Peter Beard Overview
Photographer, collector, diarist, and writer of books Peter Beard has fashioned his life into a work of art; the illustrated diaries he kept from a young age evolved into a serious career as an artist and earned him a central position in the international art world. He was painted by Francis Bacon, painted on by Salvador DalÃÂ, and made diaries with Andy Warhol; he toured with Truman Capote and the Rolling Stones, created books with Jacqueline Onassis and Mick Jagger all of whom are brought to life, literally and figuratively, in his work. As a fashion photographer, he took Vogue stars like Veruschka to Africa and brought new ones most notably Iman back to the U.S. with him.
His love affair with natural history and wildlife, which informs most of his work, began when he was a teenager. He had read the books of Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen) and after spending time in Kenya and befriending the author, bought a piece of land near hers. It was the early 1960s and the big game hunters led safaris, with all the colonial elements Beard had read about in Out of Africa characterizing the open life and landscape, but the times were changing. Beard witnessed the dawn of Kenya`s population explosion, which challenged finite resources and stressed animal populations including the starving elephants of Tsavo, dying by the tens of thousands in a wasteland of eaten trees. So he documented what he saw with diaries, photographs, and collages. He went against the wind in publishing unique and sometimes shocking books of these works. The corpses were laid bare; the facts were carefully written down sometimes in type, often by hand, occasionally with blood.
Peter Beard's most important collages are included, along with hundreds of smaller-scale works and diaries, magnified to show every detail from Beard's meticulous handwriting and old-master-inspired drawings to stones and bones and bits of animals pasted to the page.
Special features:
Two volumes in a cloth slipcase
Volume 1 (PB1): 200 pages of diaries and 294 pages of collages + 5 fold-out; original essay by photo critic Owen Edwards. Nearly all the diaries and collages from the original book are included, plus two new collages finished in 2007.
Volume 2 (PB2): Image index with captions for all pictures from Volume 1, personal photos and early work of the artist, interview with the artist by Steven M. L. Aronson, a facsimile reprint of Beard s 1993 handwritten essay from the sold-out first issue of Blind Spot magazine, extensive bibliography, filmography, and a list of exhibitions.
Originally published in 2006 in TASCHEN's Collector's Edition series, the book sold out instantly upon publication and earned accolades from publications the world over. The book you couldn't get your hands on is finally available in bookstores everywhere, and at a nice price!
Customer Reviews
I have waited for years to be able to afford a book of the diaries - this was much more. In 24hours I've read very little of it - just swam in many of the pictures and scraped off the blood wondering if it were real or paint. The picture of the death of a culture and of many of it's wildlife mixed with expensive advertising design was difficult - but I felt the difficulty wasn't with a particular person (what a gloreous madman - we need them) but that we all watched it... pretending we didn't. I love, love Karin and just those photos and words would have been worth it. But the...what do I call it "art", the BOOKS; the commitment to do this work and I think probably more honestly than I could. Oh, to hold one in my hand and sniff! It was worth the wait. Thank you PB
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