Max Dupain prints auction tops AUD$1m

lynnb

lynnb

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Max Dupain is one of Australia's iconic photographers - his Sunbather picture (see link below) is probably the most widely known photograph by an Australian photographer. His son Rex auctioned off 497 of his prints yesterday, for over AUD$1m in total.

Good to see this result. While these prices are low compared to the Gurskys of this world, a signed print of Sunbather achieved AUD$85,000, a significant increase from the last sale at $30,000.

More of Dupain's work can be seen here.
 
I looked at his work on that link, and you have a very different opinion than I do of his presumed stature. Compared to Walker Evans, Edward Weston, Bresson...I am just not getting it.
 
Steve, Dupain is one of Australia's iconic photographers, not the world's! I never suggested he enjoyed the same stature as the photographers you mentioned. He was a local - in fact he didn't travel outside of Australia until 1978, when he was 67.

His work chronicling Sydney life in the 1930s and 40s is highly regarded and is held in national collections. I'd be surprised if there was an Australian photographer who didn't know of him. This auction result is a good thing for the local photographic prints market.

Cheers,
 
Steve M. said:
I looked at his work on that link, and you have a very different opinion than I do of his presumed stature. Compared to Walker Evans, Edward Weston, Bresson...I am just not getting it.
Click to expand...

I complletely agree. I'm happy his work is being recognized but like you a lot of photography falls way short my expectations.

About two years ago a good friend and I took a trip to Atlanta to hear a lecture from the Director of MOMA and discussion with Struth. I wasn't familiar with his work but would have been ashamed to show the work. There was nothing special, interesting or particulay great quality about them. They were very ordinary other than they were shot on 8x10 and printed huge. I guess if you can't do great work print it large.

Also the director of MOMA did nothing but gush over Struth and his images.

I just do not get it!
 
While his work may not be significant to many outside Australia I think his images are important for the way he viewed and captured our way of life. Australia is a very unique country ... it's not that long since we were a penal colony and our (white settlement) history is very brief when you compare it to many other countries. I read The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes some time ago and although it's a little long and windy it gives an amazing insight into our culture and why the Australian psyche is a little 'different!'
 
I don't know what there is to get? Does that mean you don't like it? Or you fail to see some underlying message? It's like me saying I don't get Ansel Adams. They're just photos, you like them or not. It not some sort of "Americans" that has some underlying theme.
Dupain is my all time favourite Australian (probably overall) photographer. His beach scenes are distinctively Australian, and capture what it is to be Australian living near the Sydney beaches. Also remember that he took these for his own enjoyment, often making small scrapbooks for his friends of photos he took at the beach on holidays. Only later were they used as "art". He was of course a distinguished studio and newspaper photographer, but his best work for me is his beaches.

*his influence on Lynn's photography is obvious!
 
lynnb said:
Max Dupain is one of Australia's iconic photographers - his Sunbather picture (see link below) is probably the most widely known photograph by an Australian photographer.

More of Dupain's work can be seen here.
Click to expand...


Lynn, it's Sunbaker, not Sunbather!
:)

Thanks for the link, I was not aware of him but now love his work.
 
Sunbaker is an iconic photograph. Perhaps only for us Australians? I doubt it. Have you ever lain on a beach like that? I am not suggesting you or I would look so Adonis-like, but there is more to it than the outward beauty. There is the sun. And there is the interior rambling of the mind when you lie in the sun like that. Or the capacity for your mind to be numbed by the pleasure of the sand, the breeze and heat and the sound of the waves......

Max Dupain was a successful art photographer and industrial photographer. As Lynn said, he flourished here without needing to go elsewhere. As Keith said, Australia is a unique place. A country, and a continent. Miles from civilisation. The light and the landscape have inspired some very significant painters in our short history. And our local treasures in photography, while less prominent, are no less precious to us.
 
I always liked this one
http://hostmetro.xva.me/max-dupain/...oQzZglRwdAl0MVdpl1YC4P1B3J5G7zIQuZEIl0JQA.jpg

I don't think that link above showcases a lot of his better known work.

