Philbrook Museum of Art presents The Hollywood Portraits of George Hurell, an exhibition on view Feb 3 – Jun 30.2013.
George Hurrell both captured and created the idealized world of movie glamour, becoming the greatest practitioner of the photographic portrait genre. In the 1930s and ’40s, when the Hollywood mystique was at its zenith, still photography became invaluable in conjuring the rarified image of the “movie star” as impossibly beautiful, supremely sophisticated and desirable beyond the attainment of everday life. During the golden era of film, George Hurrell’s work was acknowledged as the ultimate in glamorous portraiture. “A Hurrell portrait,” wrote Esquire magazine in 1936, “is to the ordinary publicity still what a Rolls Royce is to a roller skate.”
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