An art collection sometimes tells more, sometimes less personal things about its owner. Robert William Burke’s estate resembles a friendship album from the times when Robert Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly, Bruce Nauman and Gilbert
It was the time when “Mom of Pop” Ileana Sonnabend and Leo Castelli were eyeing the American branch of their Paris gallery, and it was these artists that the young, handsome Robert William Burke met while working at Sonnabend and at Warhols Factory went in and out. He had previously worked in Midtown Manhattan at the Gotham Book Mart, the meeting place of New York’s intellectual elite at the time.
Later, as Warhol’s confidant, he would live in his Paris branch and follow the lectures of Roland Barthes at the Collège de France, with whom he also became friends. A born and bred American in Paris, one of the most sophisticated and attractive sort – a dandy.
Finally, in 1975, together with Samia Saouma, he opened La Remise du Parc, a gallery for historical and contemporary photography – this was not only a novelty in the French metropolis. Robert Mapplethorpe had his first solo exhibition in Europe here. From 1983 Burke worked as an art dealer – New York and Paris continued to be familiar and lucrative areas for him.
Among his exceedingly eclectic estate of drawings, autographed maps, prints and books, up for auction at Artcurial on October 25 in Paris, is a Polaroid photograph taken by Andy Warhol of Burke in the mid-1970s. Warhol became almost obsessed with the device that allowed him to fabricate a photograph in a matter of seconds. “A photo,” he once said, “means I know where I’ve been every minute. That’s why I take photos. It’s a kind of visual diary.”
So Warhol always had the “Big Shot Camera” with him, a device with a built-in flash, a simple mechanism and a focal length designed for one meter. This is how the famous portraits of artists, film actors, the eccentric friends from the Factory, the lovers and the Nighthawks from Studio 54 came about, from the countless clients whom Warhol initially photographed for their silkscreen portraits.
The 10.7 by 8.1 centimeter Burke portrait is an almost poetic double exposure – Warhol loved it simple or enigmatically experimental. The photo bears the stamp and reference number of the Andy Warhol Art Authentication Board on the reverse. That’s important, because Warhol Polaroids are a popular forgery and are sometimes sold for low five-figure prices. The estimate is moderate at 1000 euros, after all a Polaroid is always a one-off. The provenance naturally gives additional weight and security.
