Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Art Edition No. 251-2500 Limited to 2,250 individually numbered copies, each signed by Peter Beard. Comes in a clamshell box with a wood book stand. XXL format: 200 pages of diaries and 300 pages of collages. Original essay by photo critic Owen Edwards. Companion volume, image index with captions for all images from main book, personal photos and early work of the artist, interview with the artist, a facsimile reprint of Beard's 1993 handwritten essay from the sold-out first issue of Blind Spot magazine, extensive bibliography, filmography and list of exhibitions. All color illustrations are color-separated and reproduced in Pan4C, the finest reproduction technique available today, which provides unequalled intensity and color range.
Synopsis
Photographer, collector, diarist, and writer Peter Beard has fashioned his life into a work of art; the illustrated diaries he kept from a young age evolved into a serious career as an artist and earned him a central position in the international art world. He was painted by Francis Bacon and painted on by Salvador Dal , he made diaries with Andy Warhol and toured with Truman Capote and the Rolling Stones--all of whom are brought to life, literally and figuratively, in his work. As a fashion photographer, he took Vogue stars like Veruschka to Africa and brought new ones--most notably Iman--back to the U.S. with him.
After spending time in Kenya and striking up a friendship with the author Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen) in the early 1960s, Beard bought a piece of land near hers. He witnessed the dawn of Kenya's population explosion, which challenged finite resources and stressed animal populations--including the starving elephants of Tsavo dying by the tens of thousands in a wasteland of eaten trees. So he documented what he saw--with diaries, photographs, and collages. He went against the wind in publishing unique and sometimes shocking books of these works. The corpses were laid bare; the facts carefully recorded, sometimes in type and often by hand. Beard uses his photographs as a canvas onto which he superimposes multi-layered contact sheets, ephemera, found objects, newspaper clippings that are elaborately embellished with meticulous handwriting, old-master inspired drawings, and often swaths of animal blood used as paint.