Richard Avedon: Beyond Beauty
Gagosian Gallery in Rome will be presenting Richard Avedon’s exhibition Avedon: Beyond Beauty. The exhibition includes some of the photographer’s iconic female portraits and almost every editioned fashion photograph from Avedon’s career.
The exhibition conveys the scope of Avedon’s creative and sometimes shocking portrayal of women, varying from intimate portraits to celebrated fashion photographs for publications like Vogue, The New Yorker and Harper’s Bazaar. It starts with Avedon’s early Paris fashion portfolio consisting of 11 visuals commissioned by Harper’s Bazaar between 1947-1957. These photos were all taken outside of the studio to capture the street life of Paris and include Carmen skipping above a cobblestone street in a Cardin coat, Marlene Dietrich, lighting a cigarette at the Ritz, wearing a turban by Dior and Dorian Leigh gazing at her mirrored reflection while standing in Helena Rubenstein’s dressing room.
Avedon’s work stands out in his ability to set models in action and make them appear confidently alive, lively, questioning, uncontrollable. He acknowledged the importance of pose, attitude, clothing, and choice of accessory as vital details for determining the outcome of a portrait and expression of the subject’s personality. The trust and understanding between Avedon and his model, that allowed him to experiment with photography is mostly evident in his studio photos including the photos of Gloria Vanderbilt (1953), Cheryl Crane (1963) and Tina Turner (1971).
His creativity and inventiveness is reflected throughout the exhibition. His work is also marked by great diversity and wit that shows in a contrasting style used for the New Yorker colour fashion portfolio from 1995, named In Memory of the Late Mr. and Mrs. Comfort. The portfolio illustrates in a darkly humorous manner a clash of perverse beauty and eccentric luxury with reminders of mortality.
Avedon: Beyond Beauty will be on view at the Gagosian Gallery in Rome from Friday 27 February – Saturday 11 April 2015.
Richard Avedon People, another exhibition based on Avedon, is currently touring Australia and is on view at Ian Potter Museum of Art in Melbourne until Sunday 15 March 2015.
—
