LOT Phillips de Pury & Company  /  PHOTOGRAPHS PART I  / 

29

RICHARD AVEDON (American, b. 1923) NOTO, SICILY signed copyright stamp on verso with

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RICHARD AVEDON (American, b. 1923) NOTO, SICILY signed copyright stamp on verso with
RICHARD AVEDON (American, b. 1923) NOTO, SICILY signed copyright stamp on verso with "neg. no. Unknown" inscribed below editioned, titled and dated "8/13, Sicily, 7.14.47" in pencil on verso gelatin silver print 6 x 6 in. (15.2 x 15.2 cm) paper: 14 x 11 in. (35.6 x 27.9 cm) 1947 printed 1962 this print is number 8 from an edition of 13 PROVENANCE From the artist to a Private Collection, NORTH AMERICA (since 1984) LITERATURE Richard Avedon and Truman Capote, OBSERVATIONS, New York, 1959, pp. 72-73 (illustrated) THE ART OF PHOTOGRAPHY, New York, 1971, p. 180 (illustrated) Richard Avedon and Harold Rosenberg, PORTRAITS, New York, 1976, n.p. (illustrated as frontispiece) Richard Avedon, AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY, New York, 1993, n.p., no. 174 (illustrated) Jane Livingston and Adam Gopnik, EVIDENCE 1944-1994, RICHARD AVEDON, NEW YORK, 1994, p. 71 (illustrated) Although Avedon escaped the studio atmosphere during a few brief trips to Italy in the later 1940s, the controlled style he was developing in the studio remained apparent in his photographs depicting the colorful characters of Italian street life. Here we see a young Sicilian boy, his chest puffed with pride as he poses for the photographer. Although this boy stands outside, the background seems to have been filtered out, almost as if he were standing in Avedon's studio in front of his signature white backdrop. The tree behind him is the only other presence in the photograph, yet it oddly resembles a cloud resulting from a nuclear explosion. Avedon served in the merchant marines through the end of the war, and nuclear weaponry was an issue at the forefront of the public mind. The juxtaposition of the endearing young boy standing in front of this object, whether recognized as a tree or a cloud of smoke, lends the composition an element of the surreal. It looks as though the "events were occurring in an unnatural brightness, a light created not from the physical presence of sunlight but from an imagined atmosphere of blank energy" (Livingston, EVIDENCE, p. 71). So this was Avedon's take on the golden age of American photojournalism. He asserted his control over the subject whether in the studio or in the streets. He had no interest in depicting "truth." His presence is always strongly reflected in his photographs. This photograph was included in his first retrospective book, OBSERVATIONS (1959), for which Truman Capote wrote a poetic text. The inclusion of some of these "alfresco" pictures is addressed as the result of the magical "Italian experience," when Avedon encountered romantic moments and colorful characters.
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