But just who is 'Big Sue'?...
13 May 08
www.christies.com
- Report on BBC.co.uk
- Report on Guardian.co.uk
- Lucian Freud on Artnet
- Interview with Sue Tilley
- The best Leigh Bowery Site
- Minty on myspace
- Taboo the musical
- www.boygeorgelive.com
Leigh Bowery introduced Sue Tilley to Lucian Freud during the early 90's, the rest, as they say - is history!
Lucian Freud's voluptuous study of Sue Tilley, sold for a record breaking $33.6m (£17.2m) at Christie's in New York on the 13 May. The work titled, 'Benefits Supervisor Sleeping', was painted during 1995 and took nine months to complete. Lucian would work on this, and other paintings, for 2-3 days a week and paid Sue £20 - £33 per 8 hour shift. He would also regularly treat Leigh and Sue to weekend lunches at the famous River Cafe!
Sue Tilley, born 1957, grew up in Sussex Gardens, now lives in Mornington Crescent. She still manages the Charring Cross Job centre in Denmark street, where she has worked for the past 25 years. She has no plans of leaving just yet!, but recently stated that when she does retire, she would like to re-locate to the Isle of Wight and open up a tearoom! (See you there then Sue ;-). She met Leigh Bowery in London during 1982, a year or two after his arrival from Australia. She became his closest friend and confidante - and together, they partied, laughed, gossiped and sobbed their way through the next 12 years. You can read about these happy and sad times in Sue's fascinating book, 'Leigh Bowery - The life and times of an Icon'. First hand accounts of 'the Taboo club', Leigh's outlandish 'looks' and his sad passing on New Years Eve '94 are all remembered with much humour and love. I really enjoyed reading this tribute!, you can still get it on Amazon
Leigh Bowery (1961 - 1994). I will go into more detail about Leigh in a post to be added soon... here is a much condensed passage about his wonderful life. Leigh moved from Melbourne to London in 1980 to study fashion. He stayed in a flat share on Ladbrooke Grove and later moved to Commercial Road in the East end. During 1985 he was responsible for the birth of the infamous 'Taboo' night club. Situated in a disused underground basement, just off Leicester Square, this legendary hot spot was to be the launch-pad for many of Leigh's creative projects and the inspiration behind Boy George's 2002 musical project - 'Taboo'. (We saw this fabulous production during it's first run and Boy George played Leigh like a pro! Review here!). During 1990 Leigh started to model for Lucian Freud, sitting for many single studies, and later together with his wife, Nicola Bateman, who he married in 1994. In 1993 Leigh and Richard Torry formed the hilarious sound clash pop band that was to be known as 'Minty', they performed many infamous live gigs and produced material for the 1997 album 'Open Wide'. Useless Man, Plastic Bag, That's nice and It's a game part 1 were all singles released from the same album. I hunted down all these releases during the mid 90's and have enjoyed listening to them many times! (well, perhaps enjoyed is the wrong word???) On New Years Eve 1994 Leigh dies at the age of just 33. (In honour of Leigh, take a peek at what 'our' little tribe was up to on that very eve in 1994! ;-)
Leigh has to get a huge OTT 10 out of 10
