IN PERSON / EXHIBITION

Linda McCartney: Retrospective

Date Extended until Jan 22
Location Ballarat International Foto Biennale, Art Gallery of Ballarat, 40 Lydiard St, North 
Ballarat Central

The 2021 Ballarat International Foto Biennale presents an exclusive look back at the career of the world-famous photographer Linda McCartney (1941-1998). Curated by Paul, Mary and Stella McCartney, Linda McCartney: Retrospective features more than 200 photographs, including images of the McCartney family and the 1960s music scene.

Overview

Linda McCartney’s photographic career spanned from 1965 to 1997, during which bore witness to the evolution of pop and youth culture as we know it. Linda’s early portraits of the burgeoning New York 1960s music scene capture the vulnerability of future world conquering rock stars. Known for her portraits of Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones and The Beatles, among many others, she was the first female photographer whose work was featured as the cover of Rolling Stone magazine in 1968, with a portrait of Eric Clapton. Linda McCartney: Retrospective showcases some of the most iconic artists and moments from the 1960s music scene alongside intimate family portraits. The photographs capture the world as she experienced it, representing the people, places and landscape around Linda in her inimitable, spontaneous and experimental style.

About the artist

Moving to London with her new husband Paul McCartney in 1969, Linda had a uniquely intimate visual perspective on the biggest band in the world. Into the late 1960s and 1970s Linda began to document her extraordinary version of domestic life: as a mother and herself a founding member of Wings. No longer on the road and with the time to experiment, Linda’s later work conveys the stillness, patience and wisdom of a grown-up counter culturalist.

Linda McCartney was an animal rights activist and a passionate advocate of a vegetarian lifestyle, often using her images to support the campaigns that she believed in. Linda continued to work prolifically as a photographer until her death from breast cancer in 1998. Her work has been exhibited by institutions including the International Center of Photography in New York, the Victoria & Albert Museum and the National Portrait Gallery in London.