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Sue Tilley

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Gestumblindi (talk | contribs) at 17:23, 7 April 2020 (the painting by Lucian Freud was redacted out of this image for copyright reasons (the OTRS permission applies only to the photo of Rolf Lauter standing in front of the painting, not the painting itself), so it is no longer suitable as an illustration for this article). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Sue Tilley (born 1957), also known as Big Sue, is a British artist's model and writer. She modelled for painter Lucian Freud.

Born in south London,[1] Tilley worked for performance artist and club promoter Leigh Bowery as a cashier at his "Taboo" night club. Bowery introduced her to Lucian Freud in 1990 and she began posing for him the following year. During this time, she was also a full-time benefits supervisor at the Charing Cross jobcentre, a state-operated employment agency, and she eventually became manager there.[2]

Freud painted several large nude portraits of Tilley, the first being Evening in the Studio [de] (1993)[3]. Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, painted in 1995, was sold at auction in 2008[4] for £17 million ($33.6 million US) in New York City.[5] In 2015, the 1994 painting Benefits Supervisor Resting[6] sold for £35.8 million ($56.2million US).[7][deprecated source] A fourth painting Sleeping by the Lion Carpet was painted in 1996.[8] Freud also produced a number of etchings featuring Tilley, including Woman with an Arm Tattoo which Tilley sold in 2005.[9]

In 1997, she published Leigh Bowery: The life and times of an Icon, a biography.[10]

From September 2000 to March 2001, Chief Curator Rolf Lauter at Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt could realise the only overview exhibition of Freud's works in a German museum in close cooperation with the artist. Both the catalog and the invitation as well as the poster included Freud's painting Sleeping by the Lion Carpet[11] from 1995/96 with Sue Tilley.

In 2015, she had a solo show of paintings and drawings in a London gallery. She did a collaboration with Fendi to decorate luxury clothes and bags with her pictures of desk lamps, bottle openers, banana skins, cups of coffee.[12]

References

  1. ^ http://openroadintegratedmedia.com/leigh-bowery-the-life-and-times-of-an-icon-by-sue-tilley-now-available-as-an-ebook-from-open-road-integrated-media/
  2. ^ https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2005/jun/30/art
  3. ^ "Evening in the Studio, 1993 - Lucian Freud - WikiArt.org". www.wikiart.org. Retrieved 2020-02-02.
  4. ^ https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2008/apr/12/art
  5. ^ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1981367/Roman-Abramovich-revealed-as-Freud-and-Bacon-buyer.html
  6. ^ "Lucian Freud | Benefits Supervisor Resting (1994) | Artsy". www.artsy.net. Retrieved 2020-02-02.
  7. ^ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3082464/1994-Freud-titled-Benefits-Supervisor-Resting-sells-auction-35-8million.html
  8. ^ Glover, Michael (29 July 2011). "Great Works: Sleeping by the Lion Carpet 1995-6 (228.6cm x 121.3cm), Lucian Freud". The Independent. Retrieved 4 March 2020.
  9. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4631407.stm
  10. ^ https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/leigh-bowery-a-life-less-ordinary-2249987.html
  11. ^ Lauter, Rolf (ed.). "Lucian Freud: Naked Portraits. Works from the 1940s to the 1990s, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main 2000/2001". www.worldcat.org. Retrieved 2020-03-06. {{cite web}}: |first= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  12. ^ Laux, Cameron. "Lucian Freud and Sue Tilley: The story of an unlikely muse". www.bbc.com. Retrieved 2019-12-29.
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