William Eggleston, Memphis (tricycle), 1970. Color Vision: Masterworks by William Eggleston from Guy Stricherz and Irene Malli.
One of the highlights of Phillips’ upcoming auction of Color Vision: Masterworks by William Eggleston from Guy Stricherz and Irene Malli is a select group of large-format dye transfer prints William Eggleston made in 2015 known as The Magificent Seven. This group consists of seven of his best known and most iconic photographs — photographs which have come to be associated with his artistic achievement over seven decades. To realize this project, Eggleston worked closely with master printers Guy Stricherz and Irene Malli who had sourced a stock of dye-transfer materials, which had long before been discontinued by Kodak. Eggleston completed the set of seven dye transfer prints, each a photographic masterpiece, in an edition of ten. Each is the largest dye transfer print of the image ever executed. This is the first time photographs from The Magnificent Seven have appeared at auction.
These photographs, which present a concise overview of Eggleston’s career, have become referred to as The Magnificent Seven, an appellation that draws comparisons to cinema and the financial markets. Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 cinematic masterpiece The Seven Samurai was initially released in the United States under the title The Magnificent Seven. In 1960, Kurosawa’s screenplay was adapted into a Western, the blockbuster film The Magnificent Seven. Much later, financial analyst Michael Hartnett used the term Magnificent Seven to describe the stock of the seven dominant companies in the stock market.
Whether the comparison is to cinema or the financial markets, the term Magnificent Seven refers to a selection of seven archetypal entities chosen from many for their excellence. In all instances the seven are the best of the group, each a perfect example of its type, that also represent the whole. It is a perfect name for this carefully selected suite of masterworks by William Eggleston.
William Eggleston, Untitled (Peaches!), 1973. Color Vision: Masterworks by William Eggleston from Guy Stricherz and Irene Malli.
William Eggleston, Memphis (supermarket boy with carts), 1965. Color Vision: Masterworks by William Eggleston from Guy Stricherz and Irene Malli.
William Eggleston, Greenwood, Mississippi (red ceiling), 1973. Color Vision: Masterworks by William Eggleston from Guy Stricherz and Irene Malli.
William Eggleston, Untitled (Biloxi, Mississippi), circa 1974. Color Vision: Masterworks by William Eggleston from Guy Stricherz and Irene Malli.
William Eggleston, Untitled (Devoe Money in Jackson, Mississippi), 1970. Color Vision: Masterworks by William Eggleston from Guy Stricherz and Irene Malli.
William Eggleston, Memphis (green bathroom), circa 1971. Color Vision: Masterworks by William Eggleston from Guy Stricherz and Irene Malli.
Recommended Reading
A Life’s Work in Vivid Color >
William Eggleston’s “Secret Laboratory” >