Godfrey Frankel Paintings & Artwork for Sale | Godfrey Frankel Art Value Price Guide

Nov. 21, 2024
GODFREY FRANKEL, AMERICAN, NEW YORK, WASHINGTON, D.C. 1912-1995, LEGENDS OF THE STREET PORTFOLIO, 1943-1947, PRINTED 1995, Nine gelatin silver prints, in clamshell portfolio with coliphon sheets, Each sheet: 19 3/4 x 15
Est: $6,000 - $7,000
GODFREY FRANKEL AMERICAN, NEW YORK, WASHINGTON, D.C., 1912-1995 LEGENDS OF THE STREET PORTFOLIO, 1943-1947, PRINTED 1995 Nine gelatin silver prints, in clamshell portfolio with coliphon sheets Ed. 3/9 1. Architectural Detail, New York City, 1947. 2. Menu Window, Lower Eastside, N.Y.C., 1947. 3. Water Play, Lower Eastside, N.Y.C., 1947. 4. News Kiosk, New York City,1947. 5. Canal Street at Third Avenue, N.Y.C., 1947. 6. Salon Barberia, N.Y.C., 1947 7. After Church, S.W. Washington, 1943. 8. Kids on Storefront Steps, S.W., Washington, 1943. 9. Dancing Boy on Golden Street, S.W., Washington, 1943. Catalog note: Mr. Frankel, a former newspaperman, was the nightclub columnist for the Washington Daily News during World War II when he began spending his afternoons and early evenings exploring the back alleys of downtown Washington, Capitol Hill and Southwest Washington by bicycle, carrying his camera with him. Those travels led him into an all-but-forgotten world of poor and crowded communities close to but virtually hidden from the broad avenues and monuments of the federal city. For three years, he returned again and again to the alley neighborhoods, recording on film the lives of the people who lived there, especially the games and activities of the children. In its [Fall 1995] catalogue, the Smithsonian Press said Mr. Frankel's photographs "evoke a time when even the worst living conditions were alleviated by the extended families each neighborhood formed. . . . Pedaling his bicycle into the alleys, he waited patiently for each picture to compose itself. The results provide keen insight into not only the neighborhoods' abject poverty but also the unfettered imagination of children everywhere." For 20 years until he retired in 1982, he was a program director for the National Institute on Drug Abuse, where his work included research and evaluation of programs and agencies funded by the institute. Throughout his professional career, he pursued photography as an avocation. His pictures were displayed at the National Museum of American Art, the Corcoran Gallery and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. But it was not until he retired from federal service that he took his wartime photographs of Washington alley neighborhoods out of storage and began showing them around. In 1992, they had their first full public showing at the Kathleen Ewing Gallery on Connecticut Avenue. Typically, they depicted such ordinary scenes as children sitting on the steps of a neighborhood market or running home just ahead of the early evening darkness, coattails flapping in the breeze. The pictures showed Mr. Frankel to be a "shrewd and compassionate observer of life," said Amy Pastan, art and photography editor for the Smithsonian Press. Source: The Washington Post
Potomack Company
Oct. 31, 2024
GODFREY FRANKEL (1912-1995) Brooklyn Bridge, NYC. 1946.
