LOT Phillips de Pury & Company  /  PHOTOGRAPHS PART II  / 

127

LEE FRIEDLANDER (American, b. 1934) EAST CHATHAM, NEW YORK signed copyright stamp on verso title...

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:4,000.00 - 6,000.00 USD
LEE FRIEDLANDER (American, b. 1934) EAST CHATHAM, NEW YORK signed copyright stamp on verso title...
LEE FRIEDLANDER (American, b. 1934) EAST CHATHAM, NEW YORK signed copyright stamp on verso titled, dated and numbered "E. Chatham 1974, 190-3" in pencil on verso vintage gelatin silver print 7 1/2 x 11 3/4 in. (19.1 x 29.8 cm) paper: 11 x 14 in. (27.9 x 35.6 cm) 1974 PROVENANCE From the artist to Fraenkel Gallery, SAN FRANCISCO Private Collection LITERATURE LEE FRIEDLANDER: PHOTOGRAPHS, NEW YORK, 1978, p. 51 (illustrated) The portraits of Lee Friedlander capture the raw essence of his subjects. Not only does he achieve this with friends like the present sitter, John Szarkowski, but he also captures the same truth with complete strangers. By making his subjects comfortable in their natural environment, Friedlander is able to bring out the unforeseen or untold. Friedlander's style, which builds on shadows and angles, adds drama and ambiguity to his pictures. In this portrait, the angled shadows draw the focus to Szarkowski, who then brings us in with his hand gesture. Even though we do not see his features up close, we find ourselves knowing the essence of his character. This may be enhanced by the fact that Szarkowski and Friedlander were good friends. Szarkowski was responsible for bringing Friedlander's work to public view in 1967, when the New Documents exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art displayed Friedlander's work alongside Diane Arbus and Garry Winogrand. As Szarkowski himself has explained, "Lee Friedlander's photographs are less radical and more beautiful, more open to revision and change, and filled with a sophisticated, affectionate, and playful homage to his peers of the past. His work constitutes both a personal definition of the current state of the art and an annotated history of its past triumphs" (MIRRORS AND WINDOWS, AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHY SINCE 1960, p. 24).
Sign In to Bookmark Lot