Peter Beard

For other people named Peter Beard, see Peter Beard (disambiguation).
Peter Beard

Peter Beard at Hog Ranch in 2014 feeding giraffes
Born (1938-01-22) January 22, 1938
New York, United States
Nationality American
Occupation Artist

Peter Hill Beard is an American artist, photographer, diarist and writer who lives and works in New York and Kenya. His photographs of Africa, African animals and the journals that often integrate his photographs have been widely shown and published since the 1960s.

Early Life & Education

Born in 1938 in New York City and raised in New York City, Alabama, and Islip, Long Island, Beard began keeping diaries as a young boy and making photographs, as an extension of the diaries, at the age of twelve.[1] A graduate of Pomfret School, he entered Yale University in 1957, with the intention of pursuing pre-med studies, only to switch his major to art history. His mentors at Yale included Josef Albers, Richard Lindner and Vincent Scully.

Inspired by earlier trips to Africa in both 1955 and 1960, Beard traveled to Kenya upon graduation. Working at Tsavo National Park, he photographed and documented the demise of 35,000 elephants and other wildlife, later to become the subject of his first book, “The End of the Game.”[2] During this time, Beard acquired Hog Ranch, a property near the Ngong Hills adjacent to the coffee farm owned by Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen), which would become his lifelong home-base in East Africa.[3]

Art

Peter Beard’s photographs of Africa, African animals and journals that often integrate his photographs have been widely shown and published since the 1970s. Each of his works is unique, a combination of his photography with elements derived from his daily diary-keeping, a practice he continues to this day. These volumes contain newspaper clippings, dried leaves, insects, old sepia-toned photos, transcribed telephone messages, marginalia in India ink, photographs of women, quotes, found objects, and the like; these become incorporated, with original drawings and collage by Beard. Certain of his works incorporate animal blood, sometimes Beard’s own blood (in sparing quantities), a painting medium the artist favors.[4]

Beard’s first exhibition was at the Blum Helman Gallery, New York, in 1975. Landmark museum exhibitions have been held at the International Center of Photography, New York, in 1977, and the Centre National de la Photographie, Paris, in 1997. Gallery exhibitions followed in Berlin, London, Toronto, Madrid, Milan, Tokyo and Vienna. Beard’s work is included in private collections throughout the world.[5]

Personal life

Descended from distinguished American families on both sides, Beard is one of three sons born to Roseanne Hoar Beard and Anson McCook Beard, Jr. A great-grandfather, James Jerome Hill, was founder of the Great Northern Railway in the United States in the late nineteenth/early twentieth centuries. Having made his fortune in the railroad business, James Jerome Hill was a great patron of the arts. All of his heirs were exposed to and owned great collections, presumably having a strong influence on Beard’s interests in the arts and beauty.

Beard married his first wife (Minnie Cushing Beard Coleman) in 1962; the marriage lasted only briefly. His second wife was supermodel Cheryl Tiegs, from 1982 to 1986. Beard has been married to Nejma Khanum since 1986. The couple has a daughter, Zara, for whom his book, Zara’s Tales,[6] was written.

Beard has befriended and in some cases collaborated with many legendary artists including Andy Warhol, Andrew Wyeth, Francis Bacon, Karen Blixen, Truman Capote, Richard Lindner, and Salvador Dalí. He has also photographed many well-known people.[7]

Filmography

Year Film Featured Director Producer Editor Other
2009 The Making of the 2009 Pirelli Calendar Yes No No No No
1994 Montauk Diaries Yes No No No No
1988 Last Word from Paradise: With Peter Beard in Africa Yes No No No No
1980 Japanese Long Line Tuna Fishing No No No No Introducer
1979 Africa: The End of the Game Yes No No No No
1976 The Bicentennial Big Foot Blues No Yes No No No
1975-76 Longing for Darkness No No Yes Yes No
1972 Sisters (working title) No No No No Initiated
1963 Hallelujah the Hills Yes No No No No

Selected books

Catalogues

Further reading

Press

References

  1. ↑ Beard, Peter (2013). Peter Beard (Collector's ed.). Germany: Owen, & Aronson. ISBN 978-3-8365-3088-0.
  2. ↑ Beard, Peter (1965). The End of the Game. New York: Viking Press. ISBN 978-3-8365-0530-7.
  3. ↑ Beard, Peter (2013). Peter Beard (Collector's ed.). Germany: Owen, & Aronson. ISBN 978-3-8365-3088-0.
  4. ↑ Enright, Robert (2002). "The Consumate Fragmentarian". Modern Painters Magazine.
  5. ↑ Beard, Peter (2013). Peter Beard (Collector's ed.). Germany: Owen, & Aronson. ISBN 978-3-8365-3088-0.
  6. ↑ Beard, Peter (2004). Zara's Tales: Perilous Escapades in Equatorial Africa. New York: Knopf. ISBN 0-679-42659-0.
  7. ↑ Beard, Peter (2013). Peter Beard (Collector's ed.). Germany: Owen, & Aronson. ISBN 978-3-8365-3088-0.

External links

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