Auction of Hillman photos to benefit Carnegie Museum of Art
March 29, 2015 | In the PressFrom Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (http://www.post-gazette.com/ae/art-architecture/2015/03/29/Auction-of-Hillman-photos-to-benefit-Carnegie-Museum-of-Art/stories/201503240013 (opens in a new window))
William Talbott Hillman’s lifelong passion for art and early forms of photography prompted him to benefit his native Pittsburgh, leading to the establishment of the Hillman Photography Initiative in 2011 at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Oakland.
On Tuesday, Christie’s in New York will auction more than 100 photographs from Mr. Hillman’s personal collection. Sale proceeds will be used to fill gaps in the museum’s photography collection, especially in vintage and contemporary images.
Mr. Hillman, 60, of Manhattan and a son of Henry and Elsie Hillman, once worked as a roughneck on an oil rig in Wyoming. He trained as a painter and academic at the Lacoste School of the Arts in France. He also studied portrait painting and anatomy at the Art Students League in New York City. He holds a degree in art history and visual arts from Princeton University.
Laura Paterson, vice president and senior specialist in photographs for Christie’s, said the core of Mr. Hillman’s private collection focuses on early American and European artists.
Mr. Hillman collected work by William Henry Fox Talbot, who is credited with the invention of the chemical-based, negative-positive concept from which a print is made. That process defined photography until the advent of digital technology. Through his private foundation, Mr. Hillman contributed $300,000 toward the creation of a complete catalog of Mr. Talbot’s work.
One Talbot image, dated 1844, is “A Barouche Parked in the North Courtyard of Lacock Abbey,” which was Mr. Talbot’s home in England. Its estimated sale price is $30,000 to $50,000.
“It’s a stunning study of what would have been a contemporary vehicle,” Ms. Paterson said.
“Stella, Study of Mrs. Herbert Duckworth,” is a black and white albumen print made in 1867 by Julia Margaret Cameron. Mrs. Duckworth was the mother of British author Virginia Woolf. The picture previously belonged to portrait photographer Richard Avedon. Its estimated sales price is $70,000 to $90,000.
The work of William Eggleston, 75, the pioneer of color photography, is represented in an image made in 1970 of the downtown of Morton, Miss. The picture is reminiscent of the work of painter Edward Hopper and has an estimated sales price of $80,000 to $120,000.
Mr. Eggleston, Ms. Paterson said, “was the first person to get a one-man show at the Museum of Modern Art for color photography specifically. This is very typical of his work.”
Mr. Eggleston photographed the mundane but injected an element of the macabre into his pictures, she added.
Also in the auction are several images by William Klein, who, Ms. Paterson said, “transformed fashion photography in the 1950s. He reimagined how to present models. He set them against gritty surroundings. This was not envisioned in earlier fashion spreads. He is presenting these women as rather strong, really wearing the clothes, not the clothes wearing them.”
For more information about the auction, visit christies.com
