Brad Pitt, Las Vegas 1994 © Annie Leibovitz. Courtesy of Vanity Fair Mikhail Baryshnikov and Rob Besserer, Cumberland Island, Georgia, 1990 © Annie Leibovitz My Parents, Peter’s Bond Beach, Wainscott, Long Island, 1992 © Annie Leibovitz

The exhibition “Annie Leibovitz – A Photographer's Life 1990 – 2005”at KUNST HAUS WIEN offers an unusual glimpse of the oeuvre of one of the most famous portrait photographers of our time. In addition to her portraits of famous personages, which have long since become icons of photographic art, the 150 works on display include photographs from Leibovitz's private life that have never been exhibited before. The result is a unique chronology, a composite of family album, diary and assignment work. The exhibition was organised by the Brooklyn Museum, New York and is being sponsored by American Express. Portraits of artists and politicians such as Mikhail Baryshnikov, William S. Burroughs, Demi Moore, Bill Clinton, Agnes Martin, Mick Jagger, Matthew Barney, Chuck Close, Robert de Niro and Scarlett Johansson form one core of the exhibition. Scenes from the photographer’s private life – the births of her three daughters, or the illness and death of Leibovitz's father – are juxtaposed with landscape photography, e.g. from the USA or Jordan, and reportages such as the one Leibvoitz did on the siege of Sarajevo. Annie Leibovitz’s photographs for magazines have chronicled American popular culture since the 1970s. The photographer sees her work, which has been displayed in numerous museums throughout the world, as a unified whole: “I don't have two lives,” Leibovitz says. “This is one life, and the personal pictures and the assignment work are all part of it.” The current exhibition follows up on KUNST HAUS WIEN’s first presentation of works by Annie Leibovitz in 1993, which showed photographs created during the years 1970 to 1990.

'Aura of sensuality'

Annigoni, who died in 1988, expressed an interest in painting the Queen's younger sister when he was painting the first of his portraits of the monarch in 1954.

The sittings began in 1956, a year after Princess Margaret called off her plans to marry Group Captain Peter Townshend.

She is depicted in an English garden, and was described by the artist as being "enveloped in an aura of sensuality".

The painting was among a collection of the Princess's personal effects that were auctioned by Viscount Linley to foot a £3m inheritance tax bill on her estate.

His reason for buying back the portrait for £680,000 - three times its sale estimate - were not disclosed, though he chose to lift his anonymity after speculation about the buyer's identity.

Princess Margaret died in February 2002 after suffering a stroke, six weeks before the death of the Queen Mother.

Exclusively for Art Elite Magazine - Interview with

Antonio Ricci  Read Interview

© Antonio Ricci

Can you buy Stardust?    Read interview

 Trisha Lambi read interview

    Trisha Lambi participated in the Fourth Edition of the Biennale Internazionale dell’Arte Contemporanea in Florence Italy. Participation in this event was by invitation only and an International Committee chose artists solely on merit. Since then she  has exhibited locally, interstate and internationally and interest in my work is growing.   Trisha Lambi is represented by galleries in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Wollongong and in private collections in Australia, Spain, China, Germany,  Ireland, Canada, Cyprus and the United States.  

Interviews

Steven Pratt		Elena Ringo		Ken Bekles		Neil Lawson-Baker
Steven Pratt was born into a farming community in 1950 in Zimbabwe. He spent the greater part of his life there in close association with the land as an artist and farmer until the turbulent social and political upheaval under the current dictatorship brought about his exile to the United Kingdom in 2003. He studied painting at the Rhodes University School of Art in South Africa under Brian Bradshaw, and there worked and exhibited with the Grahamstown Group, an association of landscape painters under Bradshaw’s mentorship. He has exhibited in national exhibitions in major centres in Zimbabwe and South Africa, and has held a number of solo exhibitions in Zimbabwe. His work is represented in the public collection of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe. Read Interview		Art Elite Online Magazine is proud to introduce Elena Ringo -one of the most interesting European artists and a manager of International Art Association Artist Universal. Her life is as interesting as her works -grown in Moscow, she performed on stage, created an Art Union of painters and published a magazine and poems. Her art is well know all around the world and she has had recently two solo art shows in Helsinki. Her exhibitions were met with great interest by artistic and intellectual elite of Helsinki. Her technical mastery combined with his distinctive and striking use of composition and color enable her to portray real people   and images that arise from the depths of her soul and belong to her alone in a totally unique and artistic way. Read Interview		Ken Bekles  is internationally recognized for his photography and paintings. His images are published and exhibited in solo and group shows throughout the United States and Europe. He recently joined Artist Universal Artist Association. In his interview with Art Elite the New York based artist and photographer tells Art Elite magazine about his unique art and interesting life. Read Interview		Having been exposed to photographic background since birth (Neil's father was a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society) Neil Lawson-Baker has an eye for absolute perfection. He uses a Nikon D 300 digital camera and a Leaf Aptus 38M pixel back on a Contax 645 camera system to produce quality work. According to interior designer and journalist Jane Arte Watt "the artist reveals an extra dimension not seen by people in a hurry of everyday life, images that the city itself created, with no computer image processing involved - just an artist's eye and the city." "The art of photography is not lost with a birth of digital cameras; it has been promoted to the state of photographic art instead of being a simple recording of the vernacular." (Jane Arte Watt, BIDA "The Role of Photography in Contemporary Interior Design") Read Interview

Steph Goodger

  Art Elite Online Magazine has an honour to present a painter from France Steph Goodger. She was born in Kent, England, in 1974. Her studio was based in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, from 2000 to 2001. She exhibited with Galerie De Roos Van Tudor, the Netherlands, until 2006.
In 2004 she moved to the Bordeaux region of France and created the gallery Salon des Fables with Julie McDermott and Julian Rowe. In 2007 Salon des Fables subsequently became the title of an Association which takes exhibitions to new venues, in France initially.

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