Joel-Peter Witkin ‘Leda’ Signed Exhibit Invitation Card, 1986
Joel-Peter Witkin, 1939 (New Mexico, USA) ‘Leda’ Signed Exhibit Invitation Card, 1986. Measures 7.5 x 7.5 inches closed. 7.5 x 15 inches card open. Hand written by Witkin: “To Guy, Joel-Peter Witkin”.
Private Collection.
A sudden blow: the great wings beating still
Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed
By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,
He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.
How can those terrified vague fingers push
The feathered glory from her loosening thighs?
And how can body, laid in that white rush,
But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?
A shudder in the loins engenders there
The broken wall, the burning roof and tower
And Agamemnon dead.
Being so caught up,
So mastered by the brute blood of the air,
Did she put on his knowledge with his power
Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?
- W. B. Yeats (1865-1939)
‘Leda and the Swan’
Provenance:
Back in the early 80’s, the photography books by Witkin, I recall, were not allowed in Canada, even though I already had my own copies. When I heard Witkin would attend a certain exhibit at The Vision Gallery in Boston in 1986, I flew from Ottawa (Canada) to Boston to attempt to meet him.
I was still in my art stalker phase, and he was my lucky, fortunate subject.
I arrived directly from the airport, with luggage, at the gallery, with the opening in full force. The space was packed. I entered with my mega gay suitcase on my head, trying to look exotic; a world traveller.
At the time, the only photos of Witkin I’d seen was with him wearing his ‘Zoro’ type black mask with a Christ (from the crucifixion) glued onto the front. I had no clue what he actually looked like. Then, this short creepy dude whom I figured was gonna ask me if I needed a place to stay, asked me if I wanted to put my suitcase in the gallery office. I laughed, yet thinking, I do need a place to crash…but low & behold, it was Witkin himself. I practically asked to see his ID.
I told him my scoop, and I think we ended up hanging out over the weekend, not because I was insanely mega cool, but many years later, as I got to know of him more in depth, I realized he adored adulation, which I had plenty to offer.
Nothing raunchy happened, even though I did suggest a threeway at some point with my girl Monique, which he laughed and declined, but I do recall one highlight… in Witkin’s book, or somewhere else public, Witkin always announed that he was on the lookout for interesting’ subjects to photograph. So, while we hung out briefly, I remember he received a message; a telegarm or similar. It was a woman with a terminal illness who was offering her body to him after her death, to photograph as he wished. She did however, asked for some form of payment in advance, I believe, to pay medical bills.
I never heard the outcome of that incident.
Et voila.
Joel-Peter Witkin is known for his grotesquely beautiful photographs that, like the work of Henry Peach Robinson, Oscar Gustave Rejlander, and Diane Arbus, explore themes of death, religion, and the experience of being socially outcast. Witkin stages surrealisticscenes with cadavers, skeletons, and dismembered body parts so they recall Classical paintings and religious imagery. One of his best known works, a gelatin print titled Le Baiser (The Kiss, 1983) —which sold at auction for $50,000 USD in 2009 —depicts two severed heads twisted into a kiss. His photographs can be found at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Witkin holds an MFA from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.
Research:
https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-4656739
https://www.artsy.net/artwork/joel-peter-witkin-leda-los-angeles
https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/Lots/auction-lot/WITKIN-JOEL-PETER-(1939–)-Leda?saleno=2158&lotNo=349A&refNo=608032