Les Krims

2 unique manipulated Polaroid SX-70 prints, each with multi-colored marbleized margins, signed and dated with a stylus on the reverse, 1977 (2)

Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Instantanés, May - July 1980

Instantanés (Centre Georges Pompidou, 1980), pp. 84-5 (these prints)

These prints are in generally excellent condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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Les Krims is one of the masters of the manipulated Polaroid photograph.  Working with Polaroid's SX-70 camera from the time of its introduction in the early 1970s, Krims discovered quickly how malleable a tool it was and, like Lucas Samaras, worked upon the surfaces of its photographs as they developed to alter, mutate, or otherwise accentuate the images.  Krims has further enhanced the presentation of the two SX-70 prints offered here by painting their borders in bright swirling psychedelic colors. 

Many of Krims's SX-70s were collected in his volume Fictcryptokrimsographs, published in 1975.  His manipulated SX-70 prints have no corollary, even among the handful of artists and photographers working in a similar vein.  Krims's images, with their adept combination of the surreal, the political, the sensual, and the obscene—to say nothing of Krims's attention to craft—make them unique.  Both Samaras and Krims are two of the dedicatees of Robert Heinecken's Polaroid Drawing Triptych, an instructional guide to the art of manipulating SX-70 prints (Lot 179). 

Krims's eagerness to tackle taboo subject matter makes him, in many ways, a seminal figure in Post-War photography.  Yet, unlike other divisive figures in the world of contemporary photography, Krims's work is built upon the bedrock of his razor-edged sense of humor.  And while much of the controversial photography of the last 50 years has been darkly themed or tinged with menace, Krims maintains a consistent level of almost joyous ribaldry.  Other photographs by Krims are present in this catalogue as Lots 122, 142, and 143).