Famous Faces, Hollywood’s Golden Age in candid shots.

Art Review By Victoria Donohoe

The work of Frank Worth, who captured the faces of Hollywood celebrities, is on display in Bryn Mawr. 

All of the 40-some works in the photo show “Frank Worth: Worth Exposing Hollywood” at Fine Art Liaisons in Bryn Mawr are worthy of the company they keep. But the most irresistibly attractive piece is a spontaneous picture this enterprising freelance photographer snapped of Marilyn Monroe and director Billy Wilder on the set of The Seven Year Itch.

There is an air of great self-confidence about these pictures of many stars, including Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly, James Dean and Humphrey Bogart, taken during the 19405 and ’50s on 4- and off movie sets. Yet the show’s overall effect is its remarkable feeling of intimacy and humanness, achieved by Worth because he managed to live among the stars and win their acceptance, and he let this familiarity shine through to enhance his work. These pictures were chosen from his 10,000 negatives, in the first display since Worth’s death in 2000. 

Seeing such pictures in close proximity to one another emphasizes that they are so representative of a period. Individual pictures by Worth in his lifetime attracted national attention. He was always a maverick — one who took photos imbued with personal meanings, filled with memorable images. But this show’s meaning resides in the interconnectedness the viewer establishes between the display’s various components, more so than the individual pieces themselves.

Worth had a pretty well developed insight into his subjects, and he gives pleasure to the viewer by bringing to his work an artless quality we usually associate with unsophisticated or genuinely popular art.

It’s probably the “showbiz” and historical perspective of Worth’s work that gives his pictures their greatest resonance. This very welcome display is cohosted by the Bryn Mawr Film Institute. Fine Art Liaisons, 916 W. Lancaster Ave., Bryn Mawr. To Nov. 30. Tue.-Sat. 11-5. Free. 610-520-2200.