Fabulous! Cecil Beaton’s Fashionable World at MOPA

 By Lonnie Burstein Hewitt. Photos by Maurice Hewitt

Daisy Bendix in Costume for The Galaxy Ball 1929.

If Cecil Beaton (1904-1980) is not a familiar name to you, you’re not alone: many of the people who come to this new exhibition at MOPA (the Museum of Photographic Arts at San Diego Museum of Art in Balboa Park ) have never heard of this multi-talented British-born artist before. But I’ve never heard so many enthusiastic comments in a museum…especially from viewers too young to be fans when he was alive and well-known world-wide.

The image above gives spectacular sheen to one of London’s “bright young things” at an annual charity gala known for featuring young socialites in fabulous costumes, like this one designed by Cecil Beaton with Oliver Messel, a famous designer of theatrical sets and costumes who was born in the same year as Beaton and died two years sooner.

The young woman admiring the image  is another newcomer to Beaton—Claudia Herrera, an SDMA Museum Attendant who is now a confirmed devotee.

“I love the esthetic beauty of his shots and the way his compositions use interesting backgrounds to express the relationship with his subjects in playful, romantic, and elegant ways,” she said.

Cecil Beaton Self Portrait 1927.

We’ve included some of our personal favorites here, among them this multiple exposure;  when you go, you’re sure to find lots of your own. And you certainly should go, since you have, happily, plenty of time: the show runs through January 10, 2027.

The exhibit, organized by The National Portrait Gallery in London, features over 100 pieces of fashion and portrait photography by this creative genius who started out costuming and photographing family members when he was just a kid and went on to Vogue Magazine, several Academy Awards for costume and  film design, and knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II.

“I’m not so well-versed in photography,” said a young painter, whose name is Mary Painter, and was brought to the show by her friend, Jamie Lynn Garcia, a photographer. “But seeing all this work, I became a Beaton fan!  I always thought the fashions in the movie “My Fair Lady” were wonderful and now I know who did them!”

Marion Davies

A featured dancer in Ziegfeld Follies when she was a teenager, Marion Davies was seen and adored by newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, who founded Cosmopolitan Pictures for her and made her a movie star. She ended up living with him in Hearst Castle, hosting famous parties, and then devoting herself to him and charitable work when he was ailing and remaining by his side until the end of his life.

Battle of Flowers 1935. Dress by Mainbocher. 
A watercolor, with pastel and crayon.

Charles Henri Ford in Surrealist Costume 1937

Salvador and Gala Dali.

Shadow Her 1935.
Fashion Model Louise Sheldon in a dress by Maggy  Rouff.
The men’s shadows make the photo extraordinary!

Princess Elizabeth 1942.
She knighted him in 1972, when she was Queen Elizabeth II.

Princess Margaret in Dior Ball Gown: Her 21st Birthday
(from an original 1951 transparency)

My Fair Lady Costume

Rex Harrison & Julie Andrews in My Fair Lady on Broadway. 1956.
My Fair Lady film won Beaton Oscars for
Best Costume Design and Best Art Direction. 1965.

The men who fly planes

This exhibition is organized by The National Portrait Gallery, London, in collaboration with The San Diego Museum of Art. A full-color catalogue published by The National Portrait Gallery, London, complements the exhibition and is available in the MOPA@SDMA Gift Store.

Cecil Beaton’s Fashionable World
Museum of Photographic Arts at San Diego Museum of Art
On view until Jan 10, 2027
1649 El Prado, Casa de Balboa, Balboa Park, San Diego, CA, 92101
Hours: Open Thursday through Sunday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
Tickets: Members receive complimentary admission; Museum general admission tickets are required for nonmembers. 

 

Lonnie Burstein Hewitt is an award-winning author/lyricist/playwright who has been writing about arts and lifestyles in San Di5.ego County for over a dozen years. You can reach her at hew2@sbcglobal.net

Clearly Indigenous: Native Visions Reimagined in Glass and India Thompson: Looks Like Home at The Mingei

by Patricia Frischer

Preston Singletary 

 Clearly Indigenous: Native Visions Reimagined in Glass is a stunning exhibition at The Mingei in Balboa Park. Stunning in vision, stunning in view and historically stunning. The fact is that Indian artists were discouraged from doing anything not directly referencing their cultural past. There was no tradition of glass until the 1970s, when Lloyd Henri "Kiva" New, an influential Cherokee artist, educator, and the "Godfather of Native American fashion", revolutionized indigenous art by pioneering modern Native fashion. He co-founding  with Dr. George Boyce, the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, New Mexico. At first a high school and then a college and now a university and museum and research center.

He brought in Dale Chihuly in 1974 from Rhode Island School of Design to teach. Chihuly introduced glass art to the school and was, in turn, influenced by Native Americans in his own work. His glass cylinders and basket series show that influence. Chihuly is included in this exhibition because of his major role in started this trend.