Est: $1,000 - $1,500
GODFREY FRANKEL (1912-1995) Brooklyn Bridge, NYC. 1946. Silver print, the image measuring 9¼x7⅜ inches (23.5x18.7 cm.), flush mounted, with Frankel's signature, title, and negative and print dates in pencil, and two of his address stamps, on mount verso. Provenance Acquired from Godfrey Frankel's son; to a Private Collection, New Jersey In 1943 Frankel moved to Washington, D.C. in order to document the African American community there in photographs, imagery that is joyful, intimate, and direct. He was employed by the War Relocation Authority, photographing Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming (1945), the infamous internment camp where Japanese Americans were imprisoned. After the end of the war he moved to New York and joined the Photo League, and his work was included in the group exhibition "New Photographers," at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1946). The Photo League was a cooperative of amateur and professional photographers for whom socially conscious photography was a powerful and expressive tool to both document and explore the human condition. Without espousing a particular aesthetic, the Photo League's members created imagery that was informed by both interest in and interrogation of documentary techniques, as well as a sharp aesthetic perspective. Over the course of 15 short by intense years, which saw the end of the Great Depression, WWII, and political transformation, the leftist and radical Leage elevated and interrogated social realism, the role of the photographer, pushed street photography to new levels, while simultaneously contributing significantly to advocating for photography as an art form. The group had its origins in the Film and Photo League, an offshoot of Workers International Relief, which was an organization that supplied the left-wing press with images of working-class life. The filmmakers, under Paul Strand, eventually formed the production company Frontier Films. The photographers, led by Sid Grossman and Sol Libsohn, founded the Photo League in 1936 (Berenice Abbott and Strand named the group). Initially operating out of a loft on East 21st Street, the Photo League provided members with low-cost darkroom facilities and technical instruction. The League also published a newsletter called Photo Notes, offered courses in photographic history, sponsored lectures, and organized social activities such as "Photo Hunts" and "Crazy Camera Balls." In addition to the photographs represented here, the group included or was supported by photographers such as Ruth Orkin, Louis Stettner, Margaret Bourke-White, Aaron Siskind, Arthur Leipzig, Ruth Orkin, W. Eugene Smith, Arthur Rothstein, Richard Avedon, Weegee, Robert Frank, Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, and many more. In 1947, the League was blacklisted under McCarthyism, for its alleged involvement with the Communist Party. Despite support by prominent photographers, a passionate issue of Photo Notes, and an exhibition This is the Photo League, the group could not overcome the powerful sweep of the Red Scare and was forced to disband in 1951.
Swann Auction Galleries
May. 16, 2024
GODFREY FRANKEL (1912-1995) NYC, El Station.
Est: $500 - $750
GODFREY FRANKEL (1912-1995) NYC, El Station. Silver ferrotyped print, the image measuring 9½x7⅞ inches (24.1x20 cm.), the sheet slightly larger, with Frankel's signature, partial title, and negative and print dates in pencil on verso. 1947; printed 1950 Provenance: Acquired from Godfrey Frankel's son; to a Private Collector, New Jersey In 1943 Frankel moved to Washington, D.C. in order to document the African American community there in photographs, imagery that is joyful, intimate, and direct. He was employed by the War Relocation Authority, photographing Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming (1945), the infamous internment camp where Japanese Americans were imprisoned. After the end of the war he moved to New York and joined the Photo League, and his work was included in the group exhibition "New Photographers," at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1946). The Photo League was a cooperative of amateur and professional photographers for whom socially conscious photography was a powerful and expressive tool to both document and explore the human condition. Without espousing a particular aesthetic, the Photo League's members created imagery that was informed by both interest in and interrogation of documentary techniques, as well as a sharp aesthetic perspective. Over the course of 15 short by intense years, which saw the end of the Great Depression, WWII, and political transformation, the leftist and radical Leage elevated and interrogated social realism, the role of the photographer, pushed street photography to new levels, while simultaneously contributing significantly to advocating for photography as an art form. The group had its origins in the Film and Photo League, an offshoot of Workers International Relief, which was an organization that supplied the left-wing press with images of working-class life. The filmmakers, under Paul Strand, eventually formed the production company Frontier Films. The photographers, led by Sid Grossman and Sol Libsohn, founded the Photo League in 1936 (Berenice Abbott and Strand named the group). Initially operating out of a loft on East 21st Street, the Photo League provided members with low-cost darkroom facilities and technical instruction. The League also published a newsletter called Photo Notes, offered courses in photographic history, sponsored lectures, and organized social activities such as "Photo Hunts" and "Crazy Camera Balls." In addition to the photographs represented here (see lots 73, 75, 78, 83, 84, 85), the group included or was supported by photographers such as Ruth Orkin, Louis Stettner, Margaret Bourke-White, Aaron Siskind, Arthur Leipzig, Ruth Orkin, W. Eugene Smith, Arthur Rothstein, Richard Avedon, Weegee, Robert Frank, Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, and many more. In 1947, the League was blacklisted under McCarthyism, for its alleged involvement with the Communist Party. Despite support by prominent photographers, a passionate issue of Photo Notes, and an exhibition This is the Photo League, the group could not overcome the powerful sweep of the Red Scare and was forced to disband in 1951.
Swann Auction Galleries
Feb. 15, 2024
GODFREY FRANKEL (1912-1995) Children playing, Annapolis, MD.
