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Performance: Richard Avedon

Performance: Richard Avedon

Current price: $120.00
Publication Date: October 1st, 2008
Publisher:
Abrams
ISBN:
9780810972889
Pages:
304

Description

"We all perform. It's what we do for each other all the time, deliberately or unintentionally. It's a way of telling about ourselves in the hope of being recognized as what we'd like to be."
--Richard Avedon, 1974

The preeminent stars and artists of the performing arts from the second half of the 20th century offered their greatest gifts—and, sometimes, their inner lives—to Richard Avedon. More than 200 are portrayed in Performance, many in photographs that have been rarely or never seen before. Of course, the great stars light the way: Hepburn and Chaplin, Monroe and Garland, Brando and Sinatra. But here too are the actors and comedians, pop stars and divas, musicians and dancers, artists in all mediums with public lives that were essentially performances, who stand at the pinnacle of our cultural achievement. The celebrated author and critic John Lahr offers an elegant assessment of Avedon’s achievement. Four supremely talented artists from the performing arts—Mike Nichols, André Gregory, Mitsuko Uchida, and Twyla Tharp—contribute lively and moving memoirs about their collaborations with Avedon.

About the Author

Mike Nichols was a writer, director, producer, and comedian, and one of only twelve people who have won all four major American entertainment awards (EGOT): four Emmys (two apiece for Wit, Angels in America), a Grammy (An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May), an Oscar (The Graduate), and nine Tonys (Barefoot in the Park, Luv, The Odd Couple, Plaza Suite, The Prisoner of Second Avenue, Annie, The Real Thing, Monty Python’s Spamalot, and Death of a Salesman). Other noteworthy films include Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Carnal Knowledge, and Working Girl. Among his many honors were the Lincoln Center Gala Tribute (1999), the National Medal of Arts (2001), the Kennedy Center Honors (2003), and the AFI Life Achievement Award (2010).