Le Duel (Work on Paper).
[Paris], circa 1956. Mixed media work on paper (19.75 x 23.75 inches) from famed fashion photographer Guy Bourdin; this instance expressing the motif of games and amusements that appears throughout his work (albeit, here, of the riskiest kind). Executed at the dawn of his decades-long collaboration with Vogue, these playful mixed media works display the Surrealist influence of Bourdin's mentor Man Ray, as well as the narrative instincts that would come to distinguish his visual style. Although the subject of solo exhibitions at Galerie de Beaune (1954), Galerie de Seine (1956), and New York's Peter Deitsch Gallery (1957), Bourdin's works on paper have yet to receive their due as foundational, pre-photographic moments in his oeuvre. Title supplied in pencil to verso; SIGNED (Guy Bourdin) to lower corner. Some creasing to corners with surface abrasions to the right figure's hat; nonetheless, a supremely charming example.
Item #32196
Price: $6,500.00