Angus McBean:
Portraits

The National Portrait Gallery in London, England is proud to present Angus McBean: Portraits on display until October 22nd of 2006.

Angus McBean: Portraits is the first museum retrospective devoted to Angus McBean (1904-90), one of the most widely talked about and influential British photographers of the twentieth century. It brings together over 100 photographs in black and white and color, including vintage prints from museum collections and important loans from private collections.

Highlights of the exhibition include the iconic 1951 photograph of Audrey Hepburn, her head and shoulders emerging from sand - and posed amidst classical pillars. Audrey Hepburn was widely unknown at the time of the photograph’s capture and McBean’s work served as part of the creation of the actress persona that would later be so well known. The forty-year spread of the exhibition includes more recent photographs of Derek Jarman and Tilda Swinton, while other significant portraits include Marlene Dietrich, Mae West and Katharine Hepburn.

Also on show for the first time is the complete series of his self-portrait Christmas cards which McBean produced between 1934 and 1985.

Born near Newport in South Wales in 1904, Angus McBean bought his first camera at the age of fifteen. He used his friends and family as models, and also began to make masks and theatrical props for local amateur dramatic productions. In 1924, McBean moved to London where he was briefly apprenticed to society photographer Hugh Cecil, who taught him photographic techniques, and after a year he set up his own studio in Victoria.

McBean's big break came in 1936 when Ivor Novello asked him to create masks for Clemence Dane's adaptation of a Max Beerbohm short story, The Happy Hypocrite. Novello was delighted with the masks and immediately commissioned McBean to take portrait photographs for the production.

In the 1950s and '60s McBean's career took a new direction from studio portraits to color photographs for LP covers. McBean was responsible for the front cover of The Beatles album Please, Please Me, taking a spontaneous shot of the group leaning over the balcony at the EMI Offices in London. Six years later he was asked to recreate the 1963 photograph for the proposed Get Back album. It later appeared on the retrospective LP The Beatles 1967-1970, and these will be displayed alongside one another.

For further information please visit http://www.npg.org.uk