His name was Helmut Neustädter. He became famous as Helmut Newton. A name that has attracted attention for several decades. And since 1975, when he first exhibited photographs at the Nikon gallery in Paris, it has guaranteed an impressive turnout. Once again, engineer Mammon's golden thought comes true: 'I like the songs I know'. We are most keen to see works that we have already seen many times. I could see this once again in Vienna, at the exhibition "Helmut Newton. Legacy"

Anyone familiar with the capital of the former empire will know that the Kunstforum, a prestigious gallery owned by BaCa, the Bank of Austria, is located right in the middle of the city at the historic 8 Freyung Street, right next to the Hofburg Castle, but also... adjacent to the former (men's) pleasure quarter. And also next to the square where the famous Christmas and Easter fairs take place.

The Kunstforum building itself, built in the Art Nouveau style, stands out from afar: a huge golden sphere shines above the entrance. Inside, the interior is also opulent with marble, columns and gleaming floors. Works from renowned private and public collections are on display here. This time, the choice fell on Berlin's Helmut Newton Foundation. The show prepared by the foundation was to be the highlight of the Bank Austria Kunstforum in 2020 - to mark the centenary of the birth of the creator of the photographic style described as "porno shick".

Prohibited until the age of 14

These plans were thwarted by a pandemic. But the two-year delay has only whetted the appetite for Newton's inheritance. It was certainly also driven by German director Gero von Boehm's 2020 documentary "Beauty and the Beast", incidentally screened during the exhibition....

An additional lure has become... age censorship. The viewing of "The Legacy" is banned for young people under the age of fourteen, due to the (allegedly) appalling shots. Almost two decades after Newton's death! In an age of rampant pornography on the internet. However...

SIGN UP TO OUR PAGE Newton's photos read in the context of the #MeToo movement began to be seen as 'sexist'. After all, the same photos were published dozens of times in albums, including in glamour magazines 50-40 years ago. Have we become more prudish than we were decades ago?

Who is most likely to visit the 'Legacy' exhibition? Some of the audience are beneficiaries, perhaps even participants, of the sexual revolution of the 1960s. There are also red-hot feminists and #MeToo activists ready to burn Newton's work at the stake.

Misogynist and sexist - these are the mildest terms he faced both in his lifetime and today. These invectives immediately collide with a counter: conversely, the photographer elevated women. He put them on a pedestal. He gave them power, or rather - he willingly gave up male domination.

This is how the heroines of the photographs themselves perceived it. They did not feel bad at all about their nudity. Why should a naked body be considered "indecent"?

Let's remember the ideas of the youth revolution of 1968, when liberation from the moral strictures of previous generations was written on the banners. The freedom with which the ladies in Newton's paintings flaunted their nudity and eroticism seemed to confirm the words of the old hit song that 'sex appeal is our feminine weapon'. It is also wrong to accuse the photographer of 'abusing' the confidence of the posing models and actresses. They were taking risks of their own free will. They wanted to explore the limits of their own bodies. And of their psyche. Perhaps they also wanted to learn something new about themselves - to reach a certain limit of courage or... ridiculousness?

Fame from scandal

He first shocked people with his ideas for unconventional fashion photography. He paid for his boldness with the loss of his job and a publication ban - although he ultimately came out of it well. As we all know, nothing is more beneficial to success than ... scandal.

Over the years, however, even Helmut Newton's most provocative shots have been recognised as cult images. What's more, the pictures - commercial as they were - were entered in the register of masterpieces. The black-and-white shots are the most acclaimed; Newton was less successful with colour. The reason? Apparently a prosaic one: the artist's daltonism.

I don't quite believe it when I look, for example, at Liz Taylor's wonderfully composed 'pool' portrait, where the sapphire water and blue details in the setting are juxtaposed with the green of the parrot the actress is holding.

It's about something else - these graphic works seem to be closer to the artist's nature. He was predatory, willing to play risky games and elegant at the same time. When it came to his dress, too, he was considered a benchmark of good taste and had an incredible sense of style. Above all, he was fascinated by the expression of the human body. He adored women with a strong physique and character.

