NYAB Event - “Who Shot Natalie White?” Exhibition

“Who Shot Natalie White?” Exhibition

ROX Gallery

This event has ended.

Plato argued that contemplation of physical beauty allowed the mind to better understand spiritual beauty. Let’s not argue with Plato.

Featuring Peter Beard, Anna Bloda, Michael Dweck, Jan Frank, Elliot Goldstein, Michael Hoerner, Sean Lennon, Spencer Tunick, Olivier Zahm and more.

Natalie White was discovered by famed photographer Peter Beard inside the now defunct New York City nightclub Bungalow 8, in Chelsea.

Although Natalie White was only 17 years old at the time, Peter Beard noticed she had something more appealing to her than youth alone—a similar affect he noticed in Iman, in Africa, years before she was discovered. Francis Bacon painted Peter Beard over twenty times and said of Peter, “He was the most handsome man I ever met.” His good looks might be how Peter Beard, with neither business card nor cell phone, was able to convince a suspicious Natalie to pose and travel with him. Natalie, as muse, travelled to France and Montauk with Peter—voyages that transformed Natalie from an unknown girl from West Virginia into an international archetype of the siren/muse, the beau ideal, and the full embodiment of artist’s model. In a sense, Peter and Natalie were like Adonis and Aphrodite, driven by desire. This is best evidenced by Peter’s ongoing fifty-year long career of life and photographic collage work, and Natalie’s continued success as a muse and artist’s model. Like Aphrodite, born from the sea, Natalie continually re-emerged as a muse of over 20 other artists, all on view at ROX— Noel Arikian, Joseph Arthur, Brian Bauer, Peter Beard, Anna Bloda, Eneas Capalbo, Will Cotton, Michael Dweck, Michael DiDonna, Andrew Einhorn, Jan Frank, Paul Forsman, Elliot Goldstein, Jeffrey Hagerman, Michael Hoerner, Sean Lennon, Raphael Mazzucco, Joe Heaps Nelson, Max Snow, Spencer Tunick, Elizabeth Waugh, Darius Yektai and Olivier Zahm.