This exhibition curated by  Dr. Letitia Chambers, also author of the book of the same name with Cathy Short, has been roughly divided into four areas of content. But there are cross over artists in more than one subject area and also pieces that are have more than one subject area in them. And many of the artists collaborate with each other and work in other mediums like clay, wood and metal.

The main content subject are functional objects vessels and textiles inspired pieces in glass that look woven or have wood texture. Animals of the land and sea creatures are sculpted and etched. Ancestors’ voices including petroglyphs are respected and heard. There is a cross-culture influence bringing two worlds together…the spiritual and the real. The show covers 45 years of Native glass art.

The exhibition has been well traveled over the last 4 years. Some of the original works had to be replaced because some of the owners could not part with them for so long. But the artists are all thrilled with this exposure. There are 120 glass art objects created by twenty-nine Native American artists, two Australian Aboriginal artists, as well as two Māori artists.

The exhibition travelled with its own display cases but, of course, each venue is different. We have to applaud Emily Hanna, the Mingei curator, and Jerry Maloney, the installation designer. They are responsible for the creative placement and additional construction for all the Mingei exhibitions and their standards are amazingly high. 

"The glass art created by American Indian artists not only is a personal expression of each artist but also is imbued with their cultural heritage.  These artists have melded the aesthetics and properties inherent in glass art with their cultural ways of knowing.  The result is the stunning collection of artworks presented here."

– Letitia Chambers, Curator

Preston Singletary 

Dan Friday

Preston Singletary and Harlan Reano

Preston Singletary and Harlan Reano

Jody Naranjo and Preston Singletary

Preston Singletary and Marcus Amerman

Preston Singletary and Harlan Reano

LarryAnvakana

Angela Babby

Angela Babby

Raya Friday

Tammy Garcia

Adrian Wall

Joe Fedderson

Ho-Wan-Ut "Haila" Old Peter

Marvin Oliver

Dale Chihuly

Dan Friday

Marvin Oliver

Raven Skyriver

India Thompson: Looks Like Home turns functional basketry on its head.  Curated by Ariana Torres, Mingei Assistant Curator, discovered that this work by India Thompson actually comes from an emotional source. Thompson presents us with an entire bathroom, fire extinguisher, microwave, and refrigerator created out of reeds.  She chooses mundane, everyday objects, because that, for her, is what makes her home, a home. This journey started with trying to make a trout as a gift. The challenges of figuring out different shapes kept her moving forward. Time, repetition and patience are necessary for reed construction. They are also attributes of building a home. 

India Thompson

India Thompson

India Thompson

India Thompson

India Thompson

We also want to give a shout out to the third show on the second floor of the museum. To Catch a Fish contains a world of stories. Here are just three.  Robert J. Lang survived the Eaton Fire in Altadena in 2025 but his home and his origami materials, research and work he owned by other was all burnt to ash. That ash was put into hand-made paper and each of the 50 koi fish on display was created for a square of that paper. The giant fish traps come from the Philippines and are bamboo treated with salt water to prevent insect feasting. They are set in the water against the current. Local San Diego artist Aidelen Montoya research how the local lake trout population were nearly destroyed by lamprey and commercial fishing in the 1940’s.  The red beads in the beaded fish are not just representing the wounded fish, but they are the same number (1150) of lake trout spawning sites in the recovery process. 

Robert J. Lang

Fish Traps (unknown makers)

Aidelen Montoya

Aidelen Montoya (detail)

Clearly Indigenous: Native Visions Reimagined in Glass on view until Sept 20, 2026
India Thompson: Looks Like Home on view until Oct 18, 2026
To Catch a Fish on view until Nov 1, 2026

The Mingei
Balboa Park, 1439 El Prado, SD 92101
TUES - THU, SAT, SUN 10am - 5pm, FRI 10am - 8pm,  MON Closed 

Washed Ashore: Art to Save the Sea at the San Diego Natural History Museum

by Patricia Frischer 

Washed Ashore: Art to Save the Sea  is entirely made of plastic waste collected along coastlines. These pieces of trash are cleverly put together to make creatures of the sea. Although it is a delightful display for all ages, the real message of the show is to bring attention to the harm this plastic is doing to our oceans. So Dexter the Dungeness Crab and Annie the anemone and the jelly fish underwater environment are really meant for us to pay attention to a serious issue. There is an estimated 75 to 199 million tons of plastic clogging our water.

There are more than 25 creatures, all hand-crafts by the non-profit The Washed Ashore Project out of North Bend Oregon.  The exhibition is on the second floor in a 3000 square foot space with an interaction section for hands on learning. For special events like Nat at Night, the space morphs into an ocean-themed lounge—the Museum’s very own “dive bar.”

Take a close look at the huge variety of plastic that, for example, make up the whale ribs at the entrance of the show, the fierce jaw of the shark and the hanging tendrils of the jellies. 

jelly detail

Washed Ashore: Art to Save the Sea  on view until Feb 28, 2027
San Diego Natural History Museum
1788 El Prado, Balboa Park
10 AM–5 PM Daily