Kristen Levesque
Director of Marketing and Public Relations
Seven Congress Square
Portland, Maine 04101
(207) 775-6148 ext. 3223
klevesque@portlandmuseum.org
Release: October 7, 2008
Rarely Seen Rock and Roll Photographs on View This Winter at the Portland Museum of Art
(Portland, Maine) Rock & roll provided the soundtrack to American culture in the late 20th century. Drawn from the largest private collection of photographs of rock musicians in the United States, Backstage Pass: Rock & Roll Photography captures the intimate relationship between photographer and musician. Featuring 268 photographs—many rarely seen by the public—the exhibition includes studio portraits and candid outtakes of famous rock & roll stars from Elvis Presley and Jimi Hendrix to Madonna and Courtney Love. Backstage Pass: Rock & Roll Photography is on view January 22 through March 22, 2009 at the Portland Museum of Art.
The relationship between rock & roll and photography is intimate and profound. A rock musician’s career is predicated on a cult of personality—the ability to strike a pose and live the life—just as much as command of an instrument. Photographers have flocked to rock musicians for the fleeting opportunity to capture celebrity both on and off stage. Backstage Pass features images taken of famous musicians including Elvis, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Janis Joplin, The Who, Patti Smith, John Coltrane, Chet Baker, Grace Jones, Madonna, U2, Moby, Courtney Love, and Kurt Cobain, among many others. These classic images were captured by more than 50 photographers including Lee Friedlander, Kate Simon, Laura Levine, Baron Wolman, Bob Gruen, Jim Marshall, and Lynn Goldsmith.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue published by the Portland Museum of Art in association with Yale University Press. The catalogue features approximately 100 photographs and essays by authorities such as Greil Marcus, author, music journalist, and cultural critic whose writings have appeared in Rolling Stone Magazine, Artforum, the Village Voice, and Creem; Glenn O’Brien, GQ’s Style Guy and editorial director of Brandt Publications, the producers of Art in America, Interview, and The Magazine Antiques; Anne Tucker, the Gus and Lyndall Wortham Curator of Photography, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and author of The History of Japanese Photography (Yale); Photographer Laura Levine, whose work has appeared in Rolling Stone Magazine, The New York Rocker, and Sounds (UK); and Portland Museum of Art’s Chief Curator Thomas Denenberg. The catalogue is available in the Museum Store for $29.95.
Museum Information
The Portland Museum of Art is located at Seven Congress Square in downtown Portland. The Museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday. Memorial Day through Columbus Day, the Museum is open on Mondays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Museum admission is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and students with I.D., $4 for youth ages 6 to 17, and children under 6 are free. The Museum is free on Friday evenings from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Museum Cafe and Store. For more information, call (207) 775-6148. Web site www.portlandmuseum.org.