Helmut Newton, Australian/German, 1920–2004
Lisa Lyon in her Studio, Venice, California, 1981
Gelatin silver print
22.38 x 14.94 in. (56.85 x 37.95 cm.)
Private collection
Lisa Lyon (born 1953) is a female
bodybuilder and photo model from the United States, and is regarded as one of
female bodybuilding's pioneers.
Born in
Los Angeles, California in 1953. Lisa Lyon studied art at the University of
California at Los Angeles. There she became accomplished in the Japanese art of
fencing, kendo, but found herself lacking sufficient upper body strength so she
began weight training. This eventually led her into bodybuilding.
Lyon
modeled for Helmut Newton, American fine art photographer Robert Mapplethorpe
(resulting in the 1983 book Lady: Lisa Lyon), and Marcus Leatherdale, who
published two pictures of her in his first catalogue book at Molotov. Lyon's
work with Mapplethorpe was specifically impressive due to Mapplethorpe's
ability to portray her body as masculine and feminine in his photos, which
shows how her body was truly one of a kind.
She was
inducted into the IFBB Hall of Fame in 2000 for being a one-woman
media-relations activist on behalf of the sport and Elevating bodybuilding to
the level of fine art.
Lisa Lyon
also had a short acting career.
In creating the Marvel Comics character Elektra, Frank
Miller initially used Lyon as a basis for the character's appearance. More on Lisa Lyon
Helmut Newton
Lisa Lyons in Paris III, c. 1980
Gelatin silver print
20 × 18 in | 50.8 × 45.7 cm
Private collection
Estimated for US$30,000 in September 2023
Helmut Newton (Australian/German, 1920–2004) Title:
Lisa Lyon in Paris IV, c. 1980
Gelatin silver print
36.7 x 35.5 cm. (14.4 x 14 in.)
Private collection
Helmut Newton was born on October 31, 1920, in Berlin,
Germany. He attended the American School in Berlin. From an early
age, Newton developed a keen obsession with photography, purchasing his very
first camera aged 12. Four years later, Newton was to turn his back on
mainstream education, taking an apprenticeship with renowned German
photographer, Elsle Simon, known as Yva. Her surreal, multiple exposure
photographs that took in fashion, theater and the nude were to inspire
Newton throughout his career.
On
November 9, 1938, Newton, secured passage to China, where he stopped in
Singapore until 1940 before leaving to Australia and finding work as a truck
driver in the Australian Army.
In 1948,
he married actress June Browne, herself a photographer under the name of Alice
Springs, a name she chose from a map of Australia. High-profile contracts with
Australian Vogue in the 1950’s; British Vogue in 1957-1958; French Vogue in
1961 provided Newton with the exposure that would allow him to stamp his style
on fashion photography over the next 40 years.
Known as
the ‘King of Kink’, Newton’s erotically charged imagery was provocative as it
was masterful in its compositional and narrative direction. Creating highly
charged images layered with voyeuristic, sado-masochist undertexts, Newton was
drawn to empowered woman presenting a potent image of female sexuality in the
60’s and 70’s.
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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