Abercrombie & Fitch Mural Moves to Carrie Haddad Gallery

Carrie Haddad Gallery
Jun 20, 2018 7:07PM

Two decades ago in attempts to re-brand, the fast fashion giant Abercrombie & Fitch commissioned contemporary artist Mark Beard to paint colossal murals under the guise of Bruce Sargeant. The artist’s unmistakable figurative paintings, referencing the painting styles of John Singer Sargent, George Bellows and 20th century fashion illustrator J.C. Leyendecker, began to appear in grand-scale among larger than life bronze sculptures at various flagship stores in New York City, Paris, Tokyo and Milan.

The Locker Room as it appeared in the Abercrombie & Fitch Fifth Avenue flagship store in Manhattan.

Mark Beard
The Locker Room , date unknown
Carrie Haddad Gallery

In 2005, Abercrombie & Fitch opened the doors of their Fifth Avenue flagship store in Manhattan.  The store became instantly famous for its signature scent, mood lighting, and most importantly, its iconic murals depicting stikingly handsome, scantily clad young men. One might say the artist of the mural, Mark Beard, succeded at transforming the brand's flagship stores around the world into the sistene chapel of retail; the multi-story mural and freizes all densely layered with detail and complexity have turned the t-shirt shopping experience into a religious one.  Clean shaven, well-manicured youths pose casually in locker rooms, indulging every opportunity to display a titillating flex of stone-like musculature.  Like modern Greek statues, these iconic figures are oftentimes in pairs of two’s and three’s; wearing matching University attire, sculling in unison aboard a slender shell, or lounging in a lazy state of beautiful passivity.  

Mark Beard as Bruce Sargeant

Mark Beard and his alter egos (Clockwise) Mark Beard, Bruce Sargeant with unknown model; Brechtholdt Streeeruwitz; Peter Coulter; Edith Thayer Cromwell; Hippolyte Alexandre Michallon

Mark Beard is perhaps the most literal example of an artist pulled in so many different directions that he chose to “invent” six different artist personae in which to channel his talents.  Each one of Beard’s painting styles seamlessly morphs into the next, reaffirming the narrative that the work stems from six minds of different time periods and art movements.  The work of his most prolific invented personality, Bruce Sargeant, an imagined American artist who died in 1938 in a tragic wrestling accident, is best known for oil paintings of the male figure that celebrate traditionally masculine themes such as athletics and exploration, (a perfect visual to compliment the highly sexualized approach to rebranding the Abercrombie & Fitch aesthetic.)  Other personae include young Bruce's Beaux-Arts professor, Hippolyte-Alexandre Michallon (1849 -1930), known for his atomspheric yet zoologically correct painted depictions of exotic animals in the wild; Edith Thayer Cromwell, 1893 - 1962, an American avant-gardeist and fellow student of Michallon's;  Brecholdt Streeruwitz, 1890 - 1973, a German Expressionist and contemporary of Cromwell; and finally Peter Coulter,  a student of Cromwell and Steeruwitz whose work encompasses political elements of the American Slave Trade.  The style of each of these artists is individual, brilliant and true.  Mark Beard is unprecedented, but not singular. Accomplished in every medium, he is more than a complete artist—he is at least six.

Mark Beard
Boys on Ropes, date unknown
Carrie Haddad Gallery
Mark Beard
Boy on Rope III , date unknown
Carrie Haddad Gallery

Almost 15 years later, Abercrombie & Fitch is once again evolving their brand, to the delight of Beard's earnest collectors.  The mural in New York City has been removed, piece by piece, and once again reconstructed in the artist's Manhattan studio.  A selection of more manageable sized paintings cut from the original mural have been curated for "Figures We Fancy", an exhibit now on view at Carrie Haddad Gallery in Hudson, NY through July 29th.

Mark Beard
The Picnic, date unknown
Carrie Haddad Gallery

Installation at Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY  - "Figures We Fancy", June 13 - July 29, 2018

Mark Beard
The Wrestlers , date unknown
Carrie Haddad Gallery

Installation at Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY  - "Figures We Fancy", June 13 - July 29, 2018

Carrie Haddad Gallery