James Bidgood: Aesthetic of High Fantasy and Camp

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James Bidgood (born March 28, 1933 in Madison, Wisconsin) is an American contemporary artist living and working in New York City. His artistic output has embraced a number of media and disciplines, including music, set and window design, and drag performance. In time his interests led him to photography and film and it is for this work that he is most widely known. Highly recognizable, his photographs are distinguished by an aesthetic of high fantasy and camp. His work which was inspired by an early interest in Florenz Ziegfeld, Folies Bergère, and George Quaintance has, in turn, served as important inspiration for a slew of artists including Pierre et Gilles and David LaChapelle. In the late 1950s Bidgood attended Parsons The New School for Design. Bidgood directed the 1971 film Pink Narcissus, a dialogue-free fantasy centered around a young and often naked man. The film took seven years to make, and Bidgood built all the sets and filmed the entire piece in his tiny apartment. He later removed his name from the film because he felt editors had changed his original vision. Consequently, the film bore the word "Anonymous" for the director's credit, and it was misattributed to other directors such as Andy Warhol for many years. Pink Narcissus was re-released in 2003 by Strand Releasing.

Bigood's oeuvre is characterized by a heavy reliance on invention. His photographs feature elaborate sets built ground up from the materials of the theatre, fashion, design, and fine art. In a profile of the artist published in Aperture, Philip Gefter writes,

“ Necessity was the mother of invention for Bidgood, who created elaborate photographic tableaux in his small midtown Manhattan studio apartment. His first erotic series was an underwater epic called Water Colors, made in the early 1960s, in which he used a dancer from Club 82 named Jay Garvin as his subject. The underwater atmosphere is completely fabricated; the bottom of the ocean was created with silver lame spread across the floor of Bidgood's apartment; he made the arch of a cave out of waxed paper, and fashioned red lame into the shape of lobster. He coated Garvin with mineral oil and pasted glitter and sequins to his skin so the silver fabric under photographic lights would reflect on his body like water. For weeks at a time, Bigood would eat and sleep within the sets he constructed in his apartment.”

Many contemporary themes are found even in the earliest of Bidgood's work. Camp, identity, erotics and desire, marginality, and performance all figure heavily in his portraits of nude men. Bidgood's complex references to the theatre and performance seem to presage Queer articulations of Performance. His techniques, working processes, and masterful use of illusionistic color indicate both a mature understanding of his influences and goals and an important contrast to the art movements of the time the work was first created.





































In 2005, James Bidgood was honored with a Creative Capital grant which facilitated a return to art photography after a hiatus of nearly forty years. His current projects include work for Christian Louboutin and Out magazine. In 1999 Taschen published a monograph of his work including biographical images and stills from his film. The art book publisher Taschen included an interview with Bidgood in its 2008 publication The Big Penis Book, and will re-publish his monograph in 2009. His most recent work was featured in Out in February 2009.

Bidgood is represented by ClampArt in New York City as well as Larry Collins Fine Art in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

James Bidgood's exhibition credits include group shows at powerHouse, New York City (2007); Exit Art, New York City (2005); Fundacio Foto Colectiania, Barcelona (2003), and Nikolai Fine Art, New York City (2000). He has had solo exhibitions at ClampArt, New York CIty (2007); Larry Collins Fine Art, Provincetown, Massachusetts (2007); Marty Walker Gallery, Dallas, Texas (2006); Galeria Espacio Minimo, Madrid, Spain (2002); Galeria Maraeini, Bologna, Italy (2001). and Paul Morris Gallery, New York City (2001).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bidgood_(filmmaker)

James Bidgood (Taschen's 25th Anniversary Special Edition) edited by Bruce Benderson
Hardcover: 175 pages
Publisher: Taschen; Taschen's 25th anniversary ed edition (April 1, 2009)
ISBN-10: 3836514524
ISBN-13: 978-3836514521
Amazon: James Bidgood (Taschen's 25th Anniversary Special Edition)

James Bidgood is seen as the father of the pulp and glamour aesthetic, yet his photographic works are still scarcely known. He came to New York in 1951, intent on becoming a musical star, and earned his first wages as a drag performer in Manhattan legendary Club 82. His serious employment as a window dresser, freelance photographer, and costume designer enabled him to collect the material he needed for his own photo shoots, for which he built complex sets, often in his tiny apartment. In his photographs and films, he pays homage to the youthful male body via elaborate staging of his romantically shimmering visions of a homoerotic paradise. This monograph presents a complete overview of James Bidgood influential body of work.

More Photographers at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Art