Auction Central News: Closing soon at Maine museum: Judy Glickman Lauder photography collection

January 9, 2023

Richard Avedon, ‘Audrey Hepburn and Art Buchwald, with Simone D’Aillencourt, Frederick Eberstadt, Barbara Mullen, and Dr. Reginald Kernan, evening dresses by Balmain, Dior, and Patou, Maxim’s, Paris, August 1959,’ 1959. Gelatin silver print. Judy Glickman Lauder collection, museum purchase with gift in honor of Judith Glickman Lauder, 2020.7

This article appears in Live Auction News.

PORTLAND, Maine – The Portland Museum of Art has unveiled Presence: The Photography Collection of Judy Glickman Lauder. It will remain on display through January 15.

Presence: The Photography Collection of Judy Glickman Lauder captures the full spectrum of the human experience, from the anonymous to the celebrity and from the everyday to era-defining events such as the Great Depression, the Holocaust and the Civil Rights Movement. It is a riveting exploration of photography as it engages the human spirit.

Gordon Parks, ‘American Gothic (Portrait of Ella Watson), Washington, DC,’ 1942. Gelatin silver print. Promised gift from the Judy Glickman Lauder collection, 3.2016.8

With approximately 150 photographs by 70 artists, the exhibition is drawn entirely from the collection of Judy Glickman Lauder — photographer, collector, humanitarian, advocate, philanthropist and community builder. Presence creates a dialog among an incredible array of photographs by some of the most beloved and influential practitioners of the 20th century, including Berenice Abbott, Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, Danny Lyon, Sally Mann, Gordon Parks and James Van Der Zee.

Norman Seeff, ‘Robert Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith, New York,’ 1969. Archival pigment print. Promised gift from the Judy Glickman Lauder collection, 1.2016.1

It also includes photographs by critical contributors to the medium’s history, such as Irving Bennett Ellis, Graciela Iturbide, Lotte Jacobi, Alma Lavenson and Glickman Lauder, the collector herself. Through compassion and wonder, Presence: The Photography Collection of Judy Glickman Lauder immediately stands out as one of the most humanistic and affecting exhibitions of 2022.

Irving Bennett Ellis, ‘Louise Weinstein Ellis,’ 1938. Gelatin silver print from a composite negative. Promised gift from the Judy Glickman Lauder collection, 11.2006.7

The exhibition marks Judy Glickman Lauder’s promised gift of nearly 700 works of art to the museum, which has immediately transformed the PMA’s collection. With incredible strengths in Pictorialism, modernism, landscapes, fashion work, street photography and much more, the Judy Glickman Lauder collection will be the foundation of photography installations for years to come. The collector’s lifelong love of photography and devotion to Maine have combined in this landmark gift.