil.

[weegee]

Then film is not an art. A movie is nothing but a series of pictures in rapid succession.

[weegee]

That's the name I was thinking of, the Rothko Chapel.

[Joe 6-pack]

"Now maybe that's worth 2.9 million clams."

Do you accept FEMA cards?

[Doc Savage]

Wrap fish!

[new cruelty]

I agree, the building (designed by Renzo Piano) is a work of art in itself. I remember walking through the gallery when it first opened. I asked the curator about a sculpture that seemed out of place and was much more intriguing than any of the work on the walls. That "sculpture" turned out to be just a used paint brush set upon a bucket of white paint that was left behind by one of the contractors.

[Mr. Lucky]

With fries?

[new cruelty]

I enjoyed going to the Rothko chapel. I actually like looking at the large black canvases. I don't consider it art, but I like it. Down the road at Saint Thomas University, there is a church designed by Phillip Johnson. It's not much of a stretch of the imagination but still an interesting building.

[weegee]

Salvador Dali went to an exhibit one time and didn't care for any of the paintings on display (too much concept, too little talent or skill in execution). He said that he admired the brushwork of the guy who painted the door to the room instead.