“Brandt broods over the nature of things and makes a quiet poetic transcript of them; his work is a prolonged meditation on the mystery of forms.”
—Lawrence Durrell, AuthorThe photograph offered here hung in the 1961 Museum of Modern Art exhibition Diogenes With a Camera V, which focused on the work of Bill Brant, Lucien Clergue, and Yasuhiro Ishimoto. This was the fifth entry in curator Edward Steichen’s Diogenes series, named for the Greek philosopher engaged in the lifelong pursuit of truth. Brandt was represented by 42 photographs in this exhibition, all recent work from his series and book, Perspective of Nudes.
Bill Brandt photographs, including East Sussex on the far left, on exhibit in Diogenes with a Camera V at The Museum of Modern Art, 1961. Phillips is honored to present a selection of artwork from the collection of pioneering gallerists Eugene and Dorothy Prakapas. Proceeds from their outstanding collection will benefit the Eugene and Dorothy Prakapas Scholarship Fund at Yale University in memory of Thomas C. Mendenhall. Gene’s attendance at Yale in 1949 was made possible by a scholarship, and it was his and Dorothy’s intent that the sale of artwork from their estate would support scholars of the future.
Dorothy and Eugene Prakapas, Prakapas Gallery, 1970s. Gene (1932-2011) and Dorothy (1928-2022) founded Prakapas Gallery at 19 East 71st Street, New York City, in 1976. The gallery quickly became known for its adventurous curatorial approach and for showing a diverse range of artists and media. The couple set a demanding pace for themselves, mounting a new exhibition every four weeks, and keeping an ever-changing array of painting, photography, and works-on-paper on the gallery walls. Photography, especially work connected to the Bauhaus, was a particular interest of the Prakapases, and the broad theme of European Modernism threaded its way through many of their shows. Operating on a shoestring budget, the couple sought out little-known artists and underrepresented aspects of well-known artists’ oeuvres for their exhibitions. Gallery favorites included László Moholy-Nagy, Fernand Léger, Willi Baumeister, Albert Renger-Patzsch, and Werner Mantz, among many others.
Dorothy Prakapas, Prakapas Gallery, 1970s. Both Gene and Dorothy came to the art world after having pursued successful careers in other arenas. Gene worked in publishing after graduating Yale, served in the Navy, and later pursued graduate studies at Oxford, which he attended on a Fulbright scholarship. Dorothy was educated at City University of New York and the Fashion Institute of Technology and worked in the fashion industry. Together, they made Prakapas Gallery into a mecca for collectors on the hunt for material that could not be found elsewhere, the esoteric and the avant-garde across all media, selected and contextualized with intelligence and warmth.
“Galleries that are powered by a completely idiosyncratic taste and with no regard for current fashion do not always live long. So it is good to see from their 10th anniversary miscellany that Eugene and Dorothy Prakapas are just as quirky as ever they were.”
—John Russell, The New York TimesCondition Report
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Provenance
Sotheby's, London, 10 May 2001, lot 464
Exhibited
Diogenes with a Camera V, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 26 September - 12 November 1961
Literature
Durrell, Bill Brandt: Perspective of Nudes, p. 75
Brandt, Bill Brandt: Nudes 1945-1980, pl. 46
PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF EUGENE AND DOROTHY PRAKAPAS
238
East Sussex
1958
Gelatin silver print on museum box.
17 1/2 x 14 3/8 in. (44.5 x 36.5 cm)
Titled and dated in ink and The Museum of Modern Art loan label on the reverse of the flush-mount.
Estimate
$10,000 - 15,000
Sarah Krueger
Head of Department, Photographs
skrueger@phillips.com
Vanessa Hallett
Worldwide Head of Photographs and Chairwoman, Americas
vhallett@phillips.com
Photographs
New York Auction 9 October 2024
325
This lot is no longer available.
354
This lot is no longer available.
