Latest news with #TheFaceMagazine:CultureShift
The Independent
25-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Was Leigh Bowery one of the most original artists of the 20th century?
Leigh Bowery was larger than life in all senses: a self-styled performance artist whose exuberantly physical antics took place in nightclubs rather than art galleries; a monstrous egotist who ruthlessly pursued – and achieved – fame as nightlife entrepreneur, fashion designer and musician; and an imposing physical presence, whose shaven-headed, unashamedly fleshy physique is the subject of some of Lucian Freud's most notable paintings. This major Tate survey, Leigh Bowery!, is one of a plethora of Eighties-centred exhibitions (including the National Portrait Gallery's The Face Magazine: Culture Shift and Tate Britain's The 80s: Photographing Britain) that appear intent on recasting the much-contested Thatcher decade as a time of radical creative experimentation and emergent identity politics. The Australian-born Bowery, with his penchant for sinister masks and makeup, is presented here as a kind of overbearing ringmaster to alternative Eighties London, in terms that are at once absurdly overinflated and disconcertingly personal. Bowery, we are told, was 'one of the most fearless and original artists of the 20th century'. Really? And while you might imagine that a show comprising Bowery's 'outlandish and dazzling' costumes, alongside painting, photography and video, could be wrapped up in a couple of modest-sized rooms, it's given one of Tate Modern 's very largest spaces. At the same time, the wall texts invite us to identify with Bowery as a human being – and to take him at his own estimation – in a way you'd expect of the lightest of popular biographies rather than a heavy-hitting retrospective exhibition. 'A smalltown boy from Sunshine, a Melbourne suburb in Australia. He's bored. Inspired by the punk scene, Bowery leaves fashion college and arrives in London in October 1980... It took time for Bowery to find his people.' Despite this apparently tight personal focus, the fact that many of the works in the first room – and throughout the show – are by Bowery's friends and associates, rather than Bowery himself, gives the impression of a show that is around Bowery, rather than about him. One example is the cartoon-like painting of our hero (as he's very much presented) in the bath by his close friend Gary 'Trojan' Barnes. Andhe makes a fantastic supporting player in Hail the New Puritan (1986), Charles Atlas's film about enfant terrible choreographer Michael he is, sprawled around his flat in that day's streetwear, blue pancake makeup inspired by the Hindu god Krishna, face piercings and a 'leather man' peaked cap. You don't get many people walking around London looking like that even now. Exhibitions revolving around performance and social scenes are often let down by the quality of their documentary evidence; this one is crowded with riotous and marvellously vivid photographs of London nightclubs. Not least among them isBowery's West End club Taboo, with its entry policy of 'dress as though your life depends on it, or don't bother'. Whether wearing a sequin-studded motorcycle helmet and leering black-and-white makeup, or carrying fashion designer and DJ Rachel Auburn over his shoulder with illuminated lightbulbs taped to his head with sticking plasters, Bowery is a borderline terrifying proposition. Seen in the exhibition, his outfits are exquisitely made in collaboration with his close friend (and later wife) Nicola Rainbird, with painstaking embroidery and use of sequins. Yet without Bowery's extravagantly corpulent physical presence, they seem just, well, costumes. Wall-filling videos of dance performances by Michael Clark reveal new aspects of Bowery's abilities, as designer and occasional dancer, though the fact that the presiding talent is Clark (the subject of a large exhibition at the Barbican in 2020) dilutes the focus on Bowery. His dedicated artworks, deprived of the self-aggrandising razzamatazz that no doubt accompanied them at the time, often feel a touch half-hearted. Ruined Clothes (1990), photos of some of Bowery and Rainbird's most lovingly created garments thrown into the street to be trashed by the weather and passers-by, sounds like the ultimate anti-fashion statement. Yet the original clothes, displayed here, look mildly soiled rather than outright ruined. And it's disappointing that a section labelled 'transgression' boils down to not much more than an argument with Clark over the use of the 'C' word. This exhibition has plenty of amazing material, but it's so woefully overextended, with too many repetitive videos and too much insignificant ephemera through too many large rooms, that some of the best material almost gets lost. (Bowery's wacky holiday snaps, for instance, could be anybody's.) Freud's now famous oil paintings of Bowery feel a touch inconsequential dropped in among all this stuff, with little in the way of context. More seriously, Bowery's later fashion designs, wearable surreal sculptures, which genuinely achieve the goal of being works of art in their own right, are seen only in photographs – if brilliant ones – by Fergus Greer. And some of his most powerful performances are barely documented. The night he sprayed water over the audience from his anus