Lot 5

Property from the Sidney and Diana Avery Trust "Sid Avery was the master chronicler of the sunset years of the Golden Age of Hollywood. From 1946 to 1961, he shot over 350,000 images of Tinseltown's greatest stars for the most popular magazines of the day, including Look, The Saturday Evening Post, Silver Screen, and Collier's. A pioneer of a new style of Hollywood portraiture, his 'snapshots' offered a behind-the-scenes peak at the world's most beautiful people; a glimpse into the ordinary lives of the private, A-list elite." Ron Avery, Sid's son, expands on his father's legacy: "My father was also known as an innovator in his field. He came up with the technique of solarization used in motion picture film and he invented the first motion picture strobe that synced up with a film camera. Beyond that, though, he was the go-to photographer when it came to subjects who had a reputation for being difficult. What's interesting is that, in most cases, when he would shoot these subjects he encountered no difficulty at all, and that's a testament to my dad. He treated these stars like people and, as a result, they treated him in kind." Intimate depictions of some of the most notable Hollywood talents of the day were photographed by Sid Avery, including Frank Sinatra, Kirk Douglas, Audrey Hepburn, Rock Hudson, Sophia Loren, Jack Benny, Bing Crosby, Clark Gable, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, and Marlon Brando, among many others. In addition to his active work within the industry, Avery understood the need for preservation. "In 1982 he started the Hollywood Photographer's Archive: a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the work of the great Hollywood photographers...In 1987, Avery donated the Hollywood Photographer's Archive to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He then began the task of rebuilding the collection under the name, the Motion Picture and Television Archive, now known as mptvimages. It was at this time that Avery retired from advertising and began to focus on the archive full-time. Until his death in 2002, Avery worked tirelessly to develop the collection and his son has continued this legacy. Under Ron's ownership, mptvimages is today recognized as one of the greatest archives of Hollywood imagery, with a collection that represents over 60 photographers from around the world and includes over one million celebrity and entertainment-related images." (R. Avery and T. Nourmand, Sid Avery: The Art of the Hollywood Snapshot, London, England, 2012) Sid & Diana Avery at home in Sherman Oaks, CA 1981 © 1981 Ron Avery

Boris Lovet-Lorski (1894-1973)

'Cretan Dancer'

Details

Boris Lovet-Lorski (1894-1973)
'Cretan Dancer'
inscribed 'BORIS.LOVET-LORSKY. 1930' (on the base)
polished bronze
24½ in. (62.2 cm.) high on a 1¼ in. (3.2 cm.) wood base

Provenance

The artist.
Private collection, acquired from the above.
Private collection, by descent.
Sotheby's, New York, 24 May 1989, lot 228.
David Findlay Jr., Inc, New York, acquired from the above.
Acquired by the present owner from the above, 1990.

Lot Essay

In ancient Minoan culture, the bull was a subject of veneration and an important related ritual was bull-leaping, a tradition which was depicted in several Cretan fresco paintings still surviving to this day. In Cretan Dancer, Boris Lovet-Lorski reinterprets this ancient practice into a stylized art deco sculpture of sleek lines and high sheen. The present model is one of two versions of Cretan Dancer which Lovet-Lorski created; the other has the dancer balancing on her thigh rather than her head and toe atop the bull.

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