Body Painting: Masterpieces by Joanne Gair Overview
If ever there was a defining moment in a career, for renowned body-painting artist Joanne Gair it came when she painted "that suit" on Demi Moore for the cover of Vanity Fair. From creating painted swimsuits on supermodels for Sports Illustrated or making music videos with Madonna, Gair's career allows us to see the human body as a canvas to be transformed and has worked with some of the world's most celebrated personalities to create unforgettable images. During a career spanning over 20 years, she has worked with Elle McPherson, Gillian Anderson, Heidi Klum, Pamela Anderson, Demi Moore, Madonna, Karen Elson, Alek Wek, Carolyn Murphy, Rachel Hunter, and Molly Sims. Among the star photographers whose work is included in this book are Michel Comte, David LaChapelle, Annie Leibovitz, Herb Ritts, Howard Schatz, and Mark Seliger. Joanne Gair is a fixture of the fashion, advertising and music industries. Her collaborations have resulted in thousands of extraordinary photographs from magazines, record covers, music videos, films, and catwalks. Showcased here are 75 of her most iconic images.
Customer Reviews
Gair's palette includes lots of materials that other artists' don't, both because of the temporary nature of her original works and because of the sensitive substrate on which she paints. Outside of the human materials, though, the materials don't matter. The finished work does, and dozens of gorgeous samples appear here.
The works cover a wide range of styles and sensibilities. That cover picture of Demi Moore (a frequent subject) enjoys the amusing irony of being "clothed" in almost nothing at all. A similar sense comes from seeing Victoria's Secret lingerie painted onto Heidi Klum. A series for Sports Illustrated takes their traditional bathing suit pictures to a new level of skimpiness. The model herself dominates, in black-on-black (or 'black-on-black' on black?) photos of Suwana. Then the model disappears again, as in the camouflaged image of Sasha, or the anonymous models dotted with pearls or salt crystals. A few images, toward the end, seem like little more than elaborate makeup - but, where could one really draw the line?
The artworks themselves amuse and sometimes tittilate, but rarely show much real erotic content. The models, though unclothed, hardly seem nude. I have to admire them, too, as much as the artist who adorns them or the photographer who captures them. Creating one of these works takes time, as well as some fairly intimate contact with paintbrushes and other tools. I thank them for putting up with it. The result certainly seems worth it.
-- wiredweird
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