Unknown painting of Elizabeth I at the National Portrait Gallery

 art  No Responses »
May 082013
 

Elizabeth I and the Three Goddesses 500x362 Unknown painting of Elizabeth I at the National Portrait GalleryA pre­vi­ously unknown paint­ing of Eliza­beth I attrib­uted to the mini­atur­ist Isaac Oliver has been acquired by ’s National Por­trait Gal­lery.

The small paint­ing – the size of a post­card – will go on show as part of a major new exhib­i­tion, Eliza­beth I and Her People, where it will be dis­played along­side a selec­tion of por­traits of Eliza­beth I. Seen together, they will show how the Queen estab­lished, dur­ing a reign of nearly 50 years, an image of a strong and power­ful female monarch.

An unusual alleg­or­ical paint­ing, the por­trait is a rework­ing of the clas­sical story of the Judg­ment of upon the god­desses of mar­riage, war and love. In the guise of , the Queen is rep­res­en­ted as both judge and win­ner, retain­ing for her­self the prize of the golden apple.… [con­tinue reading]

Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Delicious
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Email
  • RSS

Buttoned-up Bolle: Shock fashion spread shows Roberto Bolle fully clothed

 ballet, fashion  6 Responses »
May 052013
 

Roberto Bolle Fantastic Man 04 700x309 Buttoned up Bolle: Shock fashion spread shows Roberto Bolle fully clothed

For the Spring/Summer 2013 issue of Fant­astic Man, is fea­tured in a series of suits look­ing very dis­tin­guished; his fam­ous pec­tor­als hid­den by shirts, jack­ets and ties: buttoned-up Bolle. The and dan­cer wears cre­ations by Tom Ford, Bri­oni, Richard James, De Fursac, Paul Smith, Ralph Lauren and Gior­gio Armani. The spread is entitled Elastic Man, a ref­er­ence to Bolle’s body, not the mater­ial of the clothes he wears.

In a short inter­view by Stefano Tempo­fo­sco, Bolle is asked if he likes the shape of his body:

I do, espe­cially the mus­cu­lature of my legs. I like how my muscles are strong yet elong­ated, which are two oppos­ites that really only come together in a dancer’s body.… [con­tinue reading]

Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Delicious
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Email
  • RSS

Italy’s Riccardo Tisci designs costumes for Abramovic’s Bolero

 ballet, costume design  No Responses »
May 032013
 

Ricc 388x500 Italys Riccardo Tisci designs costumes for Abramovics BoleroItalian designer Ric­cardo Tisci, a gradu­ate from ’s Cent­ral Saint Mar­tins Academy, has been Givenchy’s Cre­at­ive Dir­ector for the last eight years. His first bal­let cos­tumes were seen last night in Mar­ina Abramovic’s take on Boléro. Bel­gian cho­reo­graph­ers Sidi Larbi Cherka­oui and Damien Jalet were respons­ible for the dance, but it was Abramovic’s concept, and set design. This com­ing together was organ­ised by the as part of a mul­tiple pro­gramme, and fea­tures top dan­cers Aurélie Dupont and Marie-Agnès Gillot.

Abramovic cre­ated an all-black sceno­graphy, with a sus­pen­ded mir­ror panel to duplic­ate the 11 dan­cers, provid­ing an excel­lent frame for Tisci’s costumes.

It is one of the dreams of a designer to design cos­tumes for a bal­let. I have had offers in the past from many other big theaters/operas.… [con­tinue reading]

Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Delicious
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Email
  • RSS

Scandal ’63: The 50th anniversary of the Profumo Affair

 photography  No Responses »
Apr 302013
 

20130428 100333 329x500 Scandal 63: The 50th anniversary of the Profumo AffairOn dis­play at the , , from 30 April until 15 Septem­ber 2013 is a free exhib­i­tion to mark the passing of half-a-century since the Pro­fumo Affair scandal.

