It just happened, Pictures 1976-1982
I never planned or premeditated any of this. However, I have always followed my mother’s words: ” Open the door when opportunity knocks! – Bob Colacello
It just happened, Pictures 1976-1982 is an exhibition of photographs by an American photographer and writer Bob Colacello, documenting his long-term collaboration with Andy Warhol and the series of parties and travels that brought their crazy lives to life. Curated by Elena Foster and the Ivorypress team, the exhibition will feature photographs, letters, journals and memorabilia that help bring to life the sense of hedonism and endless possibilities of the era. Colacello writes in his introduction to the exhibition catalogue: “The 1970s were the most open decade since the Roaring Twenties. »
From 1971 to 1983, Colacello was the editor-in-chief of the magazine. The interview and Andy Warhol’s right-hand man. On one of his many visits with Warhol, Colacello buys a Minox, a small camera said to have been used by spies during the Cold War. After that, he took this handheld device to many parties, dinners and jet weddings in emblematic settings such as the Factory, Studio 54 and presidential inaugurations at the White House. In It just happened, Colacello shares snapshots from his personal album taken between the late 1970s and early 1980s, providing an intimate and reliable chronicle of the fascinating social circle that surrounded the so-called “Pope of Pop.” »
Barbara Allen, Thomas Ammann, Joseph Beuys, Peter Beard, Jacqueline Bisset, Willy Brandt, Bianca Jagger, Robert Mapplethorpe, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Liza Minelli, Cher, Truman Capote, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mick Jagger, Paloma Morris, Paloma Morrissey Roy Halston, Richard Gere, Diane von Fürstenberg, Robert Wilson, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, Henry Kissinger, Jean Pigozzi, Lord George Weidenfeld and Raquel Welch are just a few of the icons found in Colacello’s photographs. His work reflects the closeness of places with limited access to paparazzi and the sense of freedom of those years.
In one of the photographs on display, Colacello’s camera is reflected off a mirror in fashion designer Roy Halston’s New York mansion and snaps at Bianca Jagger, dressed in black velvet tied to her chest, while a man’s hand is seen in the frame. The ambiguous composition blurs the lines between public and private: is this a dressing room, or is the actress outside, attacked by paparazzi? Elsewhere, Robert Rauschenberg shares the frame with a Georgia O’Keeffe painting and a small Buddhist figurine, his right arm offscreen. Meanwhile, Andy Warhol is seen sitting in his hotel room eating breakfast. Colacello describes acerbically: “Warhol’s usual sleepwear – Brooks Brothers shirt, jockey shorts and socks. Supp-hose. »
These “stolen” shots, with unexpected framing and overexposed lighting, show Colacello’s rebellious spirit and contempt for the formal conventions of photography (symmetry, exposure, and balance). “It so happened that at the parties we constantly went to in New York, Los Angeles, Paris and London, lesser-known people blocked the view of more famous people, but I took photos anyway, because I understood that this is how parties are. creating a layered look that I’ve come to consider my style. It is in this provocative attitude and in this irresistible rhythm that the photographer has a contribution to his environment: the construction of a new aesthetic identity in the genre of photojournalism of the 1970s and 1980s.
The exhibition is accompanied by a book of the same name published by “Ivorypress”. Designed like a photo album, the publication presents Colacello’s photographs in chronological order and is accompanied by the photographer’s handwritten captions to contextualize the images.
About the artist
Bob Colacello was born in Brooklyn in 1947 and grew up in Long Island, New York. He graduated from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in 1969 and two years later earned an MFA in film from Columbia University’s School of the Arts. He was the editor of the magazine The interview From 1971 to 1983, he worked for Andy Warhol Vanity Fair Writing portraits and articles on cultural, social and political topics until 2017.
his memories Holy Terror: Andy Warhol Near (1990) welcomed New York Times As the “best written and most insightful” book about Andy Warhol’s inner circle. He also published Ronnie and Nancy: Their Road to the White House (2004), the first of a two-volume biography of the Reagans, and is currently working on the second. His photo book Bob Colacello is OUT (2007), published by 7L/Steidl, documents the wild and glamorous life of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Colacello has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Boca Raton Museum of Art, Florida; at the Newport Museum of Art, Rhode Island; Vito Schnabel Gallery, New York and St. Moritz, Switzerland; at the Mary Boone Gallery, New York; at Govinda Gallery, Washington; Steven Kasher Gallery, New York and Ivorypress, Madrid. Colacello’s photographs have been part of group exhibitions at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh; MoMA PS1, New York; Tate Modern, London; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg; and the Museu de Serralves, Portugal.
Curators: Elena Foster with the Ivorypress team
Bob Colacello: It Just Happened, Photos 1976-198221
January 21 – March 4, 2023
Opening Saturday 21 January 2023, 16:00-19:00 with an artist talk
Thaddaeus Ropac – Paris Marais
7, Debelleyme Street
75003 Paris, France
www.ropac.net
