{"product_id":"what-becomes-a-legend-most-a-biography-of-richard-avedon-isbn-9780062442710","title":"What Becomes a Legend Most: A Biography of Richard Avedon","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e“Wise and ebullient.” – Dwight\u003cbr\u003eGarner, \u003cem\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe first definitive biography of Richard Avedon, a monumental photographer of the twentieth century, from award-winning photography critic Philip Gefter.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn his acclaimed portraits, Richard Avedon captured the iconic figures of the twentieth century in his starkly bold, intimately minimal, and forensic visual style. Concurrently, his work for \u003cem\u003eHarper's Bazaar \u003c\/em\u003eand \u003cem\u003eVogue \u003c\/em\u003etransformed the ideals of women's fashion, femininity, and culture to become the defining look of an era. Yet despite his driving ambition to gain respect in the art world, during his lifetime he was condescendingly dismissed as a \"celebrity photographer.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eWhat Becomes a Legend Most\u003c\/em\u003e is the first definitive biography of this luminary—an intensely driven man who endured personal and professional prejudice, struggled with deep insecurities, and mounted an existential lifelong battle to be recognized as an artist. Philip Gefter builds on archival research and exclusive interviews with those closest to Avedon to chronicle his story, beginning with Avedon’s coming-of-age in New York between the world wars, when cultural prejudices forced him to make decisions that shaped the course of his life.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCompounding his private battles, Avedon fought to be taken seriously in a medium that itself struggled to be respected within the art world. Gefter reveals how the 1950s and 1960s informed Avedon’s life and work as much as he informed the period. He counted as close friends a profoundly influential group of artists—Leonard Bernstein, Truman Capote, James Baldwin, Harold Brodkey, Renata Adler, Sidney Lumet, and Mike Nichols—who shaped the cultural life of the American twentieth century. It wasn't until Avedon's fashion work was exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the late 1970s that he became a household name.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBalancing glamour with the gravitas of an artist's genuine reach for worldly achievement—and not a little gossip—plus sixteen pages of photographs,\u003cem\u003e What Becomes a Legend Most \u003c\/em\u003eis an intimate window into Avedon's fascinating world. Dramatic, visionary, and remarkable, it pays tribute to Avedon's role in the history of photography and fashion—and his legacy as one of the most consequential artists of his time.\u003c\/p\u003e | \u003cp\u003e\"The portrait that emerges in these pages is not only a biography of the artist—his professional triumphs and disappointments and personal demons—but also a beautifully written assessment of his work, which brings Avedon to life and also vividly evokes his most memorable images.\"  - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKate Betts, Air Mail\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Wise and ebullient . . . . Gefter takes the reader inside so many of Avedon’s photo shoots, and so deftly explicates his work, that you’re thirsty to sate your eyes with Avedon’s actual images . . . . One of the achievements of Gefter’s biography is to argue persuasively for Avedon’s place, as a maker of portraits, as one of the 20th century’s most consequential artists.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDwight Garner, New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Philip Gefter’s welcome new biography . . . takes Avedon at his own estimation as a serious 20th-century artist. It creates a dense, convincing portrait of a man with huge talent and a gift for life.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eScott Eyman, Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Mesmerizing. . . . Like Avedon’s blank white backgrounds, blasted with light, Gefter’s pages expose in a controlled and intelligent manner all the bigness and littleness of one of the greats.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBrad Gooch, New York Times bestselling author of Flannery and City Poet\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Revealing, fluent, and very well written—an exemplary biography of an underappreciated artist.” - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews (starred review)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Gefter weaves the particulars of Avedon’s life story into a larger narrative about American culture in the decades after World War II . . . . Read in the context of our own precarious political and ecological moment, this assessment alone argues eloquently for the abiding, even urgent relevance of Avedon’s imperfect Art.\"  - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eCaroline Weber, New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Gefter’s expert, comprehensive, and sensitive biography embodies the electricity and complexity of Avedon’s work as he centers Avedon within the crossfire of both the battle to legitimize photography as a fine art form and the struggle for gay rights… Gefter’s engrossing portrait of a master portraitist vividly proves his claim that Avedon is “one of the most consequential artists of the twentieth century.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist, starred review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Definitive and insightful.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"With this engrossing biography, readers will come away with a greater appreciation of Avedon’s artistic strengths and achievements, as well as the complex man behind the camera.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal (starred review)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"A compelling, beautifully written examination of Avedon's life as it reflects the larger cultural milieu of post–World War II New York, and, more importantly, an argument for the role of the artist in contemporary society.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eStephen Shore, photographer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Imagine the offspring of Marcel Proust and the Energizer Bunny—that’s who Richard Avedon was, a chronicler of fashion, an analyst of social types, the author in pictures of his era. And Philip Gefter captures him. His biography is an Avedon of Avedon.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLouis Menand, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Metaphysical Club\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e","brand":"Harper","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44889332252901,"sku":"NP9780062442710","price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780062442710.jpg?v=1730231026","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/what-becomes-a-legend-most-a-biography-of-richard-avedon-isbn-9780062442710","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}