I'VE HAD A NAKED ROBBIE WILLIAMS AND DAVID GINOLA .AT THE SAME TIME.IN THE SAME ROOM.FOR £4.BARGAIN. (Mario Testino Portraits)

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Product:	Mario Testino Portraits
Date:	21/02/02 (2240 review reads)
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I’ve had a naked David Ginola and Robbie Williams with his keks (knickers) off in the same room and only for £4.Bargain.

Sadly hundreds of other women have too, some at the same time as me.Oh and so have some men. Unfortunately they were both two-dimensional, but it didn’t stop me looking.

Robbie and David were part of Mario Testinos exhibition in The National Portrait Gallery.

Mario WHO? I’d never heard of Mario Testino until the Omnibus programme about him a month ago, his life and the forthcoming exhibition ‘Portraits’ in the National Portrait Gallery. You might not of heard of him too, but if you have leafed through the glossies or your record collection you might have come across his work without realising it. His work is often used in fashion magazines such as Vogue, and the album cover for Madonna’s Ray of Light album, is a portrait by Testino.

Due to the media coverage of this exhibition it is very popular. We went on Saturday afternoon, but the tickets had sold out. It is best to queue up at opening time to be sure of receiving tickets to enter the exhibition. They operate a timed entry system at the gallery. You are given a time slot when you can view the exhibition. We queued up at 10 am on Sunday and were given tickets for 10.30-11.00.You can also buy tickets via Ticketmaster at http://www.ticketmaster.com or 0870 241 3034 if queuing is impossible. There is a £1 charge payable per transaction and not per ticket.

Tickets are £6 or £4 for students, unemployed and under 18s. I managed to get a student discount WITHOUT proof of being a student. The price is reasonable when you compare it to the fact The Tate Modern asks you to shell out £10, or £8 concession for The Andy Warhol exhibition. RIP OFF.

The exhibition takes place in The Wolfson Gallery. The rooms are painted in deep aqua blue and dark green alternatively, two colours that were able to bring out the best q
ualities of the coloured images and the black and white simultaneously with great effect. You walked round the exhibition, which was in several rooms in a clockwise direction. Each separate room related to a particular theme.

The exhibition was a stark contrast to the sober and authoritarian, regal portraits of politicians and royalty in the main section of The National Portrait Gallery on stark, white walls.

OUT OF FASHION

These rooms related to Mario Testinos work as a fashion photographer, defining and crossing the boundaries between fashion and portraiture. Mario only photographs beautiful people and never is this more evident than in this room full of pictures of models. Kate Moss said he made her sexy, which for a twiglet is some major achievement. He is so taken with Kate Moss he devotes a whole section of rooms to her .He first met her when she was a seventeen year old model and the rooms chart her career as a kind of biography of her career. What struck me in the Omnibus programme was how healthy the models looked and the only emaciated-looking ones were the fashion writers and journalists they interviewed. They were hazy, soft-focus, very pretty, but I wished he’d have focussed on the subtle nether-regions hiding shots of naked males more, than minute breasted women, but he is a bloke and fashions his job. Supermodels, fashion writers, designers, stylists jump off the walls, as they do out of the glossy mags.


LONDON

‘The life of a photographer is nomadic and uncertainty it helps to have something’s, people and places you can be sure of and London has given me all of these’. MARIO TESTINO

Mario Testino moved to London from Peru in the late 1970s to study .It was here that he developed a lot of his work and skill as a photographer. He did a lot of work for British Vogue, which described the buzz he felt in London, something akin to that in London in the swinging sixties. He tr
ied to describe this buzz in his pictures of actors, musicians, and artists and evoked with some effect the cultural hub of the nation.

Robbie Williams. British Vogue 2000.

Mario Testino brings out the essence of his subjects, their personality shine through the hazy paint-like images. His Robbie is ‘very’ Robbie. You will understand this when you view the photographs. Robbie Williams, bare-chested and cheekily peering over a pair of Union Jack sequinned knickers. You are drawn to his eyes; his most attractive feature that you almost forget a naked David Ginola next to you you, but not for long.

DAVID GINOLA.GLAMOUR.PARIS 1994

David Ginola photographed when he was not fat, in 1994 for Paris magazine Glamour. It was a full frontal, black and white photograph, at a slight angle and he is wearing the broadest grin on his erm…Face. His modesty is well covered, but suggested in the hazy black misty -like quality of the photograph, though it isn’t blurred. I wish I had the power Mario had to get beautiful men to whip there clothes off in front of me. Oh well, we can dream.


DIANA.PRINCESS OF WALES.

Testino original wanted to show her as the fairy-tale princess, but he ended up showing a much more personal and intimate view of who was the nations favourite royal. Another significance of this portrait shot in 1997 for Vanity Fair was that it was probably the last, or one of the last pictures taken of her before she was killed in a car crash later that year. He abandoned the traditional image and chose the more private one.

MADONNA

One of the most touching and compelling pictures is the photograph of Madonna playing with Lourdes, her daughter, which was photographed for Vanity Fair in 1997. It is astonishing how someone so famous, with so little privacy, even of their private lives are so willing to let someone into their own world like Madonna and Princess Diana. For such m
odern day icons to let him into their lives is testimony to Testino’s skill as a photographer and a person and the results speak for themselves through the colours of the glossy paper.

RAY OF LIGHT ALBUM COVER.MIAMI, 1998

Madonna in pale blue gown on blue background, windswept. Her tumbling curls partially covering the side of her face. The delicate hues, flattering and soft, taking years off. I have the album and I find this image in keeping with the hippy, flowing music of the album, like The Power of Goodbye.

TRADITION

‘I enjoy the idea of the rebel as much as the conformist, but I love the things that come from a civilised society, strong enough to allow freedom, and sure of itself to admit change.’ MARIO TESTINO

This section is about tradition and the traditional aspects of British life that foreigners find intriguing, in particular our royal family. His work is a respect for tradition and a different way of seeing them from there usual role, in contrast to the stiff portraits of monarchy past in the gallery up the escalators. You may wonder how Prince Charles managed to get amongst the portraits, as he’s not what most people consider beautiful. To Mario, however, he is a very attractive man and the portraits are of people who Mario finds very attractive. Prince Charles is photographed in Highgrove, in 2001, feeding the chickens. A very private portrait of a public figure, Prince Charles as you have never seen him before.

HOLLYWOOD AND BEYOND

‘In this I have been influenced by Beaton who made use of obviously artificial props and settings in his work but which nevertheless makes you believe that a world of fantasy is actually available: you could go there yourself, tonight, now, whenever you want’. MARIO TESTINO

This is a section of actors and actresses, shot in a way to add a sense of drama and intrigue. He uses props, such as the stuffed squirrel in the
Julia Roberts portrait. They are fun and theatrical, which are, I guess ,like him. The actors and actresses are role-playing; he examines their character as well as their roles.

And there you have it. Back where you started. Though it is recommended you go back to David Ginola and check if you can see his dangly bits, unless someone’s stood deliberately in front of him, which does happen as it gets quite crowded. Jeez some women have no taste.

Tasteful, paint-like, dream-like and fantasy. Heaven. Though next time Mr Testino, please can we have a whole naked football team next time PLEASE.

The exhibition contains over 120 portraits.

You can buy postcards and other things like Testino pack of cards. The full-illustrated catalogue is available for £30 (paperback) and £40.00 hardback in the National Portrait Galleries shop.


National Portrait Gallery opening times

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday: 10am - 6pm

Late Opening Thursday, Friday: 10am - 9pm

Recorded information: 020 7312 2463

EXHIBITION RUNS FROM
1 February - 4 June 2002

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