Pierre et Gilles

Last updated

Pierre et Gilles
Pierre et Gilles a Perpignan dans le cadre du FILAF 2018.jpg
Pierre (left) and Gilles (right) at the International Art Book and Film Festival in 2018.
Born
Pierre Commoy
Gilles Blanchard
NationalityFrench
Known for Photography, Painting

Pierre Commoy and Gilles Blanchard, also known as Pierre et Gilles, are French artists and romantic partners. They have been producing works together since 1976, creating a world where painting and photography meet. Their art is peopled by their friends and family, anonymous and famous, who appear in sophisticated life-size sets the artists build in their studio. They meticulously apply paint to the photographs once printed on canvas. Accomplished image creators, Pierre and Gilles have built up an extraordinary contemporary iconography on the frontier between art history and popular culture. [1]

Contents

Pierre et Gilles have sometimes attracted controversy. For example, in 2012 there was a public outcry in Austria when their work entitled Vive la France was displayed on large street posters to advertise the Nackte Männer (English: Naked Men) exhibition created by Ilse Haider at the Leopold Museum in Vienna. It depicts three naked French footballers with their genitals fully revealed: the first black, the second Arab and the third white, to represent the multi-ethnic composition of modern French society. The ensuing controversy led to an act of self-censorship by the artists, who decided that the largest street posters should be changed, and instead use coloured ribbons to hide the players' genitals. [2] [3] [4]

Biography

Pierre Commoy, the photographer, was born in 1950 in La Roche-sur-Yon. [5] Gilles Blanchard, the painter, was born in 1953 in Le Havre. [5] In the early 1970s, Blanchard took a degree at the École des Beaux-Arts in Le Havre, while Commoy studied photography in Geneva. [5]

In 1974, Blanchard moved to Paris to paint and make illustrations for magazines and advertisements. Commoy started working as a photographer for the magazines Rock & Folk, Dépèche Mode and Interview . [5]

In autumn 1976, Commoy and Blanchard met at the inauguration of a Kenzo boutique in Paris, and started living together in an apartment in Rue des Blancs-Manteaux that they also use as a studio. Next year they started working together; Blanchard would do the painting and Commoy took the photos. Their public breakthrough came with their images for the magazine Façade, with portraits of Andy Warhol, Mick Jagger and Iggy Pop. [5]

In 1979, Pierre et Gilles moved to the Bastille quarter, made their first works for Thierry Mugler, designed record sleeves for artist friends, and shot fashion ads and portraits for magazines. They also made their first trip to India, a country which has inspired much of their work. [5]

In 1983, Pierre et Gilles had their first personal show at Galerie Texbraun in Paris. [5]

In 1984, Pierre et Gilles worked extensively for musical artists like Mikado (for whom they directed their first video), Sandii, Etienne Daho, Sheila and Krootchey. [5]

In 1987, Pierre et Gilles again travelled to India, and started working on religious and mythological themes. [5]

In 1989, Pierre et Gilles became friends with Marc Almond, with whom they would work for many years. [5]

In 1993, Pierre et Gilles were awarded the Grand Prix de Photographie by the City of Paris; and produced art work for Absolut Vodka. [5]

Pierre et Gilles' first retrospective exhibition was in 1996, at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris. [5]

In 1997 Pierre et Gilles notably participated in Mike Aho's documentary on them titled "Pierre and Gilles, Love Stories". [6]

In 2000, Pierre et Gilles had a major retrospective at the New Museum in New York.

In 2007, Pierre et Gilles had a major retrospective at the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris.

In 2012, Pierre et Gilles exhibited a work entitled Vive la France in several art galleries across Europe. It depicts three naked French footballers with their genitals fully revealed: the first black, the second Arab/Muslim and the third white, to represent the multi-ethnic composition of modern French society. It attracted controversy across Austria when it was displayed on large street posters to advertise the "Naked Men" exhibition created by Ilse Haider at the Leopold Museum in Vienna, with the result that coloured ribbons were used on the largest posters to hide the players' genitals. [2]

In 2014, Pierre et Gilles unveiled a major new exhibition, "Héros," at Galerie Daniel Templon in Paris. [7]

