Marilyn Monroe at the National Portrait Gallery

 cinema, photography  No Responses »
Aug 262012
 
Cecil Beaton Marilyn Monroe Marilyn Monroe at the National Portrait Gallery

pho­to­graph­ing by Ed Pfizen­maier, Ambas­sador Hotel, New York, 22 Feb­ru­ary 1956 © Ed Pfizenmaier

‘A Brit­ish Love Affair’, an exhib­i­tion explor­ing Mar­ilyn Monroe’s con­nec­tion with Bri­tain, will be at the from 29 Septem­ber. The dis­play is free to visit and coin­cides with the 50th anniversary of Monroe’s death.

Por­traits of Mon­roe by Brit­ish pho­to­graph­ers will be shown along­side rare magazine cov­ers, vin­tage prints, lobby cards and film stills to put the works in context.

Mon­roe arrived in Bri­tain with her new hus­band, play­wright Arthur Miller, on 14 July 1956. They arrived for the shoot­ing of The Prince and the Show­girl with co-starring and dir­ect­ing. For 4 months she gen­er­ated a buzz among the press as only she could, and the NPG will be dis­play­ing some rare Life magazine pho­tos by pho­to­journ­al­ist Larry Bur­rows, and press images of Mon­roe meet­ing the Queen amongst others.

The cine­ma­to­grapher on the film, Jack Cardiff, had a private sit­ting with Mon­roe for which she arrived nine hours late. His patience was rewar­ded how­ever: Mon­roe inscribed on one of the dreamy images cre­ated with a wind machine and Vas­el­ine over the lens, ‘Dearest Jack, if only I could be the way you cre­ated me.’

Brit­ish pho­to­graph­ers who worked with Mon­roe dur­ing the 50s con­trib­uted greatly to the Mon­roe icon­o­graphy. The dis­play will include a selec­tion of these pho­to­graphs includ­ing Ant­ony Beauchamp’s poses of Mon­roe in a yel­low bikini (1951), Baron’s pho­to­graphs from a Hol­ly­wood assign­ment (1954) and Cecil Beaton’s pho­to­graphs taken in the Ambas­sador Hotel in New York (Feb­ru­ary 1956).

Mar­ilyn Mon­roe: A Brit­ish Love Affair will open on 29 Septem­ber and run until 24 March 2013.

Share
  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Marilyn Monroe at the National Portrait Gallery
  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Marilyn Monroe at the National Portrait Gallery
  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Marilyn Monroe at the National Portrait Gallery
  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Marilyn Monroe at the National Portrait Gallery
  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Marilyn Monroe at the National Portrait Gallery
  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Marilyn Monroe at the National Portrait Gallery
  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Marilyn Monroe at the National Portrait Gallery
  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Marilyn Monroe at the National Portrait Gallery

Lyn Gardner asks “What Is Theatre Criticism For?”

 theatre  No Responses »
May 162011
 

imogen stubbs little eyolf Lyn Gardner asks What Is Theatre Criticism For?’s won­der­ful Lyn Gard­ner recently reviewed Imo­gen Stubbs’ per­form­ance in Ibsen’s ‘Little Eyolf’ at ’s Jermyn Street theatre:

It’s a grand, showy, external per­form­ance full of affected finger-biting, ear-stroking, nose-rubbing phys­ical tics that doesn’t excav­ate truth­ful­ness, but just get in its way.”

Gard­ner is astute but never cruel. Her inter­views and reviews for the Observer are always excel­lent. Yet yes­ter­day she ques­tioned the rel­ev­ance of her trade. He is some of her article:

… In the past, it was the more exten­ded piece that gave the greatest scope for con­sid­er­ing act­ing. The obvi­ous reason for this decline is space, the dif­fi­culties of being truly descript­ive in just 320 words. The only form of crit­ical writ­ing in print I can think of in which per­form­ances are routinely – and often exquis­itely and poet­ic­ally – described is the foot­ball match report.… [con­tinue reading]

Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Delicious
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Email
  • RSS

Zoë Dominic, one of the greatest theatre and dance photographers, has died aged 90

 ballet, dance, obituary, photography, theatre  1 Response »
Jan 192011
 

nureyev fonteyn 482x600 Zoë Dominic, one of the greatest theatre and dance photographers, has died aged 90Dominic was one of the out­stand­ing group of dance and theatre photo– graph­ers – includ­ing Lord Snow­don, Angus McBean and Anthony Crick­may – who flour­ished in the post­war renewal of the Brit­ish per­form­ing arts in the 1950s and 60s. She was a pion­eer in a man’s world and her tal­ent for cap­tur­ing the essence of a per­former endeared her to some of the greatest stars of the age.

Dominic was the “chosen” phở­to­grapher of , Rudolf Nureyev, , and Mag­gie Smith. Her career, which star­ted around 1957, coin­cided with the launch of the Eng­lish Stage Com­pany at the Royal Court in Lon­don, which she doc­u­mented, and, a few years later, the com­ing of the Royal Shakespeare Com­pany and the National Theatre.… [con­tinue reading]

Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Delicious
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Email
  • RSS