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Paul, Venice, 1976 |
McCartney’s record goes platinum
The first major retrospective of Linda McCartney’s work, presented in platinum prints, reveals the range and quality of her art, writes Gerald Isaaman
LIFE begins at 40. At least it has with a bang for ebullient James Hyman, whose belief in the British art market has given him the determination to make big leaps of faith in his career in the past decade.
After dealing from his Hampstead home he spread his wings five years ago and opened his first gallery – a small tucked away place in Mason’s Yard, albeit in the heart of St James’s in London’s West End.
Now he has made a second bid for room at the top, this time creating a new gallery in sophisticated Savile Row, on the ground floor of a new office development, which gives him five times the space he had before.
The new location also provides the opportunity to hold two exhibitions simultaneously – as well as invite 300 guests to his opening events. Indeed, he may well need two evenings to launch his next exhibition – the first major retrospective of the photographs of Linda McCartney, the late wife of the The Beatles’ Sir Paul McCartney.
“I imagine they will be in the £5,000 a print range, though we haven’t yet priced them,” says James. “They will all be platinum prints. A normal print has lots of greys and blacks and white, but the platinum print is much, much richer and the tones are stranger.
“Put a platinum print side by side with a normal print and you will see there is no comparison.
“They will all be accompanied by certificates signed by Paul McCartney to authenticate them. There hasn’t been this kind of presentation of Linda’s work before.”
McCartney and his photographer daughter Mary are both personally involved in organising the exhibition, which includes unseen photographs taken by Linda over a period of 30 years.
“What we are trying to show is that Linda was a terrific photographer,” adds James. “Her best photographs need to be considered not just as photo journalism but as art.
“There are landscapes, interiors, domestic scenes, flowers – a wide range of subjects very strongly composed in very structured pictures.
“What’s nice for me is that the exhibition of about 30 pictures has got some very famous works, such as pictures of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Gilbert and George, Janis Joplin, Simon and Garfunkel and a whole range of other exciting images and informal portraits that have not been shown before.”
There has been the occasional show, especially in her native America, of Linda’s photographs since she died in 1998 at the age of 56.
“But the American shows have very much been devoted to her Sixties’ photographs of rock stars and bands,” says James.
“That is how she began. What we are trying to do with this retrospective exhibition is something different.”
In fact, just to prove the expanding nature of the James Hyman Gallery, the McCartney exhibition will be followed by another debut show, this time of the Chinese artist Sun Liang from Shanghai.
“It is all part of my aim in broadening the scope of the gallery and making it international,” explains James. “I am 40 now. So perhaps life does begin at 40.”
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