Vicente Wolf’s Rare Photo Collection Featuring Works by Man Ray and Lee Miller Heads to Christie’s
The renowned interior designer’s stellar taste led him to assemble photographs by Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, and more
October will witness a stellar photograph offering through Christie’s New York in the form of both online and live auctions for decorator/author/designer Vicente Wolf’s collection, set for October 8–22 and October 22 at 11 am, respectively. “The Vicente Wolf Photography Collection” includes works by Alexander Rodchenko, Constantin Brâncusi, Man Ray, Lee Miller, and Diane Arbus. Wolf built his collection with help from a dream art advisor: Richard Avedon, considered one of the greatest photographers of the 20th century, whose photographs will also be in the sale.
Vicente Wolf is best known for pared-down, light filled interiors that avoid starkness through use of a few well-chosen older items such as antiques, ethnographic items, and personality-laced pieces collected while traveling. Cuban born, Wolf has been a fixture of the New York design scene since the 1970s. He opened his own practice in 1988 and a Manhattan showroom in 1999, and has written several books on interiors.
One of the prize pieces in the collection is Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother, which became a shorthand for the Great Depression and subsequently one of the most famous photographs taken in the 20th century. Wolf obtained the Lange masterpiece after a long hunt, knowing that this one was singular: “I had never seen mother’s thumb in the photograph and in going through and doing some research, I found out that Lange had edited out the thumb after the first few images were printed. I thought this was the perfect image to own of Dorothea Lange because A, of its uniqueness and B, because it made it just a little different than every other image that you see of Migrant Mother,” he said, continuing, “I think details like that bring an image back to the days when the original photograph was taken. There’s a relevance to the time and not just something that has traveled far away from when it originated.”
Other standouts from the sale: an Avedon triptych of composer Igor Stravinsky, a Man Ray portrait of Lee Miller, a portrait taken by Miller herself of a woman proposed to be Katja Krassin, and Brancusi’s Study of Danaide of 1913. And for those drawn to American-style star power, there is Marilyn Monroe on the cover of the first Playboy. The photographer is unknown, but the subject and the source double down together for a moment of “Boom!” within pop cultural standard bearing.