Est: $1,000 - $1,500
GODFREY FRANKEL (1912-1995) Children playing, Annapolis, MD. Silver print, the image measuring 11x13⅞ inches (27.9x35.2 cm.), with Frankel's signature in ink, and the title and negative and print dates in pencil on verso. 1943; printed 1970
Swann Auction Galleries
Oct. 05, 2023
GODFREY FRANKEL (1912-1995) Washington (children jumping rope).
Est: $1,000 - $1,500
GODFREY FRANKEL (1912-1995) Washington (children jumping rope). Silver print, the image measuring 12x10 3/4 inches (30.5x27.3 cm.), with Frankel's signature, title, and negative date in pencil on verso. 1943; printed 1970 Provenance: Hemphill Fine Arts, Washington, D.C. Reproduced: Laura Goldstein and Gordon Parks, In the Alleys, Kids in the Shadow of the Capitol, Photographs by Godfrey Frankel (Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1995), p. 41
Swann Auction Galleries
May. 06, 2023
Godfrey Frankel (1912-1995) Tattoo Parlor, 1947
Est: $750 - $1,000
Gelatin Silver Print Image: 8 5/8 x 8 inches Framed: 16.5 x 16.5 inches
Santa Monica Auctions
Oct. 20, 2022
GODFREY FRANKEL (1912-1995) Washington, D.C. (two boys, one looking up).
Est: $1,500 - $2,500
GODFREY FRANKEL (1912-1995) Washington, D.C. (two boys, one looking up). Silver print, the image measuring 13 5/8x10 7/8 inches (34.6x27.6 cm.), with Frankel's signature, location, and negative date in pencil on verso. 1943; printed 1970 Provenance: The Photographer; the Middendorf Gallery, Washington D.C., as agent, to the Present Owner Laura Goldstein & Gordon Parks, Photographs by Godfrey Frankel, In the Alleys: Kids in the Shadow of the Capitol (Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press., 1995), p. 68
Swann Auction Galleries
Oct. 14, 2020
GODFREY FRANKEL (1912–1945) - Lexington & 110th Street (The Unseen Eye is Watching You), 1947
Est: $400 - $600
GODFREY FRANKEL (1912–1945) Lexington & 110th Street (The Unseen Eye is Watching You), 1947 gelatin silver print stamped with the photographer's '212 West 22nd Street' credit in ink; inscribed 'Lexington ave near 110th street between 109 + 110th. Sept 1947, NYC' in ink in an unknown hand (verso); credited, titled and dated on affixed exhibition labels (frame backing board) image: 8 7/8 x 7 5/8 in. (22.6 x 19.4 cm.) sheet: 10 x 8 in. (25.4 x 20.3 cm.) ",
Christie's
Oct. 19, 2019
Godfrey Frankel: New York, 1947, silver print
Est: $400 - $700
New York, 1947, silver print, signed and titled verso, Image size: 10.25"x13.25"; Sheet Size: 11"x14"
The Photo Review
Oct. 17, 2019
Godfrey Frankel - Chinatown, New York
Est: $400 - $600
Lot 6 Godfrey Frankel American (1912-1995) Chinatown, New York (1947) vintage gelatin silver print signed verso 4 x 3 1/2 inches Provenance: from a private New Jersey collection
Capsule Gallery Auction
Oct. 27, 2018
Godfrey Frankel: Shoe Shine, 1943, silver print
Est: $350 - $700
Shoe Shine, 1943, silver print, artist's signature stamp verso, Image size: 13"x10.25"; Sheet Size: 14"x11"
The Photo Review
Feb. 24, 2018
Photographs, Godfrey Frankel
Est: $400 - $600
(lot of 2) Godfrey Frankel (American, 1912-1995), "Brooklyn Bridge Lamp Post," 1947, gelatin silver prints, signed, titled, and dated verso, sight: 2.25"h x 2.25"w, overall (with frame): 14.25"h x 11.25"w
Clars Auctions
Jan. 21, 2018
Photographs, Godfrey Frankel
Est: $800 - $1,200
(lot of 2) Godfrey Frankel (American, 1912-1995), "Brooklyn Bridge Lamp Post," 1947, gelatin silver prints, signed, titled, and dated verso, sight: 2.25"h x 2.25"w, overall (with frame): 14.25"h x 11.25"w
Clars Auctions