The Brit­ish polit­ical scan­dal came to a head in 1963 and was named after John Pro­fumo, the then Sec­ret­ary of State for War. Pro­fumo (mar­ried to the act­ress Valerie Hob­son) had a brief affair with the nightclub host­ess and model Christine Keeler who was also romantic­ally involved with the senior Rus­sian naval attaché Yev­geny Ivanov. The infam­ous affair took place against the back­drop of the Cold War and heightened polit­ical para­noia. The dis­play fea­tures a rare vin­tage print of one of Lewis Morley’s iconic seated nude por­traits of Christine Keeler as well as Stephen Ward’s pas­tel of her, made at Cliveden. … [con­tinue reading]

Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Delicious
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Email
  • RSS

Maggie Smith portrait added to the National Portrait Gallery collection

 art  No Responses »
Apr 092013
 

Maggie Smith Maggie Smith portrait added to the National Portrait Gallery collectionThe , , has unveiled its most recent com­mis­sioned por­trait, a paint­ing of Dame by James Lloyd.

The large (six feet by three) oil paint­ing shows the act­ress in jacket and trousers sit­ting in a bare stu­dio on a draped chair which is placed on an intriguing trompe-l’oeil platform.

The sit­tings began in 2011 and took place at the artist’s stu­dio in South­wark. Lloyd star­ted by work­ing on sketches, in both oil and char­coal, and took phở­to­graphs to determ­ine the pose he wanted. He settled on one in which Dame Mag­gie was seated cross-legged, her head tilted to rest on a raised hand, with her eyes look­ing out at the viewer.

Lloyd made a plinth to raise her to eye level when seated, a small plat­form painted with an illus­ory cube pat­tern he often uses, in this case to con­vey a feel­ing of the stage.… [con­tinue reading]

Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Delicious
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Email
  • RSS

Barbara Luisi’s exhibition of ‘Glowing Night, Artificial Lights’ photography goes on display in New York

 photography  No Responses »
Feb 262013
 

Barbara Luisis exhibition of Glowing Night, Artificial Lights photography goes on display in New YorkPhở­to­grapher has a good Italian name, though she’s Ger­man and largely lives in New York.

The ‘Luisi’ sur­name comes from her hus­band, Fabio, who is the Prin­cipal Con­ductor at the Met­ro­pol­itan Opera, which explains why she now spends a good amount of time in the Big Apple. How­ever, she also has a home in Cam­ogli, a small town on the Lig­urian coast, not far from Por­tofino. These con­trasts in her life and back­ground are reflec­ted in her phở­to­graphy which ranges from intim­ate pic­tures of pearls nest­ling on the sea bed, to the flashy neon lights of Broad­way. It is arti­fi­cial light which attrac­ted her as a sub­ject for her latest show, which opens 28 Feb­ru­ary in New York and is called: “Glow­ing Night, Arti­fi­cial Lights”.… [con­tinue reading]

Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Delicious
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Email
  • RSS

Man Ray Portraits opens at London’s National Portrait Gallery

 photography  No Responses »
Feb 062013
 

Man Ray self portrait 387x500 Man Ray Portraits opens at Londons National Portrait GalleryTomor­row, an import­ant new exhib­i­tion opens devoted to one of the most innov­at­ive and influ­en­tial artists of his gen­er­a­tion: over 150 vin­tage prints from Man Ray’s career taken between 1916 and 1968 have been gathered together at the in .

Drawn from private col­lec­tions and major museums includ­ing the Pomp­idou Centre, the J. Paul Getty Museum and New York’s The Museum of Mod­ern Art and Met­ro­pol­itan Museum of Art, and spe­cial loans from the Man Ray Trust Archive, the major­ity of the works have not pre­vi­ously been exhib­ited in the United Kingdom.

Por­traits of Man Ray’s cel­eb­rated con­tem­por­ar­ies are shown along­side his per­sonal and often intim­ate por­traits of friends, lov­ers and his social circle. His ver­sat­il­ity and exper­i­ment­a­tion as an artist is illus­trated through­out his phở­to­graphy although this was never his chosen prin­cipal artistic medium.… [con­tinue reading]

Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Delicious
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Email
  • RSS
 Older Entries