The auction house is offering a new series of limited-edition photographic works by Aubrey Mayer, in which the self-taught photographer captures six of contemporary art’s most renowned artists at work in their studios.
Among them are Jacqueline Humphries, Mark Grotjahn, Raymond Pettibon, Ed Ruscha, Henry Taylor and Jonas Wood, who have been captured by Mayer deep in concentration or adding the finishing touches on a nearly completed work.
“The idea for this project with Aubrey came out of the current age of FaceTime and Zoom calls, and the growing desire among the arts community to continue to be able to interact with art and artists in their studios, even if at a distance,” Nicholas Cinque, Sotheby’s Private Sales Director in New York, said in a statement.
These photographic works present an intimate, behind-the-scenes window onto the people behind the paintings, whether it is American Pop artist Ed Ruscha sitting at his desk or American abstract painter Jacqueline Humphries reworking the upper reaches of a black-and-white canvas from a ladder.
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Sotheby’s is offering six limited-edition archival pigment prints by Mayer, which have never been exhibited or offered at auction, in a virtual private selling exhibition that opened this past Wednesday, Aug. 19.
While three of the works on offer are single images, “contact-sheet” portraits of Raymond Pettibon, Ed Ruscha, and Mark Grotjahn are also up for grabs on Sotheby’s official website. Mayer’s photographic works are all listed at $2,000 (or approx. P97,000).
“I’ve been taking photographic portraits of other artists for the last 15 years. As the body of work has expanded, I began to see it as a double portrait and my archive as source material to explore my own interests as an artist,” Mayer said of his project. “Along those lines, the contact sheet format became an interesting way for me to make a portrait using multiple images. The rhythmic repetition of the contact sheets references Painting and Warhol.” CC
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