Jun 25, 2020 - Sale 2539

Sale 2539 - Lot 29

Price Realized: $ 1,062
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
LOUISE NEVELSON
Jungle Figures.

Aquatint and etching on cream wove paper, circa 1955. 602x480 mm; 23 1/2x18 7/8 inches, full margins. Artist's proof, aside from the edition of approximately only 20. Signed and titled "Night Figures" in pencil, lower margin. A brilliant, early, richly-inked proof, before the burnishing and lightening of the figures and with crisp, inky plate edges.

Ex-collection Albert Argentieri, New Jersey, friend of the artist; thence by descent, private collection, New Jersey. During the 1950s and 1960s, Argentieri, a photographer and artist, lived near Louise Nevelson and her assistant, Ted Haseltine, his dear friend. Albert photographed Louise, her artworks and sculptures. When staying in New Jersey, both Albert and Ted would collect wooden pieces from abandoned buildings and other locations for Nevelson to use in her sculptures. The early etchings and drawings she gifted to Argentieri are unique (see lots 28-37).

According to Baro, "In Jungle Figures Nevelson etched cloth patterns onto the plate, making her points of reference still more ambiguous and mysterious." Baro 10.