The Glamour of the Gods exhibition, at the National Portrait Gallery, celebrates Hollywood portraiture from it's Golden Age, 1920-1960.
Selected from the John Kobal foundation, some of these Vintage Prints are being displayed for the first time in History.
In an era overloaded with digital images, being able to experience these prints first hand, was the sonic equivalent of listening to a quadrophonic stereo mix - Sublime, Analogue & full of an entire spectrum of emotions.
I was totally captured by the swirling sensuality & mystique juxtaposed with the animal magnetism that seems to go hand in hand with early Hollywood. 'Glamour of the Gods,' is an aptly titled exhibition for a pantheon of celluloid deities that stare back at you unknowing in their ability to inspire decades of with fierceness.
Hollywood's Golden Age were the architects of an aesthetic & visual language that has arguably dominated a great part of 20th & 21st C culture. They invented icons that changed the world.
My dear friend, Polly Betton, who runs 'The White Blackbird,' made a great point in that the fault with Hollywood today is that they no longer spend time or money creating the mystique of The Golden Age.
They certainly no longer show an interest in creating iconic images of their stars. Their attentions have become transfixed to CGI & 3D. There's always the fast celebrity culture of today, magnified by the gossip industry, the internet & a lust for a public meltdown. And reality TV - let's not even go there.
If you want to sigh at a bygone era- Get thee to the temple, worship & work it children.
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