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

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Images(2)

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

Manfred Heiting Collection of Photography

Object Type

PHOTOGRAPHS

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.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

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