One of my favorite celebrities in 20th century sex history is Kiki de Montparnasse (above), a French street urchin who became the "Queen of Montparnasse," the infamous heart of 1920s Paris bohemian art and cafe society. Her life began and ended in poverty and degradation but oh those lovely years when she was the toast of Parisian society. She slept with everyone, she fought with everyone, she drank with everyone, and she left a miraculous record of photographs and paintings to document her extraordinary excesses, joy and beauty. More photos after the text and links.
Man Ray's muse and Hemingway's friend, Kiki of Montparnasse [nee Alice Prin] inspired countless artists in 1920s Paris. Her life was wild, exciting and debauched....
[She] began posing for the expressionist painter Chaïm Soutine, who christened her "Kiki". Though she lacked the fashionable ethereal look of the period, Kiki didn't care: she revelled in her sturdy, big-featured sensuality. She quickly became a popular model, and was painted, sculpted and photographed by artists including Pascin, Derain and Óscar Dominguez. Moise Kisling's painting Jeune Femme au Decollette (1922) shows a graceful Kiki looking up with huge, moist eyes, while Per Krogh's Kiki Nude (1928) has a raw, fleshy sexuality. But the most memorable image is Man Ray's photograph Le Violon D'Ingres, which shows a naked Kiki, seated and viewed from behind, with two 'f's in her back; a celebration of her violin-curves, and a statement that she was, in effect, an instrument for the creation of art....Kiki and Man Ray were lovers for six years, during which time he made hundreds of images of her, and was hugely influential in the creation of her persona...
By the late 1920s, Kiki had her own cabaret, Chez Kiki, and a table at Le Dome was permanently reserved for her. She had also begun painting primitive, narrative scenes, and, in 1927, had a sell-out exhibition. Two years later, she published her memoir, The Education of a French Model, which was banned in America on the grounds of obscenity. Really, though, Kiki was most famous simply for being famous. Gossip swilled around her, and, even when the stories were apocryphal, Kiki revelled in them. There was the story that she had no pubic hair, for instance - that she had never grown any, or that she could only grow it when in love, or that she shaved it off and chalked it on again when posing for artists. Some women, however bohemian, might have found such speculation upsetting. Kiki didn't.
via www.guardian.co.uk
Also recommended: Kiki: Illustrated Bio Wikipedia article on Alice Prin
En francais: Kiki: errance.over
(more photos coming in pt. 2)
Have you ever wondered why we think one type of sex is better than another? Are inhibitions or confus
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