Paddle8 launched the 15-day “No Clothes” auction today. It’s curated by Vogue creative director Grace Coddington, so it’s mostly photography with many models. Out of the 29 auction highlights, there are only two works featuring nude dudes and a whopping 48 exposed breasts, according to our Titty Count™ (it’s like the “weenie count” but with more implied female agency because of the female curator.)
“Every picture starts off naked. The model is naked, the hair is undone, the set is naked — and this is the starting point of the creative process,” Coddington is quoted in the press release, which sounds highly tangential to the auction but who cares Karl Lagerfeld thinks she is a “genius” so let’s move on to our auction highlights of the auction highlights.
1) The most beautiful photograph of Kate Moss OF ALL TIME.
TIM WALKER
Kate Moss sprouting wild flowers, Hampstead, London, 2012
Photograph
140 x 100 cm (55.12 x 39.37 in)
Estimate $20,000 – $30,000
2) The nude that makes me smell disinfectant and CK1 for some reason.
Suzanne (Torso) II, 2004
Color Polaroid diptych mounted on aluminum
24 x 20 in (60.96 x 50.8 cm) – Dimensions refer to each panel
Each panel signed, dated and inscribed ‘Diptych II 2 of 2’ and ‘Diptych II 1 of 2’
Estimate $50,000 – $60,000
After the Bath, after Edgar Degas (Pictures of Magazines 2), 2011
Digital C-print
73.5 x 71 in (186.69 x 180.34 cm)
Framed
Edition of 6
Signed
Estimate $65,000 – $75,000
4) The only black subject in the auction highlights unless you count the Henry Mattise drawing on a black canvas.
VANESSA BEECROFT
VB54 Performance, Terminal 5 TWA, JFK, New York, 2004
Digital C-print
65.7 x 50 in (166.88 x 127 cm)
Edition of 3
Signed
Estimate $12,000 – $18,000
5) A classic penis moment in art history.
ANNIE LEIBOVITZ
Keith Haring, New York, 1986
Cibachrome print
9.5 x 11.5 in (24.13 x 29.21 cm)
Edition of 40
Signed, titled, inscribed, numbered and dated
Estimate $25,000 – $35,000
The auction is on now through May 16th. (Lead Image: RYAN MCGINLEY, Susanna (Tall Grass), 2014, C-print, 16 x 24 in, Framed, Edition of 3, 1 AP, Accompanied by certificate of authenticity, Estimate $8,000 – $10,000)
