Le Combat de Penthésilée II, 1937

Details

RAOUL UBAC (1910-1985 Belgian)
Le Combat de Penthésilée II, 1937
gelatin silver print
credited, titled, numbered '2' and annotated 'état définitif collage/cliché disponible/état non solarisé' by artist, 'cat.rais no.80' by Christian Bouqueret in ink/pencil on verso
6 5/8 x 9 1/8in. (16.8 x 23.1cm.)

Provenance

From the artist;
by descent to his family;
acquired by present owner, Christian Bouqueret, 1999.
Bouqueret is a known Ubac scholar and author of the 2000 catalogue raisonné.

Literature

'Corpus Delicti', Krauss & Livingston, L'Amour Fou, Abbeville, 1985, pp.71-73, for other images in the series; Bouqueret (ed.), Raoul Ubac Photographie, Léo Scheer, 2000, pp.92-93, no.80; Begierde im Blick Surrealistische Photographie, Hamburg Kunsthalle, 2005, p.129.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

Ubac's series of complex photomontages were created in stages. Starting off with multiple shots of the same nude, Ubac would re-photograph and montage different fragments until he achieved a final grouping, repeating the process many times over. In this highly experimental process, Ubac would apply various photographic techniques, including solarisation. The resulting images would read as a 'kind of optical corrossion...a violent deliquescence of matter...' (Krauss, p.70)

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