He shared this cult of strength and physical beauty with the famous Leni Riefenstahl, the German film director of the Nazi era (the revealing filming of the 1936 Berlin Olympics), whom he portrayed, incidentally, when she was 90 years old (an elderly lady sitting in a flowered meadow, wearing a floral-patterned dress - almost a perversion of what she was passionate about). Although the subjects of their work were different, the aesthetic choices remained close to each other.

Well, let's take a fresh look at Newton's legacy. One is invariably impressed by the compositional perfection of his shots. One could say, Newton pays homage to Hellenistic ideals. As we know, the classical vision of beauty consisted of perfectly balanced proportions. He also somehow managed to position his models (because they were mainly, but not only, women) in such a way that they seemed almost inhumanly perfect. On top of this, he was able to magically harmonise the arrangement of the bodies with their surroundings - whether through contrast or through an almost mimetic symbiosis. Let's face it: Newton's pictures fascinate with their beauty. This seems to me more important than their iconoclastic aspect.

A conformist with charm

Apparently, Newton himself was far from describing his work as art. Instead, he declared his love for women, and more so, his love for love. Physical one.



He was reportedly four years old when he experienced his first erection - planted on the shoulders of an elegant lady in an evening gown. From then on, sex began to play the most important role in his life. This is how Helmut Newton began his autobiography.

He had a complicated life because of his background and the times in which he lived. A Berlin Jew, descendant of a wealthy button manufacturer, he literally boarded a ship bound for Singapore at the last minute - in the winter of 1938. Eighteen years old, five dollars in his pocket and an enthusiasm for the fairer sex - that was all the wealth he had. Enough, as it turned out, to make a pretty good living. Instead of enlisting in the Foreign Legion, as he had originally planned, he allowed himself to be interned and deported to Australia. With disarming candour he confessed: "I would certainly have faced shooting and terrible physical exertion. And I like to fuck, not fuck people up".

And so it was for almost the entire eighty-four years of his colourful life. His luck, instinct for self-preservation and personal charm ensured that he emerged unscathed from the most dangerous situations. There was always a lady ready to make sacrifices for the talented handsome man. Besides, for more than half a century he was under the protective shroud of his wife. Very liberal, we might add.

June (signing her pseudonym Alice Springs) had talent too. And enough tact (or perhaps an instinct for self-preservation) not to compete with her spouse. She knew how to keep him with her, even though he was far from faithful. In addition, he could be capricious, as would be expected of a star.

In his Parisian days - he settled on the Seine in 1961 - he was a titan of work. He photographed fashion for top designers and popular and exclusive magazines. He paid for it with a heart attack, which made him slow down and... change his view of women. Instead of what they wore, they themselves became 'objects of desire'. At least in his lens.

Naked and dressed

The Vienna retrospective was prepared by the Helmut Newton Foundation in Berlin, founded by its patron while he was still alive, in 2003. It was there, in Berlin, that I repeatedly viewed the work of the German-Australian-American photographer.

Funnily enough - the foundation's headquarters, located right next to the Zoo station, is housed in a former military casino building. A heavy building from 1909, it is uninteresting on the outside, but comfortable and spacious on the inside. Particularly impressive is the representative staircase, where officers could even ride in on horseback, while the niches on the staircase landings displayed the likenesses of Prussian officers. It is here, instead of commanders in gala uniforms, that Newton's most famous photoshoots are displayed on a daily basis.

Who wouldn't know these women!

And if not, here you go: "Here they come" - this is the title of two monumental photographs from 1981. Two twin shots of supernaturally sized (the prints measure 3 metres in height) top models of the time. In the first version, we see the ladies in chic urban outfits; in the second variant, the same four beauties pose in identical poses, only naked. If we don't count the shoes with giant heels, which fantastically elongate their already long "down to earth" legs. It took a while for the four girls to assume the same poses at the same time and take identical positions in the group.

What is this gimmick associated with? Obviously, with the treatment used by Francisco Goya - "Maya naked" and "Maya dressed." Only that that duet, painted by the master in the early 19th century, adorned the private flats of a Spanish notable and was only available to a select few. In Newton's case, the naked girls appear to anyone who crosses the doorstep of the museum. It seems - the author makes us wonder - does 'the dress adorn the woman', or is it the other way around - covering up her beauty?

