From photography and prints to American paintings, Christie’s Modern New York week offers a crash course in 20th century art

Elevating the ordinary

‘There is a certain kind of immediacy that can be captured in still life photography — the scent of a match that’s been extinguished or the aroma of a drink. That’s something Irving Penn mastered. In Cigarette #37, New York, 1974, Penn elevates objects not traditionally seen as beautiful — in this case a pair of discarded cigarette butts. Part of a larger series of images of items of trash collected on the streets of Manhattan — a not-so-subtle rebuttal to the constant flow of advertising images of luxury goods he was called on to photograph — he rendered them larger than life, printing them using an expensive and luscious platinum process which enhances their texture and form. You can really get into the detail and become fully absorbed in what you’re looking at.

‘What makes much of fine art photography particularly interesting is its inseparable connection to function — documentation, indexing, and scientific study. Penn’s flower still lifes, for example, explore the theme of decay, revealing the beauty within that process.’ — Rebecca Jones, Head of Department, Photographs

‘Modern artists across different media were gathering in the same settings, such as Alfred Stieglitz’s An American Place Gallery and Anderson Gallery. Photography became very influential, and you can see an interweaving of ideas — through techniques like cropping and zooming — in the paintings of this period. For example, Charles Demuth used negative space to isolate his subject matter, focussing on the object and its details. Meanwhile, Georgia O'Keeffe experimented with scale, making her flowers appear monumental even in paintings that were more intimate in size.

‘O’Keeffe famously said she painted large flowers so that people would spend time looking at them. That’s what a lot of the artists of this period were doing, elevating everyday objects by playing with the scale and perspective and transforming them into something you must stop and look at.’ — Paige Kestenman, Senior Specialist, American Art

One of my favourite prints is Potted Daffodils (1980) by David Hockney. The work conveys a remarkable stillness, allowing you to truly appreciate the range of textures that can be achieved through lithography. When you look at the drapery on the table, you can see the effect of the lithographic crayon and cross-hatching, contrasted with the fluid, inky lines from called tusche that depict the plant’s stems. Hockney’s graphic work is instantly recognisable, even in this stark black and white composition. This piece is a testament to his technical brilliance as a printmaker — almost as if he’s showing off just how skilled he really is.’  — Lindsay Griffith, Head of Department, Prints and Multiples

Capturing the moment through figuration

‘In the early 20th century, photography was still fighting for recognition as a fine art. Alfred Stieglitz was deeply engaged in this effort, actively connecting with artists across media not only to learn from them but also to expose them to the innovations happening in photography. This is why Penn’s 1948 portrait of the painter John Marin is so significant — he recognised Marin’s role in the Stieglitz Circle, showing how photographers documented and engaged with broader artistic movements.

‘Penn, Horst P. Horst, and Richard Avedon also elevated commercial fashion photography to fine art. Penn’s Moroccan palace photograph is a great example of this shift, focussing on composition and narrative rather than just clothing. His wife modelled for the image, and their rapport allowed him not only to capture the beauty of the dress but to tell a story through her body and facial expressions.’ — RJ

‘During this time, artists moved beyond traditional commissioned portraits to explore overlooked cultural elements. Jacob Lawrence, the first African American artist to achieve national recognition, spotlighted his native Harlem through his art. In this party scene, the figures are dressed in white tie, with top hats and gowns. Yet, the painting is titled Flower Woman (1948), highlighting the everyday realities of working women in 1940s Harlem. This parallels documentary photographs of the era, such as those by James van der Zee, which brought attention to the full spectrum of street life and American culture.

‘Walt Kuhn, meanwhile, depicted circus performers just after their makeup had been applied, rather than during performance. These works offer a glimpse into a world that was a central part of early 20th-century New York culture.’ — PK

‘Pablo Picasso was arguably the most important printmaker of the 20th century. He pushed every technique to its absolute limits, constantly innovating and driving the medium forward. His linocut portrait of his wife and muse Jacqueline has incredible boldness and power.