as part of an Aids benefit at Brixton's Fridge nightclub in 1994is lent poignancy by the fact that he died of the disease himself later that year, though it's evident here (perhaps unsurprisingly) only through a single photograph. The show's climactic and perhaps most extraordinary work, Birth, is a small and tremulous video shot at New York's drag festival Wigstock in 1993. An alarmingly corpulent Bowery got up in a surreal 'female' mask performs a tuneless rendition of The Beatles' 'All You Need Is Love', before lying down and 'giving birth' to Rainbird, who bursts naked from the front of his tights covered in remarkably real-looking 'blood'. The show's aim of showing Bowery as an explorer of 'the body as a shape-shifting tool' feels realised here – even if it's only for about three seconds. But the show's most revealing moments are excerpts from the BBC's mainstream fashion programme The Clothes Show, compered by Bowery in full flowered mask and dress and appearing completely at home. Clearly the master of outrage could charm all the grannies in the world out of the trees when he wanted to. But then, when you reflect that alongside his immersion in the European avant-garde at its most visceral, Bowery was plugged simultaneously into a tradition of camp outrage that goes back centuries – from, say, the court of Versailles to Kenneth Williams – the fact that he should have been a natural on early evening British television doesn't seem so surprising.
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
London's National Portrait Gallery explores how The Face magazine redefined youth culture
Picture the giant image of model Nick Kamen in a white shirt and wrap leather skirt styled by Ray Petri: a symbol of so-called Buffalo Style towering over the entrance of the National Portrait Gallery in London. Inside find a myriad of icons including Kurt Cobain the front man of Nirvana wearing a floral dress shot by David Sims; Kylie Minogue transformed from girl next door into a 70s siren in mirror aviators by Norbert Schoerner and The Spice Girls posing by a wire fence in an urban park by Andreas Bleckmann. These portraits are amongst 200 images by 80 photographers that feature in The National Portrait Gallery's latest exhibition The Face Magazine: Culture Shift which is devoted to the groundbreaking style magazine that changed the way a generation danced, dressed and talked. Back in 1980 when publisher Nick Logan launched the pioneering style title, no one could foresee the social media and digital revolution that would deliver news to phones in our pockets. Back then magazines were oracles and Logan, former editor of NME and behind teen pop music mag Smash Hits, was to create his own revolution. The Face not only reflected the music and fashion scene, but invented it through radically innovative image making, journalism and graphic artistry. Logan dug into his own personal savings to launch The Face and employ a super talented editorial team. The investment paid off, The Face which ran from 1980 to 2004 became the holy grail of style for a generation, with emerging stars and celebrities fighting to be on the cover. Successive generations of photographers and editors (including myself) clamoured to work for the title which was based in a converted industrial offices in EC1. While legacy titles such as Vogue and GQ, were tuned into society and a classical interpretation of glamour, The Face like i-D magazine was a trailblazer for youth. 'This is the first major museum exhibition on The Face's iconic portraiture. It reveals how groundbreaking the imagery was and how it still resonates today. Logan brought together music, style and fashion with art and politics to create a different type of magazine that had a profound impact on clubs, on fashion and also promoted the idea of the stylist as a key influence on fashion shoots and launched the career of many models too,' says Sabina Jaskot-Gill, the NPG's Curator of Photographs. A sense of raw energy, rebellion and invention rips through the exhibition that is curated by Jaskot-Gill alongside art director Lee Swillingham and photographer Norbert Schoerner, both veterans of The Face who first proposed the exhibition idea to the gallery more than five years ago. The recently opened new entrance and galleries designed by Annabelle Selldorf Architects creates a voluminous space for the show. Culture Shift also charts the stylistic shifts in photography and fashion over the two decades from bold to dirty realism to dark, gothic and through to hyper real. The sheer array of imagery is accumulative and immersive. Culture Shift is cleverly composed of salons decorated with wallpapered imagery, video, framed stills and original copies of the magazine that was first conceived by art director, Neville Brody. 'There was a design boom in the UK in the early 80s and Brody spearheaded it in magazine format – subsequent art directors took on that baton. The question was always how the hell do we make this look new!,' says Swillingham who pioneered technicolour futurism using first generation image manipulation tools. 'A theme that runs throughout is how The Face takes well known faces and depicts them in a new way exemplified by Robbie Williams styled by Judy Blame and David Beckham like a war hero with blood on his torso by Vincent Peters ( in fact, it was soya sauce!) … the result was always unexpected,' says Jaskot-Gill. While many style titles scratch the surface of pop culture, The Face imploded it revealing the artistry and energy behind it. 