Moogambo
New York: Tony Shafrazi, 1976. 1st Edition. Quarto, publisher's stiff photo-illustrated paper wraps.
Artist’s book by Iranian-American art dealer Tony Shafrazi, a high camp interpretation of Latin American photo-novellas. Although primarily known as a gallerist, Shafrazi was originally a practicing artist, having studied at the Royal College of Art in London. Published prior to the establishment of his eponymous gallery in 1979, and after he infamously spraypainted Picasso's Guernica at the MoMA in 1974, Moogambo tells the soap opera-style folk story of "Queen Kon Killo and her Royal friends" as captured in lurid color photos by Milanese art scene chronicler Giorgio Colombo at the Natural History Museum and Scorpion Club in Milan. The book is cited in issue number fourteen of Edit deAk’s magazine Art-Rite (p. 22, 1976): "Book begins with Florida/orientalia style prints (a la Jack Smith), gradually transforms to a combination of Rubens, Gericault, and Delacroix (baroque revolutionary orgies), into Theatre of the Ridiculous Imagery, to bondage style and so on. A dazzling entrance." Text in French and English. One of 1000 unnumbered copies. Though it bears no ownership markings, the volume is from the collection of photographer Marcia Resnick. Born in Brooklyn, Resnick is best known for chronicling the downtown scene of the 1970s and 80s in real time, taking portraits of musicians, artists, filmmakers, and writers such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, John Belushi, Iggy Pop, Andy Warhol, and Susan Sontag, and for her regular feature in the SoHo Weekly News, "Resnick’s Believe-It-or-Not." Somewhat heavy rubbing and edgewear to wraps. Good. Item #12793
$100.00