Live Auction 7434Photographs
RICHARD AVEDON (1923-2004)
Lot 70

RICHARD AVEDON (1923-2004)

In Memory of the Late Mr. and Mrs. Comfort: A Fable in 24 Episode, 1995

Closed13 November 2007

Price Realised

GBP 19,700

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RICHARD AVEDON (1923-2004)
In Memory of the Late Mr. and Mrs. Comfort: A Fable in 24 Episode, 1995
Vermont: Cone Editions, 1998.
24 digital inkjet prints. Each signed and numbered '2/2' in pencil, portfolio, title, edition and copyright credit reproduction limitation stamps on verso. Each 19¾ x 16in. (50.1 x 40.7cm.) or reverse. Burgundy cloth clamshell box.

Gift of the artist to Jon Cone, owner and master printer of Cone Editions, c.1998;
acquired by present owner.

Specialist note

Death has been a consistent presence in Avedon's work -- his celebration of beauty and elegance balanced with images that tell of transience and mortality. Surely of relevance in tracing the roots of this insistent shadow were Avedon's very beginnings as a war-time naval photographer, making the functional record portraits of recruits that would all-too-frequently become memento mori. This remarkable suite of images for New Yorker magazine -- a grandiose and complex pictorial contrivance -- is a powerfully symbolic, elegiac alliance of the twin themes of ephemeral seductions and unarguable finality.

This portfolio was produced in a limited edition of 16 plus 2 printer's proofs. Additional images available upon request.