Sheer Vanity

The exhibition covers the two separate periods of publication; Vanity Fair was published from 1913 to 1936, then revived in 1983. Work from Helmut Newton, Herb Ritts, Mario Testino and Annie Leibovitz is featured; like a Who's Who of the last century’s personalities and travels through the history and development of celebrity culture.

There’s a heady mix of superstars throughout the last hundred years. H.G. Wells and George Bernard Shaw hang in close proximity, followed by James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, Colette and Virginia Woolf. There is a 1926 portrait of a bearded and smocked Claude Monet, and a portrait of Pablo Picasso looking thoroughly modern in a raincoat. Other highlights are a surprisingly handsome bare-faced Charlie Chaplin and a simmering Greta Garbo.

 

The rebirth era, with the rise of the Uber-Photograper, is glossier and glitzier still. In 1987, Annie Leibovitz snaps Jackie and Joan Collins competing in the glamour stakes sat side-by-side in a stretched limo, both wearing dark glasses, copious amounts of red lipstick and shoulder padding that means business. It is a surprise to see that Helmut Newton, known for his risqué style, has snapped a steely and semi-amused Margaret Thatcher. Apparently she only gave him a few minutes of her time so he had to get it right first time. Or else.

 

Photo: Geena Davis by Michael Comte, 1992

There is the infamous Leibovitz portrait of a very pregnant Demi Moore that sent out shockwaves on first release and continues to drive awe and envy into expecting mothers. Other beauties include a highly sexualised Giselle riding, aherm, a white stallion naked and the nod to Manet’s Dejeuner sur L’Herber (1863) with Keira Knightley and Scarlett Johansson draped seductively and very much naked on cloth. Keep an eye out for a sumptuous Pre-raphelite-esque Julianne Moore placed exotically amidst peacock feathers and petrol velvet. Then there is, somehow very familiar, Mario Testino’s portrait of Diana.

 

While there are some portraits that capture a wider luminary of talent and experience - Robert de Niro, Liza Minelli and Clint Eastwood to name a few, the overriding trend moves away from the wider range of portraits featuring genius and talent of the first half of the century in to a more modern celebrity culture with a much clearer focus on external attractiveness and overt sexual attraction. Commercially, this is now what sells magazines.