Jean Paul Gaultier

Angus McBean Photograph. © Harvard Theatre Collection, Harvard University.

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Jean Paul Gaultier

by Angus McBean
chromogenic print, 1988
8 1/4 in. x 7 in. (210 mm x 178 mm) overall
Given by David Ball, 2007
Photographs Collection
NPG x128898

Sitterback to top

Artistback to top

  • Angus McBean (1904-1990), Photographer. Artist or producer associated with 283 portraits, Sitter in 79 portraits.

Linked publicationsback to top

  • 100 Fashion Icons, p. 43
  • Pepper, Terence, Angus McBean Portraits, 2006 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 5 July to 22 October 2006), p. 110 Read entry

    The Paris-born fashion designer launched his first collection in 1978, and became internationally famous for both women’s and men’s fashion with outrageous designs that included underwear worn as outerwear, skirts, heels and stockings on men. His designs for ballet and films include Peter Greenaway's The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover (1989). McBean decided to photograph Gaultier naked in order to play on the irony of showing 'the designer of today and tomorrow dressed like a caveman of yesterday or the day before yesterday'.

Subject/Themeback to top

Events of 1988back to top

Current affairs

A Pan Am jumbo jet is brought down by a bomb over Lockerbie in Scotland, killing 259 passengers and 11 people on the ground. The Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary launched Britain's largest criminal investigation before convicting a Libyan intelligence officer of planting the bomb.

Art and science

Professor Stephen Hawking publishes his popular book on cosmology, A Brief History Of Time.
Damien Hirst and his fellow Goldsmiths students organise the exhibition Freeze in a disused block in the Docklands. The exhibition launched the careers of many of the young British artists (YBAs) associated with Brit Art including Gary Hume, Michael Landy, Sarah Lucas, Angus Fairhurst, and Anya Gallaccio.

International

Iraq drops poison gas on the Iraqi Kurdish city of Halabja, killing thousands of civilians. The city was held at the time by Iranian forces and Iraqi Kurdish rebels, although there was initially some debate over which side was responsible for the atrocity. It was the largest-scale chemical attack on civilians in modern times.

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