Burning Down the House
Mimi ON Oct 20, 2011 AT 9:45 am
Alexander McQueen and Isabella Blow in LaChapelle's photo, Burning Down the House
A new exhibition by David LaChapelle will honor the late legendary designer Alexander McQueen.
The portrait ‘Burning Down the House‘ showing McQueen and his muse Isabella Blow has been acquired by London’s National Portrait Gallery.
This is the first portrait by LaChapelle to enter the Gallery’s Collection and will be exhibited in the United Kingdom for the first time from Friday 14 October 2011. But, the double portrait of McQueen and Blow was originally published in the March 1997 ‘Swinging London’ edition of Vanity Fair.
When LaChapelle first started working on the piece, McQueen was just 27 years old and had recently debuted his first couture collection for the House of Givenchy. Blow, 38 at the time of the shoot, was considered McQueen’s muse.
Apparently the portrait was purchased with “generous assistance” from Daphne Guinness, The Marrakech Gallery Foundation, 2011 and Fred Torres.
The image will be exhibited from Friday 14 October 2011. The National Portrait Gallery is open daily from 10.00-18.00.
