Worcester Art Museum
Worcester, MA
508-799-4406
http://www.worcesterart.org
Linda McCartney's Sixties: Portrait of
an Era
Dust off your tie-died shirts
and love beads and experience the 1960s with Linda McCartney's Sixties:
Portrait of an Era, on view at the Worcester Art Museum from May 6 -
July 2, 2000. You'll feel like you're traveling back to one of the most
tumultuous periods of the 20th century after seeing photos of some of the
greatest rock 'n roll stars of this defining decade and hearing their music
playing throughout the gallery. This show will appeal to everyone who lived
through the 1960s - and those who wish they had.
As
the celebrated photographer and wife of former Beatle, Paul McCartney, Linda
McCartney (1941-1998) chronicled the social and cultural history of the
1960s by photographing the decade's best-known musicians. This exhibition
presents approximately 50 black and white and color photos that give an
intimate view of the most memorable icons of rock 'n roll at recording sessions,
rehearsals, back stage, on tour, and in concert. You'll see Jimi Hendrix,
Janis Joplin, Otis Reading, Aretha Franklin, B.B. King, Bob Dylan, The Doors,
the Rolling Stones, The Who, the Beatles, and other rock legends whose public
performances and personal moments Linda McCartney captured in a way that
only an "insider" could. (left: Janis Joplin, 1967,
© The Estate of Linda McCartney 1998)
Linda McCartney began her career in 1966 by photographing
the Rolling Stones and other young British and West Coast rock bands as
they played in New York City. When the publishing world noticed her work,
she was hired as the first staff photographer for Rolling Stone magazine.
Her position with the renowned magazine gave her access to the biggest names
in rock 'n roll history, and her photographs of the legendary stars who
were shaping history at that time launched her career. In 1967, she was
assigned to photograph the Beatles. When she married Paul McCartney two
years later,Linda McCartney's decision to use only available light kept
her photos from looking artificial and allowed her to take shots that would
have seemed intrusive if she had used flash bulbs. Her unposed portraits
and spontaneous style captured the spirit of an era devoted to living for
the moment. Self-admittedly a photographer by trial and error, Linda McCartney
never formally studied photography. But her instinct seemed to lead her
in the right direction, enabling her work to appeal to a broad audience,
including music, history, and photography enthusiasts alike. Her work has
been exhibited in more than 50 galleries and museums worldwide, and Women
in Photography voted her "U.S. Woman Photographer of the Year"
in 1987. Linda McCartney's career came to an untimely end in April 1998,
when she died from breast cancer.
Born in Scarsdale, New York, Linda McCartney had a career
as an internationally-known photographer that spanned 25 years. She attended
Sarah Lawrence College and studied art history at the University of Arizona.
Her photos of rock stars appeared in magazines and newspapers around the
world and more than 200 of them are in her book from which this exhibition
is drawn, Linda McCartney's Sixties: Portrait of an Era, published
in 1992 by Bullfinch Press, a division of Little, Brown and Company.
Linda McCartney selected the photographs in this exhibition
as part of a larger show that first toured in Europe from 1995-1996. In
1999, the Estate of Linda McCartney, in cooperation with the Bruce Museum
in Greenwich, Connecticut, organized the North American exhibition that
will tour until 2003. FLEXcon Company, Inc., the Hall and Kate Peterson
Photography Fund, and The Worcester Phoenix generously support the
exhibition at the Worcester Art Museum.
Readers may also enjoy our earlier articles about this
exhibition tour:
Read more about the Worcester
Art Museum in Resource Library Magazine.
Please click on thumbnail images bordered by a red line
to see enlargements.
rev. 1/15/11
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Copyright 2011 Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc., an Arizona nonprofit corporation. All rights
reserved.
As
the celebrated photographer and wife of former Beatle, Paul McCartney, Linda
McCartney (1941-1998) chronicled the social and cultural history of the
1960s by photographing the decade's best-known musicians. This exhibition
presents approximately 50 black and white and color photos that give an
intimate view of the most memorable icons of rock 'n roll at recording sessions,
rehearsals, back stage, on tour, and in concert. You'll see Jimi Hendrix,
Janis Joplin, Otis Reading, Aretha Franklin, B.B. King, Bob Dylan, The Doors,
the Rolling Stones, The Who, the Beatles, and other rock legends whose public
performances and personal moments Linda McCartney captured in a way that
only an "insider" could. (left: Janis Joplin, 1967,
© The Estate of Linda McCartney 1998)