Sold by John Windle Antiquarian Bookseller, ABAA, San Francisco, CA, U.S.A.
Association Member:
AbeBooks Seller since 23 August 2007
Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars
New York: 1975-1976. Kodak Color Film card box with Muriel Rukeyser's name in her hand on lid containing 1pp. TLS from Avedon to Rukeyser signed in pencil and two gelatin silver prints each 10 x 8 in. (25.9 x 20.8cm) in trace paper sleeves. The first photo is that titled "Muriel Rukeyser, poet, New York City, 7-30-75" with the printed issue statement and guarantee on verso, signed and numbered in ink by Avedon, this being number 50 of 50. The sleeve additionally signed "With deepest gratitude, Dick". The second photo is another image from the same shoot, this showing Rukeyser smiling; the verso is blank. Condition: photos in fine condition, slight toning to sleeves, mailing folds to letter, minimal wear to Kodak box; evidently practically untouched since leaving Avedon's studio. § Muriel Rukeyser was said to have despised the photo which Avedon took of her on July 30, 1975, and which was included in his exhibition and book Portraits (New York, 1975/1976). This box and its contents, sent by Avedon to Rukeyser was, in her son's words, "a peace offering." In the box, Avedon enclosed the offending portrait, one of only 50, and with it an unpublished photo from the same shoot which Muriel had much preferred. In the two-line letter he reassured her: "Of course I will restrict the use of your portrait. It will appear only in my book which has already been printed." The paper sleeve around the published photo is inscribed more warmly: "With deepest gratitude, Dick." Avedon's Portraits, first displayed in the landmark exhibition at the Marlborough Gallery in New York in 1975, marked a radical juncture in the tradition of public portraiture. "With uncompromising directness, Avedon portrays his subjects against a bright, white, seamless background, with no props or extraneous details to distract from their person-from the essential specificity of face, gaze, dress, and gesture. When everything extraneous is stripped away, what remains is a remarkable intensity of characterization. The people in Avedon's photographs seem posed to walk right out of their frames, immediately recognizable and wholly alive down to the most telling detail." (Met Gallery) In 2002, the Met Gallery honored Avedon's work with major retrospective exhibition. Maria Morris Hambourg, Curator of Photographs and the organizer of the exhibition, noted: "These are pictures of famous people that are not at all about their celebrity. In their exchange with Avedon, each person yields up aspects of his or her interior self, some usually hidden but essential traits. Exactly how the photographer makes visible these fundamental conditions is the mystery of his genius. Collectively, he is addressing our greatness and frailty, the glory and heartbreak of what he calls 'the human predicament.'" These two gelatin prints of Rukeyser are in fine condition and clearly little-handled. Together the photographs and letter form amusing testimony to Avedon's artistic determination and his willingness to occasionally offend his famous subjects in pursuit of his new vision of portraiture. Provenance: the Rukeyser family.
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