Oct 20, 2022 - Sale 2618

Sale 2618 - Lot 254

Price Realized: $ 8,125
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 5,000 - $ 7,500
DIANE ARBUS (1923-1971)
Lucas Samaras, N.Y.C. Silver print, the image measuring 10 3/4 inches (25.4 cm.) square, the mount 20x15 inches (50.8x38.1 cm.), with a "Print by Diane Arbus" Estate stamp with an inventory number and Doon Arbus' signature in ink, and two Estate Copyright stamps with the date 1966 in ink on mount verso; accompanied by a certificate of authenticity written and signed by Doon Arbus. 1966

Provenance: The Estate of Mel Tomback (owner of Total Color printers in New York); to a Private Collection, New York

Total Color was a commercial printing firm that made some of the early offset lithographs for major artists in the 1960s. Examples of well-known works printed by Total Color include Andy Warhol's Flowers and Liz in 1964 and Roy Lichtenstein's Brushstroke and Shipboard Girl in 1965.

Total Color also did commercial work making catalogues, invitations, and other ephemera for some of the leading galleries in New York during the 1960s and 70s. They did work for Richard Feigan Gallery, Castelli Gallery, and Pace Gallery, which represented Lucas Samaras.

This image was also printed posthumously by Neil Selkirk in an edition of 75 which is in museum collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Morgan Library.

References: Arbus, Diane, "Not to Be Missed: The American Art Scene," Harper's Bazaar (July 1966), [p. 82]; Arbus, Doon, and Marvin Israel, ed., Diane Arbus: Magazine Work (Millerton, N.Y.: Aperture, 1984), p. 82; Diane Arbus: Revelations (New York: Random House, 2003), p. 179