Pierre et Gilles: The Complete Works (Jumbo Series) - Hardcover

Pierre Et Gilles; Marcade, Bernard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 3822880957 ISBN 13: 9783822880951

Publisher: TASCHEN, 1997

Synopsis

<div>An unbridled celebration of a life beyond guilt and expiation<br>As sweet as raspberry ripple, as tempting as popcorn. Welcome to the seductive pictures of Pierre et Gilles. Again and again they show people in kitschy scenarios against a background of flowers and hearts. When they are not snapping portraits of the well-known - most of whom are close friends like Marc Almond or Nina Hagen - and not-so-known, they photograph themselves. <p>Bizarre, and full of obscure significance, the photographs are reminiscent of stills from film melodramas.They are always colourful and presented with beguiling polish. They plunder the repertoire of historical presentation as though they were leafing through a collection of fabrics, and assume identities as though they were part of a mail-order catalogue. <p>Now the latest and most comprehensive collection of the works of these two photographers can be presented to the public - in a format designed by the artists themselves. In matt skin-colour, with a golden edging, the embossed cover is reminiscent of a quilted counterpane and promises a cuddly experience within. Once between the covers one can frolic at will in a soft, artificial world of pictures. This saccharine collection of kitsch encompasses all aspects of homosexuality and offers them in an appetising form even to those who abhor them. A straight challenge is issued to all readers to participate - at least with their eyes - in this unbridled celebration of a life beyond guilt and expiation.</p></p></div>

About this title

Reviews

The highly stylized portraits by the French photographers known simply by their first names, Pierre et Gilles, function unapologetically in the grand tradition of glamour photography. The subjects?whether they are stars of film, music, or fashion or just friends of the photographers?are both idealized and irrelevant when standing amid complex fantasy sets under layers of makeup in photographs that have been heavily retouched. This contradiction, which we know to have been most fully realized in the Hollywood star system of the Forties, is perhaps the only irony in the artists' body of work. These are simply beautiful images of beautiful people, produced as a sincere homage to the beauty of the human form. As this mid-career catalog raisonne makes clear, they found their style with their first images from the late 1970s and have only finely honed it since then. It is nonetheless informative, and above all pleasurable to peruse the jungle of nearly 400 images after wandering through the phographers' 40-page collage-like "illustrated biography." Highly recommended for all contemporary photography and pop culture collections.?Eric Bryant, "Lirbrary Journal"
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: TASCHEN
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3822880957
• ISBN 13: 9783822880951
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 354