Correspondence concerning an unauthorized printing of the suite "Mujeres"
Los Angeles & Mexico City, 1973. On April 30, 1973, Raymond A. Marlowe wrote a 1-page letter to Rufino Tamayo concerning copy XIX of XXV sets of "Mujeres," a suite of color lithographs. Marlowe was the manager of the bookshop at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for many years and regularly handled original prints and livres d'artistes. His letter was an attempt to determine the authenticity of this particular copy before placing it on sale. He mentioned the original prospectus and advertising for the portfolio, which was issued by A. Lublin of Touchstone Press, in New York City. He described in detail a tangle of discrepancies regarding the sizes and papers of the prints between the original description, the colophon, and the copy he had in hand. Tamayo was in Europe in the spring and did not see Marlowe's letter and reply until July 10, 1973. By then, his tone about that "unfortunate edition" was urgent. "If you can do something about what has happened to you, do it, because certainly things like that must be stop [sic]." Numerous copies of these prints have been on the market since then. If any are unauthorized copies marked from the edition of XXV, the signatures may be forgeries. Tamayo's letter is a single sheet of laid paper 16.8 x 14.8 cm, typed, and signed in ink R Tamayo. His small, light-blue airmail envelope with a cancelled Mexican stamp is included. A pencil note at the bottom in Marlowe's hand reads: "Refers to CFA, distributor of Lublin stock." The copy of Marlowe's letter is a typed draft on standard Los Angeles County Museum of Art letterhead and presumably was retyped before it was sent to Tamayo. Item #30951
Price: $750.00