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136

WILLIAM EGGLESTON (American, b. 1939) UNTITLED (SUMNER, MISSISSIPPI) signed

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WILLIAM EGGLESTON (American, b. 1939) UNTITLED (SUMNER, MISSISSIPPI) signed
WILLIAM EGGLESTON (American, b. 1939) UNTITLED (SUMNER, MISSISSIPPI) signed "Wm Eggleston" in pencil on verso edition stamp on verso "William Eggeston's Guide, c. 1972, printed 1986" stamped on verso dye-transfer print 13 5/8 x 20 13/16 in. (34.6 x 52.9 cm) circa 1972 printed 1986 this print is number 6 from an edition of 12 PROVENANCE Acquired directly from the artist by a Private Collector, CALIFORNIA LITERATURE John Szarkowski, WILLIAM EGGLESTON'S GUIDE, NEW YORK, 1976, p. 89 (illustrated) Hervé Chandès, WILLIAM EGGLESTON, Paris, 2001, pl. 26 (illustrated) In 1972, when Alfred H. Barr, Jr. was reviewing a selection of William Eggleston's photographs for the first time, he noted that most of the images seemed to radiate from a central core. Jokingly invoking his own southern roots, Eggleston replied, "That was true, since the pictures were based compositionally on the Confederate flag" (Quoted in Thomas Weski, "The Tender- Cruel Camera," WILLIAM EGGLESTON, exh. cat., Göteborg Museum of Art, 1999, p. 10). Like many of Eggleston's best pictures, the present work confirms Barr's astute observation. Here we witness a dining room table set for one. Despite the emphatic presence of the foreground plate, which rivets our attention with lurid shades of pink and green, this picture is actually rooted in the centralized stick of butter. All the other elements of this image - including the shining silverware, the blooming bouquet, and the slightly tilting doorframes - circulate around this unassuming centerpiece. "The main motifs of the photographs are indeed positioned centrally. In this respect they bear a resemblance to amateur snapshots that place their object of interest in the middle of the picture. Unlike them, however, Eggleston uses the entire picture plane for his compositions, with the result that what, at first glance, appears to be an incidental picture of everyday American life does in fact go much deeper" (Ibid., p. 11).
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