It doesn’t take long to realize you’re in a roomful of heavy hitters.
Over there is Pablo Picasso in his studio. To the left, it’s Andy Warhol with a shopping cart full of groceries (Brillo pads, Campbell’s soup cans and Coca-Cola bottles).
And by all those former U.S. Presidents, it’s Marilyn Monroe, ahem, above John F. Kennedy.
With a roomful of celebrity faces, you’d think it’d be hard to focus on any single one. But that’s the beauty of the new photo exhibit at the Boca Museum of Art: The curators know each one of these famous facades could carry its own weight.
So this 200-photo display, “People and Places: Photographs from the Exhibition,” is not just a celebration of celebrity but rather an invitation to visit with each of these stars. It runs through Sunday.
Curator Kathy Goncharov dug into the museum’s vast collection of photos — of the 5,000 items in its collection more than 2,000 are photographs — and pulled together an exhibit that would draw in visitors in the dog days of summer. It doesn’t hurt that the museum is also offering free admission for the rest of August.
“We just wanted get the collection out there,” she said. “I figured, ‘Let’s get it out and start rotating it.’”
Goncharov realized the power of the museum’s photography collection after last year’s exhibit featuring the photography of Elliot Erwitt, who captured some of America’s most iconic moments on film, from his own Marilyn blown-skirt photo to Nixon jabbing a finger into Khrushchev’s chest.
So Goncharov curated the famous faces museum visitors would recognize.
“It was such a big hit, we decided to bring it back out,” she said.
But the real stars, as Erwitt proved last November, are the figures behind the camera.
“People and Places” is as much a celebration of America’s great documentary photographers, from Dorthea Lange’s rich American documentary of the depression to Garry Winogrand whimsical photos such as Marilyn Monroe on the set of “The Seven Year Itch.”
There are Helena Rubinstein photographs captured on tins from the turn of the 20th century and artistic documentary such as the haunting “Mujer Angel” by Graciela Iturbide. There are even works from famous locals such as Benn Mitchell, who resides in Boca Raton, and Francie Bishop Goode, who capture South Florida and resides in Fort Lauderdale.
And this is just the beginning.
Goncharov said the museum is dedicating a year-round space on the second floor to a rotating photography collection. (Since photographs are the most light-sensitive of artifacts, the museum cannot leave the same prints out too long.)
One upcoming exhibit will likely include the museum’s collection of vintage cameras, from Leicas to Brownies, Goncharov said.
She hopes the stars will bring in new members who are eager to see what else the museum has spirited away in its archives.
IF YOU GO
What: “People and Places: Photographs from the Exhibition”
Where: Boca Museum of Art, 501 Plaza Real, Boca Raton. 561-392-2500
When: The exhibit runs through August 23
