21
Richard Avedon
Marilyn Monroe, New York City, May 6
- Estimate
- $200,000 - 300,000
$250,000
Lot Details
Gelatin silver print.
1957
15 1/4 x 15 3/8 in. (38.7 x 39.1 cm)
Signed and numbered 1/4 in ink in the margin; signed, numbered 1/4 in pencil, title, date, copyright credit reproduction limitation and 'This print was made at the time the photograph was taken' stamps on the verso.
Specialist
Full-Cataloguing
Catalogue Essay
“‘For hours she danced and sang and flirted and did this thing that’s—she did Marilyn Monroe … Then there was the inevitable drop … she sat in the corner like a child, with everything gone.” And [Avedon] clicked his shutter once more. “I wouldn’t photograph her without her knowledge of it. And as I came with the camera, I saw that she was not saying no.” The resultant final frame is among the most famous portraits ever made—one that is, as the photographer Vik Muniz neatly put it, “a picture of Norma Jean, not Marilyn.”
-New York Magazine, 24 October 2007
-New York Magazine, 24 October 2007
Provenance
Literature
Richard Avedon
American | B. 1923 D. 2004From the inception of Richard Avedon's career, first at Harper's Bazaar and later at Vogue, Avedon challenged the norms for editorial photography. His fashion work gained recognition for its seemingly effortless and bursting energy, while his portraits were celebrated for their succinct eloquence. "I am always stimulated by people," Avedon has said, "almost never by ideas." Indeed, as seen in his portraits — whether of famed movie stars or everyday people — the challenge for Avedon was conveying the essence of his subjects. His iconic images were usually taken on an 8 x 10 inch camera in his studio with a plain white background and strobe lighting, creating his signature minimalist style. Avedon viewed the making and production of photographs as a performance similar to literature and drama, creating portraits that are simultaneously intensely clear, yet deeply mysterious.
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