This section documents Farrah Fawcett's background in art.
Charles Umlauf and Farrah Fawcett in the studio in 1970
See The Artistic Side Of Farrah Fawcett That Most Never Knew (Texas Standard Podcast)
Farrah Fawcett's Art in Austin, Texas (KVUE)
Keith Edmier and Farrah Fawcett
Andy Warhol Museum
Andy Warhol Museum
Keith Edmier and Farrah Fawcett
The exhibition, Keith Edmier and Farrah Fawcett, examines the connection between artist and muse through a series of collaborative sculptures and photographs by contemporary artist, Keith Edmier, and actress and artist, Farrah Fawcett. Produced by Art Production Fund, the exhibition features the results of a two-year collaboration between the artists, spurred by Edmier's childhood admiration of Fawcett.
Collaboration
Since her 1976 debut in the television series Charlie's Angels, actress Farrah Fawcett has played the role of the ideal woman and muse for many men. For Edmier, Fawcett was a particularly resonant figure of youthful admiration and inspiration because he knew she herself was an artist. Edmier first contacted Fawcett with the hope of inviting her into a collaborative project. With only a vague idea of how such a project would take shape, Edmier wrote in his original proposal, "In the very broadest terms, I would like to propose making a portrait of Ms. Fawcett with her ideas and concerns about the piece directly influencing its final form."
In August 2000, the project began with the idea of a sculpture of Fawcett, but encouraged by Edmier, she decided to make a portrait of him as well. Ultimately, they produced what would be the centerpiece of Keith Edmier and Farrah Fawcett, a reclining female in marble and a standing male in bronze, both life-size. Fawcett's active role in the creation of art for the project threw into question distinctions between inspiration and collaboration, artist and muse. Rather than standing in as Edmier's independently powerful muse who facilitated creation, Fawcett participated in and directly influenced the process.
The Exhibition
The centerpiece of the exhibition, Keith Edmier and Farrah Fawcett 2000, includes a pair of nude sculptures the artists made of each other. Both life-size, a reclining Fawcett is rendered in white marble; a standing Edmier in bronze. In the sculptures, the artists are depicted less as themselves than as ideals. Edmier’s boyish good looks are enhanced and Fawcett has not aged since her 1976 television debut. In reinventing the image of Fawcett that was so crucial to his youth, Edmier shifts the narrative of his past from first to third person, unhooking it from autobiography. But by providing a grown-up Edmier as mate to a 1970s Fawcett, the collaboration sustains the original fantasy, suggesting that past is never wholly resolved.
In addition to the sculptures of Keith Edmier and Farrah Fawcett 2000, the exhibition includes five small sculptures, a group of black and white photographs by the collaborators, and two color photographs: a close-up of Fawcett’s hand touching her hair, and The Space Between You and Me, a digital photograph that shows Fawcett leaning her forehead against Edmier’s. What at first glance looks like a romantic image, on closer inspection becomes a sort of pieta. Edmier and Fawcett clearly had this theme in mind when they juxtaposed the photograph beside an image of Michelangelo’s Pieta Rondanini (1555-64).
Image above: Farrah Fawcett makes a personal appearance at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to sign copies of Keith Edmier and Farrah Fawcett 2002. (Courtesy of ImageCollect)
The exhibition, Keith Edmier and Farrah Fawcett, examines the connection between artist and muse through a series of collaborative sculptures and photographs by contemporary artist, Keith Edmier, and actress and artist, Farrah Fawcett. Produced by Art Production Fund, the exhibition features the results of a two-year collaboration between the artists, spurred by Edmier's childhood admiration of Fawcett.
Collaboration
Since her 1976 debut in the television series Charlie's Angels, actress Farrah Fawcett has played the role of the ideal woman and muse for many men. For Edmier, Fawcett was a particularly resonant figure of youthful admiration and inspiration because he knew she herself was an artist. Edmier first contacted Fawcett with the hope of inviting her into a collaborative project. With only a vague idea of how such a project would take shape, Edmier wrote in his original proposal, "In the very broadest terms, I would like to propose making a portrait of Ms. Fawcett with her ideas and concerns about the piece directly influencing its final form."
In August 2000, the project began with the idea of a sculpture of Fawcett, but encouraged by Edmier, she decided to make a portrait of him as well. Ultimately, they produced what would be the centerpiece of Keith Edmier and Farrah Fawcett, a reclining female in marble and a standing male in bronze, both life-size. Fawcett's active role in the creation of art for the project threw into question distinctions between inspiration and collaboration, artist and muse. Rather than standing in as Edmier's independently powerful muse who facilitated creation, Fawcett participated in and directly influenced the process.
The Exhibition
The centerpiece of the exhibition, Keith Edmier and Farrah Fawcett 2000, includes a pair of nude sculptures the artists made of each other. Both life-size, a reclining Fawcett is rendered in white marble; a standing Edmier in bronze. In the sculptures, the artists are depicted less as themselves than as ideals. Edmier’s boyish good looks are enhanced and Fawcett has not aged since her 1976 television debut. In reinventing the image of Fawcett that was so crucial to his youth, Edmier shifts the narrative of his past from first to third person, unhooking it from autobiography. But by providing a grown-up Edmier as mate to a 1970s Fawcett, the collaboration sustains the original fantasy, suggesting that past is never wholly resolved.
In addition to the sculptures of Keith Edmier and Farrah Fawcett 2000, the exhibition includes five small sculptures, a group of black and white photographs by the collaborators, and two color photographs: a close-up of Fawcett’s hand touching her hair, and The Space Between You and Me, a digital photograph that shows Fawcett leaning her forehead against Edmier’s. What at first glance looks like a romantic image, on closer inspection becomes a sort of pieta. Edmier and Fawcett clearly had this theme in mind when they juxtaposed the photograph beside an image of Michelangelo’s Pieta Rondanini (1555-64).
Image above: Farrah Fawcett makes a personal appearance at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to sign copies of Keith Edmier and Farrah Fawcett 2002. (Courtesy of ImageCollect)
Dr. Ned Rifkin on two portraits of Farrah Fawcett | Blanton Museum of Art
Nude Torso by Farrah Fawcett
Reclining Nude by Farrah Fawcett
Nude Torso by Farrah Fawcett, 1997
Self Portrait by Farrah Fawcett, c. 1970
Standing Nude by Farrah Fawcett
Nude Torso by Farrah Fawcett
Diane by Farrah Fawcett
Two Faces by Farrah Fawcett, c. 1980
