Peter Hill Beard
Encyclopedia
Peter Hill Beard is a photographer, artist
, diarist and writer
.
, who was a tobacco magnate and is credited with helping to popularize the tuxedo
. A great-grandfather, James Jerome Hill, was founder of the Great Northern Railway in the late nineteenth/early twentieth centuries. Railroads, in part, provided the infrastructure
for colonization both in the United States and Africa, promoting expansion into undeveloped frontiers. James Jerome Hill made his fortune in the railroad business, leaving as legacy both money, colonialism
and art to his great-grandson Peter. While not rejecting money from this trust, Beard laments the expansion of Western capitalism
into Africa. James Jerome Hill was a great patron of the arts and all of his heirs were exposed to and owned great collections, thus having a great impact on Peter's interest in the arts and beauty.
Beard is famous not only for his photographs of endangered African elephants but also of supermodels and rock stars like Mick Jagger
, David Bowie
, Iman, Veruschka
(Countess Vera von Lehndorff, an important artist in her own right), and Beard's first wife Minnie Cushing. He was married to the model Cheryl Tiegs
. Beard is well known for his handsome looks.
Beard's milieu consisted of Andy Warhol
, Jackie Onassis, Lee Radziwill
, Truman Capote
, and Bianca Jagger
who all lived and rented houses in Montauk and Manhattan, NY in the 1970s and 1980s. Beard also had a close relationship with the late painter, Francis Bacon (painter)
. He photographed Bacon and was also the model for several of Bacon's paintings. Beard was traveling with and photographing the Rolling Stones on the infamous Rolling Stones 1972 tour of America
.
Beard is married to Nejma Khanum. The couple has a daughter, Zara. His book, Zara's Tales was written especially for her.
's Out of Africa
, which inspired him to travel to Africa
in 1955. He took many pictures of the wildlife there and began putting them into collage
s and using animal blood and remains along with clippings to create his work.
In these works, he documents the history of his relationships with (among other things): Africa, Karen Blixen, the New York art scene, the fashion
world, Hollywood, and the Kennedy administration. Page after page is covered with photographs of women, transcribed telephone messages, marginalia in India ink
, clippings from the daily newspapers, dried leaves and insect
s, old sepia-toned photographs, drawings of animals and people by Kikuyu artists, quotes by Joseph Conrad
, found object
s, images of decaying elephant carcasses, and sometimes, Beard’s own blood
.
Beard attended Yale University
where he enrolled as a pre-medical student but quickly changed his major to art history
. His first exhibition was at the Blum Helman Gallery in 1975. This switch to Art is not surprising considering the interest in art his family has had, for generations, both as artists and patrons of the arts. Later, after meeting Blixen in Denmark http://www.peterbeard.com/bio.htm), he purchased a 43 acres (174,015 m²) farm in Africa. This piece of land was adjacent to her Karen farm in Kenya
, and to Giraffe Manor
at the foot of the Ngong Hills
— a property which he named "Hog Ranch".
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
, diarist and writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
.
Personal life
Peter Beard's photographs of Africa, African animals, and the journals that often integrate his photographs have been widely shown and published since the 1970s. His grandmother, Ruth (Hill) Beard, married, as her second husband, Pierre Lorillard IVPierre Lorillard IV
Pierre Lorillard IV was an American tobacco manufacturer and thoroughbred race horse owner.-Biography:...
, who was a tobacco magnate and is credited with helping to popularize the tuxedo
Tuxedo
A tuxedo is a type of semi-formal dress for men.Tuxedo may also refer to:-Places:Canada* Tuxedo, Winnipeg, Manitoba, a city neighborhood** Tuxedo , a provincial electoral district in Manitoba...
