The early exhibition print offered here was shown in Post War European Photography at The Museum of Modern Art in 1953, curated by Edward Steichen. The exhibition served to demonstrate how European photographers rebounded from the deprivations of the second World War, and constituted a ‘sampling of important work rather than an all-inclusive survey,’ according to the press release. Steichen selected 22 photographs by Robert Frank, taken in Spain, London, and Wales. While Frank’s photographs had been exhibited at MoMA previously, this was the largest showing of his work to-date.
Installation view of Robert Frank’s photographs in Post War European Photography at The Museum of Modern Art, 1953 As is typical of photographs shown at MoMA in the 1950s, this print is flush-mounted to Masonite and has blackened edges. Steichen preferred this mounting style for his exhibitions, as it gave the prints a three-dimensional presence on the wall not typically associated with photographs, and obviated the need for conventional matting and framing.
Signed Museum of Modern Art exhibition label on the reverse of the photograph. 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.
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Provenance
Swann Auction Galleries, New York, 18 April 2019, lot 149
Exhibited
Postwar European Photography, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 26 May - 23 August 1953, and travelling to other venues
Artist Biography
Robert Frank
Swiss • 1924
As one of the leading visionaries of mid-century American photography, Robert Frank has created an indelible body of work, rich in insight and poignant in foresight. In his famed series The Americans, Frank travelled the United States, capturing the parade of characters, hierarchies and imbalances that conveyed his view of the great American social landscape.
Frank broke the mold of what was considered successful documentary photography with his "snapshot aesthetic." It is Frank's portrayal of the United States through grit and grain that once brought his work to the apex of criticism, but has now come to define the art of documentary photography.
PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF INGER AND OSBORN ELLIOTT
254
Idyll in the Woods, Spain
1951
Gelatin silver print, printed no later than 1953.
13 3/4 x 9 1/4 in. (34.9 x 23.5 cm)
Signed in ink on The Museum of Modern Art exhibition label on the reverse of the Masonite flush-mount.
Estimate
$7,000 - 9,000
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.