Work

People photographed by Pierre et Gilles include: musicians Amanda Lear (the cover of her 1980 album of Diamonds for Breakfast , one of their first assignments), an album Lio, Khaled, Étienne Daho, Marie France, Marc Almond, Siouxsie Sioux (the cover of the album Anima Animus by the Creatures - Siouxsie's second band), Leslie Winer, Marilyn Manson, Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Erasure, Deee-Lite, Nina Hagen and CocoRosie (the cover of their 2007 album The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn ); model Naomi Campbell, actresses Tilda Swinton, drag diva Chi Chi LaRue, Catherine Deneuve and Lolo Ferrari, actors Salim Kechiouche, Jérémie Renier and Layke Anderson and also designers Jean-Paul Gaultier and Paloma Picasso.

They directed Marc Almond's 1990 music video for the song "A Lover Spurned" and Lamour's video clip for "Tu es foutu". Their most photographed muse is British male super model Enzo Junior, who has been photographed nine times.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume</span> Photography gallery in Paris

Jeu de Paume is an arts centre for modern and postmodern photography and media. It is located in the north corner of the Tuileries Gardens next to the Place de la Concorde in Paris. In 2004, Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, Centre national de la photographie and Patrimoine Photographique merged to form the Association Jeu de Paume.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henri Cartier-Bresson</span> French photographer (1908–2004)

Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French artist and humanist photographer considered a master of candid photography, and an early user of 35mm film. He pioneered the genre of street photography, and viewed photography as capturing a decisive moment.

Edward Quinn (1920–1997) was born in Ireland. He lived and worked as a photographer from the 1950s, on the Côte d'Azur, during the "golden fifties" the playground of the celebrities from the world of show biz, art and business.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Doisneau</span> French photographer

Robert Doisneau was a French photographer. From the 1930s, he photographed the streets of Paris. He was a champion of humanist photography and with Henri Cartier-Bresson a pioneer of photojournalism.

Gilles Larrain is a French-American photographer who believes photography is a way to "capture the landscape of the soul of a person". By taking a unique approach to photography, which includes creating his own lighting, managing the entire darkroom process, and always having subjects come to his personal studio space, Larrain has created acclaimed pieces of art since 1969. In 1973, Larrain published the highly successful photographic book, Idols, which presented portraits of transvestites. Two generations later, the book inspired American photographer Ryan McGinley who wrote an April 2010 article in Vice, which identified Larrain and the book Idols as one of his early and biggest influences for experimenting with colors, casting, and props, because all of Larrain's images in the book are raw without any manipulation. Larrain has photographed notable personalities in a wide range of creative disciplines, including the dancers of the American Ballet Theatre, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Salvador Dalí, Miles Davis, Sting, Billy Joel, Roberto Rossellini, Norman Mailer, and more.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean-Philippe Charbonnier</span> French Humanist photographer and photojournalist (1921–2004)

Jean-Philippe Charbonnier was a French photographer whose works typify the humanist impulse in that medium in his homeland of the period after World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raymond Hains</span> French visual artist (1926-2005)

Raymond Hains was a prominent French visual artist and a founder of the Nouveau réalisme movement. In 1960, he signed, along with Arman, François Dufrêne, Yves Klein, Jean Tinguely, Jacques Villeglé and Pierre Restany, the Manifesto of New Realism. In 1976, the first retrospective exhibition dedicated to Hains’ work was organized by Daniel Abadie at the National Center of Art and Culture (C.N.A.C.) in Paris. Hains named the show, which was the last one to be displayed at the C.N.A.C., La Chasse au C.N.A.C.. For it, Daniel Spoerri organized a dinner entitled La faim au C.N.A.C..

Guy Bourdin, was a French artist and fashion photographer known for his highly stylized and provocative images. From 1955, Bourdin worked mostly with Vogue as well as other publications including Harper's Bazaar. He shot ad campaigns for Chanel, Charles Jourdan, Pentax and Bloomingdale's.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gisèle Freund</span> French photographer

Gisèle Freund was a German-born French photographer and photojournalist, famous for her documentary photography and portraits of writers and artists. Her best-known book, Photographie et société (1974), is a expanded edition of her seminal 1936 dissertation. It was the first sociohistorical study on photography as a democratic medium of self-representation in the age of technological reproduction. With this first doctoral thesis on photography at the Sorbonne, she was one of the first women habilitated there.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leopold Museum</span> Museum of modern Austrian art in Vienna, Austria

