?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,500 - $ 3,500
(DE KOONING, WILLEM) (1904-1997) Mini-archive of wonderful pre-war snapshots depicting de Kooning, Juliet Browner (later Juliet Man Ray), and Robert Jonas in the bohemian art community known as The Hamptons, on Long Island, New York. With 28 vintage prints of a young de Kooning and his colorful friends that include double exposures, extreme close-ups, arty compositions, humorous tableaux, gouache highlights, and a bit of cross-dressing; plus 6 prints from the 1960s either by or depicting Jonas. Silver prints, 2 1/4 inches square to 2 1/4x3 1/2 to 4 1/2x3 3/4 inches (5.7x5.7 to 5.7x8.9 to 11.4x8.3 cm.), with 30 small-format negatives. 1930s-60s
A fun and intimate collection of marvelous vernacular photographs in which the "players" are, today, well-known artistic figures. De Kooning is depicted in many of the photographs, but two, in particular, are noteworthy since they are highlighted with an artful gouache overlay that recalls the Abstract Expressionist's iconic gestural paintings.
From the estate of Robert C. Jonas (1902-1989), an illustrator who met the young and yet unknown emigre Willem de Kooning in the 1930s, when he was artistic director at Penguin Books. After de Kooning left the publisher in 1937, Jonas took the job and, in the 1940s, secured freelance commissions for numerous American authors. The Jonases and de Koonings remained friendly for decades.
