Made in Hollywood: Photographs from the John Kobal Foundation

Made in Hollywood: Photographsfrom the John Kobal FoundationBendigo Art Gallery3 December 2011 to 12 February 2012Teacher NotesMade in Hollywood: Photographs from the John Kobal FoundationOrganised by the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, CaliforniaDrawn from the extensive archive of the John Kobal Foundation, Made in Hollywood is a celebration of Hollywoodstudio portraiture from the industry’s golden age, the period 1920 to 1960. From Greta Garbo and Cary Grant toAudrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, James Dean and Marilyn Monroe, it is these portraits that transformed actorsand actresses into international icons. In many cases these are the career-defining images of Hollywood’s greatestnames and illustrate their enduring appeal.Featuring more than 90 photographs, most of which are exquisite vintage prints displayed for the first time, theexhibition is drawn from the extraordinary archive of the John Kobal Foundation and demonstrate photography'sdecisive role in creating and marketing the stars central to the Hollywood mystique.John Kobal was a pioneer Hollywood historian, and one of the first to examine seriously the photographs takento promote the stars and their films. The London-based John Kobal Foundation was created in 1990 at the timeof the collector’s death.From the earliest days of cinema the Hollywood studios created, controlled and promoted their stars - the chosenfew whose features and personalities registered well on the screen and who developed followings that verged onthe fanatical by the 1930s.The portrait became the studio's chief tool to keep the faces of favorites in the minds of audiences. Through theskill and invention of the still camera artists, such as George Hurrell and Clarence Sinclair Bull, the faces of theHollywood greats were memorialised. Dramatic lighting, unique camera angles and deft retouching created iconsof glamour – Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly – and male stars – Clark Gable,Gary Cooper, Marlon Brando and Rock Hudson.

These stars would sit for portraits for each film, sometimes in costume and sometimes wearing stylishcontemporary fashions. These portraits would be used to advertise the upcoming film in newspapers andmagazines. Many of the portraits in this exhibition appeared in one of the dozens of fan magazines that werewidely circulated from the 1930s to the 1950s.1920sThe film industry's studio system was well established by the 1920s, but it was with the release of The Jazz Singerby Warner Bros. in 1927, the first full-length film with synchronised dialogue, that the 'talkies' heralded in whatbecame known as the 'Golden Age' of Hollywood.1930sIt was during the 1930s that the 'Golden Age' of Hollywood really began, and when the studio system created andcontrolled the stars now associated with the period. The introduction of sound-mixing resulted in advancedscripts in a wide range of genres, such as screwball comedies and gangster films, and by the end of the decade thefirst films were released in Technicolor, most notably Gone with the Wind (1939).1940sThe early 1940s were defined by World War II to which the studios responded with a realistic rather than escapisttone, of which Casablanca (1942) remains a classic. The decade is now closely associated with the 'film-noir' genrewhich began with The Maltese Falcon (1941).The Hollywood studio system reached its profitable peak during the mid-1940s but the decade ended with manyof their practices declared illegal, and key figures were blacklisted during the witch-hunt investigations conductedby the House of Representatives' Un-American Activities Committee.1950sThe 1950s saw the decline of the Hollywood studio system and the decade was remarkable for cynicalretrospection in films such as All About Eve (1950) and Sunset Boulevard (1950), and for remakes of 'Golden Age'films including the popular An Affair to Remember (1957). Technical advances, and the threat from television, led tothe production of spectacular historical epics such as Ben Hur (1959) as well as colourful, escapist musicalsincluding Singin' in the Rain (1952). Conversely, the decade also saw the rise of anti-heroes and heroines and a shifttowards naturalistic 'method' acting on screen.Images1. Rock Hudson for Lover Come Back, Universal. Leo Fuchs2. Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire for Swing Time. John MiehleAll images courtesy of John Kobal Foundation, LondonOrganised by the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, CaliforniaThis exhibition is indemnified by the VictorianGovernment through Arts Victoria