Westwood Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of photographs from Lucien Clergue. Clergue photographs and documents the haunting final film of Jean Cocteau entitled Testament of Orpheus (Le testament d'Orphée).The film directed and starring Jean Cocteau, represents the third part of his Orphic Trilogy following The Blood of a Poet (1930) & Orphée (1950).
The black-and-white film includes a few seconds of color, and portrays
the quest for divine wisdom of an 18th century poet, played by Cocteau
himself.
Lucien Clergue
For over fifty years, Lucien Clergue has been an independent photographer, known for his thirty year association with Picasso,
as well as other creators,including Edward Steichen, Jean Cocteau, Max
Ernst, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Doisneau, Salvador Dali, Jean
Renoir, Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, André Kertész, Marcel Breuer, Roman
Polanski, Umberto Eco, Robert Rauschenberg, and many other artistic
individuals. Lucien Clergue's talent also extended to music -- as a
child violinist he was inspired by the rhythm, melodic quality and some-
times haunting effect of music. In the early 1950's in Arles, France
where Clergue was born, he photographed gypsy families and met Jose
Reyes of The Gipsy Kings and his cousin, flamenco guitarist, Manitas de
Plata. For many years Clergue teamed the singer and guitarist and
traveled the duo around the world with performances at Carnegie Hall.
Clergue also directed a film, Delta de sel with music by Manitas de
Plata which was nominated for an academy award he went on to create and
direct numerous art-related films (Picasso, War, Love and Peace, 1968,
produced by Universal Pictures). The subjects of Clergue's photographs
have spanned the decades capturing extraordinary images of
Saltimbanques, undulating nudes, intimate portraits of Picasso, Cocteau,
Hockney, reflective images, the bullfight, death-related concepts and
experimental fine art photographs. Clergue’s photographs are in the
collection of over 60 well-known museums and private collectors. His
photographs have been exhibited in over 100 solo exhibitions worldwide,
with noted exhibitions such as Museum of Modern Art New York.
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