Vera Mercer

Vera Mercer joined the artistic avant-garde in Paris of the early 1960s; she did portraits of Daniel Spoerri, Marcel Duchamp, Niki de Saint Phalle, and many other artists.

The catalog combines these portraits with her early records of the Paris market halls, and, above all, her recent exuberant still lifes. She creates a magnificently baroque ambiance, meticulously arranging meat, fish, poultry, and vegetables in soft candlelight and classic composing. Mercer was born 1936 in Berlin, Germany, and today lives in Omaha and Paris.

Matthias Harder is chief curator at the Helmut Newton Foundation in Berlin, Germany.