Rollie McKenna: Artists and Writers
1 March – 13 May 2001
Press Notice
Rollie McKenna is best known for her portraits of some of the most famous literary and artistic figures of the twentieth century, and perhaps most notably for her close friendship with Dylan Thomas, who was the subject of many of her photographs. This exhibition is the first gallery retrospective of her work in England, and features 65 of her black and white portraits of British and American poets and artists from the 1950s to the 1960s including W.H. Auden, T.S. Eliot, Seamus Heaney, Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes, John Minton, Truman Capote, Ezra Pound and Robert Frost.
Born in Texas in 1918, McKenna began her photographic career at the age of 30, when she purchased her first camera on a visit to Paris. Her travels in Europe and America and her work for Time and Life magazines as a researcher exposed her to the prominent literary and artistic circles of her time. Her interest in portrait photography came from taking pictures of London-based artists and writers for the Poetry Center in New York where she held her first solo exhibition.
McKenna’s close friend John Malcolm Brinnin introduced her to many prominent figures in the literary circles of the time. She formed close, even life-long, friendships with many of her subjects and re-photographed a number of them on several occasions. In 1965, McKenna produced a film entitled The Days of Dylan Thomas and in 1981 she published the photographic biography Portrait of Dylan: A Photographer’s Memoir. A section of the exhibition is devoted to this writer.
Although also known for her architectural photographs, this selection concentrates on portrait photography and it is that which best epitomises her style. Her career has spanned over 40 years. She almost never uses a studio, preferring instead to photograph her subjects in a more natural environment, and this results in relaxed, informal and unforced images, capturing the very essence of those who sit for her.
She has held group and solo exhibitions around the world and her work is held in the collections of many museums, galleries and libraries in the USA. She has contributed to many publications including Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Time, People, Mademoiselle, and The Observer.
Handlist
1. Self-Portrait, Florence, 1950
Looking out over the River Arno from the Hotel Berchielli window
2. Angelo and his family, 1950
3. John Malcolm Brinnin (1916-1998) and Truman Capote (1924-1984), Venice, 1950
4. Truman Capote, Venice, 1950
Writers
5. T.S. Eliot (1888-1965), London, 1951
British poet, critic and dramatist in his office at Faber and Faber
Kathleen Raine
by Rollie McKenna
1951
NPG P1680
6. Kathleen Raine (1908-2003), 1951
British poet and critic
P1680
7. George Barker (1913-1991), London, 1951
Britishpoet
P1667
8. Anne Ridler (1912-2001), Oxford, 1951
Britishpoet
9. Robert Lowell (1917-1977), Florence, 1951
American poet
10. Alan Ross (1922-2001), 1950s
Britishpoet and editor
11. Robert Frost (1874-1963), Ripton, Vermont, 1951
American poet
12. John Berryman (1914-1972), New York, 1956
American poet
13. Marianne Moore (1887-1972), New York, August 1951
American poet
14. Jean Garrigue (1914-1972), Millbrook, New York, 1951
American poet
15. W.H. Auden (1907-1973), New York, 1951
British Poet
16. David Gascoyne (1916-2001), 1951
British poet
P1669
17. Louis MacNeice (1907-1963), New York, 1954
With his second wife the actress and singer Heidi Anderson
P1676
18. C. Day Lewis (1904-1972), in his office, London, 1951
British poet
Artists
19. John Minton (1917-1957), 1951
Artist
20. Henry Moore (1898-1986), in his studio, Much Hadam, June 1951
Sculptor
John Minton
by Rollie McKenna
1951
NPG P1677
21. John Minton, 1951
With his painting
P1677
22. Marino Marini (1901-1980), Milan, 1951
Italian Sculptor and artist and his wife Marina Mercedes Pedrazzini Marini
23. Keith Vaughan (1912-1976), 1951
Artist
24. John Piper (1903-1992), near Henley-on-Thames, 1951
Artist
25. Bill Brandt (1904-1983), London, 1953
Photographer
P1668
Dylan Thomas (1914-1953)
Three of a series of portraits taken during a weekend stay at Rollie McKenna’s house at Millbrook, January 1952:
26. Dylan Thomas
Standing by wall
P1685
27. Dylan Thomas
Posing in a wisteria vine
28. Caitlin and Dylan Thomas
Two studies taken in May 1953 at the Poetry Center, New York during rehearsals for the first performance of Under Milk Wood. Thomas completed the ending for the first performance at McKenna’s apartment at 88th Street a few blocks from the Center at 92nd Street:
Dylan Thomas
by Rollie McKenna
May 1953
NPG P1684
29. Dylan Thomas
Directing rehearsals of Under Milk Wood
P1684
30. Roy Poole, Nancy Wickwire, Dion Allen, Dylan Thomas, Sada Thompson, Allen F. Collins
Original New York cast (left to right)
Ten photographs of Dylan Thomas and his family at home in and around the Boat House at Laugharne, Carmarthenshire, in September 1953:
31. The Boathouse
32. Dylan Thomas
In his study
P1683
33. Playing ‘Nap’ at Brown’s Hotel with its owners Ebie and Ivy Williams and her brother Billy
34. Dylan Thomas
In profile against background of Sir John’s Hill
35. The Dylan Thomas Family:
Dylan Thomas and his elder son Llewelyn Edouard Thomas (1939-2000), Aeronwy Bryn Thomas Ellis (1943-2009), Dylan’s mother Mrs Florence Thomas (1882-1959), Colm Garan Hart Thomas (1949-), Caitlin (1913-1994) and Mably the dog, Laugharne, 1953
36. Group at the Boat House including Caitlin, Aeron, Dolly Long and Sheila Sham
37. Caitlin and Aeron
In the woods
38. Caitlin with Colm and Aeron
39. Colm
40. Mrs Thomas
In bed at her house The Pelican with Aeron
41. Caitlin Thomas, Brown’s Hotel, Laugharne, 1957
42. Vernon Watkins (1906-1967), 1957
Welsh poet
Writers in America 1953-57
43. Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979), Petropolis, Brazil, 1954
American poet
44. Katherine Anne Porter (1890-1980), Southbury, Connecticut, 1956
American fiction writer
45. Edmund Wilson (1895-1972), Wellfleet, Massachusetts, 1957
American critic
46. Dame Edith Sitwell (1887-1964), New York, March 1953
British poet
P1682
The Movement & the Mavericks
47. Thom Gunn (1929-2004), Hyde Park, London, 1957
British poet
P1671
48. Dannie Abse (1923-), 1957
British poet
49. Kingsley Amis (1922-1995), 1957
British novelist and poet
P1666
50. D.J. Enright (1920-2002), London, 1957
British poet
51. D.J. Enright
Contact sheet, 1957
52. Michael Hamburger (1924-2011), London, 1957
British poet and translator
53. Elizabeth Jennings (1926-2001), London, 1957
British poet
P1674
54. John Wain (1925-1994), London, 1957
British poet, critic and novelist
x137161
55. Edward Lucie-Smith (1933-), London, 1957
Poet and critic
56. John Osborne (1929-1994), London, 1957
British playwright and his second wife the actress Mary Ure (1933-1975)
57. David Wright (1920-1994), Anthony Cronin (1926-), J.C. Hall (1920-2001), Dannie Abse and John Smith
A group of five leading Maverick poets.
