Credits: Paul Newman and Sophia Loren Main photo are from – Photograph: Terry O’Neill/Iconic Images, reimagined by Bernie Taupin.
Called Taupin and O’Neill: Two Sides of the ’60s, the exhibition features 15 mixed-media paintings, each a pop-art reworking of one of the photographer’s images of famous faces of the decade, including Audrey Hepburn, John Lennon and Queen Elizabeth.
Taupin, who has been writing songs with John for more than half a century, will now take centerstage – as a visual artist – with his first UK exhibition taking place next month at the Iconic Images gallery in central London, according to the Guardian.
In a rare interview, he told the Guardian: “I’m by no means Greta Garbo, but I couldn’t do the kind of things that he [John] does. He’s probably one of the most identifiable characters in the world and it’s tough to live in that bubble. I couldn’t do that.
“He’s absolutely exemplary at it, but I like to be able to go to the market on my own and go and get my coffee in the morning. I keep very much to myself. I’m a very private person. I don’t enjoy celebrity that much,” he added.
Art has been a lifelong passion for Taupin and, if he had not got lucky as a songwriter, he might well have pursued it as a career. The son of a farmer from Lincolnshire, he met John in London in 1967, after they each answered the same record company advertisement for songwriters. Taupin was 17 and could not write melodies, and the singer and pianist John – then still known as Reginald Dwight – was 20 and could not write lyrics.
Artwork depicting female figures – some never before represented at the gallery – inspired by Sgt Pepper’s album cover.
A seven-panel mural depicting 130 women from British history and culture has been commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery as part of a three-year project to enhance female representation in its collection.
Work in Progress, by Jann Haworth and Liberty Blake, was inspired by the album cover for the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which Haworth co-created in 1967. It draws together many stencilled depictions of cultural figures – some never before represented at the gallery – into a single image.
