Peter Lindbergh

Peter LindberghWhite Shirts for Vogue
Photograph - Tri-X ISO50 B&W film
35mm negative
1988

Peter Lindbergh (November 23 1944-) is a German photographer who created superstars out of models in the 1980's and 90's. 

One of his first editorial shoots was of a group of models on the beach for Vogue magazine. The editor at the time was not impressed with the photos. 

Lindbergh said, "Early in my career American Vogue contacted me. The style of fashion photography was much different then. I met with Alexander Liberman, and he said, 'You are a young photographer, so why tell me that you don’t want to work for American Vogue? We are the leading fashion magazine.' I said, 'I can’t match my mind with your image of a woman – the perfect makeup, the perfect hair, always in the most beautiful apartment. That is not my feeling of a woman.' And he said, 'Okay. Do a story and bring me back some pictures of what you think a woman could be.' I went to L.A. with an editor, Carlyn Cerf du Dudzeele. The first problem was with the fashion. I said, 'Let’s put a great cast of models together and put them all in just white shirts.' We went to the beach with Tatjana Patitz, Linda Evangelista, ChristyTurlington, Karen Alexander, Rachel Williams, and Estelle Hallyday, and I shot them totally natural. I still love the pictures. I came back to New York, and everyone just looked at each other and said, 'Hmmmm, it’s great...' They didn’t know what to do with them. The pictures ended up running small in a story about how hair could be loose on the beach."

Linda Evangelist and Christy Turlington went on to become two of Lindbergh's favorite subjects. Both could be considered his muses. He created so many iconic images of both of them and made them internationally famous. 

Amedeo Modigliani

Amedeo Modigliani
Reclining Nude
Oil on canvas
23 7/8 x 36 1/2”
1917

Amedeo Modigliani (July 12 1884 - January 24 1920) was a Jewish-Italian artist who painted portraits of women. He did not want to be classified by any of the art movements at the time such as Dada or Cubism.

Reclining Nude is one of many works of art inspired by his muse and lover Jeanne Hebuterne. A statement provided by the Met Museum website, "Unlike depictions of Venus from the Renaissance to the nineteenth century, in which mythological or allegorical attributes provide a context for the figure’s nudity, Modigliani provocatively presents his Reclining Nude without any such references, highlighting the figure’s eroticism."

Jeanne was his last and most influential muse. She was fourteen years younger than he and she was extremely devoted to him. She even killed herself the day after he died of tuberculosis. She was nine months pregnant at the time.

Edouard Manet

Edouard Manet
Olympia
Oil on canvas
51.4 × 74.8"
1863

Eduoard Manet (January 23 1832 - April 30 1883) was a French painter and one of the leading artists of the Impressionist movement.

Olympia is portrait of a prostitute being attended by a servant. It was unique for its time because of her "confrontational" stare. It shocked viewers and people thought it was vulgar, partly because it represents a "working woman" who is sexually independent of men.

The model for this was Manet's muse Victorine Meurent. She modeled for him for other shocking portraits, particularly one where she is naked in the woods with two clothed men. He always painted her with a look that is a cross between aloofness and confrontation, somehow challenging the viewer.

Man Ray

Man Ray
Noire Et Blanche
Photograph, gelatin silver print
17.5 x 21cm
1926

Man Ray (August 27 1890 - November 18 1976) was an artist most famous for his surreal style of photography. 

Noire et Blanche was a photo of his muse that was meant to show the idealized beauty standards of the time. Her long oval face and pale white skin was very envied in the 20's, and the dark mask next to her was supposed to contrast and complement her beauty. 
It was originally printed in Paris Vogue magazine, accompanied with this text, "Face of a woman, calm transparent egg straining to shake off the thick head of hair through which she remains bound to primitive nature. It is through women that the evolution of species to a place of full mystery will be accomplished. Sometimes plaintive, she returns with a feeling of curiosity and dread to one of the stages through which she has passed, perhaps before becoming today the evolved white creature."

The muse's name was Kiki de Monparnasse who started modelling nude at age 14. She was Man Ray's favorite subject for many years and they had a long affair, which is unsettling, considering her age.

Egon Schiele

Egon Schiele
Portrait of Wally
Oil on panel
13 x 15.7”
1912

Egon Schiele (June 12 1890 - October 31 1918) was a Viennese artist who painted mostly self-portraits and portraits of women, all with a distinct style that made his portraits appear boney, and sometimes sick.


His most notorious muse was Wally Neuriz, who was his lover and muse for about four years. The image I included is the first one he created when their relationship became a serious affair. “She’s not just a model. She looks back. She motivated his self-reflection, and was a catalyst for his work,” says Diethard Leopold, son of the late Rudolf Leopold, who owns much of this collection. Although it was difficult to find any statements from Schiele himself, his and Wally's relationship is such a perfect and tragic story of artist and muse and I had to include it. Their story ends sadly though, because he left her for another woman after she was loyal for many years. She died soon after of scarlet fever.

Portrait of Wally  was later stolen by the Nazis during WWII and caused many lawsuits later on over who was the rightful owner of this painting. The story has now been made into a feature length film.

Conclusion

The process of organizing an exhibition requires a lot of research, which is a very interesting but difficult task. I was very exciting to start this project, but once I got it started I was shocked by how little information there is on many famous works of art, especially photographs. I even had to change my theme at one point because there just wasn’t enough information on my original choices, which was very frustrating Being a curator would be a frustrating job, but also a fascinating one. Once you learn the backstory on a piece of art it takes on a whole new meaning for you. Some works of art that I did not particularly care for became more interesting to me after doing some research.