André Kertész
1923
Tree study against a riveted metal tank, Hungary

Gelatin silver print
2 3/4 x 1 1/2 ins (5.7 x 3.8 cm)
 
Swann Galleries - New York
Fine Photographers, 19 February 2015, Sale 2374, Lot 26
 
An early, lyrical vintage print that foreshadows Kertész's interest in modernist urban abstraction.
 
According to Kertész expert and historian Robert Gurbo, "This print, along with a number of others had rested in an unassuming corner of André's apartment for many years in stacks of small negative boxes that had once held his 4x5-inch glass plates from the 1920s-30s.
 
These prints and negatives form the core of one of the great photographic archives of the 20th century. And, like so many other important works of art, they did not emerge unscathed from the two world wars.
 
Many photographs that André created while he was a soldier during World War I did not survive. André claimed that they had disappeared or were destroyed while he was separated from his company after being wounded and after his fellow soldiers had later been captured. These and others of André's artworks barely survived World War II.
 
When André and his wife Elizabeth left Paris for America in 1936, he left many negatives and prints behind with a journalist and colleague, Jacqueline Paouillac. Acting as his agent, she continued to make André's material available to the European market."
 
LL/57655