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Exclusive Exhibition Captures Kennedy Era Febr uar y 8 thr ough May 4
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merican Royalty: The Kennedys, Fashion & Celebrity, Photographs by Mark Shaw showcases timeless images of John F. and Jacqueline Kennedy. The Museum of Art exhibition will be the first museum show to exclusively feature the critically acclaimed work of Mark Shaw. Museum staff worked with the Monroe Gallery of Photography, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the Mark Shaw Photographic Archives to select the 50 prints in the exhibition, which can only be seen in Utica. Shaw (1922-69) recorded an era and produced exquisite and unforgettable images that symbolize 1960s America. Shaw originally photographed Mrs. Kennedy for LIFE magazine in 1959. He subsequently developed a close friendship with her and the family resulting in extraordinary access to their inner circle. During the following four years, Shaw captured the Kennedy family at their most relaxed: in Hyannis Port, on the campaign trail in West Virginia, at their first proper family home in Georgetown, and in the White House. Shaw became the Kennedys’ unofficial family photographer and his timeless images included in the exhibition capture some of their most intimate and candid moments. Only two weeks before John F. Kennedy was assassinated, Jacqueline Kennedy wrote a note to Shaw, one of many, thanking him for photographs of her with her 3-year-old son, John F. Kennedy Jr.: "They really should be in the National Gallery! I have them propped up in Jacqueline and John F. Kennedy, Hyannis Port, MA, 1959 our Sitting Room now, and everyone who comes in says the one of me and John looks like a Caravaggio—and the one of John, reflected in the table, like some wonderful, strange, poetic Matisse.” Images from this photo shoot will aloso be on view in the Museum. As a leading fashion photographer who began working for LIFE in 1952, Shaw spent 16 years with the magazine and is credited with 27 cover photographs. His images were included in more than 100 stories showcasing the magazine's European fashion collections. Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar, and Mademoiselle all featured Shaw’s photographs, and he was one of the first photographers to capture fashion on the runways and backstage at the couture shows. The fashion photography in the exhibition ranges from models in glorious gowns to behind-thescenes images of the embodiment of high fashion, Coco Chanel. Decades after his death, Shaw’s photographs continue to be published regularly in books and magazines. Many of the celebrity Butterfly Robe Back for an award-winAudrey Hepburn in her dressing room backstage at Ondine, icons Shaw pho- Grace Kelly, December, 1954 ning Vanity Fair Lingerie Advertising photographed for Mademoiselle, 1954 tographed will be Campaign included in the exhibition: Pablo Picasso, Brigitte Bardot, Grace Kelly, and Yves St. Laurent. Also featured in the exhibition are candid photographs of Audrey Hepburn, originally shot for LIFE in 1953 during the filming of the March 1, 2014 movie Sabrina. These images, which show a carefree and relaxed Hep$5 MWPAI members; $15 General Admission burn, had been lost after Mark Shaw’s death and were only “Mark Shaw: The Kennedy Years and Beyond” rediscovered in 2005. Sidney Monroe, Monroe Gallery of Photography American Royalty: The Kennedys, Fashion & Celebrity, Photographs by Santa Fe, New Mexico Mark Shaw is sponsored by New York Central Mutual Insurance Company. 4 p.m., Museum of Art Auditorium The exhibition will be on Followed by a reception and exhibition viewing, 5 to 7 p.m. view through May 4, 2014. Cash Bar
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