Yesterday, items from the estate of Chita Rivera were sold at auction by Bonhams, New York. One of the mementos of her storied theater career was Al Hirschfeld's illustration of her, Jerry Orbach, and Gwen Verdon in the original Broadway production of "Chicago." Hirschfeld made the drawing while Bob Fosse's show was still out of town in Philadelphia. It was published in the Timeson June 8, 1975 after the Broadway opening. The Hirschfeld illustration has seven Ninas, but I can locate only six.
The presale estimate was $4,000 to $6,000 dollars. Online bidding was already at $7,500 fifteen hours before the sale ended.
Al Hirschfeld Bonhams All That Jazz: The Estate of Chita Rivera listing accessed November 25, 2024
To make a movie called "New York, New York" with a "New York" number that isn't the one you go into the cinema humming is rather like writing a children's book called "Alice in Wonderland" which is about another Alice.
The artist "Ringo" Daniel Funes markets himself as a protege of Andy Warhol's assistant Steve Kaufman, who was later a pop artist in his own right. On Sunday, Robinhood Auctions of Las Vegas offered two of Funes's one-off silkscreens on canvas, both apparently entitled New York, New York. They differ mainly in their use of color and both have similar double appropriations relating to New York City in the latter half of the 1970s.
The first appropriation on the top of the prints are the familiar song lyrics to the "Theme from 'New York, New York.'" This is not Fred Ebb's original version but Frank Sinatra's from the popular recording, with his interpolations of "A-number one" two times—no self-respecting lyricist would sanction that. The typography is uninspired and perhaps appropriated from somewhere as well. Below the words is an anemic-looking, cropped, monochrome version of Saul Steinberg's celebrated New Yorker cover of March 29, 1976, usually called View of the World from 9th Avenue. The famous map illustration here is presented with offset printing dots, as if it were copied not from the actual magazine cover but from a cheap reproduction. Perhaps it was.
Among the many indignities suffered by the art here, the magazine's logo is eliminated, as are Japan and Russia. The avenues have lost their names, and the words Pacific Ocean are mostly obliterated, although fragments of letters do remain. Chicago and Canada are gone too as is most of the top right of the illustration. Steinberg's name is missing letters. The version with the color over the lyrics and in the right middle-ground retains more of Steinberg's labels and his signature:
Ringo's two silkscreens—even his name sounds like an appropriation—did not find any takers. The auction listings don't mention the names Fred Ebb or Saul Steinberg anywhere. Here's the rest of both unsold lots:
Detail
"Ringo" Daniel Funes Robinhood Auctions, February 12, 2023, Lot 200
After encountering these dispiriting silkscreens, it's a good idea to go back to the original song and illustration. In the 1977 movie "New York, New York," Liza Minelli sang Kander and Ebb's original version of the song they wrote for her:
Sinatra's version took unauthorized liberties with the lyrics, adding "A-number one" twice, but it is now the version everyone knows.
Steinberg's New Yorker cover in its original state maintains its vibrancy despite the many ways people find of altering it:
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