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

Details

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.

Provenance

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

Literature

The New Yorker, November 1995, pp.130-83 (fig.1) & credit page.

Special Notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 15% on the buyer's premium

Lot Essay

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.

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