(MONUMENAL MALE NUDE)

A photograph by Loomis Dean (1917-2005) of Harold Stevenson's groundbreaking 40 foot painting "The New Adam" (1962).

Silver print, the image measuring 171.5x342.9 mm; 6¾x13½ inches, with Dean's credit hand stamp on verso. 1960s.

[1,000/1,500]

Harold Stevenson's (1929-2018) painting, executed in 1962, was conceived as an homage to his lover, Lord Timothy Willoughby (though the model was Sal Mineo), and measures an astonishing 96x468 inches over a series of 9 panels. Initially exhibited in the 1960s in Paris, New York, Chicago, and LA (shocking viewers in each of the locations, apparently), the work was then rarely seen until it was shown again in the 1990s at the Mitchell Algus Gallery (in 1992) and the Andy Warhol Museum (1998). The work is now owned by the Guggenheim Museum. This photograph is accompanied by an "Art in America" article, which compellingly places this work within its art historical context and quotes Stevenson describing his monument work as intended "to be beyond captivity, beyond containment, where flesh is endless." Loomis Dean's photograph of the painting places it in a somewhat less formal presentation, but clearly evokes the overwhelming scale, romantic beauty, and extraordinary achievement of the work.