Fred W. McDarrah, Gillian Bradshaw Smith in Studio, 1972

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Gillian was born in India in 1933. Her British parents were part of the twilight of the British Raj. Gillian … Read more Gillian was born in India in 1933. Her British parents were part of the twilight of the British Raj. Gillian completed her secondary education and entered The University of Reading, England to study Fine art and painting, a five year study. She worked in Dallas, Texas making paintings, creating embroidered wall hangings and teaching special classes. Her work was shown at the Contemporary Gallery. The art gallery that gave her her most important one man shows was Cordier & Ekstrom on Madison Avenue in New York. Headed by Arne Ekstrom a well known art dealer who showed many noted artists in his gallery including, Isamu Noguchi, Romare Bearden, Richard Lindner, Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray he also fostered the talents of younger artists such as Marvin Israel, Anton Van Dalen and Nancy Grossman and Gillian Bradshaw-Smith among others. Apart from creating fine art Gillian started to work on a large scale creating painted backdrops for publications and photographers. This work evenually led to a connection with the world of ballet and from recreating a ballet set for ‘Annabelle Lee’ for New York Theatre Ballet she went on to design and create over twenty ballet sets and continues to this day. In addition she has been known in the world of stuffed animal toy design, having created many collections over a fifteen year period for several different makers. Taplinger published her book ‘Adentures in Toymaking. She moved back to Dallas in 1995 and since, working with many noted interior designers, has created some very stunning walls ceilings and interior details for residential and commercial customers using all her talent and experience. Veteran Village Voice photographer Fred W. McDarrah Over a 50-year span, McDarrah documented the rise of the Beat Generation, the city’s postmodern art movement, its off-off-Broadway actors, troubadours, politicians, agitators and social protests. Fred captured Jack Kerouac frolicking with women at a New Year’s bash in 1958, Andy Warhol adjusting a movie-camera lens in his silver-covered factory, and Bob Dylan offering a salute of recognition outside Sheridan Square near the Voice’s old office. Not just a social chronicler, McDarrah was a great photo-journalist. For years, McDarrah was the Voice's only photographer and, for decades, he ran the Voice’s photo department, where he helped train dozens of young photographers, including James Hamilton, Sylvia Plachy, Robin Holland and Marc Asnin. His mailbox was simply marked "McPhoto." An exhibit of McDarrah’s photos of artists presented by the Steven Kasher Gallery in Chelsea was hailed by The New York Times as “a visual encyclopedia of the era’s cultural scene.” artists in their studios, (Alice Neel, Philip Guston, Stuart Davis, Robert Smithson, Jasper Johns, Franz Kline), actors (Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro on the set of “Taxi Driver”), musicians (Janis Joplin, Alice Cooper, Bob Dylan) and documentary images of early happenings and performances (Yayoi Kusama, Charlotte Moorman, Al Hansen, Jim Dine, Nam June Paik). The many images of Andy Warhol include the well-known one with his Brillo boxes at the Stable Gallery in 1964. Woody Allen, Diane Arbus, W. H. Auden, Francis Bacon, Joan Baez, Louise Bourgeois, David Bowie, Jimmy Breslin, William Burroughs, John Cage, Leo Castelli, Christo, Leonard Cohen, Merce Cunningham, William de Kooning, Jim Dine, Mark di Suvero, Marcel Duchamp, Bob Dylan, Federico Fellini, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Indiana, Mick Jagger, Jasper Johns, Kusama, John Lennon, Sol Lewitt, Roy Lichtenstein, Nam June Paik, Elvis Presley, Claes Oldenburg, Yoko Ono, Robert Rauschenberg, Lou Reed, James Rosenquist, Mark Rothko, Ed Ruscha, Robert Smithson, Susan Sontag, Andy Warhol, and others. McDarrah’s prints have been collected in depth by the J. Paul Getty Museum and the National Portrait Gallery, Washington. His work is in numerous public and private collections. See less