The Sotheby ’s auction house announced on Tuesday that it will put up a collection of 78 instant photographs taken by the Hungarian photographer Nickolas Muray up for public sale. The collection features intimate portraits of the famous Mexican painter Frida Kahlo .
Muray’s work is one of the main attractions of the “ Photographs ” collection, a series of 189 lots to be auctioned on April 5 in New York , with prices ranging from USD$1,000 to 500,000. Following their exhibition at the Sotheby’s venue, the photographs will be put up for public sale starting on March 29 , according to a press release.
A prolific photographer for the Vanity Fair and Harper’s Bazaar magazines, Muray met Kahlo while he visited the artist Miguel Covarrubias in Mexico. They ended up having an affair that started in 1931 and span a decade, during which he took pictures of both Frida and Diego Rivera, as well as other celebrities.
“The photographs portray artists the likes of Carl van Vechten , composer Carlos Chavez , illustrator John Held, Jr ., the social realist artist Marian Greenwood , muralist Roberto Montenegro , and actress Margo Albert . The pictures show a fascinating landscape of Mexico’s cultural life in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s ,” stated Sotheby’s through a press release.
Sotheby’s will also offer a fashion photography lot featuring iconic pieces by Richard Avedon, Herb Ritts, Helmut Newton, and the critically-acclaimed Irving Penn , who authored “ Black and White Vogue Cover ,” the first monochromatic cover he made in his life, published on April 1959 .
“The sale is even more relevant because it includes pictures by one of the most influential photographers of our time, Annie Leibovitz,” the auction house announced, adding that other pioneering women such as Julia Margaret Cameron, Ana Mendieta, and Helen Levitt had also been included in the public sale.
One of the most expensive pieces on show is a unique copy of “ Orchid Cactus (Cactus Blossom) ,” by Imogen Cunningham , valued at around USD$180,000 .
There is also “ Gargoyle, Chrysler Building, NYC ,” by Margaret Bourke-White , an instantaneous photo of the famous gargoyle in New York’s Chrysler Building . The artist had to climb at a height of 820 feet in order to take the picture, which has an estimated value of up to USD$350,000 .
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