© Horst Estate
Bernheimer Fine Art Haldenstr. 11 6006 Lucerne Suisse
This is the second exhibition Bernheimer Fine Art Photography has mounted in cooperation with the Horst Estate, Miami/Florida. The exhibition title Horst P. Horst: Icons of Fashion and Beauty reveals, that the main focus is on fashion, portrait and nude photography. Some 35 photographs will be shown, which Horst shot over 50 years.
In the six decades of his artistic career Horst P. Horst rose to become one of the most important forerunners in fashion and society photographs of the 20th century. Horst began his career in 1931 in Paris at French Vogue. Photographs by the German-American photographer reveal a masterly consideration for composition, light and shadow, as well as a distinct sense for geometry and lines. The exhibited world-famous photograph Mainbocher Corset exemplifies this. The dramatic studio light of this highly graphic and clear composition appears from the top right and throws wide shadows to emphasize the pinned up hair of the model. The forward leaning torso is dressed in a corset whose loosely draped strings dissolve the predominant severity of the composition. In the cannon of art history the Mainbocher Corset of 1939 is in line with world famous nudes by Ingres and Man Ray. The photograph, Dali Costumes, tells of Horsts strong interest in surrealism; Horst and Salvador Dali together sketched filigreed costumes, which were later staged by the photographer. Lisa on Silk hand on torso I from 1940 stands out as one of Horst’s best early nude photographs. A strong interest in the classical Greek ideals of beauty and it’s creative translation forms the basis of these photographs.
© Horst Estate
Horst P. Horst preferably used a Rolleiflex or Hasselblad camera to take his photographs. He mainly worked in a studio as he particularly valued the artificial light for his staging. The exhibited black-and-white photographs all come from the estate of the artist and all prints were produced in Horsts lifetime. In the context of the exhibition at Gallery Bernheimer Silver Gelatin Prints as well as several rare Platinum Prints will be on display.
Biography
Horst Paul Albert Bohrmann (Horst P. Horst) was born on 14th August 1906 in Weissenfels an der Saale. At the end of the 1920s Horst began a course at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Hamburg in order to become a furniture designer. In 1930 he travelled to Paris where he briefly assisted in the studio of Le Corbusier. In Paris Horst got to know the Vogue-photographer Baron George von Hoyningen-Huene who introduced him to Parisian fashion designers, artists, intellectuals, actors and aristocrats. Horst became his assistant, model and travelling companion. Upon the recommendation of Dr. Mehemed Fehmy Agha, former Art Director of the American Vogue, Horst shot photographs for the fashion magazine for the first time in 1931. A half year work stay in the USA following the invitation of Vogue publisher Condé Nast ended early and Horst returned to Paris, where in 1935 he took over Hoyningen-Huenes position as Vogue chief photographer.
In 1937 Horst moved to New York, and applied for the American citizenship. From 1943 onward Horst worked as a photographer for the US Army. In 1945 he shot President Harry S. Truman’s portrait and subsequently rose to become the official photographer of the following presidents until Gerald R. Ford. After his dismissal from the army he worked once more for Vogue in Paris and New York.
© Horst Estate
Beside Vogue, Horst increasingly worked for House&Garden from 1952 onwards; travelling to Venezuela and Portugal (1967), to Guadeloupe and on the Bahamas (1970), Mexico, Turkey, Spain and Romania (1972) as well as Santo Domingo, Germany, Morocco and France (1979). Animated by the editor in chief of the American Vogue at that time, Diana Vreeland, Horst devoted himself to large photo series portraying the lifestyle of the international High Society beginning in 1960th to mid 1970s. In 1968, published by Horst and Valentine Lawford, Vogue's Book of Houses, Gardens, People appeared. In addition Horst worked on his book Salute to the Thirties, portraying American actresses of the 1930s, shot by him and Hoyningen-Huene, that appeared in 1971.
In the 1980s Horst intensified his publication and exhibition activity: Besides assignments for the English, Italian and Spanish issue of Vogue he worked for Vanity Fair and in 1984 his friend and associate Valentine Lawford published the biography Horst – B sharp Work and B sharp World, and after a big retrospective in the Internationally centre of Photography in New York (1984) single exhibitions followed till the end of the 1980s in Venice (1985), London (1986), Munich and Bremen (1987), London, Frankfurt and Hamburg (1988), London, Los Angeles and New York (1989), Houston, Toronto and Atlanta (1990). Horst P. Horst passed away on the 19th of November, 1999 in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.
© Horst Estate
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Photos et vignettes © Horst Estate