DAYTON, OHIO.- The Dayton Art Institute presents "Linda McCartney’s Sixties - Portrait of an Era," on view through June 23, 2002. Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Otis Redding, Ray Charles, B.B. King, Frank Zappa, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Aretha Franklin, Cream, The Who, The Grateful Dead, The Animals, The Mamas and The Papas, The Beach Boys, The Beatles - these famous legends and more are featured in this exhibition. This exciting and vital exhibition shows how Linda McCartney chronicled an era. Her keen eye for "the moment" and her ability to capture it perfectly with available light sources became her hallmark. More than 48 photographs in LINDA McCARTNEY’S SIXTIES vividly display icons of popular music in black and white and color, in silvertone and in exquisite platinum.
Beginning with her first big break in 1966 photographing The Rolling Stones, through covering the 1960s music scene for Fillmore East and as the first photographer for Rolling Stone magazine, Linda combined her love of photography with her love of rock and roll. She specialized in capturing the character of the new British and West Coast bands as they visited New York. In clubs and nightspots, she photographed the likes of The Doors and The Who before they catapulted to stardom. She was there, at recording sessions and rehearsals, back stage, on tour, and in concert, an accepted "band member whose instrument was the camera," as she once put it. Her unposed portraits capture the spirit not only of her subjects but that of the time. Her spontaneous style was the perfect match for that live-for-the-moment decade.
LINDA McCARTNEY’S SIXTIES represents the first comprehensive showing of Linda McCartney’s sixties photography to go on tour in the United States. The exhibition is organized in 10 groups, beginning with photographs of The Rolling Stones and The Who, followed by The Doors, The Grateful Dead and The Mamas and The Papas and many other famous faces of the 1960s. The final groups consist of several images of Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix from 1967 and numerous pictures of The Beatles. The exhibition also features intimate family portraits of Paul McCartney and finally, three of her later works. These images were selected to give a glimpse of her eye on the world around her until her death in April 1998. Included in these later works is a striking platinum print entitled Stallion and Standing Stone II, 1996, selected as a personal tribute to Linda McCartney who included it in her last gallery exhibition which opened in New York a few weeks after her death.
Inside the gallery space, visitors will also be able to view the 49 minute film Linda McCartney: Behind the Lens, a profile on Linda McCartney produced in 1992, as well as The Grateful Dead - A Photofilm by Paul McCartney. This short nine-minute film is made from Linda’s still photographs of The Grateful Dead in concert and at the McCartney’s home in 1967-1968. Visitors also may relax in the Exhibition Living Room, sponsored by Morris Home Furnishings, filled with books and catalogs about the sixties.