TWIGGY: A LIFE IN PHOTOGRAPHS
A new display at the National Portrait Gallery will celebrate Twiggy’s 60th birthday and the publication of a new photographic biography of her life. One of the best-known and most respected models of all time Twiggy has worked with many of the world’s leading photographers and a selection of the most iconic and important of these portraits will be on show at the Gallery.
Twiggy by Barry Lategan in 1966 – the picture which made her career
Twiggy by Cecil Beaton
Twiggy by Richard Avedon
Launched with a famous haircut by Leonard and photographs by Barry Lategan in 1966, Twiggy was the world’s first supermodel. It was Lategan’s studies of her in the Daily Express that launched her as ‘the Face of 1966.’ For the next three years Twiggy helped define swinging London and she remains today an internationally recognised name and face. Appearing in all the leading magazines she has been photographed by Cecil Beaton, Richard Avedon, Melvin Sokolsky, Ronald Traeger, Bert Stern and Norman Parkinson amongst others.
In 1970 Twiggy embarked on her theatrical career. She played the lead in Ken Russell’s film of Sandy Wilson’s musical The Boyfriend (1971), for which she was awarded two Golden Globes -Most Promising Newcomer and Best Actress in a Musical. She went on to star in the Broadway musical My One and Only (1983-4), for which she was nominated for a Tony award. Twiggy continues to make regular appearances in print and on television and has more recently modelled for portraits by leading contemporary photographers including Bryan Adams, John Swannell, Mary McCartney, Steven Meisel and Sølve Sundsbo. This display of over 20 photographs will encompass the Twiggy’s life in portraits, from early shots by Lategan to the present day.
Twiggy by Ronald Traeger for Vogue
To accompany the display, the National Portrait Gallery will publish a hard-back book Twiggy: A Life in Photographs in September. A range of portraits from the Gallery’s Collection will be included in the book along with insights by Twiggy and an introduction by Terence Pepper, Curator of Photographs. An illustrated chronology – including Twiggy’s private collection of photographs, snapshots, cuttings and memorabilia – will explore her extraordinary life in front of the camera. The book (RRP £20) will contain over 100 illustrations, and a current retrospective of the portraits in Twiggy’s own words.
Recent: Solve Sundsbo’s shot last year (left) and Bryan Adams‘s in 2000
TWIGGY: A LIFE IN PHOTOGRAPHS
From 19 September 2009 – 24 March 2010
Room 33A
Admission Free
For further press information and image requests please contact:
Eleanor Macnair , Press Office, National Portrait Gallery
Tel: 020 7321 6620 (not for publication)
Email: emacnair@npg.org.uk;
To download images: www.npg.org.uk/press
ADRIANA SASSOON 