Peter Schlesinger is an American photographer, writer, painter, ceramicist, and sculptor who documented the social life of a coterie of friends in California. He had a well-publicised affair with English painter David Hockney, for whom he served as a muse and subject of many Hockney drawings, paintings, and photographs. His break-up with Hockney featured prominently in Jack Hazan's 1973 film A Bigger Splash.
Read MoreSchlesinger met Hockney in 1967 while a student at the University of California in Los Angeles, when Hockney was teaching a summer course. Their romance lasted off and on until 1973, with his face and body recorded in many of Hockney's domestic images, made in Los Angeles and later in London while Schlesinger studied at the Slade School of Art (1968—1972). Most notable are Hockney's famous Portrait of An Artist (Pool with Two Figures) (1972), Peter Schlesinger with Polaroid Camera (1977), and Peter Getting Out of Nick's Pool (1966).
Peter Schlesinger is known for his published photographs of celebrities in art and fashion circles, such as Andy Warhol and Rex Reed in a taxi, Monaco, 1974 (1974); Robert Mapplethorpe on the Boulevard Saint-German, Paris, 1971 (1971); David Hockney and Cecil Beaton, Reddish House, 1970 (1970); and Vivienne Westwood's shop on King's Road, London, 1975 (1975).
Schlesinger is also known for his accompanying chatty writing and his decorative ceramic or stoneware sculptures, such as Queen Anne's Lace (2020), Untitled (2018), Untitled Dots (2016), Three Trees (2011), and Grove (2010).
He is also known for his photographs of life in the Republic of Yemen just after a ferocious civil war. In 1976, his partner, photographer Eric Boman, was invited to go to Yemen for a fashion shoot and Schlesinger accompanied him as an assistant, but bringing his own camera as well. He documented the old traditional life in mountain landscapes, markets, villages, and ancient forts as it was disappearing. And now war has re-emerged once more, these rare images from the 1970s are of added interest, being recently presented at Marquee Projects in New York.
Schlesinger's photographs have been collected in several books, such as Gucci "Disturbia" (2018), A Photographic Memory, 1968—1989 (2015), and Checkered Past: A Visual Dairy of the '60s and '70s (2003).
In 1993, Schlesinger received the Tiffany Foundation Award.
Peter Schlesinger has been the subject of both solo and group exhibitions.
Recent solo exhibitions include Peter Schlesinger: Ceramics 1992—2020, Tristan Hoare Gallery, London (2021); Eight Days in Yemen, Marquee Projects, New York (2021); Exhibition, Acne Studios, New York (2015); Peter Schlesinger, Duke and Duke Gallery, Los Angeles (2012).
Recent group exhibitions include I Know Where I'm Going: Who Can I Be Now, The Modern Institute, Glasgow (2021); Strangers in Stranger Lands, Marquee Projects, New York (2020); An Artists' Place Exhibition 1, Marquee Projects, New York (2019); Imaginary Portraits: Prince Igor, Gallery Met, New York (2014).
Schlesinger's works are held in several collections, including Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York; The Farnsworth Museum, Rockland, Maine; Manchester Art Gallery; The Arts Council of Great Britain; UPS Art Collection; Celebrity Cruises; and Warburg E.M. Pincus & Co.
Schlesinger's website can be found here, and his Instagram here.
John Hurrell | Ocula | 2021
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![[Untitled] by Peter Schlesinger contemporary artwork ceramics](https://files.ocula.com/anzax/e2/e2d42c64-94e7-4c92-bb19-cc17df70986a_600_900.jpeg)
![[Untitled] by Peter Schlesinger contemporary artwork ceramics](https://files.ocula.com/anzax/b3/b3d95713-fbbe-47af-bfca-5cbe04c00086_600_826.jpeg)
