Mario Testino - Photographs & Helmut Newton: Provocateur London Thursday, May 16, 2024 | Phillips

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  • “This was about embracing the beauty inside of a person, to show that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It is her eyes and her gaze that control the image.” 
    —Mario Testino on this work 

    The indelible Kate Moss has collaborated with innumerable photographers throughout her legendary career. Yet, she remembers her sessions with Mario Testino (b.1954) with singular fondness: ‘I have grown up with him photographing me — we have grown up together in a sense. The trust between us means that we are free with each other, he does not trap me into a set way of being, we find the picture together.’ Here, Testino presents Moss in all her mesmerising essence as a true icon. This now iconic image was taken in 2001 for the cover of the monograph that accompanied his first ever museum retrospective Mario Testino: Portraits at London’s National Portrait Gallery (2022). The artist recalls this intimate shoot: ‘[Kate] didn’t have a mirror or anything in front of her, just a palette of makeup. I asked her to put her finger on the blue and touch her eye, then put her finger on the red and touch her mouth.’ As exemplified in this striking close-up portrait, Testino surprises the viewer with new perspectives on the most recognisable faces. 

     

    Testino’s work has been exhibited internationally, including at the National Portrait Gallery, London; the Shanghai Art Museum; MALBA, Buenos Aires; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Alongside his 40-year practice as a photographer, Testino was awarded the Grand Cross Order of Merit in 2010, one of the highest honours in his native country of Peru, and the Order of the British Empire in 2013 in recognition of his remarkable career and charity work. 

     

    This larger-than-life portrait of Kate Moss has been in the same private collection for 18 years and is appearing at auction for the first time.

    Mario Testino: Portraits, London: NPG, 2002.
    • Provenance

      Phillips de Pury & Company, New York, Mario Testino: Out of fashion, 28 January - 17 February 2006

    • Exhibited

      Mario Testino: Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, London, 1 February - 4 June 2002; Museo Palazzo Reale, Milan, 23 September - 24 November 2002; National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 16 April - 15 June 2002; Foam Museum of Photography, Amsterdam, 20 December 2002 - 23 March 2003; Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, 16 October - 21 November 2004; Museo San Ildelfonso, Mexico City, 16 October - 21 November 2004; Museo de Arte de Lima, 8 April - 23 May 2010, another
      Mario Testino: In Your Face, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 21 October 2012 - 3 February 2013; MALBA, Buenos Aires, 15 March 15 - 16 June 2014; Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado (FAAP), São Paulo: 29 August - 12 October 2014; Kunstbibliothek / Kulturforum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 20 January - 26 July 2015, another
      Mario Testino: No Limits, Kunstforeningen GL STRAND, Copenhagen, 13 May - 18 September 2016, another

    • Literature

      Mario Testino: Portraits, London: NPG, 2002, wraparound cover (crop)
      Mario Testino: Out of fashion, New York: Phillips de Pury & Company, 2006, n.p.

37

Kate Moss, London

2001
Chromogenic print, mounted.
Image: 182 x 236 cm (71 5/8 x 92 7/8 in.)
Frame: 189 x 242 cm (74 3/8 x 95 1/4 in.)

Signed in ink, printed title and date on an exhibition label on the reverse of the frame.

This work is number 1 from the sold-out edition of 1 + 1 AP. This image exists only in one other size and edition – 126 x 160 cm in an edition of 3 + 2 APs – and is completely sold out.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
£60,000 - 80,000 ‡♠

Sold for £114,300

Contact Specialist

Rachel Peart
Head of Department, London
RPeart@phillips.com
 

Yuka Yamaji
Head of Photographs, Europe
YYamaji@phillips.com
 

General Inquiries
+44 20 7318 4092

Photographs & Helmut Newton: Provocateur

London Auction 16 May 2024