When Abstract Art meets Photography

When Abstract Art meets Photography

Duo Exhibition at Fiat Chrysler Motor Village

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At Fiat Chrysler Motor Village UK, in Marylebone, you can watch until the 29th of November a retrospective of legendary photographer Norman Parkinson and British abstract painter Molly Gaisford.

This intriguing duo exhibition, “Timeless Act”, explores the function of photography and the role of abstract painting in art making and  the ways in which ideas are exchanged and communication effected. Time and media interconnect and weave a seamless texture of beauty, class and style.

“Timeless act”, staged by Monica Colussii, opened the 27th of September and showcases the most incredible images captured by Parkinson during his outstanding photographic life. An array of iconic photographs meeting Abstract redefined by Gaisford’s oil paintings which cohabit effortlessly with the British photographer’s images.

Colussi is presenting an expansive exhibition featuring in excess of 60 artworks and invites the public to enjoy the journey and take the experience home.

The British photographer was a gentleman in life and in his extended photographic career. He had a formidable aesthetic eye, and with style he captured the sort of photographs that injected glamour to many prestigious magazines and in particular to the pages of Vogue.

Parks (as almost everyone came to know him) shot unforgettable travels for British Vogue for years, going places fashion never went in the late sixties and seventies.

Born in 1913, he went on to attend Westminster School before beginning his photographic career with an apprenticeship at court photographers Speaight and Sons Ltd in 1931. By 1934, Parkinson had built up a client base large enough to enable him to open his own studio, in Piccadilly, and freelanced for a number of top fashion magazines, among them Harper’s Bazaar and Bystander.

War broke out in September 1939 and Parkinson’s talents were needed elsewhere and he joined the RAF, serving in a Pathfinder squadron as a reconnaissance photographer.

In 1945, he returned to fashion and a job with Vogue during which he met and married model Wenda Rogerson.

When at British Vogue many changes occurred in the way fashion shoots were conducted, with Parkinson spearheading a move from the studio to location. He posed his models on the beach, on the streets and in one iconic shot.

Parkinson wasn’t only about fashion. In 1975, he relocated from London to Tobago, his career came full circle when he was appointed a court photographer to the Queen.

Taking over from Cecil Beaton, Parkinson went on to photograph all of the senior royals and produced a series of stunning portraits. He photographed, Audrey Hepburn, the Rolling Stones, HM the Queen, Princess Anne, the Queen Mother, Jerry Hall, Grace Coddington and an endless list of famous names.

Partly as a result of his work, he was made a Commander of the British Empire in 1981. Aged just 76 at the time of his death, Parkinson, ‘one of the great eccentrics of the photographic world’ according to model Twiggy, died as he had lived, taking the photos he so loved.

‘Each canvas begins as a conversation. I make a mark, the canvas decides if it should stay or go. We build it together, the empty space and I. Storms rage across it, sunrises and sunsets come and go, fury, tenderness, care, fear, gashes of colour streak across the space with urgency and intent, sand and paint cover an otherwise perfectly smooth wash of colour, and slowly what needs to be born on the canvas comes to life. I remove as much paint as I apply. Often only by taking a risk do I find the real painting waiting to be revealed. Every mark, whether it stays or goes is an integral part of the journey towards completion and peace.

Molly Gaisford is a multi-media artist. She is an abstract and portrait artist, an actress and musician. From as early as she can remember she has been almost constantly enchanted, distracted and led by beauty – whether of a city, a design, a piece of clothing, a face, an interior detail, a wall, a view, light, shadow, sounds, music, nature, words or expressions. Aesthetic and creative freedom are her passion, and she teaches as well as practises her artistic disciplines. It was only through a lengthy, at times equally joyful and painful, voyage of self discovery that she began to find the courage to express the entirety of her creativity and love of aesthetic.

She lives and works in London and whether her feet or mind transport her there, she regularly returns to her spiritual home, Italy.