The Leopold Museum, housed in the Museumsquartier in Vienna, Austria, is home to one of the largest collections of modern Austrian art, featuring artists such as Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka, and Richard Gerstl.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Rosenberg (curator)</span> French art curator and author

David Rosenberg is a French art curator and author, specialized in modern and contemporary art styles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albert Watson (photographer)</span> Scottish photographer

Albert Watson OBE is a Scottish fashion, celebrity and art photographer. He has shot over 100 covers of Vogue and 40 covers of Rolling Stone magazine since the mid-1970s, and has created major advertising campaigns for clients such as Prada, Chanel and Levis. Watson has also taken some well-known photographs, from the portrait of Steve Jobs that appeared on the cover of his biography, a photo of Alfred Hitchcock holding a plucked goose, and a portrait of a nude Kate Moss taken on her 19th birthday.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ervin Marton</span> Hungarian photographer

Ervin Marton was a Hungarian-born artist and photographer who became an integral part of the Paris art culture beginning in 1937. An internationally recognized photographer, he is known for his portraits of many key figures in art, literature and the sciences working in Paris, as well as for his candid "street photography". His work was regularly exhibited in Paris during his lifetime, as well as in Budapest, London and Milan. It is held by the Hungarian National Gallery, the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, and the Hungarian Museum of Photography, as well as by major corporations and private collectors in Europe and the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlélie Couture</span> Musical artist

Charlélie Couture is a French and American musician and multi-disciplinary artist, who has recorded over 25 albums and 17 film soundtracks, and has held a number of exhibitions of paintings and photographs. He has also worked as a poster designer, and has published about 15 books of reflections, drawings and photographs.

Saâdane Afif is a French conceptual artist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vincent Fournier (photographer)</span>

Vincent Fournier is a French artist and photographer. His works explore questions of science fiction, utopian stories ,and different mythologies of the future such as the space adventure, humanoid robots, utopian architectures, and the technological transformation of the living. His vision is nourished by childhood memories, including visits to the Palais de la Découverte, which evoke the "scientific wonder". While photography remains his preferred medium, 3D printing, video and installations sometimes accompany certain projects. Vincent Fournier's images are put in tension by oppositions that disturb our gaze: reality/fiction, logic/absurdity, past/future, magic/science, natural/artificial. He explores futuristic fiction and discovers in our present, or in the past, "glimpse of the future". After graduating in sociology and visual arts, he studied at the École nationale supérieure de la photographie in Arles and obtained his diploma in 1997.

The International Art Books and Films Festival or FILAF, is an international festival about artbooks and films which takes place annually in Perpignan since 2011. Its goal is to promote and award the best books and films about art produced each year in the world.

Jean-Claude Lemagny was a French library curator and historian of photography; a specialist in contemporary photography, he contributed to the world of fine-art photography in several roles.

Yvonne Chevalier was a French magazine photographer who was active from 1929 to 1970.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hughes Dubois</span> Photographer of artworks

Hughes Dubois is a photographer specialized in the photography of artworks.

References

  1. "La vie en rose: 40 years of Pierre et Gilles – in pictures". The Guardian. 17 February 2017. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
  2. 1 2 Nude Males' Art Show At Leopold Museum Sparks Controversy: Then Sells Out... Publisher: The Huffington Post . Published: 1 November 2012. Retrieved 5 April 2014.
  3. Vienna museum to cover nude male posters after outcry. Publisher: Reuters. Published: 17 October 2012. Retrieved 5 April 2014.
  4. Skyring, Kerry. "Penis problem: A Vienna museum covers up". Deutsche Welle . Retrieved 5 April 2014.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Ardenne, Paul; Pierre et Gilles (p.12-61); Taschen GmbH, Cologne 2007. ISBN   978-3-8228-4650-6
  6. Morris, Gary (8 April 1999). "Love Stories Pierre et Gilles". Brightlightsfilm.com. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  7. Pierre et Gilles' heroes. Archived 20 April 2014 at the Wayback Machine Publisher: i-D . Published: 14 April 2014. Retrieved 19 April 2014.

External images

Further reading

Archival Sources