RICHARD AVEDON (1923-2004)

Marilyn Monroe, New York City, May 6, 1957

Details

RICHARD AVEDON (1923-2004)
Marilyn Monroe, New York City, May 6, 1957
gelatin silver print, printed 1980
signed, numbered '9/10' in ink, copyright credit reproduction limitation, title and date stamps (on the reverse of the flush-mount)
40 x 30in. (102 x 76.6cm.)

Literature

Avedon and Baldwin, Nothing Personal, Atheneum, 1964, n.p., variant; Avedon, Portraits, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1976, n.p.,variant; Avedon, An Autobiography, Random House, 1993, pl. 134; Livingston and Gopnik, Evidence, 1944-1994, Random House, 1994, p. 138, variant; Hambourg and Fineman, Richard Avedon Portraits, Harry N. Abrams, 2002, n.p., variant

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Lot Essay

Marilyn Monroe was an invention of hers. A genius invention that she created like an author creates a character. So when Marilyn Monroe put on a sequin dress and danced in the studio, I mean, for hours she danced, and sang, and flirted, and did this thing. There is no describing what she did. She did Marilyn Monroe. And then there was the inevitable drop because she was someone who went very high up and went way, way down. And when that night was over she sat in the corner like a child with everything gone. But I wouldn't photograph her without her knowledge of it. And as I came with the camera, I saw that she was not saying, 'No'. -Richard Avedon

The current lot is the largest size print of Marilyn. The tight vertical cropping emphasizes her presence.

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