Peter Beard Art Edition : N 251-2500

Photographe, collectionneur, écrivain, Peter Beard a modelé sa vie en un art. Spectateur de l’explosion démographique du Kenya, de l’appauvrissement des ressources et du déclin animal, il en devient reporter par ses journaux, photographies et collages. Son travail, à contre courant, le poussa à publier des ouvrages parfois choquants, illustrés crûment annotés à la main, parfois avec du sang. Recouvrant les pages de ce volumineux ouvrage, les collages de Peter Beard sont reproduits pour la première fois à la taille pour laquelle ils avaient été prévus. Des centaines de réductions de ses oeuvres viennent étayer l’ouvrage, détaillant son travail. Inclus un ouvrage complémentaire contenant des interviews exclusives avec l’artiste, des photos personnelles, pour la plupart inédites. Limité à 2250 exemplaires mondiaux, signés, numérotés par Peter Beard.

A stunning journey into the world of Peter Beard : Photographer, collector, diarist, and writer of books 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, painted on by Salvador Dali, and made diaries with Andy Warhol ; he toured with Truman Capote and the Rolling Stones, created books with Jacqueline Onassis and Mick Jagger 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.
His love affair with natural history and wildlife, which informs most of his work, began when he was a teenager. He had read the books of Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen) and after spending time in Kenya and befriending the author, bought a piece of land near hers. It was the early 1960s and the big game hunters led safaris, with all the colonial elements Beard had read about in Out of Africa characterizing the open life and landscape, but the times were changing. Beard 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 were carefully written down sometimes in type, often by hand, occasionally with blood.

Peter Beard Art Edition : N.251-2500

de Peter Beard