German artist Andreas Gursky once again set the auction record for a photograph. After he previously set a record with his “99 Cent II Diptychon” photo at 3.3 Million USD, his ‘Rhine II’ work now sold at Christie’s for 4.3 Million USD. Gursky is known to only produce 6 copies of each of his photos, of which usually 5 end up in museum collections. In the case of the ‘Rhine II’ piece, the other copies are owned by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Modern in London, Munich’s Pinakothek der Modern, and the Glenstone Collection in Potomac, Maryland. His works are all massive in size, in this case 143 inches by 73 inches. It took a long time for photographs to be appreciated as real art and for auction prices to reflect that, one can safely say at this point, that this discussion is off the table. (Via Telegraph)

After Paris, the STAGES exhibition, a joint effort by Nike Sportswear and Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong foundation, has opened its doors in New York this week. Once again artists including Tom Sachs, Jose Parla, Kenny Scharf, Shepard Fairey, Kaws, JR, Richard Prince, Andreas Gursky and other art heavy hitters, were represented with custom works in the exhibition.

Take a tour of the STAGES New York exhibition, which takes place at Deitch Projects, after the jump.

German photographer Andreas Gursky has impressed us for the longest time with his large scale photographs, that usually capture a scene with repeating patterns. The size by itself is impressive, but also the way his images come out set him apart.

If you are in New York, you can now go and check out his latest exhibition at the Matthew Marks Gallery. It is well worth it.

Matthew Marks Gallery
523 West 24th St
New York, NY 1001

The show runs until December 24th. Via Wallpaper.

More images of the exhibition follow after the jump.