Phillips is honored to present, in lots 248 through 254, photographs from the collection of Inger and Osborn Elliott. The Elliotts cultivated an art collection worthy of praise in the heart of Manhattan. Their upper east side home served as a jewel box of taste, with brightly colored walls adorned with paintings, photographs, and drawings, all masterfully curated. The couple's diverse collection reflects their devotion to New York City's cultural, intellectual, and civic spheres, while also spanning a global reach of artistic styles and techniques.
Inger and Osborn Elliott. Inger (1933-2024), originally from Norway, had a passion for photojournalism that brought her to Southeast Asia, where she documented the Vietnam War. She photographed for the Rapho Guillemette photo agency, as well as for Vogue, LIFE, Esquire, and Time magazines. She would later go on to found China Seas, a design firm specializing in batik textiles. Osborn (1924-2008), a revolutionary Newsweek editor and social advocate, served as Dean of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Trailblazers in their own regard, the Elliotts amassed a collection including rare, early works by Willem de Kooning, Wassily Kandinsky, and Milton Avery, among those by many other innovative modern and post-war painters, photographers, and printmakers.
Titles in plate order:
1. La Buona Terra (The Good Earth) No. 143, 1964-65
2. La Buona Terra No. 146, 1964-65
3. Gente del Sud (People of the South) Puglia No. 252, 1958
4. La Buona Terra No. 219, 1964-65
5. "I don't have hands that caress my face," Pretini No. 71, 1968
6. Pretini No. 72, 1962-63
7. Pretini No. 70, 1968
8. La Buona Terra No. 141, 1964-65
9. Scanno: Italy of the South No. 57, 1963
10. "Death will come and it will have your eyes" No. 99, 1966
11. "Death will come..." No. 97, 1966
12. "Death will come..." No. 95, 1966
13. Figura (La Nuda) No. 271, 1958
14. Scanno No. 52, 1957-59
15. La Buona Terra No. 208, 1964-65
16. Pretini, No. 74, 1968
17. Scanno No. 62, 1957-59
18. Figura No. 130 (Madre di Giacomelli), 1956
Condition Report
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Provenance
Swann Galleries, New York, The Knowing Eye: Photographs & Photobooks, 19 April 2018, Lot 197
Literature
Brigidi and Peeps, Mario Giacomelli, The Friends of Photography, various plates
Carli, Il Reale immaginario di Mario Giacomelli, various plates
Cambridge University Press, A History of Photography: Social and Cultural Perspectives, various plates
Crawford, Mario Giacomelli, various plates
Guadagnini and Caciolli, La fotografia della Collezione Trevisan: Con gli occhi, con il cuore, con la testa, p. 60
Giacomelli, Giacomelli: La Forma Dentro, Fotografie, 1952-1995, various plates
Giacomelli, Mario Giacomelli: fotografie 1954-1994, various plates
J. Paul Getty Museum, Mario Giacomelli: Figure/Ground, frontispiece, back cover, various plates
Mauro, Mario Giacomelli. The black is waiting for the white, various plates
Quintavalle, Mario Giacomelli, various plates
High Museum of Art, Chorus of Light: Photographs from the Sir Elton John Collection, p. 160
LIGHT Gallery, LIGHT, p. 91
Szarkowski, Looking at Photographs: 100 Pictures from the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art, p. 185
Szarkowski, The Photographer's Eye, p. 121
Each citation for various prints
PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF INGER AND OSBORN ELLIOTT
252
La Gente
1956-1968
Bristol, Rhode Island: The Bristol Workshop in Photography, 1981. Eighteen gelatin silver prints.
Each 12 x 16 in. (30.5 x 40.6 cm) or the reverse
Each signed in ink, numbered and dated in pencil, and title stamp on the verso. Accompanied by title page, introduction by the artist translated by Mary Lonergan, plate list and colophon, which is signed in ink and numbered 4 in pencil. Enclosed within a beige cloth clamshell portfolio with gilt-lettered leather title label. Number 4 from an edition of 30.
Estimate
$15,000 - 25,000
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.
