Lot 141
  • 141

Raoul Ubac

Estimate
150,000 - 250,000 USD
bidding is closed

Description

  • Raoul Ubac
  • la triomphe de la stérilité ou penthesilée
  • Gelatin silver print
oversized, inscribed to André Breton in ink and blindstamped ‘2/10’ and ‘R 37’ on the image, mounted, signed, dated, and numbered ‘2/10' and ‘120’ in ink and inscribed [illegibly] in pencil on the mount, 1937

Provenance

The collection of André Breton, Paris
Calmels Cohen, Paris, André Breton, 42, rue Fontaine, 15 April 2003, Lot 5062

Literature

Minotaure, No. 10, Winter 1937, p. 38
Raoul Ubac 1910-1985 (Eupen, Belgium, 1996), p. 59
Gérard Durozoi, Histoire du movement surréaliste (Paris, 1997), p. 247
Christian Bouqueret, Raoul Ubac: Photographie (Paris, 2000), cover and pp. 67 and 252

Condition

This photograph is on double-weight paper with faintly iridescent surface. The tonality is very slightly, pleasingly, warm. There is appropriate silvering in the print's dark areas. When viewed in raking light, several spots of original retouching can be seen – but these are unobtrusive. In short, there is nothing to diminish the overwhelmingly fine appearance of this large early print. The print is mounted on heavy cream-colored paper. The mount shows some minor age-darkening and occasional soiling.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

The Belgian artist Raoul Ubac’s approach to photography was highly experimental.  Using a wide array of techniques, Ubac created images that looked like no other work of his time.  Foremost among these are the photographs from his Penthesliée series, inspired by Greek mythology, specifically the story of Penthesilea, warrior-queen of the Amazons.  The print offered here comes from this series, in which each image was the result of labor-intensive, multiple courses of solarization, photomontage, and other techniques.  Images from this series typically depicted abstracted female forms clashing, or sometimes melding, together in configurations that are either violent or erotic, or both simultaneously.  The large, bravura exhibition print offered here demonstrates not only the range of Ubac’s creative vision, but also his virtuosity in the darkroom. Living in Paris in the 1930s, Ubac became a part of the Surrealist circle of artists; his work was featured in the Surrealist publication Minotaure to accompany writing by his contemporaries, including the founder of the Surrealist movement, André Breton, from whose collection this photograph originally comes. 

This photograph was given by Raoul Ubac to Breton in 1937.  Breton was a significant influence upon Ubac, who cited his reading of Breton’s first Surrealist Manifesto as ‘a revelation and a calling’ (Coke, Photography: A Facet of Modernism, p. 186).  Ubac inscribed the print as follows: ‘Á André Breton, cette photo -- issue indirectement de “vases communicants” -- comme témoignage de mon admiration.’  Ubac’s inscription refers to Breton’s 1932 book, Les Vases Communicant. The underlying thematic motif of Breton’s book is that of the scientific apparatus, communicating vessels: two containers, connected by a small passageway, in which fluids will settle to the same level.  Breton believed that the surreal, nighttime world of dreams could be balanced in a similar way with the daytime world of fact, and that this equalization would unlock the creative act. 

Ubac’s career as a photographer was relatively short.  He gave up photography completely in 1945.  Consequently, surviving prints, especially large exhibition prints such as the one offered here, are scarce.