?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 4,000
INCLUDES AUTOBIOGRAPHY: "I HAVE NO TELEPHONE AND THINK I HAVE A VERY GOOD LIFE" O'KEEFFE, GEORGIA. Two items, each to her travel agent Donald Ferguson: Autograph Letter Signed * Small Photograph Signed. The letter, sending a 2-page summary of her personal details [presumably for use by his agency's publicists] in lieu of an interview, doubting that one day would be sufficient to view paintings in Taichung, expressing anxiety at meeting the other travellers, and in the biography (beginning at top of third page), mentioning some past and present exhibitions, describing her remote home, listing her favorite dog breed and composer, and describing some of her daily routine. 3 1/2 pages, 4to, onionskin or standard paper, written on rectos of separate sheets; ink received stamp at upper center on recto touching text, staple holes at upper left, faint staining at upper edge of second page, horizontal folds. The photograph, bust portrait of her looking into camera [for use in her passport]. Signed vertically in blank left margin. 2 1/2x2 1/2 inches. Abiquiú, 11 January 1959; Np, [1958]
"I just wrote these two pages of Biographical Data--if you want to call it that--throw it in the waste basket if you want to--I don't care. "I am very poor at interviews so let the others have that pleasure--I don't like it. Tell reporters I am deaf and will not have a hearing aid---or anything you wish. . . . "It seems rather foolish to go to Taichung just for a day. Looking at paintings takes time . . . . "I will see you the night of the 27th at 6:30. The idea of meeting the other 24 people makes me shiver a little."
"I was born in Wisconsin. "I am a painter--always have been. "I have had large retrospective exhibitions at the Chicago Art Institute, The Museum of Modern Art of N.Y. and at present have twelve paintings hanging at the Metropolitan Museum, N.Y. It is an exhibition of Fourteen Americans--from Colonial Times to today. I lived in N.Y. City from 1918 'till 1950 and had exhibitions almost every year. "Now I live in the country 100 miles from the railroad station--60 miles from an airport. I have no telephone and think I have a very good life. . . . "I have no radio--no television--but I have a very good Hifidelity setup. Monteverdi is my favorite composer. "I like my garden, my dogs: I prefer dark--black or blue--chows and I like to walk. "I usually get up before sunrise in the morning. When my city friends ask what I do evenings I always have to laugh--I work hard and I am usually so tired I have to go to bed. "I would rather live where I live than any other place I have ever seen. Maybe going 'round the world I may find something better, but I doubt it. . . ."
