Artists at Work

Mark Rothko, 1964, ph Alexander Liberman

It’s fascinating to see artists at work. So often we see the product of their labours, but not so much the environment in which they were created. Watching someone live draw or paint, or sculpt is even more interesting: you see their concentration, the occasional frustration or contemplation. It’s almost hypnotic, soothing, and sensuous.

Here is a voyeuristic peek of artists at work, or simply in their studio environment. The last image, of Henri Matisse, shows him not in his studio, but seated at a table reading the latest issue of Vogue – this tickled my fancy. The photographer, Alexander Liberman of US Harpers Bazaar fame, states:

I had just brought him a copy of Vogue, which contained my photographs of his chapel in Vence. He was intrigued by the magazine as a strange combination of the sacred and the frivolous. Matisse, close up, that stern unforgiving eye, haunted me. He spoke very little, and I was terrified in his presence.

Cecil Beaton, ph Irving PennRaoul Dufy, 1945, ph Cecil BeatonChristian Bérard, 1937, ph Cecil Beaton; Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, 1890 (ph unknown); Henri Matisse, 1909 (ph unknown)Betty Parsons, 1960s, ph Alexander LibermanNoel Coward, 1943, Cecil BeatonLe Corbusier, 1954, ph Alexander LibermanOssip Zadkine, 1954, ph Alexander LibermanRobert Rauschenberg, 1965, ph Alexander LibermanYves Klein, 1956 (ph unknown)Agnes Martin, 1973, ph Alexander LibermanHenri Matisse in 1947; c1953-54; c1954Henri Matisse reading Vogue, 1951, ph Alexander Liberman

Images from: Toulouse-Lautrec by Matthais Arnold (Taschen, 2004); Beaton by James Danziger (Henry Holt and Company, New York, 1980); Matisse by Volkmar Essers (Taschen, 2002); Then – Alexander Liberman Photographs 1925–1995, by Alexander Liberman and Calvin Tomkins (Random House, 1995); Klein, by Hannah Weitemeier (Taschen, 2001)