A contact sheet from Julian Wasser’s shoot with Eve Babitz and Marcel Duchamp on October 12, 1963, at California’s Pasadena Art Museum (now the Norton Simon Museum), which was hosting the French artist’s first retrospective.
After exchanging her blouse and skirt for a smock, Babitz sat at the chessboard in the center of the room. She waited for Duchamp to appear, Wasser to set up. She chain-smoked, tried to fend off the panicked thoughts swarming her like bees (
More on this photograph)
Julian Wasser, American, b. 1938
Marcel Duchamp playing chess with Eve Babitz, c. 1964
Gelatin silver print
Image: 14.5 x 22 in. (36.83 x 55.88 cm.)
Private collection
Estimate for $500 - $700 in June 2019
Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, Futurism and conceptual art. He is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, as one of the three artists who helped to define the revolutionary developments in the plastic arts in the opening decades of the 20th century, responsible for significant developments in painting and sculpture. More on Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp
Eve Babitz (May 13, 1943 – December 17, 2021) was an American visual artist and author best known for her semi-fictionalized memoirs and her relationship to the cultural milieu of Los Angeles.
In 1963, her first brush with notoriety came through Julian Wasser's iconic photograph of a nude, 20-year-old Babitz playing chess with the artist Marcel Duchamp (See below) on the occasion of his landmark retrospective at the Pasadena Art Museum. The show was curated by Walter Hopps, with whom Babitz was having an affair at the time. The photograph is described by the Smithsonian Archives of American Art as being "among the key documentary images of American modern art". More on Eve Babitz
Julian Wasser began his career in photography in the 1950s as a teenager shooting crime scenes in Washington D.C., which he sold to The Washington Post. While working as a copy boy at the Washington bureau of the Associated Press he met Weegee and rode around with the legendary and unflinching press photographer. After university and military service Wasser settled in Hollywood and became a contract photographer for Time, Life and People Magazine. Like his mentor, Wasser has the knack for being in the right place at the right time, and his images possess a graphic bold punch. His photographs from 60s Los Angeles capture a seminal period in the L.A. art scene, groundbreaking musicians and nightclubs, the transition from classical to New Hollywood, and a volatile political and civil rights era. More on Julian Wasser
Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, Portrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, Art of the Nude and The Canals of Venice, Middle East Artists, 365 Saints, 365 Days, and Biblical Icons, also visit my Boards on Pinterest and my art stores at deviantart and Aaroko
Images are copyright of their respective
owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright
I don't own any of these images - credit is
always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without
your permission, please tell me.
Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting
expenses.
If you enjoyed this post, please share with
friends and family.
Thank you for visiting my blog and also for
liking its posts and pages.
Please note that the content of this post
primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources
online.
No comments:
Post a Comment