Lips have long been the source of fascination: Kissing has continued to elude scientists, other studies suggest a correlation between lip shape and ease of orgasm, and lipstick trends go back all the way to the ancient Sumerians — who decorated their lips with crushed gemstones for special occasions. This month, a new book by Alice Harris, Blow Me a Kiss, celebrates our cultural obsession with lips — tracing the most iconic mouths in art from the past century.
Going as far back as Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s Marcella (1909), the book spans everything from Andy Warhol’s 1982 Self Portrait in Drag to a close-up of Lana Del Rey with a bumble bee perched delicately on her upper lip — including shots of everyone you’d expect (Mick Jagger, Elizabeth Taylor) and a few you wouldn’t (Lindsay Lohan). Click through the slideshow for a first look, including Cindy Crawford, Solange, Barbara Mullen, and more.
Barbara Mullen (Blowing Kiss), for Harper’s Bazaar, ca. 1950
Lillian Bassman
Anthony Quinn and Anna Karina on the set of Guy Green’s, The Magus, 1976
Eve Arnold
Gitta Krange, 1959
Jerry Schatzberg
California, 1955
Elliott Erwitt
Audrey Hepburn Posing for a LIFE magazine Cover Image, 1955
Philippe Halsman
Cindy Crawford, for Harper’s Bazaar Spain, 2013
Nagi Sakai
Solange Knowles, 2013
JUCO
South Africa, 1961
Ian Berry
Alba, 1997
Francesco Clemente
Hat and Roses, 1956
William Klein