'The Face cut through suburbia like a knife and opened the whole world up to me, one that was both relevant, and new, and exciting,' says contributing photographer John Akehurst. It was deeply immersed in club and dance culture championing the subterranean heroes of rap, acid house, rave, rock, electropop and Brit pop from Jazzie B to Oasis, Pulp, Robbie Williams and Daft Punk. 'I grew up reading The Face and more than anything else it was the place that translated, reflected and offered insight into contemporary culture and into the things that connected culture together,' says curator and critic Ekow Eshun who started freelancing for the title in 1986 and later worked as assistant editor. 'We were all trying to create an ideal version of a style magazine and each month we tried again,' he smiles. The Face's take on fashion was equally disruptive. The magazine was a launch pad for stylists including Ray Petri, Melanie Ward, who coined those memorable images of Kate Moss in a feather headdress for the Summer of Love issue by the late Corine Day; Karl Templer (who now works with a legion of super brands) and Katie Grand (now editor of The Perfect magazine). 'There was a great element of storytelling and back then fashion and clothing was used as a prop. Later priorities shifted as brands became more powerful and demanded coverage in return for advertising,' says Schoerner who contributed numerous stories including a cover image of a geisha figure blowing bubble gum. 'The Face was the reason I moved to the UK from Munich and it supported by decision to pursue photography,' says Schoerner. The high levels of creativity, the transgressive fashion and DIY invention now makes The Face an object of fascination for the Gen Z generation. Photographer Sean Ellis worked with the eccentric Isabella Blow. One of their standout shoots was the cinematic battle shoot The Dark Night Returns featuring Alexander McQueen and a troupe of models in full chainmail and armour. It captured McQueen's warrior spirit and was a huge production. 'When you think about culture today it is splintered on so many platforms but The Face was the bible. If you got in there it meant you had something to stay. There was absolute freedom. I would have an idea and take it to Lee Swillingham, and he would go 'yes, sounds cool, show me the pictures!' and if he did not like, it would not run. You never knew how many pages you had or who else was in the issue and that fostered a friendly competition,' says Ellis. Often The Face team worked through the night to hit production schedules. 'I once forgot to include the cover in the package for the printers. I had to drive all the way to Wales at night to deliver it,' says editor Sheryl Garratt who grew up in Birmingham and began writing for the NME aged 17 before being appointed editor. To assemble the show, the curatorial team reached out to a global diaspora of talent including Stephane Sednaoui, David Sims, Juergen Teller, Ellen von Unwerth, Vincent Peters with many flying in for the opening. It was a joyous reunion. The Face shaped style culture as we know it today and also changed the course of many lives and careers. Hats off Logan! is at Britain's National Portrait Gallery until 18 May
Euronews
25-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Euronews
London's National Portrait Gallery explores how The Face magazine redefined youth culture
Picture the giant image of model Nick Kamen in a white shirt and wrap leather skirt styled by Ray Petri: a symbol of so-called Buffalo Style towering over the entrance of the National Portrait Gallery in London. Inside find a myriad of icons including Kurt Cobain the front man of Nirvana wearing a floral dress shot by David Sims; Kylie Minogue transformed from girl next door into a 70s siren in mirror aviators by Norbert Schoerner and The Spice Girls posing by a wire fence in an urban park by Andreas Bleckmann. These portraits are amongst 200 images by 80 photographers that feature in The National Portrait Gallery's latest exhibition The Face Magazine: Culture Shift which is devoted to the groundbreaking style magazine that changed the way a generation danced, dressed and talked. Back in 1980 when publisher Nick Logan launched the pioneering style title, no one could foresee the social media and digital revolution that would deliver news to phones in our pockets. Back then magazines were oracles and Logan, former editor of NME and behind teen pop music mag Smash Hits, was to create his own revolution. The Face not only reflected the music and fashion scene, but invented it through radically innovative image making, journalism and graphic artistry. Logan dug into his own personal savings to launch The Face and employ a super talented editorial team. The investment paid off, The Face which ran from 1980 to 2004 became the holy grail of style for a generation, with emerging stars and celebrities fighting to be on the cover. Successive generations of photographers and editors (including myself) clamoured to work for the title which was based in a converted industrial offices in EC1. While legacy titles such as Vogue and GQ, were tuned into society and a classical interpretation of glamour, The Face like i-D magazine was a trailblazer for youth. 