Don Bachardy and Christopher Isherwood, 1968 March 30, 3 1/2 × 5 in. Christopher Isherwood Papers. The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
Photo: DAVID HOCKNEY. © David Hockney.
There are just a few days remaining to see a Don Bachardy retrospective at the Huntington Library in San Marino. The exhibit which opened in April will close Monday, August 4. Bachardy was at the opening in April where he was met and greeted those in attendance.
The portrait artist is 91 and lives in Santa Monica Canyon in the home he and and his partner, author Christopher Isherwood, shared for three decades. Isherwood passed away in 1986.
Born in Los Angeles, Barchardy studied at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles and the Slade School of Art in London. His first one-man exhibition was 1961 in London.
He met the writer when he was 18 and Isherwood was 48.
Barchardy’s works can be found in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the M.H. de Young Memorial Museum of Art in San Francisco, the University of Texas, Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery in San Marino, UCLA, Fogg Art Museum at Harvard, Princeton University, the Smithsonian Institution and the National Portrait Gallery in London.
Don and Marilyn Monroe, 3 1/2 × 3 1/2 in. Don Bachardy Papers.
| The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Photo: Ted Bachardy
At this exhibit, “Don Barchardy: A Life in Portraits” features more than 100 works spanning 70 years of the artist’s career. Many of the works have never been exhibited. According to the Huntington “Works on view in the exhibition were selected from some 17,000 portraits by Bachardy, and many represent the couple’s illustrious social circle, which included Truman Capote, Bette Davis, and David Hockney, among others. While some portraits may not have been flattering, the sitters were invariably pleased, believing that Bachardy had captured their essence. Bette Davis famously said of her portrait, ‘Yup, that’s the old bag!’”
The Huntington Library says advance tickets are essential and can be purchased on the library’s website. click here.
Don Bachardy, Self-portrait, August 8, 2018, acrylic on paper, 29 × 23 in. (73.7 × 58.4 cm). Don Bachardy Papers.
The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. © Don Bachardy, 2018.