04 Photographs, The Art Of The Nude, Frank Horvat's Kristin, Aurelia, Alice and Alexandra, with footnotes # 116

Frank Horvat

Detail; Kristin, 1980

Dye Transfer Print

31 × 26 in, 78.7 × 66 cm

Private collection

Frank Horvat

Kristin, 1980

Dye Transfer Print

31 × 26 in, 78.7 × 66 cm

Private collection

For sale at US$3,000

« The idea of referring to famous master-pieces probably came to me from a thought that had often crossed my mind – on the subway, for instance – when glancing at some woman who struck me as particularly beautiful, but who didn’t seem conscious of her beauty, and whom a fashion editor would never have allowed me to photograph for a magazine, although I could easily imagine her in a painting by Leonardo da Vinci, Rubens or Ingres. 

Frank Horvat

Alexandra (Goya), c.1983

Archival pigment print

34 x 50 cm (13 3/8 x 19 11/16 in)

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Frank Horvat

Alice (a), c. 1986

Archival pigment print 

120 x 78,2 cm (47 1/4 x 30 13/16 in)

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

I visualised them in the costume and with the hairstyle of one of those periods, or even naked in some mythological scene: partly because I like fantasising about bygone ages, but more because, as a photographer, I prefer discovering unexpected beauties, rather than celebrating those that, in my eyes, are somewhat devalued by general admiration. I have to admit that in the beginning I wasn’t a great connoisseur of classical painting. But little by little, as this game of associations went on and as the project took shape, I began to revisit museums and to assemble a small library of art books, which in turn helped to feed my phantasies. » Frank Horvat

Frank Horvat

Aurelia, c. 1984

Photography, Archival Pigment, Dye Transfer

78.7 × 66 × 2.5 cm | 31 × 26 × 1 in

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Frank Horvat (28 April 1928 – 21 October 2020) was a photographer who presently lives and works in France. He is best known for his fashion photography, published between the mid 1950s and the late 1980s, but his photographic opus includes photojournalism, portraiture, landscape, nature, and sculpture.

In 1988, he produced a book of interviews with fellow photographers such as Don McCullin, Robert Doisneau, Sarah Moon, Helmut Newton, and Marc Riboud. At the beginning of the 1990s, he was one of the first major photographers to experiment with Photoshop. In 1998, he replaced his professional equipment with a compact camera. In 2011, he introduced Horvatland, an on-line iPad application. More on Frank Horvat

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, Portrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, Art of the Nude and The Canals of Venice, Middle East Artists, 365 Saints, 365 Days, and Biblical Icons, also visit my Boards on Pinterest

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