'This is the first major museum exhibition on The Face's iconic portraiture. It reveals how groundbreaking the imagery was and how it still resonates today. Logan brought together music, style and fashion with art and politics to create a different type of magazine that had a profound impact on clubs, on fashion and also promoted the idea of the stylist as a key influence on fashion shoots and launched the career of many models too,' says Sabina Jaskot-Gill, the NPG's Curator of Photographs. A sense of raw energy, rebellion and invention rips through the exhibition that is curated by Jaskot-Gill alongside art director Lee Swillingham and photographer Norbert Schoerner, both veterans of The Face who first proposed the exhibition idea to the gallery more than five years ago. The recently opened new entrance and galleries designed by Annabelle Selldorf Architects creates a voluminous space for the show. Culture Shift also charts the stylistic shifts in photography and fashion over the two decades from bold to dirty realism to dark, gothic and through to hyper real. The sheer array of imagery is accumulative and immersive. Culture Shift is cleverly composed of salons decorated with wallpapered imagery, video, framed stills and original copies of the magazine that was first conceived by art director, Neville Brody. 'There was a design boom in the UK in the early 80s and Brody spearheaded it in magazine format – subsequent art directors took on that baton. The question was always how the hell do we make this look new!,' says Swillingham who pioneered technicolour futurism using first generation image manipulation tools. 'A theme that runs throughout is how The Face takes well known faces and depicts them in a new way exemplified by Robbie Williams styled by Judy Blame and David Beckham like a war hero with blood on his torso by Vincent Peters ( in fact, it was soya sauce!) … the result was always unexpected,' says Jaskot-Gill. While many style titles scratch the surface of pop culture, The Face imploded it revealing the artistry and energy behind it. 'The Face cut through suburbia like a knife and opened the whole world up to me, one that was both relevant, and new, and exciting,' says contributing photographer John Akehurst. It was deeply immersed in club and dance culture championing the subterranean heroes of rap, acid house, rave, rock, electropop and Brit pop from Jazzie B to Oasis, Pulp, Robbie Williams and Daft Punk. 'I grew up reading The Face and more than anything else it was the place that translated, reflected and offered insight into contemporary culture and into the things that connected culture together,' says curator and critic Ekow Eshun who started freelancing for the title in 1986 and later worked as assistant editor. 'We were all trying to create an ideal version of a style magazine and each month we tried again,' he smiles. The Face's take on fashion was equally disruptive. The magazine was a launch pad for stylists including Ray Petri, Melanie Ward, who coined those memorable images of Kate Moss in a feather headdress for the Summer of Love issue by the late Corine Day; Karl Templer (who now works with a legion of super brands) and Katie Grand (now editor of The Perfect magazine). 'There was a great element of storytelling and back then fashion and clothing was used as a prop. Later priorities shifted as brands became more powerful and demanded coverage in return for advertising,' says Schoerner who contributed numerous stories including a cover image of a geisha figure blowing bubble gum. 'The Face was the reason I moved to the UK from Munich and it supported by decision to pursue photography,' says Schoerner. The high levels of creativity, the transgressive fashion and DIY invention now makes The Face an object of fascination for the Gen Z generation. Photographer Sean Ellis worked with the eccentric Isabella Blow. One of their standout shoots was the cinematic battle shoot The Dark Night Returns featuring Alexander McQueen and a troupe of models in full chainmail and armour. It captured McQueen's warrior spirit and was a huge production. 'When you think about culture today it is splintered on so many platforms but The Face was the bible. If you got in there it meant you had something to stay. There was absolute freedom. I would have an idea and take it to Lee Swillingham, and he would go 'yes, sounds cool, show me the pictures!' and if he did not like, it would not run. You never knew how many pages you had or who else was in the issue and that fostered a friendly competition,' says Ellis. Often The Face team worked through the night to hit production schedules. 'I once forgot to include the cover in the package for the printers. I had to drive all the way to Wales at night to deliver it,' says editor Sheryl Garratt who grew up in Birmingham and began writing for the NME aged 17 before being appointed editor. To assemble the show, the curatorial team reached out to a global diaspora of talent including Stephane Sednaoui, David Sims, Juergen Teller, Ellen von Unwerth, Vincent Peters with many flying in for the opening. It was a joyous reunion. The Face shaped style culture as we know it today and also changed the course of many lives and careers. Hats off Logan!
