arts

Calendar art supported by a company has to draw attention or the money is wasted. Although the Pirelli calendar is no exploitive garage display, it is certainly not art book quality until the last few years. Since 1994, the work has been solid. The 2000 calendar by Annie Leibovitz is well worth your time. The book's essays are a brief overview of cultural events since 1964 when the calendar was begun. I found the essays added very little. Much of the "best" art in this book will have only historical value for evoking past culture for you, as its aesthetic appeal is limited.

Before reading further, please realize that this book contains much female nudity of a sort that would earn it an "R" rating if it were a motion picture.

The images are supposed to respond to a charter to capture "the beauty of the world." As portrayed here, this beauty is of gorgeous women, generally displaying more skin than clothing.

A different artist is chosen for the commission each year. Since 1994, these photographers have been Herb Ritts (1994 and 1999), Richard Avedon (1995 and 1997), Peter Lindbergh (1996), Bruce Weber (1998), and Annie Leibovitz (2000). As you can see, this is about as good a group as you could draw upon for a calendar. Not surprisingly, most of the best images come from this period. I graded the book down for mostly having ordinary images before 1986.

Here are my favorites from the book:

Peter Knapp, January 1966; Harri Peccinotti, 1968 (page 51); Francis Giacobetti, 1971 (page 70); Sarah Moss, 1972 (pp. 71 and 75); Bert Stern, May 1986; Terence Donovan, March and September, 1987; Arthur Elgort, February and July, 1990; Clive Arrowsmith, September 1991; Herb Ritts, Cover and December 1994; Richard Avedon, April and August, 1995; and all twelve of Annie Leibovitz's images from 2000.

Ms. Leibovitz's work focuses on portions of torsos for the most part, done in subtle lighting. It evokes a display of partially broken antique statuary from Greek and Roman times.

I found some of the images in the book to be troubling. Perhaps the most unfortunate were a few that figuratively tied the women to the concept of a tire. Relizing that these images had a commercial purpose, it still seems wrong to turn people into products.

Perhaps the best lesson from this book is to be sure that you get the Pirelli calendar sent to you each year in the future. If the company is going to continue sponsor such fine photographic art, this calendar will be well worth having.

After you finish this book, think about ways that beauty should and should not be portrayed. How could Pirelli have presented this work in other formats to create more benefit for its viewers?

Seek beauty in all of its forms, and use it to elevate your soul!