the complexity of Beaton���s world.
Beaton designed lavish sets and costumes for My Fair Lady, Gigi and
Coco. For a taste of that world, you may attend Cecil Beaton: The
New York Years, A Broadway Musical Cabaret, directed by Michael
Montel and with Lawrence Yurman as musical director. There will be
two performances at the Museum on November 19th and November 20th respectively.
Cecil Beaton loved New York. He loved the city���s verve. In a Thanksgiving diary entry dated November 1972, he writes, ���The telephone
is silent, all very agreeable, but not what I came to New York for. One
has to be on the go.��� The enthusiasm he felt for New York pounces
on you in Brooklyn Bridge Self-Portrait, 1929. Here Beaton is ecstatically suspended from the very makings of the city, the cables
that support her. He is fused there, not marionette, self-installed and
ready to go on. He went on to create a legacy.
Beaton wrote, ���It is a strange experience when wearing dark glasses
to see someone one knows a little coming towards one. Will they
recognize one?��� I briefly met Beaton and am very pleased that in
this exhibition we will all meet and come to know this compelling and
cultivated man, sans shades. H Christopher Hyland
OCTOBER 25, 2011 through FEBRUARY 20, 2012
Cecil Beaton: The New York Years
at MUSEUM OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK
1220 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10029 USA
+1 (212) 534-1672
Companion book also available:
Cecil Beaton: The New York Years, written by exhibition curator Donald Albrecht,
published by the Museum and Skira Rizzoli.
HYLAND
