Art People

 

When you hear the term "art people", you might be thinking of collectors or gallery owners.  Matthew Rolston is giving us a totally different point of view.

The city of Laguna Beach California is known as a very active arts community.  Every summer they host a Festival of the Arts event that draws tourists, collectors and arts lovers from all over the world.  They also host a summer-long show called "Pageant of the Masters".  The show is described as tableaux vivants (living pictures)  living recreations of classical and contemporary art pieces. This includes real people posing as people found in famous paintings and sculptures.  It's an amazing show. 

This event has been taking place in Laguna Beach since the 1930's with people from the community planning and executing the production every year.  

When I visited the Laguna Beach Art Museum last summer, there was a special exhibit of photos taken by Matthew Rolston.  With the permission of the show's executives and the many volunteers who participate, he photographed the performers, not the performance.  

He captured the people with their incredible make-up necessary to make them perfectly recreate the art work they are representing.  

At the top is one of the actors who helped recreate the La Fontaine de Mars (Fountain of the Seas) located at Place de Concorde in Paris.

To the left is a woman ready to recreate Conava's Tomb of Archduchess Maria Christina located in Vienna.

This gentleman will be joining the lady above at the same tomb.  

In a more contemporary painting, this lady is made up to be Marcia Weisman in David Hockney's 1968 painting called "American Collectors".

This was the only one where a little picture of the artwork was presented.

This gentleman is dressed to be part of the sculpture called "Roger and Angelica Mounted on a Hippogriff by Antoine-Louis Barye.

The lady to the right will be part of the bas relief sculpture of Lewis & Clark by Friedlander.  She represents Sacajawea in that sculpture.

This cheerful gentleman represents Sancho Panza in Lerenzo Valera's statue of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.  

The final "tableaux" in every show is of DaVinci's The Last Supper.  Rolston represented that effort with portraits of all the characters who participate in the recreation of that painting.  

Rolston and the Laguna Beach Art Museum presented a wonderful exhibit of portraits of real people impersonating painted and sculpted people found in art works from all over the world.  If you would like see more of his photos, click here.  The link labeled "Works" will take you to a view of the many portraits and the link labeled "Documentary" will take you to a short video about the project and its relation to The Pageant of the Masters.