Our relationship with an artwork normally begins on the gallery wall. We don't get to see the work in progress, and behind the doors to the artists’ studio is a world of mystery.
A brand new book is now giving us an intimate peek into the working lives of some of the last century's greatest artists, from Frida Kahlo to Yayoi Kusama and Salvador Dali to Keith Haring.
We see Kusama creating orange patterns framed by a black and red artwork in her colourful studio, while Frida Kahlo paints from her wheelchair in Mexico City, photographed by Werner Bischof just months before she died.
Magnum Artists: Great Photographers Meet Great Artists features more than 200 portraits shot by photographers from the Magnum Photos agency, which was set up by four titans of the craft – Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger and David Seymour – and has documented world events and personalities since 1947.
The book’s author Simon Bainbridge has brought together behind-the-scenes anecdotes to accompany each of the shots, offering a rare insight into the relationship between artist and art alongside that of photographer and subject.
Magnum Artists: Great Photographers Meet Great Artists is published on August 24, laurenceking.com; magnumphotos.com
