Herb Ritts: Beauty and Celebrity opens at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK.- Organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston with the support of the Herb Ritts Foundation and the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Herb Ritts: Beauty and Celebrity will be on view from May 9 through July 28. The exhibition features 80 large‐scale, black and white photographs by acclaimed photographer Herb Ritts (American, 1952‐2002), highlighting the diversity of his work.

Ritts emerged in the 1980s to become one of the most successful photographers of the late 20th century and became an important part of the history of American photography. He is most known for his innovative approach to fashion, incorporating the classical treatment of the nude, plus an intimate portraiture of celebrities, such as Madonna, Matthew McConaughey, Jack Nicholson, and Dale Chihuly, among others.

The photographs included in the exhibition represent some of Herb Ritts’s most iconic works which incorporate the natural light of the California sun while emphasizing shapes, unusual juxtapositions and the beauty of the human form. Ritts celebrates nature and the human body in evoking the tactile appeal of surface textures of grains of sand, veiled fabric, drying mud and cascading water.

Loriki with Spear Africa 1993.

“Herb Ritts’s photographs embody a sense of beauty, energy, and spontaneity of southern California, with clean, pure lines and a richness of depth. They have shaped a generation and become icons of American culture of the 1980s and ‘90s,” said Associate Curator Jennifer Klos. “We are extremely excited to bring his work to the Oklahoma City Museum of Art in this unique collaboration with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Herb Ritts Foundation.”

A self‐taught photographer, Ritts first began taking photographs in the late 1970s and maintained a studio in Hollywood. The intimate publicity images that he made of Richard Gere were among his first serious portraits and helped to launch his career. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Ritts built his reputation as a leading celebrity portraitist and fashion photographer, contributing regularly to publications such as GQ, Interview, Rolling Stone, Vogue, and Vanity Fair. From 1988, he also directed music videos and commercials for which he won numerous awards.

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