William Eggleston - Photographs New York Thursday, April 4, 2019 | Phillips

Photographs

New York Auction 4 April 2019

  • Literature

    Steidl, Morals of Vision: William Eggleston

  • Catalogue Essay

    Illustrated with eight original photographs, and produced to the highest bibliographic standards, Morals of Vision presents a unique format in which to view William Eggleston’s work. The quiet tone and deft sequencing of the book’s photographs create a meditative experience which is enhanced by the quality of the presentation. The book is the perfect showcase for a photographer who is undeniably contemporary, but whose creative roots are buried deep in the past.

    Morals of Vision is one of a quartet of artist-books of the photographer’s work published by Caldecott Chubb in the late 1970s, along with Election Eve (1977), Flowers (1978), and Wedgewood Blue (1979). Produced in a small edition of 15, and rarely seen on the market, it has since attained near-legendary status within Eggleston’s oeuvre.

    Additional editions of Morals of Vision are in the collections of The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

  • Artist Biography

    William Eggleston

    American • 1939

    William Eggleston's highly saturated, vivid images, predominantly capturing the American South, highlight the beauty and lush diversity in the unassuming everyday. Although influenced by legends of street photography Robert Frank and Henri Cartier-Bresson, Eggleston broke away from traditional black and white photography and started experimenting with color in the late 1960s.

    At the time, color photography was widely associated with the commercial rather than fine art — something that Eggleston sought to change. His 1976 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, Color Photographs, fundamentally shifted how color photography was viewed within an art context, ushering in institutional acceptance and helping to ensure Eggleston's significant legacy in the history of photography.

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122

William Eggleston

Morals of Vision

New York: Caldecot Chubb, 1978.
Eight chromogenic prints mounted to Johannot paper within the bound artist's book.
Varying dimensions from 6 x 9 in. (15.2 x 22.9 cm) to 7 x 10 in. (17.8 x 25.4 cm). One print 8 x 5 1/4 in. (20.3 x 13.3 cm).
Signed and numbered 2/15 in ink on the colophon. One from an edition 15 plus 4 lettered examples. Bound in gilt-lettered buckram and leather, with a matching slipcase.

Estimate
$65,000 - 75,000 

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Photographs

New York Auction 4 April 2019