?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
SAM WAGSTAFF (1921-1987)
Letters of the famed curator and collector to his partner, in the years before he met Mapplethorpe. Approximately 224 letters from Wagstaff to David Hutchison, most of them Autograph Letters Signed as "S" or "Sam," most with original mailing envelopes, plus 8 personal photographs and miscellaneous ephemera, 1.3 linear feet; generally minimal wear.
Samuel Jones Wagstaff Jr. was an influential museum curator in the 1960s, became a pioneering collector of fine art photography in the 1970s, and is best known today for his long relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. Most of these letters were written by Wagstaff while he was curator of contemporary art at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, CT through 1968, and then at the Detroit Institute of Arts from 1968 to 1971.
The recipient of the letters was David J. Hutchison (1943-1993), who was staying at the New York YMCA when the correspondence begins in 1964. Hutchison joined the Army in April 1966 (drafted?), and many of the letters date from the two-year period of his enlistment. He served as a private in the United States Medical Training Center at Fort Sam Houston in Texas, and then at the Kimbrough Army Hospital in Maryland. The correspondence ends with a few postcards and letters dated 1970, when Hutchinson was in New York.
The earliest dated letter is from 20 April 1964, when the pair were still getting to know each other. Wagstaff sent some reading material, "thinking that you should at least get with art a bit (& also to blow my own horn--curators sometimes have more or bigger egos even than actors)." On 29 April 1964 he wrote: "I'm sorry it always has to be so frantic, rushing to & from somewhere. Perhaps one day (if we still speak to each other, we'll be able to sit down & relax & even read a book in each other's presence. What a strange life. Does one ever really get together with someone? At least it's worth trying?"
Writing on 9 September 1964 from Italy, where Hutchison was preparing to meet him: "Have my smelly cologne in the bag but haven't had a chance to use it yet--afraid it may attract too many Italians. . . . It might make things easier for you if you change about $10 into Italian money before you leave. There's a place in Rockefeller Center (& stay away from those upper floors)." On 20 October 1964 he wrote from Venice: "Even Sir John Gielgud is staying at the hotel (with a rather oily looking cutie, they go out to the beach)."
Wagstaff often references his curatorial career and art world connections, such as a dinner given for him by Peggy Guggenheim (20 October 1964). On 2 February 1965 he wrote: "Today work on the portfolio--took it to Jasper Johns & Bob Rauschenberg & Ellsworth Kelly, all of whom said it was very beautiful. Kelly is giving me a large very fine color litho which we will have in our apartment." His 23 February 1965 letter is on Wadsworth Atheneum letterhead. He describes an Atheneum exhibition on the verge of opening, 28 June 1966: "The show is about finished & looks very colorful. . . . The blouse looks great, so does the juicer as the jewel of the 2 Warhols. I must get Andy to make me 2 more." He describes his reaction to hearing the first Velvet Underground record on 5 September 1966.
The letters suggest a relationship which was stable and deeply affectionate. On 26 June 1966, Wagstaff wrote "You're so much with me, Snooky, so close, so often. . . . I hope you will always share my successes & failures, & I will want to be part of yours." Almost all of the letters are accompanied by their original mailing envelopes, which Wagstaff often filled with ticket stubs, clippings, vintage postcards, and other odd bits of ephemera. He sometimes assembled them into rough collages, most notably on Valentine's Day in 1968 when he formed a mass of red ticket stubs into a rough heart shape.
One oddity is a letter sent by young Wagstaff from summer camp to his mother circa 1929, in which he carefully preserved a mosquito carcass for her amusement. Among the loose printed ephemera (which may or may not have come from Wagstaff) are three issues of the almost text-free counter-culture "Balloon Newspaper" established in 1968.
The 8 photographs include a Kodak contact print sheet showing 30 portraits of a suited Wagstaff; a snapshot of Wagstaff at Jones Beach, NY in June 1966; a shot of three men at the beach, one of them nude; 2 shots of a young uniformed soldier at Fort Sam Houston in May 1966 (presumably Hutchison); and a shot of Wagstaff in army uniform captioned "VJ Day at the Plaza."
Wagstaff met photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in 1972, who inspired him to become a tremendously influential collector of photography. He became Mapplethorpe's early patron and they shared a close relationship until Wagstaff's death from AIDS in 1987.
The final item in the collection is a printed invitation to a black-tie event, presumably sent to Hutchison: "Robert Mapplethorpe and Sam Wagstaff invite you to a party." Wagstaff has added in manuscript "And Bob too!" Wagstaff moved to this One Fifth Avenue address in 1975; the Wednesday 9 February date could be either 1977 or 1983.
