LONDON – A new exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London features nearly 70 vintage photographs spanning 40 years of Hollywood history. Portraits in the Glamour of the Gods exhibition include images of Clark Gable, Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford, Vivien Leigh, Loretta Young and Joan Collins. This is the first time vintage prints from the John Kobal Foundation have been shown in a British museum.
The exhibition examines the importance of photography in creating the stars of Hollywood from 1920 to 1960 and features the work of more than three dozen photographers, including George Hurrell, Clarence Sinclair Bull, Laszlo Willinger, Bob Coburn and Ruth Harriet Louise.
Nearly all of the photographs in the exhibition are vintage prints drawn from the archive of the John Kobal Foundation. This is a rare opportunity to view these important artifacts of a now extinct Hollywood studio system. The portraits are shown alongside film scene stills including Lillian Gish in Gone with the Wind, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in Swing Time, and James Dean in Rebel without a Cause. “Stills photographs that were used for lobby cards and posters had to encapsulate the film plot, or be powerful and dramatic enough to attract film-goers in just one image,” comments a press release from the National Portrait Gallery.
The film studios in Hollywood between 1920 and 1960 exercised an extraordinary level of control over the image of the stars they represented. The portraits they released to the public and press depicted the actors as glamorous and inaccessible, imbuing them with a mystique. The photographers in this exhibition were the leading photographers employed by the studios to shoot and oversee the star portraits.
The exhibition includes portraits by Davis Boulton, one of the few British photographers working for the Hollywood studios, and Ruth Harriet Louise, the only woman to run a studio photo gallery.
Often stars would build up a relationship with a photographer as was the case with Greta Garbo and Clarence Sinclair Bull, and Joan Crawford and George Hurrell. This was a time before paparazzi, and these photographs distributed by the studios were the only conduit between stars and fans. Thousands of photographs would be sent out worldwide by the studios both to fans and publications. To enable the photographs to be reproduced as widely as possible for publicity they were stamped “Copyright Free,” which resulted in the names of many pivotal studio photographers remaining uncredited for creating timeless and career-defining portraits.
John Kobal (1940-1991) was a collector and author who methodically sought to understand the role of photography in the Hollywood legend. He began collecting film photographs in the 1950s, frequently visiting Los Angeles at a time when many of the major studios were being bought by corporations who cared little for the history of the film industry. At first his interest was solely in the stars and their films, but his interest began to shift to the photographers behind the portraits, many of whom were still alive and accessible at this time. Kobal tracked down the surviving members of the circle of great Hollywood photographers, and through a series of major exhibitions and books, sought to gain them the recognition they deserved. As a result, the significance of the Hollywood photographers is now widely acknowledged for their contribution to both the film industry and 20th century photographic portraiture.
PUBLICATION:
A fully illustrated paperback book, published by the National Portrait Gallery in association with Steidl, accompanies the exhibition, with essays by Robert Dance and John Russell Taylor. RRP £25.
EXHIBITION:
The exhibition will run from July 7 through Oct. 23, 2011 in the Porter Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, London. For further information, visit www.npg.org.uk/glamour .
To book tickets, call 0844 248 5033. Admission £6. Concessions £5.50/£5. With Gift Aid (includes voluntary Gift Aid donation of 10% above standard price): Admission £6.60. Concessions £6.05/ £5.50.
GALLERY ADDRESS AND HOURS:
National Portrait Gallery, St Martin’s Place WC2H 0HE, opening hours Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday: 10am – 6pm (Gallery closure commences at 5.50pm). Late Opening: Thursday, Friday: 10am – 9pm (Gallery closure commences at 8.50pm). Nearest Underground: Leicester Square/Charing Cross. General information: 0207 306 0055. Recorded information: 020 7312 2463. Website/Tickets: www.npg.org.uk .
ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE
