She became the icon of Avedon Fashion Photographs 1944-2000, fashion photographer Richard Avedon's Detroit Institute of Arts exhibit, now in its last week.
But how many know that the gelatin silver print poster child Donyale Luna was a native Detroiter before fame and opportunity dawned?
At a lithe six-foot-two, she was re-born as Donyale Luna by changing her birth name, Peggy Anne Freeman, during her education at the Detroit High School of Commerce. As the daughter of Peggy and Nathaniel Freeman, she allegedly endured his abuse before he was killed in 1963. While her mother pushed her toward a career in nursing, Luna instead poured her energies into art.
Always said to have been a dreamer - even by family members - Luna preferred to belie her parentage by asserting that her biological father was a man named Luna. She also laid claim to a maternal Mexican and Egyptian lineage, saying that one of her grandmothers was an Irish actress who wed a black interior designer.
A subsequent barefoot romp through the Fisher Building while wearing an outfit she personally designed invited Luna's capture on film. Art critic Robert Hughes compared her to a living lone replica of Alberto Giacometti's sculpture, traversing a deserted piazza in Rome.
Discovery by photographer British photographer David McCabe is credited for her move to New York in 1964 at the age of 19. It also led to a dazzling modeling success - within two years, she was gracing covers of magazines like Vogue, Paris Match and Harper's Bazaar as the first black fashion superstar.
By 1967, she had inspired a series of ingenious, lifelike fiberglass mannequins designed by British artist Adel Rootstein. Rootstein's groundbreaking work has been instrumental in inspiring human models to mimic the makeup and expressions of the mannequins. Her lifelike creations capture the non-traditional and wild, cutting-edge beauty of women like Luna.
During the 1970s, Luna was the muse of filmmakers Andy Warhol, Federico Fellini and Otto Preminger, and was cast in the Rolling Stones' movie offering, "Rock and Roll Circus" - the latter of which was held back for release until 1996. Although her roles were basically artful poses with little acting depth, it was Luna's real life that provided an ongoing close-up of her trademarked strangeness.
Her contemporary, black model Beverly Johnson, is credited with offering this explanation at www.whosedatedwho.com of Luna's generally odd behavior and how it killed her career after a few years: "(She) doesn't wear shoes winter or summer. Ask her where she's from - Mars? She went up and down the runways on her hands and knees. She didn't show up for bookings. She didn't have a hard time, she made it hard for herself."
After a series of volatile personal relationships with celebrity artists and actors, and a longtime serious love affair with drugs, Luna married Italian photographer Luigi Cazzaniga. The birth of their child, Dream, in 1977 was followed two years later by Luna's death, at the age of 32, in a Roman drug clinic due to an accidental drug overdose.
That legacy - captured in Avedon's lens during Luna's prime - can be viewed for the last time this week in Detroit. Until January 17, museum-goers will be able to catch Luna's leggy gallop in her Paco Rabanne original and gain some insight into one of Detroit's golden girls.
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See Part 1 of the DIA series:
http://www.whosdatedwho.com/celebrities/people/dating/donyale-luna-2.htm
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