The famous faces of Cecil Beaton
Photographer Cecil Beaton (1904-1980) was renowned for his images of elegance, glamour and style. His influence on portrait photography was profound and lives on in the work of many contemporary photographers such as David Bailey and Mario Testino.
Cecil Beaton: Portraits is at the Christchurch Art Gallery from 27 May to 10 September. It is the first and only chance to see a major retrospective of Beaton's work in New Zealand.
Organised by London's National Portrait Gallery (NPG), Cecil Beaton: Portraits is the first major overview of Beaton's portraits since Sir Roy Strong's ground-breaking NPG exhibition in 1968. This latest retrospective drew the second-largest NPG audience and won wide critical claim when touring Scotland and Australia.
The exhibition includes more than 100 portraits, capturing 50 years of fashion, art and celebrity, from the Sitwells in the 1920s to the Rolling Stones in the late-1960s. Portraits of celebrities are shown alongside more sombre works from his time as a photographer during World War 2.
Highlights include Beaton's 1956 portrait of Marilyn Monroe, from her own collection, which is accompanied by his handwritten eulogy about her. Pages from Beaton's snapshot album of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor's wedding, showing idyllically situated portraits of Wallis Simpson in the grounds of the Chateau de Cande, in France, are on public display for the first time.
Beaton got his first camera when he was 11 and the exhibition opens with a portrait of his sister, Baba, taken a few years later, in 1922. A number of vintage prints from Beaton's first exhibition (1927), notable for their striking red Beaton signature, have been reunited, including a celebrated portrait of Edith Sitwell posed as a gothic tomb sculpture. The support of Sitwell and her family led Beaton to gain important commissions, including a contract with Vogue, with whom Beaton was associated for more than 50 years.
The exhibition features work from Beaton's first four Hollywood visits, including images of Gary Copper, Loretta Young, Marlene Dietrich and of Johnny Weissmuller preparing for his first Tarzan film.
Beaton received the ultimate establishment seal of approval when he was commissioned by the Royal Family in 1939. The exhibition includes two studies of the late Queen Mother.
In 1956, Beaton started work on costume designs for the first version of My Fair Lady for the American stage, with Julie Andrews and Rex Harrison. His work on the film version, starring Audrey Hepburn, won an Oscar in 1964. He also won an Oscar for his work on another great film musical, Gigi (1957).
The 1950s saw many of his most famous portraits of women -- Hepburn, Maria Callas, Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly and Ingrid Bergman. Male subjects included Sugar Ray Robinson, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr and Dean Martin.
In the 1960s, he worked with some of the era's brightest cult figures, such as David Hockney, Jean Shrimpton, Rudolf Nureyev and most importantly Mick Jagger. Up until a paralysing stroke in 1974, Beaton continued a punishing work schedule.
- The exhibition runs from 27 May to 10 September and there is a $12/$10 admission charge for adults. Children are free. Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu is open every day from 10am-5pm with a late night until 9pm on Wednesdays. There is a public car park beneath the building, with the entrance off Gloucester St. More information is online at www.christchurchartgallery.org.nz
Mick Jagger, Marrakesh 1967. Cecil Beaton Archive, Sotheby's, London
Elizabeth Taylor 1954. Cecil Beaton Archive, Sotheby's, London
Marlene Dietrich 1935. Cecil Beaton Archive, Sotheby's, London
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