The Museum of Fashionable Artwork is spring cleansing its archives for a particular ode to Outdated Hollywood. The exhibit “Face Worth: Celeb Press Images,” which is able to open June 28, 2025 and be on show by means of June 21, 2026, options the perfect studio photographs of iconic stars reminiscent of Clara Bow, Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn, Barbara Stanwyck, Elizabeth Taylor, Harry Belafonte, and extra.
That is the primary main exhibition of Hollywood studio portraiture to be showcased from the Museum Division of Movie’s movie stills archive since 1993. “Face Worth” will function over 200 works from 1921 to 1996, with studio images of Joan Crawford, Louis Armstrong, Carole Lombard, Louise Brooks, Mia Farrow, Dennis Hopper, Lena Horne, Buster Keaton, Anna Might Wong, W. C. Fields, Hattie McDaniel, Lupe Velez, Mae West, Bela Lugosi, Carmen Miranda, Elvis Presley, Diana Ross, Spencer Tracy, and Oprah Winfrey, along with the aforementioned stars. Historic figures reminiscent of Jackie Robinson, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Amelia Earhart, Ruby Berkley, and Eleanor Roosevelt are additionally among the many portraits.
“‘Face Worth’ will encourage viewers to see by means of the facade of glamour at how movie star is fabricated and exploited,” curator Ron Magliozzi stated in a press assertion. Because the MoMA exhibit description states, the exhibition will “discover how these photographs have been manipulated for public consumption by means of hands-on modifying methods lengthy earlier than digital instruments grew to become normal.”
The items embrace works by greater than 58 photographers, with “untouched” candid photographs juxtaposed with conventional press practices of the period reminiscent of silhouetting, in-painting, masking, sectioning, and collage. The exhibit will likely be on view within the Titus and Morita Galleries.
“Face Worth” is organized by curator Magliozzi, with Katie Trainor, the Movie Collections Supervisor, and Cara Shatzman, the Assortment Specialist for the Division of Movie. Movie at MoMA is made doable by CHANEL.
The affect of late stars Bow and Keaton, each of whom are included in “Face Worth,” is obvious within the trendy tradition, with Taylor Swift even citing the media frenzy round Bow in a music devoted to the late star. In the meantime, Keaton is getting a posthumous biopic sequence with Rami Malek portraying him.
Take a look at the primary have a look at the exhibit under.
