2019 CPW Awards & Benefit Auction
Thursday, October 3, 2019
Affirmation Arts
523 West 37th Street
New York, NY
The Paddle8 online auction is now live. View all photographs and books or place your bids. We recommend that you sign up for a free Paddle8 account and download the app for easy bidding and notifications.
The Center for Photography at Woodstock (CPW) is pleased to announce the 2019 CPW Awards & Benefit Auction. Online bidding will be hosted via Paddle 8. This year’s event is incredibly special as we have two honorees – Dawoud Bey will be granted the Vision Award and Alan Siegel will be granted the Affinity Award.
CPW’s Benefit Auction of early, modern, and contemporary photographs is an outstanding source for finding the very best in photography—from renowned historic masters of the field to the most exciting emerging and mid-career voices. It features a wide range of photographic genres including delicate scenes that harness the changing of times, stunning abstractions, poignant compositions articulating the human condition, and other magical moments uniquely captured by these remarkable artists. The auction includes prices that match every budget, from photographs that will go for $300 to some special pieces that may raise over $10,000. The evening will feature fifty eight photographs and ten books.
The lots will be split between a live and silent sale, featured in CPW’s commemorative catalogue. All photographs and books will be presented in an auction preview via Paddle 8, open to pre-bidding on September 19. Our live auction will be conducted by renown auctioneer, Rick Wester.
The photographs included in CPW’s benefit auction are donated by members of the photographic community including photographers, galleries, and collectors. We cannot thank them enough!
Auction tickets are now available starting at $125.
Able to give more? Consider becoming an auction benefit chair.
ABOUT THE AUCTIONEER – RICK WESTER
Rick Wester’s diverse career as gallerist, consultant and auctioneer began forty years ago when the nascent photography market was just beginning to be established internationally. After stints at galleries in New York, beginning in college, including at LIGHT, the seminal gallery of contemporary photography on 5th Avenue and 57th Street, Rick became a private dealer and consultant with corporate clients in the law, advertising and insurance fields, as well as an advisor to several private collectors. In 1992, he joined Christie’s Inc., the renowned global auction house as Specialist Department Head of Photographs before advancing to International Head of Photographs. At Christie’s he led the department to majority market share while setting numerous world record prices for artists such as Alfred Stieglitz, Man Ray and many others. He became the department’s auctioneer taking sales in New York, Los Angeles and London.
He left Christies after nine years to become a director at Gagosian Gallery, adding to the famed blue-chip gallery’s artist roster. This was followed by a term as Interim Director of the Howard Greenberg Gallery, overseeing the gallery’s move from Soho to its present location in the Fuller Building on 57th Street. He soon incorporated Rick Wester Fine Art (RWFA), a move that returned him to private dealing, consulting and advising. In 2004, he joined the Chelsea-based auction house, Phillips, as International Director of Photographs.
In 2007, he fully launched RWFA, which he leads today, representing a wide range of emerging and mid-career artists including photographers, painters and sculptors. RWFA offers its clients a wide range of services, including collection consulting, brokering secondary market sales for both buyers and sellers, as well as USPAP-compliant appraisals, while continuing to serve the community through benefit auctioneering.