Equally famous is a slightly earlier (1980) series entitled 'Big Nudes'. This time the stripped models, lined up one at a time, are shown at their natural size. They are naked and the space behind them is bare. It is only in the background that their shadows, with blurred contours, may be seen. They look like sculptures - nothing, no object disturbs the contemplation of their shapes.

Helmut is present at the Vienna exhibition. We see him in action, during a photo shoot for 'Vogue', as he positions a naked model in front of a large mirror. In the foreground, the lady's magnificently shaped buttocks. He himself in a coat, bent over the double-handed reflex-camera he holds, is also reflected in the mirror. Finally, June, the photographer's wife, takes her place next to him. She gazes thoughtfully at her husband's work and probably comments on it.

This multi-plane composition and play with the mirror image is another evocation of the painting masterpiece of the past, 'The Ladies of the Court' ('Las Meninas', 1656) by Diego Velázquez. The situation is also analogous: the artist with a working tool in his hands, preoccupied with the model, at the same time emphasising his role.

Give me a crocodile, darling

There you have it. He has shown himself in all his menacing form, with his mouth open. Not empty at all - he's just devouring his naked prey. Here is one of Newton's exquisite jokes.

Asked to report from the Pina Bausch theatre in Wuppertal, he placed a reptile in the centre of the stage with the dancer only half visible, the lower one. The upper body disappears between the murderous teeth of the crocodile. And it seems to be choking on the ballerina... The 1981 photo has become one of Mr Helmut's flagship shots.

Legend had it that the animal was genuine and that Pina Bausch personally posed it. However, the reptile is not real - it is just part of the set design for the performance. Most importantly: the legs and buttocks protruding from its mouth did not belong to Pina at all. Not to a woman either, but to... a dancer from her troupe. If you look closely, you can see the dark male hair on the calves.

Another joke by a Berlin artist that I consider masterful: advertisements for luxury jewellery by Van Cleef & Arpel. Newton took X-ray pictures! The necklace is seen beneath a naked skull; the bracelet adorns a leg's pastern, which is not there - there are only bones, in the part of the foot painfully bent by, as usual with Newton, sky-high heels.

What the model looks like is unknown. The important thing is that she was used to display the jewels. A bit macabre - like medieval depictions of the futility of this world. Fashion for skeletons.

They followed him

Finally, let me return to the question: what is it that makes the nudes photographed by the Berliner evoke such heated reactions even today? Since they were made, eroticism is no longer taboo. Porn? Probably the most pornographic seemed to me to be a plucked chicken with spread legs juxtaposed with expensive jewellery. Or a fat female hand with predatorily elongated fingernails greedily scraping a handful of five-hundred-dollar notes.

Well, I think that viewers are always irritated by their inability to diagnose their own feelings when they come into contact with art objects. In the case of Newton's photographs, regardless of the age or gender of the viewers - at first the viewers are ready to indignantly complain about the author's impertinence, but in the course of their viewing they are overpowered by this impudence.

Here, no restrictions applied. The price of realisation played no role - and sometimes a single snap was worth as much as the latest model of Ferrari. The artist's imagination was unbridled and the craziest visions turned out to be possible. And, after all, great artists have always broken down the barriers of habit and the bubble of comfort.

The photographer was known to be perfectionist and pedantic when it came to arranging situations and props - improvisation could have no place here. This is probably why he preferred to work with professional models rather than film stars and celebrities. Sometimes, however, he managed to hit the spot - as in the case of Andy Warhol lying with his eyes closed, as if dead or deathly tired.

But in truth, Newton definitely had more heart and ideas with the women who inspired him. In his most outstanding photographs, you can always sense the sparkle between him and the models. He had a vision - they followed it.

– Monika Małkowska
-Translated by Tomasz Krzyżanowski

TVP WEEKLY. Editorial team and jornalists

„Helmut Newton. Legacy” – Vienna, Kunstforum, exhibition on view until 15 January 2023