Life and art of Eva Rubinstein
Eva Rubinstein was a remarkable portraitist. She did not limit herself to photographing people, as depicting places was of the most interest to her. The titles of her works present the names of places and a brief description of the context jotted by the artist. This is enough. Her photographs don't need many words.
Eva Rubinstein has been involved in art and music from the very beginning of her life. She was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1933. That's when her father, a great pianist, toured South America. The artist traveled with his wife Aniela (née Młynarska) Rubinstein, who was the daughter of Emil Młynarski, a well-known violinist and composer, conductor, as well as director of the Warsaw Opera.
Until the outbreak of World War II, she lived with her parents and her brother in Paris. In 1939, the parents of little Eva decided to emigrate to the United States. First, they moved to New York, then to Los Angeles, Beverly Hills.
Eva Rubinstein has been keen on ballet since childhood. In New York, she first danced, and later performed as an actress on Broadway. The atmosphere of her family home encouraged the author's artistic development. Her mother, Nela Rubinstein, being a very sociable and multilingual person, invited the biggest Hollywood stars to their house, among others, Charlie Chaplin, Grace Kelly, or Cary Grant.
Eva Rubinstein made her debut as a photographer quite late. She took up photography professionally only in 1968. She had already divorced her husband, a pastor and human rights defender William Sloan Coffin Jr., whom she married in 1956. She started working for Vogue magazine. The artist had more than 100 solo photo exhibitions around the world. She also published several photo albums, three of them in Poland.
Eva Rubinstein started visiting Poland again in 1958, when her father resumed performing in the country after Stalin's death. Łódź has become the artist's favorite place. She was asked to take pictures of the city, which were to be a part of the Arthur Rubinstein's office at the Museum of the City of Łódź. She has also attended the Rubinstein Piano Festival organized every two years in Łódź.
The auction offer includes four photographs by Eva Rubinstein. The portrait of the famous photographer Diane Arbus was made in New York in April 1971, 3 months before the tragic death of the artist.