Is there more soul in art than photography?

As photography and printing have developed, fashion magazines have been featuring photographs on their covers for decades. The same can be said about advertising, newspapers, and even family portraits: everything is being documented with cameras – but does art do it better? Does art come from the soul? That’s a question that we can answer: yes, art does come from the soul – especially when it’s executed with our art marketing PR services.

Vogue archive

From Vogue’s archives, it is fascinating to see the evolution of their covers from their first in December 1892. Beginning as black and white drawings, Vogue’s covers are iconic, giving us a taste of what was fashionable every year since their first copy.

As covers moved away from their hand-drawn aesthetic, photography came more into play. Models would ‘strike a pose’, dressed and painted in the world’s most fashionable clothes, hair, and makeup at the time of the issue, and fewer covers were hand-made.

Special issues are still printed with covers designed by commissioned artists, and these are truly spectacular. From Salvador Dalí to John Currin, these rare editions pay homage to Vogue’s history and stand out on magazine stands amongst a sea of photography.

John Currin’s 2017 cover for Vogue, Untitled, 2017. ©John Currin. Vogue, 2017

Salvador Dalí’s 1939 cover for Vogue © Artists Rights Society, 2020, © Salvador Dalí Museum

A serendipitous result of the world’s recent lockdown restrictions and COVID-19 is that big profit fashion shoots have been near impossible to organise, giving artists the opportunity to showcase their work on the covers of high-profile magazines such as Vogue and Vanity Fair. This has given artists a chance to create a new vocabulary within publishing, allowing them to exhibit their artwork during a time when galleries have been inaccessible.

Power of portraiture

The power of portraiture is not only prominent in publication, artists have explored their passions for portraiture since the beginning. The expression of the human form is something people have admired for centuries and remains so powerful because it shows ways in which people have evolved but also remained the same throughout history.

Manhattan Skyline by Brian Parker

Artist, Brian Parker has painted many portraits and are perhaps some of his strongest work. A very ‘Vogue-worthy’ portrait – ‘Manhattan Skyline’ – shows the elegance of portraiture and reconnects the human form with one of our most famous modern cityscapes: New York. Seeing the relationship between the two elements of the painting reminds us of the powerful emotion’s portraiture can evoke and why it is so important we sometimes re-evaluate the language of art and allow it to move into the world of photography, even if sometimes this is done for art PR purposes, there is no doubt it attracts attention and makes us just love the power of art and photography even more!

The recent magazine editions featuring paintings instead of photography will perhaps remind people of the potential impact art can have on magazine covers, not as a new idea but as a way of re-visiting the past and re-considering portraits in art, their power, significance, and personal impression. However of course photography will probably always hold the upper hand with its iconic photos but it is, oh so fabulous to share the limelight with some stunning fine art covers too!

Quite Great PR

For many years, Quite Great PR & marketing agency has worked with many artists, photographers, musicians and charity organisations covering all types and styles of music, art as well as environmental and public issues. Read our client testimonials and get in contact with our team of experts today.

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