From the Collection of Ron Slattery
Our February 21 sale of Photographs: Art & Visual Culture boasts a personal album compiled and sequenced by Vivian Maier. The album, consisting of 22 never-before-seen color photographs shot with a Rolleiflex in Maier’s inimitable visual style, documents her 1959 trip to Europe and Asia. The album is the first known appearance of vintage color work by Maier at auction.
Lot 228: Vivian Maier, a personal album of Maier’s trip to Europe & Asia compiled and sequenced by the artist, 22 Kodacolor prints, 1949. Estimate $10,000 to $15,000.
The Album
Maier’s artistic gifts are in abundant evidence as is her exploration of photography as a language. The pictures are sequenced so that dialogs are created between images: a bird’s eye view of a rural village is counterposed to a study of an older man in a beret, while a nearly silhouetted view of the Eiffel Tower is shown opposite from a view of a plaza that has been shot from above. Street scenes in an unidentified Asian location, including statuary and architectural elements, reveal her interest in representation as an abstract form, rendered in a distinctive poetic fashion.
Lot 228: Vivian Maier, a personal album of Maier’s trip to Europe & Asia compiled and sequenced by the artist, 22 Kodacolor prints, 1949. Estimate $10,000 to $15,000.
Pamela Bannos
In September 1959 Maier’s journey ended in Paris, France, where one of the photographs in the album, a national celebration hosted by President Charles DeGaulle honoring President Eisenhower, is vividly described in Pamela Bannos’ recently published book: Vivian Maier, A Photographer’s Life and Afterlife.
Throughout the day dignitaries were greeted by hundreds of thousands of well-wishers. At the Hotel de Ville Maier positioned herself from a unique vantage point. Bannos writes:
“… .plumed guards lined the opulent façade that featured bright white raised platforms. Narrow French and American flag-themed banners fronted the building, and the barricades held back thousands of onlookers… By the time the fleet of mounted guards and motorcycle brigades made its way there, she had scoped out the apartments at the opposite side of the plaza and figured out a way to access an optimal viewing position.” – Pamela Bannos, Vivian Maier, A Photographer’s Life and Afterlife
We are proud to offer this cache of images, which introduce a charming suffusion of color to the artist’s now well-known oeuvre.
Lot 228: Vivian Maier, a personal album of Maier’s trip to Europe & Asia compiled and sequenced by the artist, 22 Kodacolor prints, 1949. Estimate $10,000 to $15,000.
How to Bid
For more in our February 21 sale, browse the full catalogue.
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