"BIRTH OF A CLOWN" par Sam TAYLOR-JOHNSON. Editions Steidl, Göttingen. 2013. in-4, couverture cartonnée photo. Non paginé (48p). Texte en anglais, illustré de 45 reproductions photographiques couleurs, pleine page, par Sam Taylor-Johnson.

 

"In 1947 the International Circus Clowns Club (now Clowns International) began employing an oddly practical method to record the unique makeup of its members: they copied each design onto an eggshell, which was placed on a register that trademarked the particular identity of each clown. Painted by Stan Bult, the first head of the International Circus Clowns Club, onto chicken eggshells with the inside emptied out, these studies now form part of the Clowns' Gallery and Museum in Wookey Hole, Somerset. Bult's practice was resurrected by the club in 1984, and in addition to the painted faces, samples of the clowns' costumes and wig hair were often used, so that these eggshells became much more than a mere record of creative makeup, often achieving a wonderfully eccentric form of portraiture. Today the collection includes eggshells portraits of some of the most famous clowns in circus history, such as Co-Co, Lou Harris and Grimaldi."

 

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