Man Ray's Noire et Blanche tops 2017 photo auction market

In 2017, only one of the top ten auction lots for photography was sold in a dedicated photography sale, with seven appearing in Modern Art evening sales and two in Christie's Design & Photography category. Man Ray's Noire et Blanche, a 1926 gelatin silver print measuring 20 x 27 cm, sold at Christie's Paris on November 9 for €2,688,750 against an estimate of €1-1.5 million. The print, from the collection of filmmaker and collector Thomas Koerfer—former president of the Fotomuseum Winterthur Foundation and board member of Kunsthalle Zürich—depicts Kiki de Montparnasse holding an African mask and is considered a key Surrealist image. The sale set multiple records: best result for 2017, world record for a Man Ray photograph, record for a photo sold in France, and world record for a classic-era photograph. Man Ray also claimed third place in 2017 with Portrait of a Tearful Woman (1936), sold in New York for €1,763,055. The article notes that Man Ray's success overshadowed modern art catalogues, echoing his own dismissal of the art-versus-photography debate.