{"id":7986,"date":"2025-05-30T14:06:52","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T14:06:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/05\/30\/exhibition-review-leigh-bowery-at-tate-modern\/"},"modified":"2025-05-30T14:07:00","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T14:07:00","slug":"exhibition-review-leigh-bowery-at-tate-modern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalgunowner.org\/index.php\/2025\/05\/30\/exhibition-review-leigh-bowery-at-tate-modern\/","title":{"rendered":"Exhibition Review: \u2018Leigh Bowery!\u2019 at Tate Modern"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Fergus Greer, Leigh Bowery Session 1 Look 2<\/em> (1988). Photo: \u00a9 Fergus Greer, courtesy Michael Hoppen Gallery<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Welcome to <\/i>One Fine Show<\/i><\/a>, where Observer highlights a recently opened exhibition at a museum not in New York City, a place we know and love that already receives plenty of attention.<\/i><\/p>\n

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When sorting through all the stories, it\u2019s important to remember that Andy Warhol<\/a>\u2019s Factory had a certain underpinning of blue-collar conservatism. Warhol\u2019s right-hand men, Gerard Malanga<\/a>, Paul Morrissey<\/a> and Fred Hughes<\/a>, were all Catholics, with the artist himself going to church every Sunday. When his boyfriend asked him what he prayed for, Warhol said, \u201cMoney.\u201d There\u2019s a scene in Bob Colacello<\/a>\u2019s memoir where the transgender Candy Darling<\/a> is subjected to a lesbian sex show. \u201cI\u2019ve never seen anything so disgusting in my life,\u201d she says. \u201cReal ladies don\u2019t behave this way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leigh Bowery<\/a> (1961-1994) broke as many taboos as any of Warhol\u2019s superstars, with little evidence of any secret reactionism. His recently opened retrospective at the Tate Modern demonstrates his profound creativity and impact, with the official literature arguing persuasively that he inspired the likes of Alexander McQueen<\/a>, Jeffrey Gibson<\/a>, Anohni<\/a> and Lady Gaga<\/a>. The catalogue opens by noting that Bowery could be called a \u201cfashion designer, club monster, performer, model, TV personality, musician and artist,\u201d with the caveat that he personally resisted such classifications, saying \u201cIf you label me, you negate me.\u201d (Candy Darling, for her part, wanted to be a legitimate Hollywood starlet.)<\/p>\n

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SEE ALSO: Observer\u2019s 2025 June Art Fair Calendar <\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Bowery\u2019s signature looks tended to land him somewhere between Ronald McDonald and Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. The harlequin makeup merged with the tragedy of the human body in the dripping shimmer he applied to his bald pate. It was joyous, but it looked like his head was sprouting something alien, or perhaps weeping glitter.<\/p>\n

His best-known work was a performance in the window of Anthony d\u2019Offay Gallery in 1988. For five days, Bowery occupied the space behind a two-way mirror\u2014he could see his reflection, but not the passersby who ogled his voguing. It\u2019s hard to overstate how ahead of its time this piece was. Yes, it was well before Marina Abramovic<\/a>\u2019s The Artist Is Present<\/i> (2010) at the Museum of Modern Art, but it has come to predict so much about our current reality, in which it\u2019s fairly difficult not<\/i> to become a preening creature in a hall of mirrors. There\u2019s even something of OnlyFans culture in this piece, as the gallery\u2019s proximity to SoHo had some contemporary onlookers describe others in the crowd as \u201ca bit dodgy.\u201d<\/p>\n

But you can still look good in a narcotizing reflection world. Bowery did. One of the dresses worn in the mirror performance is on display at the Tate, a masked A-line dress with a cape, green satin with a salmon-pink lining. Capturing the remnants of a figure such as Bowery is difficult; luckily, he had many high-profile collaborators. The photography of Fergus Greer<\/a> (b.1964) gave Bowery\u2019s radical outfits the proper magazine cover treatment.<\/p>\n

My favorite documentation of the Bowery body comes from Lucien Freud<\/a> (1922-2011). Nude With Leg Up (Leigh Bowery)<\/i> (1992) shows him sprawling. He is mostly off the bed, except for the elevated calf. Freud could do a lot for a person sitting in bed, but Bowery didn\u2019t get to where he was by following the rules.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/b>Leigh Bowery!<\/b><\/a>\u201d is at Tate Modern through August 31, 2025.<\/b><\/p>\n

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