There is a lot more here:
http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/?artist_id=dupain-max

I'm not a member of the 'art world', so couldn't comment on stature or whatever defines one artist being better than another but I've enjoyed a lot of his works that I've seen. The Opera House being built springs to mind as well as the beach and bush stuff.
 
lol fancy me getting the spelling wrong - that's un-Australian! :eek:

Coogee, that photo reminded me of my days on surf patrol and competitions working the reels (but not in that traditional attire). Heaven help any b*gger who forgot to wax the lines. Thanks for the memory. Or thanks Max. BTW that photo looks like DY beach, with Long Reef in the background.

My favourite of his photos (apart from Sunbaker) is Meat Queue - 1946.

Many of his other pictures bring memories of early childhood in Sydney, like Bus Queue, Carrington Street at Wynyard Park - 1945, which is pretty much as I remember it from around 1960 - things didn't change much for a long time. I remember riding up front on the upper deck of those Sydney double-decker buses, with the overhanging trees bashing a dent in the roof on the trip to the northern beaches.

I have two Dupain books - the one I'd recommend is Dupain's Sydney.
 
michaelwj said:
I don't know what there is to get? Does that mean you don't like it? Or you fail to see some underlying message? It's like me saying I don't get Ansel Adams. They're just photos, you like them or not. It not some sort of "Americans" that has some underlying theme.
Dupain is my all time favourite Australian (probably overall) photographer. His beach scenes are distinctively Australian, and capture what it is to be Australian living near the Sydney beaches. Also remember that he took these for his own enjoyment, often making small scrapbooks for his friends of photos he took at the beach on holidays. Only later were they used as "art". He was of course a distinguished studio and newspaper photographer, but his best work for me is his beaches.

*his influence on Lynn's photography is obvious!
Click to expand...
Yes, Dupain's images capture an Australia that, in many ways, no longer exists and he did it better than anybody else at the time. He's definitely one of my favourite photographers and the fact that he did not image the United States, but Australia, from my perspective, only makes his work more interesting to me, even if it has the reverse effect, on others. I am however surprised at some of the insularity on display.
Cheers,
Brett
 
Sarcophilus Harrisii said:
Yes, Dupain's images capture an Australia that, in many ways, no longer exists and he did it better than anybody else at the time. He's definitely one of my favourite photographers and the fact that he did not image the United States, but Australia, from my perspective, only makes his work more interesting to me, even if it has the reverse effect, on others. I am however surprised at some of the insularity on display.
Cheers,
Brett
Click to expand...



I'm not ........... :)
 
Maaate. I'm not gonna spit the dummy or give anyone an earbashin, but Dupain is a deadset legend downunder. He certainly gave it a burl , and if you ask any bloke at a barbie and they'll say his blood's worth bottling. No tall poppies there.

I nearly traded in a German light tight metal box to bid on one of Maxie's snaps.
But in the end I was too much of a slacker so I'll just hafta have a Captain Cook in the galleries.

You might think his work is not within cooee of the O.S. stuff but his shots of the Coathanger and all of us in our cozzies are ridgy didge. Not that he ever caught a Bondi cigar or white pointer in the frame, but that was then and this is now eh?
 
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jmilkins said:
Maaate. I'm not gonna spit the dummy or give anyone an earbashin, but Dupain is a deadset legend downunder. He certainly gave it a burl , and if you ask any bloke at a barbie and they'll say his blood's worth bottling. No tall poppies there.

I nearly traded in a German light tight metal box to bid on one of Maxie's snaps.
But in the end I was too much of a slacker so I'll just hafta have a Captain Cook in the galleries.

You might think his work is not within cooee of the O.S. stuff but his shots of the Coathanger and all of us in our cozzies are ridgy didge. Not that he ever caught a Bondi cigar or white pointer in the frame, but that was then and this is now eh?
Click to expand...

Struth! Sounds like you need a few tinnies John.

(man, autocorrect don't like this talk!)
 
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