Mark your calendars for another opportunity to "see" Jean in Los Angeles!
January 8 - June 28, 2008
The California Heritage Museum in Santa Monica, California
"Lights! Camera! Glamour! The Photography of George Hurrell"
George Hurrell, Jean Harlow, 1935. Image
courtesy of the Pancho Barnes Trust Estate Archive. Copyright the
Estate of George Hurrell.
SANTA MONICA, CA - The California Heritage Museum is pleased to
present "Lights! Camera Glamour! The Photography of George Hurrell". As
studio photographer for MGM, Warner Brothers and Columbia, Hurrell shot
some of the world’s most beautiful and intriguing personalities,
creating the template for the Hollywood glamour portrait. The
exhibition follows his career from his arrival in Southern California
as a promising young painter to his acclaim as the foremost glamour
photographer of his time.
In addition to more than fifty iconic portraits, “Lights! Camera!
Glamour!” features a room of nude portraits, never before seen in a
museum context; a recreation of Hurrell’s studio with his camera,
screen and the original boom light; a section devoted to his commercial
work for magazines and record covers; and a screening area that will
show the documentary film, narrated by Sharon Stone, made shortly
before Hurrell’s death in 1992.
The exhibition is drawn from the Pancho Barnes Trust Estate Archive
and the Estate of George Hurrell, and is curated by Dr. Louis D’Elia
and the staff of the California Heritage Museum. A series of films
featuring the movies stars Hurrell immortalized will be shown at Santa
Monica Public Library along with a program of lectures. A catalogue
with an essay by Virginia Postrel author of “The Substance of Style”
accompanies the exhibition.
Hurrell came to California in the 1920s, initially as a painter, at
the invitation of the well-known artist Edgar Payne. Staying at the
Laguna Beach property of aviatrix Pancho Barnes, his photographic
career started with the portrait he took of her for her pilot’s license
and word of his talent quickly spread to her circle of friends.
His first commission was a series of portraits of Ramon Novarro in
opera roles, images that are now very rare and sought after. Novarro’s
friend Norma Shearer, then known for her wholesome roles, approached
Hurrell to change her image. His sizzling portraits convinced her
husband, MGM’s Head of Production Irving Thalberg, that she could star
as the sultry lead in “The Divorcee”- a role that earned her the
Academy Award for Best Actress.
Thalberg hired Hurrell as MGM’s studio photographer in1930. It was
to be the start of a career stretching over sixty years, in which he
defined the classic look of Hollywood’s golden era and shaped the
images of film’s most iconic stars. In the words of curator Louis
D’Elia he “gave a face to fame” and in doing so immortalized those who
sat for him.
The exhibition shows the classic Hurrell photographs: Joan Crawford
dramatically lit, her face emerging from the darkness; Douglas
Fairbanks Jr, enigmatic in a top hat; Garbo; Jean Harlow seemingly
naked beneath her huge coat; Rita Hayward, Peter Lorre, Myrna Loy,
Ramon Novarro, Jane Russell, disheveled for “The Outlaw” Norma Shearer
and Anna Mae Wong. And from the 70s and 80s, Joan Collins and Shannon
Tweed shot for Playboy Magazine, Grace Jones, Queen, Arnold
Schwarzenegger, Brooke Shields, Sharon Stone and Tom Waits.
Hurrell’s practice as an artist informed his photographic images.
He worked into the negative with graphite, removing blemishes and
adding highlights. The extraordinary shadows cast by Harlow’s eyelashes
in her 1935 portrait, are all the work of Hurrell’s pencil. The
flawless finish of his portraits is purely the fantasy of a painter but
came to represent the luminous beauty of the screen idol.
Hurrell’s technical achievements are celebrated in the exhibition.
His invention of the boom light, now a standard piece of equipment for
gaffers, enabled him to achieve the extraordinary controlled lighting
effects that are a signature of his work. The exhibition recreates
Hurrell’s studio with his original camera and boom light, satin draped
chaise and his hand-painted background screen. The studio also features
Hurrell self–portraits, two of his oil paintings and personal material
relating to his long and illustrious career.
The California Heritage Museum is located in an 1894 Historic
Landmark house, at 2612 Main Street, in Santa Monica. Hours are
Wednesday through Sunday, 11:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. General admission is
$5, students and seniors are $3 and children 12 and under are free.
Parking is free and handicapped facilities are available. On Sundays,
the museum hosts a Farmer's Market in its parking lot. Visitors to the
museum can find parking in adjacent "quarter metered" parking lots.
Thank you to Andre Soares and Artdaily.org for the heads up on this wonderful event!
