SMITH JACK The Beautiful Book

Sale 2103 - Lot 81

Price Realized: $ 40,800

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 15,000 - $ 25,000

SMITH, JACK The Beautiful Book. With 19 tipped-in black-and-white photographs, including pictures of future Warhol superstars Mario Montez and Frances Francine, each measuring 2 1/4 inches square (5.7 cm. square), comprising 18 by Smith, and a portrait of the artist by Ken Jacobs. Square 4to, silkscreened yellow wrappers after a design by Marian Zazeela; acetate outer wrapper. one of 200 copies. New York: Dead Language Press, 1962

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Additional Details

From the Claude Givaudan Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland; to a private European collector; to the consignor.

One of the seminal avant-garde artistic figures of the 1960s, Jack Smith influenced everyone from Andy Warhol to Cindy Sherman. Warhol bought his first movie camera in 1963 and openly mimicked Smith's filmmaking style, writing: "I went out to Old Lyme. . . Jack Smith was filming a lot out there and I picked something up from him for my own movies--the way he just kept shooting until the actors got bored. People would ask him what the movie was about and he would say things that sounded like a takeoff on the mad artist, such as, 'The appeal of an underground movie is not to the understanding' " Subsequently, Jack played the title role in Warhol's "Dracula" where, according to the filmmaker, he "really got into the part."

The Warhol connection continues with "The Beautiful Book," which features future Warhol superstars Mario Montez and Frances Francine. (Ironically, Smith called his actors "Superstars" long before the term was popularly recognized.)

Many of the photographs in the book reflect a wild eroticism that was also associated with Smith's performance works. The cover design was based on a sketch by artist Marian Zazeela, musician LaMonte Young's partner and collaborator, who also appears in a number of the images. The final portrait is a study of Smith by filmmaker Ken Jacobs.