Imogen Cunningham (1883-1976)

Two Callas, c. 1929

Details

Imogen Cunningham (1883-1976)
Two Callas, c. 1929
gelatin silver print, mounted on board, printed c. 1955
signed and dated in pencil (mount, recto)
image/sheet: 11 7/8 x 8 7/8 in. (30.1 x 22.5 cm.)
mount: 19 7/8 x 15 in. (50.5 x 38.1 cm.)

Provenance

with Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York.

Literature

Film und Foto, Internationale Ausstellung des Deutschen Werkbundes, Stuttgart, 1929, p. 93.
Margery Mann, Imogen Cunningham: Photographs, University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1970, pl. 13.
Robert M. Doty, Photography in America, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1974, p. 124.
Lee D. Witkin, The Photograph Collector's Guide, New York Graphic Society, Boston, 1979, p. 7.
William A. Ewing, Flora Photographica: Masterpieces of Flower Photography 1835-present, Simon and Schuster, 1991, p. 24.
Richard Lorenz, Imogen Cunningham: Ideas without End: A Life in Photographs, Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 1993, fig. 40.
Richard Lorenz, Imogen Cunningham: Flora, Bulfinch, New York, 1996, pl. 10.
Barbara Haskell, The American Century: Art & Culture 1900-1950, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1999, p. 202, pl. 389.

Lot Essay

One of Cunningham's most celebrated and iconic images, Two Callas, was included in the important exhibitions Film und Foto in Stuttgart in 1929 and in Photography 1839-1937 at The Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1937.

According to Lee Witkin, 'For years, the negative of this, one of her most beautiful images, was misplaced. Cunningham discovered it again in 1973 and was able to make several prints of it before her death in 1976' (The Photograph Collector's Guide, p. 7).

It appears that only one other early, non-vintage print of this image has ever appeared at auction, in the sale of Photographs from the Collection of Joseph and Laverne Schieszler at Sotheby's, New York, October 10, 2005, lot 8.

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