2023-10-06 16:00:00
Yves Saint Laurent was 36 years old when he entered the studio of photographer Jeanloup Sieff. We are in 1971 and the designer, with the scent of scandal aroused by his latest Libération ready-to-wear collection – inspired by women’s wardrobes during the Occupation –, intends to carry the sword even further. To launch his first masculine juice, he decides to pose himself. During the session, he will gradually undress… only to keep his glasses. Playing on the sulphurous aesthetic of the male nude, the photo caused a scandal – Days of France refuses to publish it, Vogue do not hesitate when Bernard Pivot, in the columns of Figaro, Talk about “cynical provocation”…
A photographic icon was born. It is the metonym of the collection of the German art publisher Lothar Schirmer, who decided to auction off some of his treasures at Christie’s in Paris. At the origin of this sale, a book of photos collected by the esthete around glamour. “A theme which for him rhymes with portrait, erotic nude, fashion and advertising”, says Élodie Morel-Bazin, director of the European photography department at Christie’s. “As such, Sieff’s portrait of Saint Laurent is emblematic. Just like Isabella Rossellini by Robert Mapplethorpe, or Madonna by Jean-Baptiste Mondino… All reflections of a man’s taste, all chosen by him for this book, and from which he ultimately decides to separate. »
Online. Estimated at 600,000 euros, for 82 lots, this dispersion also reflects the appetite of the market in general and young collectors in particular for this form of art. We can also bet that the choice of online sales also contributes to the enthusiasm of a new generation for the joys of the hammer… §
Online sale from October 26 to November 9; exhibition from November 4 to 9. christies.com
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