Richard Avedon
Jacob Israel Avedon, Sarasota, Florida

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Artist Richard Avedon (American, 1923–2004)American, 1923–2004

CultureAmerican

Titles

Jacob Israel Avedon, Sarasota, Florida

DateMay 15, 1971

PlaceSarasota, Florida, United States

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsImage: 6 1/4 × 6 3/16 in. (15.9 × 15.7 cm)
Frame: 14 1/4 × 11 1/4 in. (36.2 × 28.6 cm)

Credit LineThe Target Collection of American Photography, museum purchase funded by Target Stores

Object number80.28.3

Not on view

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Department

Photography

Special Collections

Target Collection of American Photography

Object Type

PHOTOGRAPHS

DescriptionRichard Avedon, one of the most influential fashion and portrait photographers of the 20th century, spent his career making photographs that celebrated youth and beauty, while exploiting the moment when his subjects dropped their guard to capture the vulnerability or the repulsion lurking just beneath surface. However, in this series of portraits made in the final years of his father’s life, nothing is guarded. Avedon applied his quintessential portrait formula—centered closely on the face of his sitter in a flat light against a simple backdrop, framed by the harsh black border of the negative—to his ill and aging father. Spanning less than four years, the photographs show his father’s frailty, waning energy, and resignation; in short, they are portraits not simply of Jacob Israel Avedon but of dying. Direct, aggressive, and heartbreaking, they force the viewer to confront the reality of impending death. Yet, a photograph also stops time, holding death at bay.
ProvenanceRichard Avedon Studio, New York; purchased by MFAH, 1980.
Exhibition HistoryExhibited "Target Collection of American Photography: A Century in Pictures",
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston December 3 - February 25, 2007
Austin Museum of Art May 19 - August 12, 2007
Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi June 5 - August 24, 2008
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

Signed in pencil over stamp, verso, center: "Avedon / 77"

Stamped in black, verso, center: "Jacob Israel Avedon, father of photographer / A portfolio of seven original prints, size 11 x 14 inches, / printed in an edition of ten / An exhibition of this work, in large scale, was originally / shown at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, / May 1 - June 16, 1974"

Stamped in black, verso, below: "This photograph may not be reproduced without / written permission of Richard Avedon / Copyright © 1974 by Richard Avedon / All Rights reserved / neg. no. 80 [inscribed in pencil] / edition of 10 [inscribed in pencil] number 5 [inscribed in pencil] / Jacob Israel Avedon, Father of Photographer / Sarasota 5.15.71"

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