GENE B. DAVIS (American, 1920-1985; act. Washington, DC). Boxing Gear Schematic with Boxing Trunks and Robe: Trio of items, Each signed. Mixed media. Including ink sketch on three sheets of conjoined paper with applied ribbon samples in striped arrangement, signed and inscribed lower right, "Design for Bob Epstein's Boxing Trunks - Gene Davis" , sight size as matted and framed, 8 1/8" x 31 ½"; pair purple, blue, yellow, red and grey striped, beribboned fabric boxing trunks with "Gene Davis" autograph label covering Everlast label; and white Everlast boxing robe with black lapels and trim, having sewn-on ribbons on back panel above "Gene Davis" autograph. Robe also embroidered in black on right front, "Mohammad Bah Bee".
Accompanied by letter documenting inclusion in "Gene Davis Memorial Exhibition" at the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1987. Estimate $1,500-2,500
PROVENANCE: The boxing gear design was created by Davis for Robert S. Epstein when Davis and Epstein were contemporaneously teaching as art professors at The Corcoran School of Art, Washington, DC, during the 1970s and 1980s. When Maryland-native, Olympic gold medalist and world-champion Sugar Ray Leonard was boxing internationally, Davis and Epstein engaged in a conversational fantasy regarding Epstein being a boxer. According to Epstein, he asked Davis, "Would you design my boxing gear-shorts and a robe?" After Davis created the design, the garments were sewn at Claire Dratch, the renowned Washington, DC fashion house located in Bethesda, MD (chosen because Dratch had attended high school on the south side of Chicago with Epstein's father). Epstein wore the boxing gear to The Corcoran Beaux Arts Ball the year that Andy Warhol served as the juror for the best ball costume. Epstein's date for the ball was Katie Jones, who is featured in Warhol's book of celebrity polaroid photos, Little Red Book #191 Consigned to auction by Robert S. Epstein, the owner of the boxing gear.
Condition: excellent; stripes vivid (garments stored for 45 years away from light).
