Transfigurations
Veruschka
VERUSCHKA, c.1972
Not all is as it seems in Veruschka's world, almost nothing in fact. Beginning her career in the 60s as the first German Supermodel and Richard Avedon's long time muse, appearing in Antioni's masterpiece Blow-Up. By the start of the 70s, she had rejected the aristocratic, high-fashion world she was born into and instead became an outsider artist, exploring nature, gender and performance in her body work. Painting her body, she hides against walls, windows, skies, trees and the world around her. She exists as a metaphor and natural organism. Many artists use their body as a medium, but Veruschka uses her body as the canvas. Her work compels you to search for her, to see her in whatever form she dictates. She is all of us and none, mother earth and dust. The aesthetic figure Veruschka refuses to be a projection of beauty’s ideals, she rejects the objectification of her past career by becoming one with the natural objects around her.