A retrospective of Fleur Cowles’ mythically scaled lifetime of creative vision is displayed at the Pratt Manhattan Gallery through July 26. Curated by Dorothy Globus and titled The Best of Flair, the exhibition shows just how influential the short-lived Flair magazine was.
Fleur’s publishing credits include creating Flair magazine and The Best of Flair, editing Look, and writing more than 16 books—including the authorized biography of Salvador Dali. She’s a painter, an ambassador, philanthropist, jet pilot, teacher, and impresario. She even coined the familiar terms “cool” and “heptitude”!
During her marriage (in 1946) to Mike Cowles (Look magazine publisher), Fleur gave birth to her most beloved creation, the magazine she calls “my obit”—Flair. The 12 issues offered up one sensational novelty after another in astonishing arrays of art, literature, fashion, design, paper, and colors never before used inside a single cover.
The artistic success of Flair and the notoriety of its editor garnered national attention and praise. It also hatched a vociferous hate club that spread derision and mockery, driving advertisers away. Flairdrained resources away from Mike Cowles’ flagship publication, Look, to the extent that his own family pulled money out of his other publishing endeavors. At the end of 1950, Mike Cowles made the decision to pull the plug. Fleur remembers how much she cried. “It was heartbreaking,” she recalls. “I was so proud of it!”
In 1955, she broke up with Mike, married Tom Montague Meyer (a dapper timber tycoon), and became a legendary American expatriate, settling into London’s Albany Palace (originally the palace of Lord Melbourne).
Now in her 90s, Fleur still paints actively, entertains, and writes. She says, “I have an idea a second. I’m a born idea myself!”
Yes, Fleur, indeed you are! Thanks for giving us so much!
