NYAB Event - “Linda McCartney and Mary McCartney: Mother Daughter” Exhibition

“Linda McCartney and Mary McCartney: Mother Daughter” Exhibition

Gagosian Gallery Madison Avenue

[Image: © Mary McCartney. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery.]

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“My mother shaped my view of the world and inspired me to embrace spontaneity and capture the unforced. To show with her is such an honor for me and validates my journey as a photographer.”
—Mary McCartney

Gagosian New York presents the special exhibition “Linda McCartney and Mary McCartney: Mother Daughter.”

Exhibited together for the first time, the photographs of the late Linda McCartney and her daughter Mary explore the connective tissue of family, common experience, and a love of the photographic medium. Their images are highly instinctual, rather than analytical; as well they reveal a great ability to capture fleeting moments of intimacy.

Spanning three decades, works by the photographers are organized to reveal the almost symbiotic harmony between them. The exhibition is a treasury of moments derived from relaxed interactions with family, a dazzling array of celebrities—Aretha Franklin, Jimi Hendrix, Mick Jagger, Brian Jones, Kate Moss, Rihanna—and everyday life. Evident is a shared sensibility between mother and daughter in how they establish an emotional rapport with their subjects and exact a sense of their true selves. Rather than distinguishing between works by Linda or Mary, the installation proposes their vision of the world as one.

Since the mid-sixties Linda photographed such icons as B.B. King, The Rolling Stones, and The Grateful Dead, producing quintessential images that reflected the music revolution of her era. Her direct and distinctive photographs reflect the individual charisma of her subjects. In 1969, one year after being the first female photographer to do a cover for Rolling Stone Magazine, Linda married Beatles member Paul McCartney. Alongside photography, her interests ranged from writing and music to filmmaking and animal-rights activism; she continued to document landscape, portraits, family, and animals throughout her life.

Mary expands on her mother’s affinities. Like Linda, her candid eye bonds with and draws out people’s inner vibrance, transmitting it to the photographic image. Her “natural” images focus intently on her subjects, from her intimate study of professional ballerinas at the Royal Ballet to candid moments behind the scenes of fashion shows, and strangers on city streets. As well as shooting the 2013 Art Calendar for renowned lens manufacturer Zeiss, Mary has captured portraits of major figures in culture and society, such as Lou Reed, Eric Clapton, Vivienne Westwood, Helen Mirren and Queen Elizabeth II. Her recent photographs of strangers stand alongside her Instagram campaign #someone, evincing mystique in the ordinary and everyday.

Linda McCartney (1941-1998) was born in Scarsdale, New York and studied art history at the University of Arizona. She died in Tucson, Arizona. Her work has been exhibited in major public institutions including the National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London; National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC; and International Center of Photography, New York. “Linda McCartney’s Sixties: Portrait of an Era,” Bruce Museum, Greenwich, CT (1999) traveled to Worcester Art Museum, MA; and Royal Photographic Society, Bath, in 2000; Lakeview Museum, IL in 2003; Mobile Museum of Art, AL in 2005; and the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art, Laurel, MS, through 2007.

Mary McCartney was born in 1969 in London. Selected exhibitions include “Off Pointe” (an in-depth photographic study of the Royal Ballet after hours), Royal Opera House, London (2004); “British Style Observed,” National History Museum, London (2008); and “From Where I Stand,” National Portrait Gallery and Michael Hoppen Gallery, London (2010). The two-volume book Monochrome Colour was published by GOST in 2014, with a concurrent exhibition at 3 Grafton Street, London, curated by de Pury de Pury.