V&A opens major exhibition of photography, on loan
from the private collection of Sir Elton John and David
Furnish
Fragile Beauty: Photographs from the Sir Elton John and David Furnish Collection – In partnership with Gucci 18 May 2024 – 5 January 2025 The Sainsbury Gallery, V&A South Kensington.
Opened on Saturday 18 May, Fragile Beauty: Photographs from the Sir Elton John and
David Furnish Collection is a major exhibition of modern and contemporary
photography, on loan from the private collection of Sir Elton John and David Furnish.
The exhibition showcases over 300 rare prints from 140 photographers and is the
V&A’s largest temporary exhibition of photography to date.
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Selected from their collection of over 7,000 images, the exhibited photographs (many
on public display for the first time and some in the collection’s bespoke frames) are eradefining images which explore the connection between strength and vulnerability
inherent in the human condition. Whilst universally compelling, the images are intensely
personal for John and Furnish, as they are the photographs they live with in their home.
Following on from the 2016 exhibition The Radical Eye: Modernist Photography from the
Sir Elton John Collection at the Tate Modern, this exhibition covers the period from
1950 to the present day. It brings together an unrivalled selection of the world’s leading
photographers to tell the story of modern and contemporary photography, and
includes celebrated works by Robert Mapplethorpe, Nan Goldin, Cindy Sherman,
William Eggleston, Diane Arbus, Sally Mann, Zanele Muholi, Ai Weiwei, Carrie Mae
Weems and others.
Brand new acquisitions are on display by Tyler Mitchell, Trevor Paglen and An-My Lê.
These join some of the very first acquisitions made by John, fashion photographs by
Horst P. Horst, Irving Penn and Herb Ritts.
Sir Elton John and David Furnish, said: “Since we first loaned a selection of Horst
photographs to the V&A in 2014, our relationship with the museum has grown
significantly. Fragile Beauty takes our collaboration to really exciting new heights,
showcasing some of the most beloved photographers and iconic images from within our
collection. Working alongside the V&A again has been a truly memorable experience, and
we look forward to sharing this exhibition with the public.”
Duncan Forbes, curator of Fragile Beauty, said: “We are delighted to be working with
Sir Elton John and David Furnish to present highlights from their unparalleled collection:
from the playful and surprising, to the contemplative and thoughtful. Whether through
the elegance of fashion photography, the creativity of musicians and performers, the
exploration of desire, or the passage of history as captured by photojournalism,
photography reveals something important about the world. Fragile Beauty is a truly epic
journey across the recent history of photography, and a celebration of Sir Elton John and
David Furnish’s passion for the medium.”
Marking 30 years of collecting, the exhibition celebrates John and Furnish’s passion for
the medium and reflects their personal taste and unique eye as collectors.
Across eight thematic sections, Fragile Beauty explores themes such as fashion,
reportage, celebrity, the male body, and American photography. Portraits of stars from
stage and screen feature, including photography of Aretha Franklin, Elizabeth Taylor,
The Beatles, and Chet Baker. Many photographs in the exhibition respond to themes of
persecution, resistance, and key moments in history, and include images of the Civil
Rights movement of the 1960s, AIDS activism of the 1980s and the events of 11
September 2001.
Highlights include: three images depicting Marilyn Monroe taken between 1957-1962
are to go on display: Richard Avedon’s well-known early photograph of the actress in
New York in 1957, Eve Arnold’s portrait of Monroe rehearsing her lines on the set of
The Misfits in 1960, and finally Bert Stern’s The Last Sitting® (1962) which captures
the star lost in thought two months before she died.
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Presented together to the public for the first time, these candid portraits capture Monroe at the height of her fame, in moments between scripted scenes or staged shoots.
Also on display is Nan Goldin’s Thanksgiving series. A 149-image series, shown in its
entirety in the exhibition, it documents events from 1973 to 1999 and depicts some of
the most intimate and emotional moments in Goldin and her community’s lives, from
the euphoric to the sensual to the distressing. Displayed floor to ceiling, the
photographs become an intense homage both to the friendships that survived those
twenty-six years, and to those friends she has lost.
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Other highlights include; three photographs by David LaChapelle, including the
humorous portrait of Elton John with two eggs over his eyes (Elton John: Egg On His
Face, 1999); eleven Robert Mapplethorpe images ranging from his still life including
Poppy (1988), to the iconic horned self-portrait taken in 1985; Sam Taylor-Johnson’s
Crying Men (2004), featuring some of Hollywood’s greatest male talents including
Laurence Fishburne, Robin Williams and Daniel Craig, in vulnerable states of
tearfulness and contemplation; photogram portraits of John and Furnish’s children,
taken by Adam Fuss; the viral image by Associated Press photographer Julio Cortez,
taken at the protests in Minneapolis following the murder of George Floyd in May 2020,
depicting a lone protester carrying an upside-down U.S. flag next to a burning building; Peter Hujar’s unflinching portrait, Candy Darling in Her Deathbed (1974), depicting the
American transgender actress Candy (an Andy Warhol superstar and a muse of The
Velvet Underground) in her hospital bed; Tom Bianchi’s Fire Island Pines, 1975-1983,
a series of photographs celebrating gay joy at a time when homosexuality was still illegal
across the USA , and capturing the resort’s halcyon days with poolside pictures of
tanned torsos.
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Fragile Beauty: Photographs from the Sir Elton John and David Furnish Collection is
curated by Duncan Forbes, Head of Photography at the V&A, Newell Harbin, Director
of The Sir Elton John and David Furnish Photography Collection, and Lydia Caston,
Exhibition Project Curator at the V&A. The exhibition is part of the ongoing partnership
between Sir Elton John and David Furnish with the V&A, which began with their
generous support for the V&A’s Photography Centre in 2019.