Lot 75
  • 75

Dora Maar

Estimate
50,000 - 70,000 USD
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Description

  • Dora Maar
  • SILENCE
  • gelatin silver print
  • 11 3/4 x 9 3/8 inches
photograph after a photomontage, the photographer's estate stamp and pencil sketches in an unidentified hand on the reverse, 1935-36

Provenance

Estate of the photographer

Piasa, Drouot Richelieu, Paris, Les Photographies de Dora Maar, 20 November 1998, Lot 119

Exhibited

New York, Dorsky Gallery, Dora Maar, Photographer, 2004

Literature

Mary Ann Caws, Picasso's Weeping Woman: The Life and Art of Dora Maar (Boston, 2000), p. 75

Condition

This print, on matte-surface, double-weight paper, is in generally excellent condition. Upon close inspection, a small crease breaking the emulsion is visible; it begins in the upper left margin edge and intrudes slightly into the image. In raking light, age-appropriate silvering in the black margin edges is visible. The margin edges are worn, and the margin corners are creased and bumped. On the reverse are detailed pencil sketches. The reverse is soiled.
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

Photomontage was a technique adopted by the Surrealists for its ability to create new realities, and Dora Maar used it to great effect.  In many of her photomontages, Maar repurposed subjects from her street photographs to produce novel compositions.   In the present work, three figures are set against the photographically inverted vaults of the Orangeries at Versailles.  These vaults were used in another of Maar’s famously disturbing images, The Simulator.  The present image’s inexplicably curved ‘floor,’ gravity-defying figures, and the ominous admonishment ‘Silence,’ inscribed upon the wall, combine to create an unsettling atmosphere.  This is an image of dreams, the sovereign domain of the Surrealists.      

During the 1930s, Maar created a number of memorable Surrealist images, including street scenes, portraits, and photomontage, among them the photograph offered here.  Her 1936 photograph of an armadillo fetus, Père Ubu, became a Surrealist icon.  All of these share Maar’s fascination with the unexplained and the unusual.  Maar was heavily involved in the Parisian art scene and was a vital participant in the inner circle of Surrealists that included André Breton, Paul Eluard, Georges Bataille, Georges Hugnet, and Man Ray, for whom she served as a model.