Highlights from the first major event of Aperture’s 20/20: A Bold Vision capital campaign.

William Wegman, On and On, 2015
Courtesy the artist

Thank you to everyone who contributed to making the Christie’s New York auction to benefit Aperture such a success.

Many months in the making, the October 2 auction featured over fifty works generously donated by artists, collectors, gallerists, and Aperture patrons—including photographs by Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, Walker Evans, Nan Goldin, Todd Hido, William Klein, Sally Mann, Robert Mapplethorpe, Joel Meyerowitz, Richard Misrach, Vik Muniz, Paul Outerbridge, Herb Ritts, Hank Willis Thomas, Paul Strand, and a large-scale work by Paolo Ventura made especially for this auction.

Christie’s Photographs auction to benefit Aperture on October 2, 2019
Katie Booth/Aperture Foundation

Works sold for over $715,000, and achieved an auction record for William Wegman with the sale of On and On (2015), a large-scale multipanel work donated by the artist.

Proceeds from the auction will directly fund Aperture’s purchase of a new permanent space in New York—a flexible meeting, education, and event space and HQ for Aperture’s global publishing operations.

Darius Himes, Christie’s international head of photographs, leads a guided tour of auction works to benefit Aperture.
Steven Davis/Aperture

Aperture creative director Lesley Martin highlights current and upcoming projects.
Steven Davis/Aperture

Festivities kicked off with a Saturday night cocktail preview and reception for the photography community, including collectors, artists, curators, and longtime Aperture supporters.

In the days leading up to the sale, all contributed works were exhibited in Christie’s new photography galleries, where Darius Himes, Christie’s international head of photographs, and his colleagues led numerous guided tours for museum groups and collectors. Himes also hosted a panel featuring Aperture editors Michael Famighetti (Aperture magazine editor), Lesley A. Martin (creative director), and Denise Wolff (senior editor). Held in the Woods Room at Christie’s, the editors’ presentations laid out the mission and history of Aperture’s original founders, highlighted current and upcoming projects, and dove into recent examples of educational programming and traveling exhibitions. Also presented on-site were rare items from our archive, including an original first issue of the magazine, along with early editions of seminal books in Aperture’s history.

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