?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 25,000 - $ 35,000
CARRIE MAE WEEMS (1953- ) Mirror, Mirror.
Gelatin silver print on the printed text mount, 1987. 610x508 mm; 24x20 inches. Special edition, printed in 2008, aside from the four artist's proofs and edition of 5. Signed, dated "2008" and inscribed "Special Edition" in ink, verso.
From the Ain't Jokin', 1987-1988 series, a group of 6 photographs. This later printing is in a larger format than the 1987 edition, which was 20x16 inches.
Kathryn E. Delmez describes this important, early series as examining "humor as a socially acceptable way to promote officially unacceptable ideologies through unflinching pairings of stage photographs with racist jokes, ideas or phrases." In Mirror, Mirror, Weems includes herself in the tension between the image and the text below and challenges the viewer.
This is the first time this significant photograph by Carrie Mae Weems has come to auction individually. Another print of Mirror, Mirror is in the collection of the International Center of Photography, New York. Delmez fig 2.1; pp. 62-63.
