The Hollywood Reporter: Production designer Thomas Walsh quotes a saying well-known to scenic artists and designers: “If you really notice the backdrop, it’s a failed backdrop.”
Mammoth paintings designed to depict everything from Mount Rushmore to an office hallway or an Austrian mountain range may have been created to fool the eye and fade into the literal background in a movie, but now they take center stage in a new museum exhibition that just unveiled in South Florida.
2 comments:
I did not truly develop an appreciation for scenic painting before coming to CMU Drama. I never really was exposed to any sort of theatrical painting, despite that being the clearest intersection of my background in fine arts and my interest in theatre. New museum exhibition in South Florida, "Art of the Hollywood Backdrop: Cinema’s Creative Legacy" showcases this, if done well, hidden aspect of theatre and film. It shows us a little bit of the magic behind the scenes, as well as the power of theatrical painting. I like how the article takes us through the steps of creating and putting together this exhibition–starting from the idea to curating the sheer volume of backdrops to executing the exhibition. Scale is always an impressive factor and I cannot imagine what it would be like to be surrounded by these huge, hand-painted works. I can only guess at how much skilled labour went into each and every one. It would be amazing to see something like this up close and personal!
That quote at the top of the article reminds me of Ben saying "a grinder and paint makes me the welder I ain't", I realize that's not the point but I felt I should just get that out of the way.
I've always loved and admired the work that goes into a good backdrop and it's so great to hear that these massive paintings for setting the scenes of some very well known performing arts pieces are getting the level of recognition that they deserve.
Obviously there is concern for space issues and how you properly store and care for something as large and delicate as as backdrop without having all of the paint flake off of it. But I would love to see this kind of thing more often where pieces from musicals or plays are put on display just to appreciate the craftsdwarfship that went into creating these pieces.
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