Showing posts with label richard avedon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label richard avedon. Show all posts

10.28.2009

A Person + A Place: Rudolf Nureyev

Has anyone seen the film Valentino (1977) with Rudolf Nureyev?  Watching it reminded me just how much I love Nureyev (1938-1993).  If you haven't, TRACK IT DOWN.  The tango scene with Nijinsky alone makes it worthwhile (most riveting tango between two men, ever),

Powerful dancer, impossibly gorgeous person:

Nureyev, photographed by Richard Avedon, 1961.


Nureyev, photographed by Richard Avedon, 1961.



Nureyev, in Le Corsaire, 1963.

And, because you can't really fully understand someone without seeing where he lives, I leave you with one of his residences: a house on his private island on the archipelago of Li Galli, off the Amalfi coast, in Italy.

The images are bittersweet; Nureyev passed away from AIDS only a few months after they were published in House & Garden, 1992.  The accompanying article gives no indication of his ailing health.  Perhaps it's just this knowledge that makes the house look exceptionally lonely in retrospect. It's beautiful, but somehow desolate, isn't it?








Scans from House & Garden, August 1992. Photographs by David Seidner.
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