Pen Photography

Richard Corman Jean-Michel Basquiat 1984 (Red), 2020 Offset lithograph poster on color archival pigment paper Signed and numbered 2/100 by Richard Corman in silver sharpie on the fro...

Richard Corman Jean-Michel Basquiat VI: A Portrait, 1984, 2018 Gelatin silver print Signed, titled, dated and numbered 4/30 by Richard Corman in marker on the reverse 20 × 16 inches...

Richard Corman Madonna NYC '83 (hand signed and numbered 1/1 by the photographer on the front and the back), 2010 Black and white photographic print on archival pigment paper Hand signed, titled and numbered 1/1 on the front as well as the back (signed twice) Frame included: framed in a museum quality black wood frame with UV plexiglass Madonna '83 is a 36 square inch photograph on archival pigment paper, numbered 1 of 1 by the legendary photographer Richard Corman, who began his career as Richard Avedon's apprentice. The work is signed, titled and numbered 1/1 (unique) on both the front of the photograph, as well as the back of the frame. It is elegantly framed in a museum quality black wood frame with UV plexiglass. Measurements: Frame: 37.5 x 37.5 x 2 inches Photograph: 35.5 x 35.5 inches This photograph was taken during Richard Corman's historic photoshoot with Madonna in the early 1980s, and it was reprinted in 2010. Richard Corman's famous photographs of Madonna during that period have been reproduced in books, magazines, tv clips and newspapers - and are considered the most iconic images ever taken of Madonna. We are incredibly honored to be exclusively offering this iconic photograph for the very first time -- in honor of Madonna's 65th birthday. Here, Madonna is just a natural beauty, youthful, confident, vulnerable, natural, and extraordinarily poised. The photograph was taken while she was on the cusp of superstardom, but still anxious, striving, going on casting calls, and waiting for her big break. As Richard Corman explains, she is shown sitting amidst the rubble of the back yard of her Lower East side apartment. In his own words, photographer Richard Corman describes how this famous sitting came about: My mother was Cis Corman, a renowned casting director in New York City. In the summer of 1982 she was casting The Last Temptation of Christ for Martin Scorsese and called me to say they had just tested a girl for the part of the Virgin Mary. She said, “You must meet this girl — she’s an original.” I was 28 and had just finished an apprenticeship with Richard Avedon and was looking for interesting people to shoot. So I got this girl’s number and called. It was Madonna. At the time she was living in Alphabet City [Lower East Side of Manhattan], and she suggested I go to her apartment and chat about what I wanted to do. I had to call her from a phone booth across the street, because the neighborhood was full of drug dealers, and they didn’t let people just walk in and out. There was a group of kids outside the building, on the stoop, in the hallways, and when I said I was there for Madonna the seas parted. I looked up the staircase, and I saw this girl leaning over the edge of the banister, and even from three stories below I could see these catlike eyes just looking down. I knew at that moment that she had something special — I really did. She had her best friend and neighbor, Martin, with her — he later died of AIDS—and we sat and talked. She served me a cup of coffee on a silver tray with three pieces...