HELMUT NEWTON & MAN RAY | A FEAST FOR FRIENDS
LOOM GALLERY
VIA MARSALA, 7 20121 MILANO IT +39 02 8706 4323 ASK@LOOMGALLERY.COM WWW.LOOMGALLERY.COM
OPENING EXHIBITION HOURS
Thursday, 14 March, 7 - 9pm
15 March - 20 April 2019
Tuesday / Saturday, 12 - 7 pm or by appointment
Tempting, provocative, proud, and strong. 20 selected works from a private collection, which have never been exhibited before, starring two of the greatest masters of photography of the last century. You are invited to a fantastic party. Surreal. Fairy-tale-like. Where the maudit of the Parisian cafes are min- gled with the beauties of Studio 54. Where dada artists, feminists and chanteuses, bodybuilders and reporters sip champagne. Locking their eyes with yours. All around you, surrealists and fetishists, er- otomaniacs, gascons, divine creatures, and geniuses of the past. An amazing milieu, in black and white, of a stunning beauty. Imagine yourself during this great party, tagging along with women who have sculptural bodies, marauders and mythological males. They are all invited and portrayed from two of the geniuses of modern contemporary photography: Man Ray and Helmut Newton. For the first time in Milan, Loom Gallery presents this exhibition, with 20 photographs, including vintage and museum print from private collections; in partnership with Galerie Eva Meyer Paris and Association International Man Ray, Paris.
Among the shots, we can find some of the most breath-taking names of the last century, such as the dishevelled lovers of Man Ray: Meret Oppenheim, artist and inspirational muse of surrealism and her disruptive sexuality. The beautiful Lee Miller, the restless American war reporter, journalist and model of American Vogue. Kiki de Montparnasse: beautiful, almost wild, can-can dancer, who posed with her sexy body for all the great Parisian artists of the ‘20s. Alongside them, the Marchesa Luisa Casati and an iconic Pablo Picasso with a subjective catalyst look and a hot and heavy zeal. The hieratic Gabrielle Chanel, here in the myth portrait of 1935 that make her stands out as the only lady of fashion. Man Ray has immortalised her with her eternal marks: a strings of pearls, a cigarette, and the little black dress. That look of haughtiness which then became the symbol for Mademoiselle.
More provocative, but no less libertine, Helmut Newton’s guest list, with his magnetic fetishism in a series of photographs from ‘75 to ‘97. Sex and nudity, eroticism and provocation; here is the blonde Roselyn, with her nude back and a pair of 12 heel over-the-knee boots, in one of the shots captured during four days (and nights) in a French Castle with the photographer. Then again, the Peruvian super- model Suzy Dyson, with her body harnessed in a brace (as a result of an accident), but still wearing her guêpière. And then the bare, statuary, explicit nudes of some of the most beautiful women in the world. Helpless and powerful. Strong and unique as the first world champion body builder Lisa Lyon, naked with cowboy boots and sunglasses. As they say, the less is more. I hope you enjoy the experience.
Benedetta Rossi