Photographs 
2 August 2023
Photographs 
105

Imogen Cunningham 1883–1976

The Unmade Bed

1957 / printed c. 1975-76
gelatin silver print image: 10¾ h × 13⅝ w in (27 × 35 cm) mount: 15 h × 20 w in (38 × 51 cm)
estimate: $7,000–9,000
result: $5,670
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Signed and dated to mount ‘Imogen Cunningham 1957’ with Imogen Cunningham Trust label to verso.
literature: Imogen Cunningham: The Poetry of Form, Lunsford, pg. 42 Imogen Cunningham, Ideas without End: A Life in Photographs, Lorenz, cover, pg. 158

This work will ship from Lambertville, New Jersey.

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Creature Comfort

Imogen Cunningham's 'Unmade Bed'

Imogen Cunningham made her intimate photograph The Unmade Bed in 1957, after overhearing a prompt given to students by her colleague Dorothea Lange at the California School of Fine Arts. Lange invited her students to take a photo of something they use every 24 hours; a week later, Cunningham arrived with this work. Rich in contrast, shadow, and texture, the image may by some be considered a self-portrait by Cunningham. As the artist's close friend Judy Dater recounted, “She sometimes would give that photograph to people as a wedding present so that the husband would know that the wife was going to be busy, that she had things to do, and not to expect the bed to always be made.”

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