Correspondence and photographs from the New York art gallery. Max Hutchinson (1925-1999) operated three art galleries in Australia before launching his New York gallery circa 1969. In 1973, he arranged the sale of Jackson Pollock's "Blue Poles" to the National Gallery of Australia for $2,000,000, a record for a contemporary American artist, which sparked extensive public debate over modern art in Australia and beyond. This lot includes: Also, an artist correspondence file of about 50 items, including a few retained copies of Hutchinson's outgoing correspondence, plus letters and/or contracts from artists Ronald Bladen, David Budd, Miriam Sharon (a 14x19-inch letter on tracing paper with three photos laid down), John Mandel, Carol Haerer, Buffie Johnson, Nobu Fukui, Lila Katzen, Dean Fleming, and others--sometimes with crude sketches of their pieces. Sculptor James Surls writes circa 1978: "I understand that New York is supposed to be the big do-do, but none of it makes sense to me. I wouldn't take less than 50% on a piece of my art for King Kong himself. . . . Max, I got respect for you, because I know you love sculpture, and I never seen a art dealer tromp around in the mud to help an artist put up a piece of art. . . . I just don't believe all the crap about New York being the place."