58. Photo-essay on youth culture and the Skiffle craze, London, 1957.
59-61. Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) and Ted Hughes (1930-1998), 1959
P1673
P1679
x137160
62. Anne Sexton (1928-1974), Newton Lower Falls, Weston, Massachusetts, 1961
American poet
63. Robert Lowell (1917-1977), Castine, Maine, 1969
American poet and his daughter Harriet
64. John Heath-Stubbs (1918-2006), London, 1950s
British poet
65. Sir John Betjeman (1906-1984), at home, Cloth Fair, London, 1960
British poet
66. Lizzie Spender (1950-), London, 1969
Actress and daughter of Stephen Spender
67. Helen Keller (1880-1968), 1958
American campaigner for the blind
68. Henry Reed (1914-1986), London, 1960
British poet, translator and radio dramatist
P1681
69. Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990), at home in New York, 1957
American conductor, pianist and composer
Philip Larkin
by Rollie McKenna
1960
NPG P1675
70. Philip Larkin (1922-1985), Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1960
British poet and novelist
P1675
Late 1960s
71. James Dickey (1923-1997), Columbia, South Carolina, 1969
Novelist and poet
72. Carson McCullers (1917-1967), American novelist and Tennessee Williams (1911-1983), American playwright, 1960s
73. Mary McCarthy (1912-1989), 1969
American novelist and critic
74. Stanley Kunitz (1905-2006), in his garden, New York City, 1961
American poet and translator
75. James Merrill (1926-1995) American poet, and David Jackson (1922-2001), 1969
76. May Swenson (1919-1989), 1950s
American poet
77. Seamus Heaney (1939-), Belfast, 1969
Poet
P1672
78. Robert Graves (1895-1985), Deya, Mallorca, 1969
British poet
P1670
79. Derek Walcott (1930-), Waterford, Connecticut, 1969
West Indian poet, dramatist and Nobel Prize winner
80. Ezra Pound (1885-1972), Venice, Italy, 1969
Poet
81. Howard Moss (1922-1987), John Malcolm Brinnin and Bill Read, 1961
1970-1990
82. Tom Wolfe (1931-), New York, 1970
American journalist and novelist
83. Laura Gilpin (1891-1979), Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1977
Photographer
84. Alison Lurie (1926-), Key West, Florida, 1986
American writer
85. Joseph Brodsky (1940-1996), 1990
Russian poet with his wife Maria Sozzani
Press Reviews
‘The retrospective [...] of American born photographer Rollie McKenna, [...] features sensitive portraits of literary and artistic figures in London and the United States, many of whom she photographed in their homes rather than artfully posed in a studio. They range from a series of images of Dylan Thomas, his chubby features still fresh and lively, to the lean anguished face of post-war artist John Minton, and the more knowing look of Truman Capote.’
Emmanuel Cooper, ‘Literary insights’ in Tribune, 9 March 2001
‘You might think writers, artists and conductors were not the most exciting subjects for a photographer – but Rollie McKenna would disagree. Although also a noted architectural photographer, she has spent much of her life taking portraits of some of the most distinguished writers, artists and conductors around and a list of those who have posed for her reads like a Who’s Who of 20th century Anglo-American culture. TS Eliot, Dylan Thomas, Seamus Heaney, Ezra Pound, Truman Capote and Leonard Bernstein are just a few and, unlike today’s celebrity driven arts world, the majority are not known for their love of the limelight.’
‘In a way you could describe McKenna as the Annie Leibovitz of her day, but without the window dressing.’
Jamie Woolley, ‘Rollie McKenna: Artists and Writers’ in Metro, 28 February 2001.
‘Texas born Rollie McKenna, who began taking photographs in Paris in 1948, is best known for her relaxed, informal portraits of twentieth century luminaries, like the young Leonard Bernstein. She formed lifelong friendships with many of them, and produced a film and a book on Dylan Thomas, her most famous chum. There’s a section devoted to him in a retrospective of her work at London’s National Portrait Gallery.’
‘Mug shots’ in House Beautiful, March 2001