Eric Chaim Kline, Bookseller - Old and Rare Books

Aaron Siskind Photogravures [WITH SIX SIGNED ORIGINAL PRINTS]

Siskind, Aaron

New York: The Limited Editions Club, [1990]. Limited edition. Loose leaf in clam shell box. 6/30. Small Atlas Folio (23 3/4 x 20 1/2"). [2] 6 plates. Original tan cloth clam shell box with black lettering on textured gray leather label, laid to cover. No. 6 of thirty copies, signed with title, date and number in pencil below images.

Six photogravures from hand rubbed plates on Richard de Bas paper (19 x 22"). Plates made by Paul Taylor from the original negatives, under the direction of Aaron Siskind, and printed by Claire Nelson Taylor. A total of 45 copies were produced, incl. sets for the archive, cancellation, BAT, printer's proofs (2), hors commerce (4), artist's proofs (6), and thirty numbered copies.

The abstract imagery in these six prints is reminiscent of Siskind's work in the 1940s. The photographs are taken at Providence 1986 (3), Vermont 1987 (2), Westport 1988 (1), indicated in pencil by Siskind below each plate. Fine condition. Item #54962

Siskind's prolific career spanned six decades and left its mark on both photography and painting. In 1932, at age twenty-nine, Siskind began his career as a photographer and spent the next nine years under the auspices of the New York Photo League, working on social documentary photography. Around 1940, Siskind made a shift toward abstraction and entered an art world populated by painters and sculptors. During the course of the decade, Siskind began to explore a vision that depended on the shallow plane, and utilized delicate, minimal designs. 'For the first time in my life subject matter, as such, had ceased to be of primary importance,' Siskind explained. 'Instead I found myself involved in the relationships of these objects, so much so that the pictures turned out to be deeply moving and personal experiences.' The photograph had become the object.' Siskind's style of gesture and nuance, a new form of visual calligraphy, dominated his work for the next forty years, and ran parallel to the developments of his colleagues, the abstract expressionists. Siskind was not only a critical figure in modern photography, but also influenced the work of painters of that period, including Willem De Kooning, Franz Kline, and Robert Rauschenberg." (PowerHouse Books).

Price: $6,500.00