Kevyn Aucoin, the makeup artist who attained an
unusually wide-reaching fame ministering to faces both iconic and
ordinary, died in 2002 at the Westchester Medical Center. He was 40.
The cause was complications relating to a pituitary brain tumor, said Marcy Engelman, his publicist.
With clients ranging from Catherine Deneuve to Cher,
Julia Roberts and Gwyneth Paltrow, Mr. Aucoin stood as a symbol for an
era in which the definition of celebrity had grown broad enough to
include once-minor players in the process of star making.
Mr. Aucoin achieved his well-regarded position in
the worlds of style and entertainment in some part because he railed
against a look of labored excess.
"He was an advocate of the natural look as far back
as the 80's," Linda Wells, the editor of the beauty magazine Allure,
said yesterday. "At first, it was a laughable concept. Makeup is
artificial, after all, and the idea seemed oxymoronic."
Today, Ms. Wells said, neutral shades and the idea
that a woman should look as though she has not spent more than a few
seconds in front of a mirror, remain the prevailing fashion.
Born in Shreveport, La., in 1962, Mr. Aucoin had an
emotionally wrenching childhood about which he spoke often and publicly.
Brought up by adoptive parents in Lafayette, La., Mr. Aucoin knew he
was gay when he was 6, he said in an introduction to his 1994 book "The
Art of Makeup" (HarperCollins).
"Kids threw rocks at me, told me I was ugly and left
death threats in my locker," he told a Time magazine reporter two years
ago.
Growing up, "he felt ugly and unacceptable," Ms.
Wells, a friend of 20 years, said. It was a recovery from these painful
feelings, Ms. Wells said, that moved him to celebrate difference in his
makeup work. "If you had a big nose, by golly, he'd say, `Let's make the
most of it,' " she said.
In his adult life, he became a staunch advocate of
gay rights, working closely with the Hetrick-Martin Institute, an
organization dedicated to improving the lives of gay teenagers. He was
also known for his outspoken views on the lack of racial and physical
diversity in fashion magazines and advertising.
His interest in the transformative powers of makeup
began when he was 11. Then, he began taking pictures of his sister Carla
and experimenting with cosmetics on her. Mr. Aucoin dropped out of
school when he was 15. Six years later, in 1983, he traveled to New York
with his companion, Jed Root.
Mr. Root got a suit from Goodwill Industries and
accompanied Mr. Aucoin around town, pretending to be his agent, Ms.
Wells recalled. Soon enough, Mr. Aucoin began getting makeup work with
modeling agencies. Eventually, Mr. Root became his actual agent.
In addition to "The Art of Makeup," Mr. Aucoin
produced two coffee-table books on the subject of face painting that
featured his ruminations on the notion of beauty as well as photographs
of women, well-known and unknown, whose images he had reconceived with
his alchemy of lip liners, foundations and glosses.
His second book, "Making Faces" (Little Brown,
1997), made its debut at the No. 1 spot on the New York Times
best-seller list.
Mr. Aucoin is survived by his parents, Thelma and
Isidore Aucoin; his partner, Jeremy Antunes; his sisters, Carla and Kim;
and a brother, Keith.
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