Every Supermodel Stopped by Gagosian to Celebrate Richard Avedon’s Centenary
Since all of the art and fashion cognoscenti were already gathered in New York City for the 2023 Met Gala, it only made sense to keep the party going. At Gagosian art gallery in downtown Manhattan, the premiere of the Avedon 100 exhibition and book launch commemorating Richard Avedon’s centenary drew a high-fashion crowd with a line snaking around the block to get in.
2023 marks 100 years since photographer Richard Avedon was born in New York City. His storied career took him to Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, and The New Yorker, as well as countless advertising and personal projects, before he passed away in 2004. Behind the lens, Avedon had a remarkable capability to capture movement, personality, and a spectrum of emotions.
To commemorate his centenary, Gagosian invited 150 artists, designers, musicians, writers, and creatives to curate an Avedon photograph meaningful to them. Contributors included Hillary Clinton, Cindy Crawford, Elton John, Kim Kardashian, and more. Each participant selected a photograph, which was then published in the new Gagosian book Avedon 100 as well as displayed at Gagosian in Chelsea.
The Avedon 100 exhibition, on view through the end of June, features much of Avedon’s iconic oeuvre. The black and white photographs include celebrity portraiture, scenes from the American West, snapshots from the Civil Rights movement, and fashion images of models. Celebrities photographed in the exhibit include Marilyn Monroe, Tina Turner, Audrey Hepburn, Andy Warhol, Prince, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Photographed models include Claudia Schiffer, Veruschka, Naomi Campbell, Donyale Luna, and more.
The exhibition was co-curated by Kara Vander Weg and Derek Blasberg. For Blasberg, working on Avedon 100 has been a full-circle moment. He grew up in St. Louis, admiring Avedon’s photography in magazines, a lens for him into the world of fashion and celebrity. He later moved to New York City, where he met Avedon twice. “This exhibition is full of the pictures that made me fall in love with him, to begin with,” he told Vogue.
The crowded party drew creatives from across the art and fashion worlds. Notably, many of the top global supermodels attended, including Gigi Hadid wearing Thom Browne, Iman, Liya Kebede, Precious Lee, Lauren Hutton, Pat Cleveland, and Karlie Kloss. Kloss, who wore a floor-length black dress with cutouts, told Vogue, “As a model, I studied the movement in his imagery. There’s such an awareness of both the models and Avedon. There must have been a special relationship between the two. By looking at a ton of his images, I learned a lot.”