bluestocking
so far so goude Jean-Paul Goude
may not be a household name, but you’ve probably
seen his work. Perhaps the quirky layouts he created as
Esquire ’s art director in the 1970s will jog your memory:
his iconic 1990s Chanel ad campaigns starring the
likes of Vanessa Paradis and Estella Warren, or most
notably, the living artwork that is his former lover,
the androgynous singer/actress Grace Jones. As such,
fans of modern art and high fashion will find much
to savor in So Far So Goude, a retrospective-meets-
“beauty marks and all” autobiography written with
Patrick Mauriès. Engaging stories interlaced with
vibrant, provocative images, the book chronicles
the eccentric life and career of this would-be dancer
turned illustrator, graphic designer, photographer,
art editor, Svengali sweetheart, music video director,
and ultimately, one of the advertising world’s most
experimental influencers.
“From the very beginning I was looking for inspiring
characters upon which to dream,” Goude writes of
his childhood in post-World War II France. He found
them at the local zoo, where the wild creatures gave
him a taste for the exotic that would shape his later
work. After a career in dance fell through, Goude
turned to art and had his first big success when a
French department store commissioned him to create
an illustrated mural. Esquire and New York City
soon came calling, marking Goude’s greatest
opportunity for expression, as well as the book’s most
entertaining passages.
Goude’s fascination with all things exotic found
new release in New York, where he drew inspiration
from fringe sources like Andy Warhol, boxers, pimps,
a female body-building stripper turned evangelist,
Puerto Rican dancers and the 42nd Street peep shows.
Though racy coffee table viewing, the raw photographs
offer an uncompromising look at 1970s street life.
If these images embraced unconventionality at its
grittiest, his French Correction works of the same
period celebrated just the opposite. Long before Dr.
90210, Goude created a living art self-improvement
technique that demonstrated how plastic surgery,
dentistry, shoes with lifts and shoulder pads could
transform anyone into a beauty. The theme of
spliced and cut transparencies, manipulated to create
the desired effect.
“correcting” is also at work in his signature use of
