The Exhibitions

April 20, 2022 - January 22, 2023

Boca Raton Museum of Art

Art of the Hollywood Backdrop: Cinema's Creative Legacy

The first national museum exhibition of Hollywood motion picture scenic art featured 20 backdrops from Texas Performing Arts and the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. The exhibition broke museum attendance records with over 30,000 visitors.

Exhibit
  • Mount Rushmore backdrop displayed in museum gallery
  • Gallery view featuring scenic backdrops and immersive installation
  • Landscape scenic backdrops displayed in museum gallery
  • Vista of Rome backdrop displayed in museum gallery
  • Historic scenic backdrops displayed in museum gallery

June 25, 2021 - August 1, 2021

Texas Performing Arts

Behind the Scenes: Hollywood's Sistine Chapel

An immersive recreation of the Sistine Chapel on the Bass Concert Hall stage, painted for MGM's 1968 papal drama, The Shoes of a Fisherman.

Exhibit
  • Reconstructed Sistine Chapel scenic backdrops viewed from a corner angle
  • Reconstructed Sistine Chapel scenic backdrops displayed in a museum exhibition
  • Sistine Chapel scenic backdrops displayed in a museum exhibition
  • Sistine Chapel scenic backdrop displayed in a museum exhibition

February 11, 2021 - April 18, 2021

Texas Performing Arts

Behind the Scenes: The Art of the Hollywood Backdrop

The first public presentation of the Hollywood Backdrop Collection on the Bass Concert Hall stage. The exhibition sold out during the height of the early pandemic.

  • Historic scenic backdrops displayed throughout a museum gallery
  • Multiple historic scenic backdrops displayed in a museum gallery
  • Historic scenic backdrops displayed in a museum gallery
  • Painted scenic backdrops displayed in a museum exhibition

September 1, 2020 - April 4, 2021

The McNay Art Museum

Hollywood's Sistine Chapel: Sacred Sets from Stage and Screen

The exhibition featured six iconic movie backdrops in conversation with modern theatre designs and 15th- and 16th-century Renaissance artworks.

  • Historic scenic backdrops displayed in museum gallery
  • Sistine backdrop installed in museum gallery
  • Historic scenic backdrops laid out in a workshop
  • Detail of Renaissance figures on a painted scenic backdrop

Photo credits per exhibit, from top to bottom: Boca Raton Museum of Art, Photography Jacek Gancarz • Texas Performing Arts, Photography Sandy Carson • Texas Performing Arts, Photography Robert Silver • The McNay Art Museum