The Nude and Helmut Newton’s Citationist Erotic Icons

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Forerunners of a time that will be and that was, hers are always beautiful women, with character, very sensual, uninhibited, bejeweled, elegant, dominant, aware of their role, powerful. To illustrate them with philological determination are the 300 photographs that at the Kunstforum in Vienna illustrate the rise of Helmut Newton from his Berlin and Australian beginnings to the noble pantheon of the international scene. The exposure Helmut Newton Legacyconceived to celebrate the centenary of the birth of the great photographer (Berlin, 1920 – Los Angeles, 2004) the exhibition was postponed for two years due to the coronavirus, but finally open, it can be visited until 15 January 2023.

Crocodiles

If from the very first hall of the exhibition it is the famous that strikes us Crocodiles, (Pina Bausch Ballett, Wuppertal, 1983), with a portrait in the jaws of a crocodile of the body actually of a dancer, with very feminine features, from the company of the beloved and very famous German choreographer, it is the female nudes that describe the wisdom portraiture and descriptive of the artist. Starting from what was and will remain as one of the most famous nudes in photography, the 1973 photo of Charlotte Rampling at the Nord-Pinus hotel in Arles. Women in the foreground, very often naked, males absent or in the background or accompaniment, are the stylistic figure that since the Australian beginnings will characterize the expressiveness of Newton. And it has been like this since the Australian beginnings, with the photo found in the photographer’s archive, taken – perhaps on the occasion of a wedding – in Melbourne in 1955, with in the foreground the refined face of a woman framed by a large white hat and on the background a man in front of a large window. The famous nudes of the 80s are still far away,

Alfred Hitchcock and Francois Truffaut

The admirably quoting photos of the great directors loved by the photographer, Alfred Hitchcock and François Truffaut first of all and then Michelangelo Antonioni and Fellini, with stupendous models – as elegant and fascinating as always – surrounded by mystery, in the Parisian streets, among industrial architectures or surrounded by paparazzi. And again, always looking at the cinema, her novels Ann Darrow see the disturbing presence stand out against the background of a King Kong, symbol of a dominant masculinity in a fort, however, now under attack. The eighties are those of the nude, which here too, however, becomes artistically quotationist. Novello Goya, his women are portrayed in diptychs first dressed and then naked (Sie Kommen Dressed, Sie Kommen Naked). In the Big Nudes bare sculptural bodies take on Michelangelo-like postures and fetish sensuality (Tied-up Torso, Ramatuelle, 1980, Big Nude III, Henrietta, Paris, 1981). Finally, the last rooms show a long series of famous portraits, with a young Mick Jagger, a poignant Romy Schneider on the edge of the bed, Gianni Versace’s nude in his opulent home, Karl Lagerfeld’s pigtails, to show at the end of the itinerary a stack of polaroids.

Refined eroticism

Commissioned or not by the French and Italian editions of Vogue (the most iconic) or by L’Uomo Vogue and Max (the most innovative) Harper’s Bazaar, Vanity Fair or Elle, his photos are always characterized by a refined eroticism with more or less sado-masochistic, not at all misogynistic despite some criticisms of Susan Sontag, able to combine voyeurism and sensuality, style and elegance, with a sharp criticism – like her chickens quartered by jeweled hands – to consumerism and the ephemeral mortal transience only hidden by the most unbridled and paranoid luxury. Certainly her interpretation remains unmistakable, and her photographs constitute an essential passage in the narration of the iconic imagery of the past century. Curated by Matthias Harder, director of the Helmut Newton Foundation, Berlin, this beautiful exhibition accurately interprets the fundamental passages (and not only) of Newton’s poetics, opening glimpses of limpid clarity on the authorial paths that the definition of “refined glossy photography” too hastily risks hiding behind the most internationally celebrated glamour.

Helmut Newton LegacyKunstforum, Vienna, until 15 January 2023