Film sets move front and center for new museum exhibit

Production designer Thomas Wall quotes a well-known saying among artists and set designers: “If you really notice the background, it’s a failed background.”

The gargantuan paintings designed to depict everything from the Rashmore Mountains to the office hallway and the Austrian Highlands may have been designed to turn heads and cut right into the background of the film, but now they take center stage in a new way. museum exhibition that has just opened. . . In south Florida. Hollywood Background Art: Cinema’s Creative Legacy Opening April 20 at the Boca Raton Museum of Art, it features 22 hand-drawn sets from classic films, including north northwest, a song in the rain s ხმა The sound of musicAs well as a handful that have yet to be assigned to specific films.

The exhibition is the brainchild of Museum Executive Director Irwin Lippmann, who observed cbs sunday morning In February 2020, he came across a story exploring renewed gratitude for the forgotten past of many Hollywood Golden Age films. The segment included interviews with Walsh and Karen Menes, assistant professor of set design and figure painting at the University of Texas at Austin, and co-author of a major book on the subject, 2016. hollywood background art. A graduate of UT Austin, Lippmann decided to try to get in touch with Menes and find out if the wallpapers could be the subject of his own exhibition at the museum. “When I spoke to Karen, it was obvious [that] “It was enough to create an exhibition,” Lippmann said.

Like many props in classic films, most exhibit wallpaper has survived years ago from forgotten corners and basements of studio buildings, with many JC Backings, Culver City companies specializing in creating wallpaper for movie and television rentals. . (although they still produce hand-painted wallpapers). , many now made of vinyl or in the form of digital art). The company was founded in 1962 by John Harold Cockley and John Gary Cockley, a father-son team with deep ties to the industry – some of their support can be seen in 1965. ხმა The sound of musicJohn Harold’s father, John Cockley, worked as a scenic artist with the legendary George Gibson, who headed MGM’s set design department from 1938 to 1968 (Gibson’s first film for the studio was in 1939). ᲝMagic Zi, although his technical training for this film was unfortunately lost). Over the years, JC Backings has purchased discarded wallpaper from MGM, Disney, 20^me Century Fox and other studios, in some cases, save them from the fate of a dumpster. “Without JC Backings, I’m not sure many of them would have survived,” Lippmann said.

Walsh agrees. When the daughter of John Gary Cockley and current president of the company, Lynn Cockley, learned that they would have to edit about 200 holdings from their collection when they moved to new headquarters, she called Walsh in New Mexico, where he worked for the Netflix. longmeier, asked if he knew who might be interested in buying them. This conversation Walsh created the Art Directors Guild Fund Recovery Project, a project in which he, Menes and Cockley photographed captured wallpaper and included portable wallpapers in the catalog in the hope of finding new homes for each. “They found that there were 207 wallpapers that weren’t going to be taken, pieces of the bottom of the pile that weren’t for rent,” explains Wall. He spent nearly two years looking for homes around the world, in various places, from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to Austin and the Royal Scottish Conservatory in Glasgow, which he gratefully accepted five Gibson-painted wallpapers. Scottish by birth. A set designer whose credits are included american in paris s BrigadeiroHe died in 2001.

Fast forward to 2020, when Lippmann was able to get in touch with Manes and offer his museum space for an exhibition. He immediately invited Walsh to co-sponsor the event. “We knew there was a treasure behind the UT Austin collection, so we asked JC Backings to lend us their 17 pillars, including the drawings. Ben-Hur, north-northwests ხმა The sound of music“- Adds Menes, remembering that Lynn Cockley’s company quickly agreed and took it a step further. “Surprisingly, they shared that they would prefer the loan to be a donation to the Texas Performing Arts Hollywood Backdrop Collection at UT Austin as a learning asset for future generations under my care and supervision.”

Strolling through the galleries at the Boca Raton Museum is truly like Hollywood soundstages, from the painted Trump L’Oel tapestry used in the 1938s. Marie Antoinette Both seen in 1949 on the New York City skyline. Source and televisions jefferson And a huge landscape of ancient Rome, originally painted in 1959 Ben Hur And then it was brought in for reuse in the 2016 Coen Brothers movie. Hello Caesar!

Rope supports prevent visitors from getting too close, although this exhibition is also the first time the public has been able to see such a vast collection of hand-painted wallpaper in person. “We want people to appreciate these works for their paintings,” Lippmann said. “We invite you to take a closer look and appreciate the details and brushstrokes.”

Among the sets are video screens that tell behind-the-scenes stories about production design, with interviews with Gibson, who starred in the 1992 documentary Turner Classic Movies. MGM: When a lion turns. Against the background of a grand curving staircase – among the works from the “Unknown Movie”, of course, lovers of classic films are interested in their origins – around 100 performing artists responsible for the background are listed on one wall. . in the golden age of Hollywood. . Not surprisingly, the list is dominated by male names, although several female names appear. “One of the reasons we wanted to do this was to recognize those who were never given credit for what they did,” Lippmann argued. “Back then, the studios didn’t show everyone who worked on the film, but it was the talented artists who made the real contribution.

Among the most popular photographic backdrops among museum visitors, Lippmann said, is the waterfront scene. ხმა The sound of music And an image of an office hallway he saw during Donald O’Connor’s “Make ‘Em Laugh” in 1952. a song in the rain. The green throne and mannequin that O’Connor used on stage are also reproduced for selfie moments. “People like to say they trust stone gratings ხმა The sound of music In the background, they’re sitting on the couch and pretending to be Donald O’Connor,” Lippmann said. “It was fun to see people enjoying the memories of their favorite movies.

In the later stages, Lippmann realized that there was an ideal location for one of the largest sets on display: Rashmore Mountain Side View, which measures 30 feet by 91 feet, 9 inches wide, used north northwest And painted by Gibson and his team. “When we were working on the exhibition, we realized that the ideal location for this background was always in front of us,” Lippmann said, pointing to the museum’s spacious two-story lobby. “Of course we had to put the pages in here, but seeing them go up was really important.” (A small set of Mount Rushmore from another angle, also from Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 thriller, is now in the Museum of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles.)

Ultimately, what does Lipman expect exhibition visitors to experience? “A lot of us grew up with these movies and those memories can be really powerful,” he said. “You see, people recognize these moments in their favorite movies, and that influence is very special. I also hope that younger generations have seen something that resonates with them and can inspire an appreciation for these films in an audience that has yet to experience them.”

“Hollywood Background Art: The Creative Legacy of Cinema” will run through January 22, 2023; The upcoming exhibition, “Bonnie Lautenberg: Art Meets Hollywood,” features two cult films by the Palm Beach artist, released in the same year and through August 21, 2022. For more information, visit bocamuseum.org.