Nastassja Kinski and the Serpent, Los Angeles, California, June 14, 1981

Details

RICHARD AVEDON (1923-2004)
Nastassja Kinski and the Serpent, Los Angeles, California, June 14, 1981
gelatin silver print
signed and numbered '87⁄200' in pencil (verso)
image: 32 5⁄8 x48 7⁄8 in. (82.8 x 124.1 cm.)
sheet: 34 5⁄8 x 51 ¾ in. (87.9 x 131.4 cm.)
This work is number eighty-seven from an edition of 200.

Provenance

Donated by The Richard Avedon Studio for the Elton John Aids Foundation, Art Auction, May 1996, lot 1;
acquired from the above sale by the present owner.

Literature

Richard Avedon, Evidence 1944-1994, Random House, New York, 1994, p. 162. 
Helle Crenzien et al., Richard Avedon Photographs 1946-2004 , Humlebæk: Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2007, p. 23.

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

When you look at the photograph it all looks so easy. She spent two hours on a cement floor naked. The snake was going up on her shoulder and toward her face... She rose to the moment, I rose to the moment, the snake rose to the moment. And it was one of those absolutely magical things that happen when nothing you planned could equal the random accident of something beautiful.
RICHARD AVEDON

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