Culture News

Cecil Beaton: The New York Years exhibit to close next month

By Anna Graizbord January 26, 2012

Cecil Beaton had an eye for the theatrical and a taste for glamour. With a style that would become deeply influential in the iconography of fashion and celebrity photography, he was truly ahead of his time in laying the groundwork for the idea of "celebutantes". Beaton was also a set and costume designer for Broadway (which  makes complete sense given his penchant for the dramatic), and is the subject of The Museum of the City of New York's Cecil Beaton: The New York Years which opened back in October, exhibiting his New York-centered photography, drawings, along with set, and costume designs spanning the 1920s through the 1960s.

Among the famous faces Beaton immortalized in his portraits were Greta Garbo, Marilyn, Brando, Coco Chanel and Truman Capote. He also designed the extravagant costumes for My Fair Lady both on stage and in film. Though the exhibit closes on February 20, there is an illustrated companion book written by the curator- nice to pick up if you can't make it before it's gone.

TAGS: 20th century, art, dreamy, exhibit, fashion, film, glamour, lucidity, modern, museum, Photography, referential, social climber, society, Surrealist, theater, visionary,