Author Description

Crazy and brash, bright, loud and glamorous, David LaChapelles photographs have an instantly recognisable look to them. In his recent work The Rape of Africa the artist draws inspiration in, and provides a response to, Botticellis painting Venus and Mars. LaChappelles contemporary tableau tells a story of innocence, war, destruction and material consumption balanced alongside beauty and desire. This catalogue explores this piece through a double-page, full-colour spread of the work, various sketches, preparatory watercolours and two essays, written respectively by Colin Wiggins, from the National Gallery, London, and Wim Pijbes, Director of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.