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DORA MAAR, (French, 1907-1997), ASSIA EN MASQUE BLANC SUSPENDUE À UN ANNEAU, "Dora Markowitch" in...

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:8,000.00 - 12,000.00 USD
DORA MAAR, (French, 1907-1997), ASSIA EN MASQUE BLANC SUSPENDUE À UN ANNEAU,  Dora Markowitch  in...
DORA MAAR
(French, 1907-1997)
ASSIA EN MASQUE BLANC SUSPENDUE À UN ANNEAU
"Dora Markowitch" inscribed and
"DM 1998" stamped on verso
gelatin silver print mounted on board
133/8 x 51/2 in. (34 x 14 cm)
mount: 1911/16 x 153/4 in. (50 x 40 cm)
circa 1934
ESTIMATE: $8,000-12,000
<p>PROVENANCE
From the Estate
Piasa, Drouot Richelieu, PARIS, "Les Photographies de Dora Maar,"
November 20, 1998, Lot 58
Private Collection, EUROPE
<p>EXHIBITED
MUNICH, Haus der Kunst, DORA MAAR, October 13, 2001-January 6, 2002 (then traveling to Musée de Marseille and Centre Cultural Tecla Sala through July 15, 2002)
<p>LITERATURE
SECRETS DE PARIS, no. 9, January 1935 (illustrated)
Mary Ann Caws, PICASSO'S WEEPING WOMAN: THE LIFE AND ART OF DORA MAAR, London, Bulfinch Press, 2000, p. 34 (illustrated)
Victoria Combalia and Hubertus Gassner, eds., DORA MAAR, Munich, Haus der Kunst exh. cat., 2001, p. 214, cat. no. 146 (illustrated)
DORA MAAR: BATAILLE, PICASSO ET LES SURRÉALISTES, Marseille, Musée de Marseille exh. cat., 2002, p. 188 (illustrated)
DORA MAAR: LA FOTOGRAFIA, PICASSO Y LOS SURREALISTAS, Barcelona, Centre Cultural Tecla Sala exh. cat., 2002, p. 188 (illustrated)
Widely known as Picasso's model and lover, Dora Maar (born Henrietta Theodora Markovitch) was also a celebrated photographer and painter who produced the heart of her photographic work between 1931 and 1943. Running a studio in partnership with Pierre Kéfer from 1931 to 1934, she established herself as an advertising and portrait photographer. Mary Ann Caws suggests that the present work was created for an erotic review such as BEAUTÉ ET SEX APPEAL, rather than a conventional fashion magazine. Confirming this opinion, the 2002 Musée de Marseille exhibition catalogue illustrated a January 1935 spread from SECRETS DE PARIS, which included this image.
Surrealist elements consistently appeared in Maar's photographs, even in her commissioned work. Here, for example, Assia, the celebrated model of the French Surrealists, poses in nothing but a mask, a prop commonly used in Surrealist circles.