48

LUCAS SAMARAS (American, b. 1936) SAMARAS ALBUM, FRAME No. 2 exhibition label adhered to verso of fr

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:20,000.00 - 25,000.00 USD
LUCAS SAMARAS (American, b. 1936) SAMARAS ALBUM, FRAME No. 2 exhibition label adhered to verso of fr
LUCAS SAMARAS (American, b. 1936) SAMARAS ALBUM, FRAME No. 2 exhibition label adhered to verso of frame eighteen Polaroid (Polacolor and black and white) prints in frame 41/2 x 35/8 in. (11.4 x 9.2 cm) each 21/4 x 321/8 in. (54 x 81.3 cm) in frame 1969-1971 this work is unique ESTIMATE: $20,000-25,000 PROVENANCE The Pace Gallery, NEW YORK Galerie Renos Xippas, PARIS EXHIBITED MINnEAPOLIS, The Walker Arts Center, VANISHING PRESENCE, January 29-April 16, 1989 (and five other venues through June 17, 1990) LITERATURE Lucas Samaras, SAMARAS ALBUM: AUTOINTERVIEW, AUTOBIOGRAPHY, AUTOPOLAROID, New York, 1971, pp. 18-19 (illustrated) Adam D. Weinberg, VANISHING PRESENCE, Minneapolis, 1989, pp. 106-107, cat. no. 13 (illustrated) This is a unique example of the few compiled albums of Samaras' Autopolaroids. which were assembled, formatted and framed by Samaras as an artistic self-exploration. Samaras simultaneously became his own artist, model, audience and critic through these theatrical photographs taken in the privacy of his cluttered apartment. Samaras forces himself into a state of vulnerability, allowing the viewer to witness both his naked body and psyche. Due to the grid format, one might expect the piece to illustrate some sort of narrative, but instead the viewer is puzzled by the lack of sequence. The Polaroids make up one cohesive piece, but they are isolated from one another physically by deep cuts in the overmat. By drawing out the exposure time, we even see the artist embracing and interacting with himself, a disturbing reflection of his personal, and perhaps artistic, feeling of isolation. The whole project is "an atomization of body, self and world" (Ben Lifson, SAMARAS: THE PHOTOGRAPHS OF LUCAS SAMARAS, NEW YORK, 1987, p. 14). The unique nature of Polaroid photography allowed the artist full spontaneity, freedom, privacy and ease to execute this self-exploration. The album demonstrates the artist's mastery of this widely used medium. This work was a major inspiration for the concepts Samaras would later explore in his Photo-Transformations.