Fragile Beauty

Published: 08/06/2024

The current Fragile Beauty exhibition at the V&A runs until January 5th 2025. It includes a large collection of photographs from the collection of Sir Elton John and David Furnish.

According to the V&A website: "Selected from their collection of over 7,000 images, the photographs (many of which will be on public display for the first time) are era-defining images which explore the connection between strength and vulnerability inherent in the human condition." The photos selected date from 1950 and are arranged round a number of themes such as fashion, celebrity, reportage, the male body, America and beauty. 

There are some 300 photographs from 140 different photographers with examples from people like Diane Arbus, Nan Goldin, Richard Avedon, Robert Mapplethorpe, Cindy Sherman, Herb Ritts and Irving Penn.

The photos range in size from miniature Warhol self-portraits to a huge Gilbert and George piece. The exhibition includes recent acquisitions to the John and Furnish collection and some experimental and abstract work. 

Visitors are encouraged to take photos and sketch and there are many images that catch your eye and stop you in your tracks. In fact, the exhibition begins with a large Richard Avedon photo of a man covered with bees. This provides a striking introduction to what follows. There are wonderful and creative fashion photographs and photos of celebrities. Then there is the cube with its walls covered with Nan Goldin's photos from her Thanksgiving series. These depict situations that are often uncomfortable recording her life in the last decades of the last century, showing the impact of abuse, addiction and AIDS. Also striking are the photos depicting events in the news and those relating to 9/11 still have the power to shock and bring back memories of those awful events. 

There is light as well as shade though and you are left with a strong sense of the power, variety and creativity involved in photography. The exhibition works on two levels, as a collection of interesting and arresting images and as a reflection of the life, taste and experience of its collectors. While the Tate exhibition of a few years ago from the same collection included work from before 1950, this exhibition goes on from where that one left off. 

More details can be found on the V&A website: