Property from the Collection of Max Palevsky Max Palevsky (1924-2010) and Japanese Prints Like the protagonists of many "great American success" stories of the 20th century, Max Palevsky grew from humble beginnings into one of the foremost visionaries of his generation. Born in 1924 to Jewish parents who had recently emigrated from Eastern Europe, Palevsky was raised the youngest of three children in a gritty working-class neighborhood of Chicago. After graduating from public high school with a strong interest in science and mathematics, he enlisted as an electronics officer and meteorologist in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II, which afforded him both the opportunity to travel the world and finish his education. While in the army, Palevsky visited the Museum of Modern Art during a stop in New York. He was profoundly moved by the influential exhibition "What is Modern Architecture?" that would broaden his understanding of the relationship between art, architecture, design and science. The GI Bill enabled him to earn degrees in mathematics and philosophy from the University of Chicago in 1948, later described by Palevsky as "the crucial experience of my life" 1 and one that "gave me a notion of, and enthusiasm for, all that was out there in the world [and] of the limitless horizons of discovery."2 With his graduate education and strong understanding of symbolic logic, Palevsky accepted a teaching position at UCLA. In an event Palevsky described as a "happenstance," he attended a lecture at the California Institute of Technology by the prescient Hungarian-American mathematician John von Neumann (1903-1957) on the future possibility of "self-correcting" computers.3 Palevsky was so inspired that he promptly looked up "Computers" in a local telephone directory, quit his teaching job and joined what would become Bendix Corporation as one of the world's first computer designers. Later, Palevsky and a group of associates founded Scientific Data Systems (SDS), which introduced a variety of computers, among them a groundbreaking machine capable of processing data for both business and science. SDS was eventually sold to Xerox; the media at the time described Palevsky as a "founding genius." He retired as a director of Xerox in May 1972. In the following years, Palevsky increasingly turned his attention to his other passions: venture capitalism, politics, philanthropy and the arts. He became a director and board chairman of Rolling Stone magazine, which he rescued from financial ruin in 1970. Palevsky also supported a number of political candidates and became a strong supporter of campaign finance reform. Palevsky spent much of his time and energy creating three remarkable houses in California: a "stark yet grand" Palm Springs retreat designed by Craig Ellwood in 1968; a Spanish-Mediterranean villa on the bluffs of Malibu, configured by architect Joe Wieser in 1972 and renovated by renowned Italian designer Ettore Sotsass in 1984; and the 1985 remodel by architectural designer Coy Howard of a 1928 Spanish-Italian style residence in Beverly Hills.4 Max Palevsky collected Japanese prints for over thirty years. One of his first purchases was in the late 1970s, when he walked into Ronin Gallery in New York and bought two images from Yoshitoshi's series One Hundred Aspects of the Moon (1885-92). By the early 1980s, he had traveled to Japan and was buying ukiyo-e prints steadily at auction in New York, London and Paris. He was still buying at auction in 2002. There are few private collections with finer examples of rare eighteenth-century works by Harunobu and Utamaro. Palevsky purchased the glorious Needlework by Utamaro (lot 912) at the final dispersal of the magnificent collection assembled by the Paris jeweler Henri Vever (1854-1943). Palvesky preferred images of beautiful women, and he appreciated a glimpse of female flesh, Needlework being a classic example. In addition to erotica by Hokusai and Eisen (lots 920, 921), there are Kunichika's triptych of naked ladies in a bathhouse (lot 923), and Toyonobu's beauty slipping off her robe before she enters the bath (lot 898). His interest in Japanese prints coincided with his love of the American Arts and Crafts movement, notably his collection of Frank Lloyd Wright furniture and decorative arts. He displayed his Japanese prints, eight at a time, resting on two slanted wood ledges attached to a wall made of wood on one side of his bedroom in Beverly Hills, in a manner that resembles Wright's unbuilt design for the Japanese print collection of the Spaulding brothers in Boston and for the print viewing areas at Taliesin, Wright's home in Wisconsin. In 1988, Palevsky purchased Utamaro's pillar print, the Lovers Umegawa and Chubei (lot 909), that he knew had been owned by Wright. The print was one of a large group Wright gave William McFetridge (1870-1926) in 1926 as collateral for a loan of $5,000. The loan was never repaid, and the prints were auctioned by the estate of McFetridge's widow in 1969 by Parke Bernet for $108,675. The cover of the sale catalogue featured the image of Umegawa and Chubei. Twenty years later the print resurfaced at Christie's, New York, but was subjected to careful scrutiny because of its pristine colors. In the end, it was declared to be a "vamp" with reprinted colors, the legacy of a scandal that had ended Wright's career as a print dealer around 1920. Like Wright, Max Palevsky was receptive to the beauty of the design. Palevsky limited his collection to around fifty prints, selling the surplus or making donations to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He bequeathed his outstanding series of Hokusai Waterfalls to LACMA, which had exhibited his Japanese print collection in 2001. Twenty-eight of the remaining works are offered here. Notes: 1. Jennifer Leovy, "Pledge of $20 million from Max Palevsky to enhance residential life," The University of Chicago Chronicle, 13 July 2000. 2. "Palevskys donate another $5 million to University," The University of Chicago Chronicle, 14 March 1996. 3. Suzanne Muchnic, "Max Palevsky meticulously assembles a design trove to be given to LACMA," The Los Angeles Times, 14 December 2008. 4. Aaron Betsky, Three California Houses: Homes of Max Palevsky (New York: Rizzoli, 2003), 6. Property from the Collection of Max Palevsky

Okumura Masanobu (1686-1764)

Onoe Kikugoro as Soga no Goro, ca. 1747-50

Details

Okumura Masanobu (1686-1764)
Onoe Kikugoro as Soga no Goro, ca. 1747-50
Woodcut, handcolored (beni-e) and with faux-lacquer finish (urushi-e), of the actor Onoe Kikugoro (1717-1783) as Soga no Goro in the guise of an itinerant priest carrying a flute and domed straw hat, signed Hogetsudo shomyo kongen hashira-e Okumura Bunkaku Masanobu shohitsu (Genuine brush of Hogetsudo Tachosai originator of the pillar picture Okumura Bunkaku Masanobu), sealed Tanchosai--very good impression, good color though toned overall, repairs, reinforced with backing paper
hashira-e: 27.1.2 x 8 5/8in. (69.9 x 22cm.)

Exhibited

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1999; "The Max Palevsky Collection of Japanese Woodblock Prints," 2001.2.8-5.15

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Lot Essay

Sold in these Rooms, 4 December 1982, lot 955

For another impression in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (11.13340), access . For the example in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (74.1.50), see J[ack] R. Hillier, Catalogue of the Japanese Paintings and Prints in the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Richard P. Gale (London: Robert G. Sawers Publishing, 1970), pl. 50 or access . For two related prints of Kikugoro as a komuso, see Julia Meech and Jane Oliver, eds., Designed for Pleasure: The World of Edo Japan in Prints and Paintings, 1680-1860 (New York: Asia Society and Japanese Art Society of America in association with University of Washington Press, Seattle and London, 2008), figs. 45-46.

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