Oct 17, 2014 - Sale 2361

Sale 2361 - Lot 121

Price Realized: $ 20,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 20,000 - $ 30,000
HORST, HORST P. (1906-1999)
"Still Life--N.Y." Platinum-palladium print, 17 3/4x14 inches (45.1x35.6 cm.), with Horst's signature, in pencil, on recto, and with his signature, in pencil, and the title, date, printing notations, and edition notation A/P, also in pencil, in R.J. Horst's hand, all on verso. 1937; printed 1980s
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Additional Details

From the Collection of the Herb Ritts Foundation.

Horst Paul Albert Bohrmann, who renamed himself Horst P. Horst (1906-1999), moved to Paris in the 1920s, and studied with the renowned architect Le Corbusier. Subsequently he met Baron George Hoyningen-Huene, a photographer for Vogue, and became his lover and photographic assistant. Soon after, the young artist struck out on his own and developed a unique style of fashion photography.
In 1937 Horst was introduced to Coco Chanel and subsequently photographed her fashions for over three decades, along with those by designers Balenciaga, Mainbocher, and other glamorous figures of Parisian couture. The editorial images he created for Vogue are associated with a formal perfection in which art and commerce seamlessly merge.
Horst was also a successful portraitist and still life photographer, whose alluring images reflected avant-garde aesthetics. Some of his artworks may even be characterized as Surrealist, especially those in which he was influenced by the artist Salvador Dali. (See lots 107-109.) In this iconic study, which uses simple forms and artificial light (Horst's preferred mode of illumination), each of the geometric objects is lit with trademark precision. The compositional arrangement is mysterious, demonstrating how classical and contemporary modes of expression collide and converge.