Lucien Clergue - Nude Work Shop - 1982

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WONDERFUL PHOTOBOOK BY FAMOUS FRENCH PHOTOGRAPHER Lucien Clergue (born 1934 in Arles, died 2014 in Arles).

The book is showing (mostly) American nude photographs by Lucien Clergue, ranging from the desert of Death Valley to skyscrapers in Chicago; models alone and in pairs, with few male models.
Lucien Clergue divides his nude settings into bedrooms, forests, seascapes, roof tops and balconies and most unusually the cut tiered faces of a marble quarry.

Lucien Clergue is well-known for many great photobooks like "Toros Muertos", "Nee de la vague" or "Aprodite". His photographs of nudes, whose aesthetic, sensual play of light and water enthralled Pablo Picasso and Jean Cocteau so much that they remained Clergue's mentors until their deaths.

FIRST AMERICAN EDITION (also published in the same year, 1982, by Secker & Warburg, London).

The Viking Press, New York. 1982. First American edition, first printing.

Hardcover with dustjacket. 285 x 295 mm. 108 pages. Photos: Lucien Clergue. Text in English.

Condition:
Book inside fresh with no foxing, blindstamp of previous owner at the bottom right corner of the first blank page, no other marks. Book outside well-preserved (protected by the jacket). Dustjacket with trace of use; little missing part at the top of the spine, two very small missing parts at the bottom of the rear side, spine sunned (like so often). Overall very good condition.

Great erotic photobook by Lucien Clergue - with original dustjacket.

"Lucien Clergue was born in Arles, France. At the age of 7 he began learning to play the violin, and after several years of study his teacher admitted that he had nothing more to teach him. Clergue was from a family of shopkeepers and could not afford to pursue further studies in a college or university school of music, such as a conservatory.
In 1949, he learned the basics of photography. Four years later, at a corrida in Arles, he showed his photographs to Spanish painter Pablo Picasso who, though subdued, asked to see more of his work. Within a year and a half, young Clergue worked on his photography with the goal of sending more images to Picasso. During this period, he worked on a series of photographs of travelling entertainers, acrobats and harlequins, the "Saltimbanques". He also worked on a series whose subject was carrion.
On 4 November 1955 Lucien Clergue visited Picasso in Cannes, France. Their friendship lasted nearly 30 years until Picasso's death. Clergue's autobiographical book, Picasso My Friend, looks back on important moments of their relationship.
In 1968, and with his friend Michel Tournier, Clergue founded the Rencontres d’Arles photography festival which is held annually in July in Arles. He exhibited his work at the festival during the years 1971–1973, 1975, 1979, 1982–1986, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1994, 2000, 2003 and 2007.
Clergue also illustrated books, among them a book by writer Yves Navarre.
Clergue took many photographs of the gypsies of southern France, and was instrumental in propelling the guitarist Manitas de Plata to fame.
Clergue's photographs are in the collections of numerous well-known museums and private collectors. His photographs have been exhibited in over 100 solo exhibitions worldwide, with noted exhibitions such as in 1961, at the Museum of Modern Art New York, the last exhibition organized by Edward Steichen with Lucien Clergue, Bill Brandt and Yasuhiro Ishimoto. Museums with large collections of his work include The Fogg Museum at Harvard University and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. His work, Fontaines du Grand Palais (Fountains of the Grand Palais), is in Museo cantonale d'arte [de] of Lugano.[2] His photographs of Jean Cocteau are on permanent display at the Jean Cocteau Museum in Menton, France. In the U.S., an exhibition of the Cocteau photographs was premiered at Westwood Gallery, New York City.
In 2007, the city of Arles honored Lucien Clergue and dedicated a retrospective collection of 360 of his photographs dating from 1953 to 2007. He also received the 2007 Lucie Award.
Lucien Clergue was represented on the West Coast by Louis Stern Fine Arts. The gallery mounted several major exhibitions of his work in 2006, 2009, and 2012 (the first two with published catalogues).
He was named Knight of the Légion d'honneur in 2003 and elected member of the Academy of Fine Arts of the Institute of France on 31 May 2006, at the same time as a new section dedicated to photography was created. Clergue was the first photographer to enter the Academy to a position devoted specifically to photography.
He was Chairman of the Academy of Fine Arts for 2013.
Lucien Clergue was married to the art curator Yolande Clergue, founder of The Fondation Vincent van Gogh Arles. He was the father of two daughters: Anne Clergue, a curator of contemporary art who has worked at Leo Castelli Gallery, and Olivia Clergue, a handbag fashion designer whose godfather was Pablo Picasso."
(Wikipedia)