‘Picasso initially explored the linocut technique for his ceramic posters and continuously worked to refine it during the brief time he made them from 1958–1963. In this portrait the whole image is printed from one printing block instead of one for each colour. His prints are incredibly technical and complex, but equally fascinating is what he leaves out of his compositions. He shows remarkable restraint, knowing precisely when to stop.’ — LG

Urbanisation and the growing metropolis

‘Stieglitz photographed New York during a period of rapid modernisation at the turn of the century. The Hand of Man (1902) demonstrates his ability to find elegance and analogy in something pedestrian — a gritty, industrial scene. While it retains a pictorialist approach with soft tonalities and an atmospheric quality reminiscent of painting, its subject signals a shift toward modernism and a precisionist aesthetic, rich with implication.

‘Later photographers became less interested in aestheticising the environment than in capturing its raw, unfiltered essence. Rather than presenting a grand cityscape like those Berenice Abbott shot from great heights in 1930s New York, Thomas Struth’s Washington Street, New York / Tribeca (1978) presents the naked geometry of industrial architecture in a less affluent area of the city.’ ’ — RJ

‘Many American painters were drawn to the bold geometries emerging from urban landscapes, as well as the convergence of people, cultures and architecture. Take John Marin, for example. His Downtown New York from River (1940) captures the energy of the city — its towering structures and the dynamic relationships between them. His work conveys a sense of movement and vitality, as if the city itself is alive.

‘Stuart Davis’s Study for ‘The Paris Bit’ (1951) is proto-Pop in the way it plays with advertisements on the streets of Paris. Instead of depicting the city as it is, he turns it into a stylised stage in a highly linear composition that extracts playful elements, like the still-life arrangement of a coffee cup and seltzer bottle in the foreground.’ — PK

‘When Pop artists, like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, began screenprinting in the 1960s, it was seen as a purely commercial medium — even today, we associate it with street signs, printed fabrics and advertisements. However, Warhol and his contemporaries transformed it into high art. Warhol’s appropriation of the Campbell’s soup can label was revolutionary, and it ties into the broader conversation about industrial mass-production and consumer culture

‘One of the key appeals of screenprinting is the ability to appropriate images from photographs — something Warhol famously did — to produce flat planes of saturated, vibrant colour. This effect is similar to Stuart Davis’s paintings, which drew from street signs and urban visual culture, creating a dialogue between screenprinting and earlier painting techniques in their shared pursuit of bold, clear text, image, and colour interplay.’ — LG

Seeking refuge in nature

‘Conservation was deeply important to Ansel Adams. His work is as much about creating beautiful images that celebrate the American landscape as it is a story about preserving and protecting the land. For Adams, achieving that vision meant perfecting every aspect of his technique — mastering framing, printing, and the full range of blacks and whites. Even if the final print didn’t precisely match the original negative, it reflected what he remembered in his head. That was his concept of visualization — a way of looking and thinking differently about a scene, breaking it down into tonalities through both artistic intent and chemical process. It was a new way of seeing and sharing the landscape with the public. He dominated the field of landscape photography, and in many ways, every landscape photographer after him is responding to his influence in some form.’ — RJ

‘Some painters sought refuge in nature and the American landscape as a counterpoint to the rapid industrialisation surrounding them. Like Ansel Adams, they carefully considered colour and composition — not only to represent what they saw but to capture what they resonated with most.

‘TThere’s a sense of exploration in Rockwell Kent’s work. He painted Alaskan Inlet based on his travels in 1910. While works like this introduced audiences to landscapes they had never seen, Kent wasn’t just documenting; he was using abstraction to express the isolation of the icy Alaskan environment. Arthur Dove’s Two Brown Trees (1933) also explores the boundary between abstraction and landscape, capturing nature’s rhythms and musical qualities to convey the sensory experience of his surroundings.’ —PK

‘Warhol defies categorisation. While many deem photography — especially the Polaroid — his primary influence, his early prints reveal a strong connection to film. His Sunset series stems from his 1964 film of the same name — now in the Menil Collection — that captures the sun fading into the landscape. It’s a meditative piece that translates directly into the prints. Each of the edition’s 632 prints features a unique colour combination, abstracting the sunset and stripping it down to its essence.

‘Hockney is also known for pushing the boundaries of various mediums. His iPad drawings, like The Yosemite Suite (2010), showcase his unmistakable pop palette with bold simplicity. The iPad’s limitations yield pared-down yet recognisable forms, reflecting his signature style. In the last decade, Hockney has been very prolific with digital printmaking, demonstrating his ability to reinterpret traditional subjects through new technology.’ — LG