LIFE COLLAGE
“We are all heartbroken by the confirmation of our beloved Peter’s death. He died where he lived: in nature.” The statement, issued by the family of the life-long naturalist, photographer, bon viveur, and so much more, Peter Beard, put a closure on the 18 day search for him, after his body was found in the woods in April 2020, near his East Hampton home. He was 82 and he had lived to the max.
Artist, diarist, collector, and writer Peter Beard fashioned his life into a work of art; the illustrated diaries he kept from a young age evolved into a serious career as an artist and earned him a central position in the international art world. His art resumed in an eccentric combination of photography, collage and scrap booking that collided in the worlds of fashion, fine art, and animal conservation. Born into wealth but with a mind of his own, he collaborated with Francis Bacon and Salvador Dalí, he made diaries with Andy Warhol, worked on books with scientists like Dr. Norman Borlaug, Dr. Richard Laws, and Alistair Graham, and toured with the Rolling Stones in 1972, together with Truman Capote who had been hired to follow the band for Rolling Stone Magazine.
His adventurous spirit led him to shoot ground-breaking work that was published in Vogue Magazine, the magazine who adored him. The beautiful women of fashion were the magnet that drew him in, having made a name for himself as an infamous playboy. He took Veruschka with him to Africa, married the star model Cheryl Tiegs, and brought back to the U.S.A. many African beauties. One of his best-known photographs features model Maureen Gallagher, standing naked to feed a giraffe in the African bush. “I went there for three weeks and stayed there for three months. I cancelled all my bookings. I was 22, and I was in love.’ Gallagher stayed in love with him for the 16 years their affair lasted.
After spending time in Kenya and striking up a friendship with the author Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen) in the early 1960s, Beard bought 50 acres next to her farm with the stipulation that he would film and write about the land and its flora and fauna. He called it Hog Ranch’ and he used the wild giraffes, elephants, crocodiles and lions of the land as props for his glorious frames. He witnessed the dawn of Kenya’s population explosion, which challenged finite resources and stressed animal populations—including the starving elephants of Tsavo dying by the tens of thousands in a wasteland of eaten trees. So, as a true artist, he documented what he saw—with diaries, photographs, and collages. He went against the wind in publishing unique and sometimes shocking books of these works, including The End of the Game. The corpses were laid bare; the facts carefully recorded, sometimes in type and often by hand. Beard uses his photographs as a canvas onto which he superimposes multi-layered contact sheets, ephemera, found objects, newspaper clippings that are elaborately embellished with meticulous handwriting, old-master inspired drawings, and often swaths of animal blood used as paint. In 2006, TASCHEN first published the book that has come to define his oeuvre, signed by the artist and published in two volumes. It sold out instantly and became a highly sought-after collector’s item. In the decade since, the monograph has been revived in two smaller versions; but sometimes, bigger is better. As a tribute to the artist, TASCHEN is now publishing the book in one large-format volume. A treasure for true fans.