. A great-grandfather, James Jerome Hill, was founder of the Great Northern Railway in the late nineteenth/early twentieth centuries. Railroads, in part, provided the infrastructure
Infrastructure
Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...
for colonization both in the United States and Africa, promoting expansion into undeveloped frontiers. James Jerome Hill made his fortune in the railroad business, leaving as legacy both money, colonialism
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
and art to his great-grandson Peter. While not rejecting money from this trust, Beard laments the expansion of Western capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
into Africa. James Jerome Hill was a great patron of the arts and all of his heirs were exposed to and owned great collections, thus having a great impact on Peter's interest in the arts and beauty.
Beard is famous not only for his photographs of endangered African elephants but also of supermodels and rock stars like Mick Jagger
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones....
, David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
, Iman, Veruschka
Veruschka
Vera Gräfin von Lehndorff-Steinort is a German model, actress, and artist who was popular during the 1960s...
(Countess Vera von Lehndorff, an important artist in her own right), and Beard's first wife Minnie Cushing. He was married to the model Cheryl Tiegs
Cheryl Tiegs
Cheryl Rae Tiegs is an American model and actress.- Early years :Tiegs was born in Breckenridge, Minnesota but raised in Alhambra, California, and she graduated from Alhambra High School in 1965. She also attended the California State University, Los Angeles and became a little sister to the Sigma...
. Beard is well known for his handsome looks.
Beard's milieu consisted of Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
, Jackie Onassis, Lee Radziwill
Lee Radziwill
Caroline Lee Bouvier Canfield Radziwill Ross best known as Lee Radziwill, is an American socialite, public relations executive, and former actress and interior decorator. She is the younger sister of the late First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis...
, Truman Capote
Truman Capote
Truman Streckfus Persons , known as Truman Capote , was an American author, many of whose short stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction are recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's and the true crime novel In Cold Blood , which he labeled a "nonfiction novel." At...
, and Bianca Jagger
Bianca Jagger
Bianca Jagger is a Nicaraguan-born social and human rights advocate and a former actress and model...
who all lived and rented houses in Montauk and Manhattan, NY in the 1970s and 1980s. Beard also had a close relationship with the late painter, Francis Bacon (painter)
Francis Bacon (painter)
Francis Bacon , was an Irish-born British figurative painter known for his bold, austere, graphic and emotionally raw imagery. Bacon's painterly but abstract figures typically appear isolated in glass or steel geometrical cages set against flat, nondescript backgrounds...
. He photographed Bacon and was also the model for several of Bacon's paintings. Beard was traveling with and photographing the Rolling Stones on the infamous Rolling Stones 1972 tour of America
The Rolling Stones American Tour 1972
The Rolling Stones American Tour 1972, often referred to as the S.T.P. Tour , was a much-publicized and much-written-about concert tour of The United States and Canada in June and July 1972 by The Rolling Stones...
.
Beard is married to Nejma Khanum. The couple has a daughter, Zara. His book, Zara's Tales was written especially for her.
Art
Beard channels most of his creative energy into his collage-work and diaries, which he began to compile in 1949 at the age of eleven. Peter Beard began keeping diaries as a child and after discovering a love of photography, used photographs to extend and enhance them. Beard read Karen BlixenKaren Blixen
Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke , , née Karen Christenze Dinesen, was a Danish author also known by her pen name Isak Dinesen. She also wrote under the pen names Osceola and Pierre Andrézel...
's Out of Africa
Out of Africa
Out of Africa is a 1985 romantic drama film directed and produced by Sydney Pollack, and starring Robert Redford and Meryl Streep. The film is based loosely on the autobiographical book Out of Africa written by Isak Dinesen , which was published in 1937, with additional material from Dinesen's book...
, which inspired him to travel to Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
in 1955. He took many pictures of the wildlife there and began putting them into collage
Collage
A collage is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole....
s and using animal blood and remains along with clippings to create his work.
