Wednesday 13 May 2009

Glamourous Twins

I haven't done one of these for a little while: it's another case of duplicated cover imagery. In this case it's a 1949 fashion photo ('Fashion extremes') by Nina Leen.



This photo adorns the covers of Elizabeth Wilson's first atmospheric crime novel set in post-War London...



..and the most recent reprint of Dominick Dunne's The Two Mrs Grenvilles.



(This last book, by the way, is available as a free download here.)

Nina Leen (1914 (or maybe 1909)-1995) was a Russian-German-Swiss-Italian who became one of the first female photographers for LIFE magazine. Her most famous image is probably 'The Irascibles'.



This 1950 photo features (from left, rear:) Willem de Kooning, Adolph Gottleib, Ad Reinhardt, Hedda Sterne;(next row) Richard Pousette-Dart, William Baziotes, Jimmy Ernst (w. bow tie), Jackson Pollock (in striped jacket), James Brooks, Clyfford Still (leaning on knee), Robert Motherwell, Bradley Walker Tomlin; (in foreground) Theodoros Stamos (on bench), Barnett Newman (on stool) and Mark Rothko (with glasses). These, and 14 other "Abstract Expressionists" had made a big public protest about the Metropolitan Museum of Art's perceived bias against "true" avant-garde art.

Leen also produced a number of books, include two studies of bats. One of them has this simple but witty cover.

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