Showing posts with label Exhibition. Show all posts

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Blumenfeld @ Somerset House

Posted on 28 May 2013

Erwin Blumenfeld was born in 1897 in Berlin into a Jewish bourgeois family. After his father's death he entered an apprenticeship in the garment industry and then served as a soldier in France in the First World War, In 1918 he left to Holland and married Lena Citroen, opening a leather goods shop in Amsterdam in 1923 whilst also trying to become a painter. During the early twenties he participated in the Dada movement as a self-proclaimed head of the Dutch Dada movement, under the pseudonym of Jan Bloomfield. He began experimenting with photography in the early thirties, taking photographs of customers in his shop and later exhibiting his works at the Van Lier gallery in Amsterdam. When his business went bankrupt, he left for Paris in 1935 where he was introduced to the world of fashion photography and to French Vogue magazine, thanks to Cecil Beaton who admired his photographs. During World War II, Blumenfeld was interned in French war camps but managed to escape to the US with his family in 1941 through Marseilles. In New York where he was offered a contract by Harper’s Bazaar and after three years began freelance work for Vogue US. Within a few years he had become one of the most famous color fashion photographers in the US. He continued to work in fashion and advertising until the early sixties, when he devoted his time to writing his autobiography 'Eye to I He died in Rome in 1969.
Do you want to know who am I talking about? Let his work speak for itself. 








A little bit shocking, a little bit hidden messages, something to reach for and something to look at. 
See his exhibition at beautiful Somerset House from 23rd of May to 1st of September. I know you will say: 'Oh, plenty of time...' just remember this exhibition that will be a criminal to miss.












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BIBA and Beyond: Barbara Hulanicki

Posted on 8 April 2013

Once, Barbara Hulanicki revolutionised fashion shopping by hanging risqué dresses on hat stands, playing loud, swish tunes accompanied by glitzy accessories and make-up boxes brimming with bright red, yellow, plum and chocolate colours.

Minus the coolly indifferent assistants – themselves a masterstroke at the time – the show celebrating her  50 years in the business has all of those perks, as well as films, dressable dolls, mirrors and interviews, including some with Hulanicki, who has taken a hands-on role in its curation. The Brighton-raised designer might be broadcasting what we’re all thinking in dismissing much of modern fashion as having a touch of the Emperor’s New Clothes, but she also speaks of her continued excitement at being a dedicated follower of fashion – although her pioneering outlook from the mid-1960s was more a lesson in leading when millions followed. The central plinth of this display is a dense promenade of beautiful dresses. Among them a leopard print cape and hood, sparkly gold numbers to swoon party planners, demure black gowns with cut-offs of once-unprecedented shortness and elements of flower power and psychedelia, floating next to decadent, vertiginous heels or strappy cow-coloured footwear. Hulanicki is a feisty spirit with a restless flair for capturing the Zeitgeist. Many of the dresses have been proudly handed over by donors who donned them for weddings or similarly prestigious occasions. Fearne Cotton and Ronnie Wood head a list of celebs using the talents of an artist who retains reverence on high streets and catwalks.




But Wood’s commission – he asked Hulanicki to build his bar, Woody’s on the Beach, in Miami – is indicative of the dexterity her origins as an illustrator and perhaps explaining her seemingly endless longevity. Almost 60 years after making an illustration of Audrey Hepburn (positioned as the quintessential Biba girl here) while studying at Brighton’s Art College, Hulanicki now designs hotels in Jamaica and the Bahamas. 
She won an award from the American Institute of Architects in 1993 and, more fantastically, helped create recording studios, a private home, music video costumes and a Disney World restaurant during five years working for Gloria Estefan. From crooners and Rolling Stones to bright lippy and affordable handbags, Hulanicki has turned a rebellious hand to so much. The dresses dazzle, but her precocity shines brighter.

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Tim Walker – Story teller

Posted on 6 November 2012

This exhibition is located at Somerset House and the sponsored by Mulberry. Even if you don't know Tim Walker works, those two words says a lot, right? 


    Somerset House




Once I walked through the door I was amazed by the whole interior and the quality of the photos. EXTRAORDINARY.  That's the only word was going in my mind all that time. Lot of these days photographers has lack of ideas and inspiration, always copying something, but Walker shows the high standard and amazing, never-seen before ideas. In his work there is a lot of famous people like actresses, designers, television hosts in the variety of characters and face expressions.




Mainly models dominate in this exhibition. The Tim Walker's locations and the way he sees and later on edits the photos are just unexplainable. See it yourself. 






This doll is massive and must say scary as well. 
 Overall, the exhibition is the huge success. If you in London, love fashion photography, want to be inspired (every one in a while, we all can have lack of ideas) and just simply love art, then you must go and see this Tim Walker - Story Teller at the Somerset House.

 

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