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 worlds 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.
The exhibition is drawn from the Pancho Barnes Trust Estate Archi’ve and the Estate of George Hurrell, and is curated by Dr. Louis DElia 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.
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.
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.
