Peter Beard - Photographs London Wednesday, May 25, 2022 | Phillips

Photographs

London Auction 25 May 2022

  • Provenance

    The Time Is Always Now, New York, 1990s
    Phillips, London, 16 May 2019, lot 129

  • Literature

    Peter Beard, Cologne: Taschen, 2013, pl. 44 (variant)

  • Catalogue Essay

    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.

IN FOCUS: PETER BEARD

5

Peter Beard

Iman at Hoggers, Kenya

1985
Unique Polaroid print with ink and paint, executed later.
Sheet: 14.5 x 10.5 cm (5 3/4 x 4 1/8 in.)
Signed, dated and annotated 'Iman' in ink on the recto.

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE EUROPEAN COLLECTION

Estimate
£6,000 - 8,000 

Sold for £9,450

Contact Specialist

Department Contacts 

Rachel Peart
Head of Department, London

RPeart@phillips.com

Yuka Yamaji
Head of Photographs, Europe

YYamaji@phillips.com

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+44 20 7318 4092

Photographs

London Auction 25 May 2022