Richard Avedon's Murals & Portraits @ Gagosian New York

Opening today at Gagosian New York, Richard Avedon's Murals & Portraits. Against the backdrop of America's social and political transformation, Avedon began to create four photographic murals between 1969 and 1971 which would be unprecedented in scale and pointed in subject. Between 20 to 35 feet wide and comprising up to five panels, the murals revealed a striking new format in which subjects were positioned frontally and aligned against a stark white background. This intensity of characterization and confrontational aspect typifies Avedon's portraits; his subjects exist larger than life, stripped of all artifice by an unflinching eye. His mural groupings featured emblematic figures: Andy Warhol with the players and stars of The Factory; The Chicago Seven, political radicals charged with and acquitted of conspiracy to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention; the Beat poet Allen Ginsberg and his extended family; and the Mission Council, a group of military and government officials who governed the United States' participation in the Vietnam War. Murals and Portraits will be on view from May 4 to July 6 at Gagosian, 522 West 21, New York.

Tomboy Style

Yves Saint Laurent and his "twin sister" and YSL muse Betty Catroux from Tomboy Style

Women who dress boldly, androgynously – sometimes mixing in men's styles – will resurface and recede as an iconic and oft referenced trend, but never does it go out of style. A new book by journalist Lizzie Garrett Mettler entitled Tomboy: Beyond the Boundaries of FashionΒ is a "visual history that chronicles the past eighty years of women who blur the line between masculinity and femininity [and] explores the evolution of the style and its icons."

Agnès Varda in China

Agnès Varda is displaying her works at the Hubei Museum of Fine Arts  and the Museum of Fine Arts of Wuhan until May 6 2012. She is displaying several installations, including a portico in bright red in which she has installed her photographs. Agnès Varda is a visual artist and film-maker famous for films such as Cléo from 5 to 7 which made her a burgeoning member of the Nouvelle Vague film movement. However, in the eyes of the Chinese, where she is above all else is a photographer, the same photographer who travelled through the country under Mao, in 1957. The result of this trip is a collection of photographs which have never before been displayed: smiling families wearing Mao suits, female dockers bent under their burdens. The snapshots depict China before the repression.

Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk

Dubbed fashion’s enfant terrible, Jean Paul Gaultier launched his first prΓͺt-Γ -porter collection in 1976 and founded his own couture house in 1997. Emerging as a designer in the 1970s, he developed his own dress codes that reflected the changing world around him. This dynamic, multimedia exhibition will include 140 haute couture and prΓͺt-Γ -porter designs created between the mid-1970s and 2010, along with numerous sketches, archival documents, fashion photographs, and video clips that spotlight Gaultier’s collaborations with filmmakers, choreographers, and musicians, most notably Madonna. Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalkwill be on view until August 19, 2012. Photography by Oliver Maxwell Kupper. 

Gered Mankowitz Retrospective

Prolific music photographer and documentarian Gered Mankowitz is to be the subject of a major retrospective exhibition at the Snap Gallery in London. The exhibition features over 100 photographs from Gered’s entire career, spanning four decades of music photography. This is the largest collection of photographs Gered has ever exhibited, and it is his first career retrospective. Gered is best known for his 1960s photographs of The Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix, and both subjects feature in this exhibition. During the 60s he also photographed Marianne Faithfull, Georgie Fame, Chris Farlowe, The Yardbirds, Eric Clapton, Small Faces, Donovan, Spencer Davies group and PP Arnold to name a few, before moving into the progressive end of the decade with Free, Soft Machine, Traffic and The Nice.Β Gered Mankowitz: A Retrospective will be on view until June 16 at the Snap Gallery,Β 12 Piccadilly Arcade, London.

Schiaparelli and Prada

An amazing, rare pair of vintage Elsa Schiaparelli sunglasses will be on sale May 2 as part of a vintage jewelry sale timed to the opening of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's opening of Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations explores the striking affinities between Elsa Schiaparelli and Miuccia Prada, two Italian designers from different eras. Sunglasses like the ones above were made in 1957 for American Optical bear a resemblance to Prada's Spring 2012 collection which also includes piecesΒ decoratedΒ with enamel roses.Β Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations will be on view starting May 10 at the Met in NYC.