Richard Avedon
Nastassja Kinski and the Serpent, Los Angeles, California

Nastassja Kinski and the Serpent, Los Angeles, California

© The Richard Avedon Foundation

Nastassja Kinski and the Serpent, Los Angeles, California
Nastassja Kinski and the Serpent, Los Angeles, California
ArtistAmerican, 1923–2004
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Nastassja Kinski and the Serpent, Los Angeles, California
Date1981
PlaceLos Angeles, California, United States
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 28 3/4 × 42 3/4 in. (73 × 108.6 cm)
 Frame: 40 3/4 × 54 × 1 1/2 in. (103.5 × 137.2 × 3.8 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase funded by Geary and Allison Broadnax, The Manfred Heiting Collection
Object number2002.2976
Not on view

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Department
Photography
Special Collections
Object Type
DescriptionGreat photographers occasionally make fresh images of mythical or biblical stories, such as that of Eve and the serpent. Staging two subjects so independently rich with evocative references, such as a beautiful naked woman and a large snake was complicated and took two hours, with Kinski lying on a cement floor and the snake trainer trying to drape the Burmese python across her body while staying out of the picture. Finally the snake moved toward her head, and Avedon captured the precise moment when it flicked its tongue toward her ear. Shot for Vogue after the release of Roman Polanski’s movie Tess, for which Kinski won a Golden Globe award, the picture became a poster that sold over two million copies.
ProvenanceArtist, New York; G. Ray Hawkins Gallery, Los Angeles.

Bought by Manfred Heiting from G. Ray Hawkins Gallery, Los Angeles.
Exhibition History“Made for Magazines: Iconic 20th-Century Photographs,” The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, February 9–May 4, 2014.
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