The iconic Australian/Brit queer performance artist, club promoter, and fashion designer Leigh Bowery would have been celebrating his 60th Birthday this month. Known for his flamboyant and outlandish costumes and makeup as well as his performances, Bowery was also a significant model and muse for the English painter Lucien Freud
Leigh Bowery was one of the most controversial and avant-garde performers of his generation. His club, Taboo, not only became famous for defying sexual conventions but provided the showcase for his influential and wildly provocative outfits that were instrumental in the artistic development of contemporaries such as his friend Boy George, His influences are still felt in so many aspects of queer culture some 26 years after he died from complications of AIDS.Tomorrow March 17th as part of Westminster Arts Reference Library’s Artists of London Events, his friend SUE TILLEY will provide an insight into the outrageous world of 1980s modern art and a man who came to embody it. Tilley will share her highly personal recollections and photographs of Bowery’s groundbreaking costumes and performance art, revealing his notoriety in London’s 1980s Soho and his role as a favored model for painter Lucian Freud.
Along with being one of Bowery’s best friends, Sue Tilley is one of the most recognizable muses in modern British art. She modeled for Lucian Freud in the early 1990s, a seminal period of the artist’s career, and one of his portraits of her entitled “Benefits Supervisor Sleeping” sold for a record £17.2 million, the highest price paid for a painting by a living artist. She is now an artist, presenter, and writer.
PLEASE NOTE – This talk will take place virtually via Zoom. Ticket sales will end at 5:00 pm BST on the day of the lecture. A link to the conference will be sent to the email used at checkout at 6:00 pm BST on the day of the event. Please email [email protected] in the event your link fails to arrive. Please note this talk will be recorded and can be sent free of charge to ticket holders by request. BOOK TICKETS HERE
Labels: 2021, Leigh Bowery, London, Sue Tilley
