We picked up the news on the Internet that Dutch photographer Gerard Petrus Fieret (1924-2009) apparently died yesterday. We became aware of his work via a catalogue/show that gallerist Deborah Bell (site here) and private dealer Paul Hertzmann (artnet site here) collaborated on several years ago.
Fieret made a number of nudes in the 1960s that seem emblematic of those times. They are warm, grainy, and real, sometimes strange and chaotic, complete with his bold signature and address stamp prominetly placed, often right in the middle of the image. (See Untitled, ca 1960s at right.) The pictures are unlike any other nudes we have seen. Fieret’s vision was indeed unique: informal, shadowy, personal and full of life.
Gerard Fieret was an anarchic photographer whose erotic portraits are collected by the best museums in the world. So why did he die in poverty, with pigeons as pets?