This unique set of four works by Peter Beard features Vietnamese concert pianist Chau-Giang Thi Nguyen - one of Beard's muses. Peter Beard is well-known as one of Andy Warhol's friends and artistic collaborators during the Studio 54 and Factory days. But of all his many achievements, including his critically acclaimed wildlife photography, Beard is perhaps best known as the photographer who famously discovered the model Iman in Somalia, and whose images of her helped catapult her to international superstardom. Iman would later marry rock star David Bowie. In a similar vein, this set of intimate, posed photographic portraits depicts Vietnamese concert pianist Chau-Giang Thi Nguyen (also known as Cho-San Nguyen), founder of the American Vietnamese Friendship Organization (AVFO). Taken in 2006, the works show her seductively posing against a stylized backdrop of portraits of famous composers. In addition to her musical accomplishments and charitable ventures, Cho-San Nguyen is also quite the socialite herself, and in recent years, she frequently appeared in the tabloids for a different reason: she was rumored to be one of the many alleged mistresses (or muses) of the very married, and very influential Google billionaire Eric Schmidt.
The present work has superb provenance donated by Peter Beard himself at a fundraiser for Cho-San Nguyen's American Vietnamese Friendship Organization, which Beard personally attended.