In these works, he documents the history of his relationships with (among other things): Africa, Karen Blixen, the New York art scene, the fashion
Fashion
Fashion, a general term for a currently popular style or practice, especially in clothing, foot wear, or accessories. Fashion references to anything that is the current trend in look and dress up of a person...
world, Hollywood, and the Kennedy administration. Page after page is covered with photographs of women, transcribed telephone messages, marginalia in India ink
India ink
India ink is a simple black ink once widely used for writing and printing and now more commonly used for drawing, especially when inking comic books and comic strips.-Composition:...
, clippings from the daily newspapers, dried leaves and insect
Insect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...
s, old sepia-toned photographs, drawings of animals and people by Kikuyu artists, quotes by Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad was a Polish-born English novelist.Conrad is regarded as one of the great novelists in English, although he did not speak the language fluently until he was in his twenties...
, found object
Found object
A found object, in an artistic sense, indicates the use of an object which has not been designed for an artistic purpose, but which exists for another purpose already. Found objects may exist either as utilitarian, manufactured items, or things which occur in nature...
s, images of decaying elephant carcasses, and sometimes, Beard’s own blood
Blood
Blood is a specialized bodily fluid in animals that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells....
.
Beard attended Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
where he enrolled as a pre-medical student but quickly changed his major to art history
Art history
Art history has historically been understood as the academic study of objects of art in their historical development and stylistic contexts, i.e. genre, design, format, and style...
. His first exhibition was at the Blum Helman Gallery in 1975. This switch to Art is not surprising considering the interest in art his family has had, for generations, both as artists and patrons of the arts. Later, after meeting Blixen in Denmark http://www.peterbeard.com/bio.htm), he purchased a 43 acres (174,015 m²) farm in Africa. This piece of land was adjacent to her Karen farm in Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
, and to Giraffe Manor
Giraffe Manor
Giraffe Manor is a small hotel in the Lang'ata suburb of Nairobi, Kenya which, together with its associated Giraffe Centre, serves as a home to a number of endangered Rothschild giraffes, and operates a breeding programme to reintroduce breeding pairs back into the wild to secure the future of the...
at the foot of the Ngong Hills
Ngong Hills
The Ngong Hills are peaks in a ridge along the Great Rift Valley, located southwest near Nairobi, in southern Kenya. The word "Ngong" is a Maasai word meaning "knuckles"...
— a property which he named "Hog Ranch".
Selected books
- Beard, Peter (2004). Zara's Tales from Hog Ranch: Perilous Escapades in Equatorial Africa. New York: Knopf. ISBN 0679426590
- Beard, Peter; Beard, Nejma; and Fahey, David (2008). Peter Beard. Köln: Taschen. ISBN 9783836508773
- Beard, Peter, and Caujolle, Christian (2008). Peter Beard. London and New York: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 9780500410967
- Beard, Peter; Dinesen, Isak; and Gatura, Kamante (1975). Longing for Darkness: Kamante's Tales from Out of Africa. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. ISBN 0151530807
- Beard, Peter, and Tunney, Peter T (1999). Peter Beard: Fifty Years of Portraits. Santa Fe, NM: Arena Editions. ISBN 1892041154
- Beard, Peter Hill (1965). The End of the Game. New York: Viking Press.
- Edkins, Diana, and Peter H. Beard (1995). Animal Attractions. New York: Abrams. ISBN 0810919591
- Graham, Alistair, and Beard, Peter (1973). Eyelids of Morning: The Mingled Destinies of Crocodiles and Men. Greenwich, CT: New York Graphic Society. ISBN 0821204645
- Turle, Gillies; Beard, Peter H.; and Greenberg, Mark (1992). The Art of the Maasai: 300 Newly Discovered Objects and Works of Art. New York: Knopf. ISBN 039458323X
- Wilson, R. L.; Martin, Greg; Beard, Peter H.; and Sandberg, Douglas (1998). Buffalo Bill's Wild West: An American Legend. New York: Random House. ISBN 0375501061
Further reading
- Bowermaster, Jon. The adventures and misadventures of Peter Beard in Africa. Boston: Bulfinch Press, 1993. ISBN 0821219073