IN FOCUS: PETER BEARD (lots 1-13) showcases a carefully curated selection of 13 unique works by Peter Beard from a Private European Collection. Inspired by Beard’s life and artistic practice, the collectors chose to focus on the artist’s work and assembled their collection over a span of 15 years. Ranging from the monumental composition Giraffes in Mirage on the Taru Desert to intimately scaled Polaroids, the works offered here emphasize Beard’s deep interest in the natural world as well as his fascination with feminine beauty. Both the larger works and the small-format Polaroids demonstrate Beard’s expressive use of handwritten text and hand-drawn embellishment. In each, Beard has layered text, image, and design to create a heightened visual experience – one that conveys both the fierce beauty of Africa, his adopted home, and the urgent need to protect it from the destruction of modern progress.

The works in this curation present the quintessential Peter Beard – visual poet, alchemist, prophet – and epitomise his distinctive aesthetic and environmentally conscious approach. Once described as ‘Odysseus with a camera’, Beard was a visionary ahead of his time whose powerful work continues to resonate long after its creation.