Lot 55
- 55
Irving Penn
Estimate
50,000 - 70,000 USD
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Description
- Irving Penn
- 'MUD GLOVE, NEW YORK' (IN 4 PARTS)
- Edition 12 of 15
- Four platinum prints
oversized, a composition of 4 platinum-palladium prints, each signed, titled, dated, editioned '12/52,' and annotated in pencil, and stamped on the reverse, mounted to one board, framed, Buhl Collection and Guggenheim Museum exhibition labels on the reverse, 1975, no. 12 in the total edition of 52 of this image in various formats, one of only 15 in this oversized four-print format in platinum metals
Provenance
Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York, 1993
Exhibited
New York, Thread Waxing Space, Collection in Context: Selected Contemporary Photographs of Hands from the Collection of Henry M. Buhl, September - October 1996, and 8 other national and international venues through 1999 (see Appendix 1)
New York, Guggenheim Museum, Speaking with Hands: Photographs from The Buhl Collection, June - September 2004, and 4 other international venues through 2007 (see Appendix 1)
West Palm Beach, Norton Museum of Art, A Show of Hands: Photographs and Sculpture from the Buhl Collection, January - March 2008
Seoul, South Korea, Daelim Contemporary Art Museum, Speaking with Hands: Photographs from The Buhl Collection (Asian tour), March - May 2009, and 2 other Asian venues through 2011 (see Appendix 1)
New York, Guggenheim Museum, Speaking with Hands: Photographs from The Buhl Collection, June - September 2004, and 4 other international venues through 2007 (see Appendix 1)
West Palm Beach, Norton Museum of Art, A Show of Hands: Photographs and Sculpture from the Buhl Collection, January - March 2008
Seoul, South Korea, Daelim Contemporary Art Museum, Speaking with Hands: Photographs from The Buhl Collection (Asian tour), March - May 2009, and 2 other Asian venues through 2011 (see Appendix 1)
Literature
Marianne Courville, Collection in Context: Selected Contemporary Photographs of Hands from the Collection of Henry M. Buhl (New York, 1996), pl. 3 (this composition)
Jennifer Blessing, Speaking with Hands: Photographs from The Buhl Collection (Guggenheim Foundation, 2004), pp. 131 and 238 (this composition)
Colin Westerbeck, ed., Irving Penn: A Career in Photography(The Art Institute of Chicago, 1997), p. 79
Jennifer Blessing, Speaking with Hands: Photographs from The Buhl Collection (Guggenheim Foundation, 2004), pp. 131 and 238 (this composition)
Colin Westerbeck, ed., Irving Penn: A Career in Photography(The Art Institute of Chicago, 1997), p. 79
Merry A. Foresta and William F. Stapp, Irving Penn: Master Images 🌜(Washington, D. C.: National Museum of American Art and National Portrait Gallery, 1990), pl. 52
Irving Penn, Still Life (Boston, 2001), unpaginated
Condition
Though this 4-part work has not been removed from its frame, it appears to be in generally excellent condition. As is typical of these works, there is a slight waviness in the sheets of paper because of the way they have been mounted.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.
Catalogue Note
Irving Penn began his career at Vogue making still life images, and this genre remained a constant within his oeuvre to the end of his life. Unique among photographers of his day, Penn had a penchant for including detritus within his carefully constructed compositions: for instance, the scattering of pills, loose tobacco from a broken cigarette, and a stray hairpin in Theater Accident (1947); cherry stems and partially-eaten bread in New York Still Life; and dirty plate and utensils, crumbs, and crumpled napkin in The Empty Plate (1947), among others.
Penn made detritus primary subject matter in the early 1970s with his Cigarette series, and it reached its ultimate expression in the Street Material series, from which Mud Glove, New York, comes. These pictures were executed by Penn, after lengthy experimentation, in the platinum-palladium process only. Seemingly unimportant as subject matter, the photographer’s found objects are richly rendered in their detail and tonal range and have become monumental objects reminiscent of classical architectural or sculptural fragments. In his introduction to Irving Penn: Photographs in Platinum Metals—Images 1947-1975, John Szarkowski addressed Penn’s choices of images to be printed in platinum:
‘In Penn’s case, one might guess that he has only rarely enjoyed more than a cursory interest in the nominal subjects in his pictures. For him the true subject has been not haute couture or cuisine, but line, tone, shape, and pattern, and the photographic intuition that will define their just relationship.’
This four-part image of Mud Glove served as the entrance poster for the Irving Penn: Street Material, Photographs in Platinum Metals, 1975-76 exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, in 1977 (cf. Passage, p. 233).
Penn made detritus primary subject matter in the early 1970s with his Cigarette series, and it reached its ultimate expression in the Street Material series, from which Mud Glove, New York, comes. These pictures were executed by Penn, after lengthy experimentation, in the platinum-palladium process only. Seemingly unimportant as subject matter, the photographer’s found objects are richly rendered in their detail and tonal range and have become monumental objects reminiscent of classical architectural or sculptural fragments. In his introduction to Irving Penn: Photographs in Platinum Metals—Images 1947-1975, John Szarkowski addressed Penn’s choices of images to be printed in platinum:
‘In Penn’s case, one might guess that he has only rarely enjoyed more than a cursory interest in the nominal subjects in his pictures. For him the true subject has been not haute couture or cuisine, but line, tone, shape, and pattern, and the photographic intuition that will define their just relationship.’
This four-part image of Mud Glove served as the entrance poster for the Irving Penn: Street Material, Photographs in Platinum Metals, 1975-76 exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, in 1977 (cf. Passage, p. 233).