The celebrity culture we love or loathe today first became an international industry in the late 19th century, and the English artist-author Max Beerbohm (1872–1956) was at the center of it. From the 1890s through the 1920s, to be a celebrity meant the hope — and fear — of appearing in a drawing or parody by “Max,” as he was known in both Britain and the U.S.
Beerbohm’s brilliant skewering of famous people in his visual caricatures, and of their writing styles in his satirical works, made him a celebrity himself. This was an identity he enjoyed, but later he shrank from it. In essays and fiction, Beerbohm explored the price in human terms of achieving and maintaining celebrity status in ways that still resonate now.
On view this season at the New York Public Library (NYPL) is the exhibition “Max Beerbohm: The Price of Celebrity,” which follows him from the Decadent circles of Oscar Wilde and Aubrey Beardsley to his mature years as a BBC radio performer during World War II. Along the way, he knew, drew, and wrote about such celebrities as Henry James, Virginia Woolf, George Bernard Shaw, and members of the royal family.
Drawn from the NYPL’s extensive holdings, along with loans from private and institutional collections, this season’s show includes drawings, manuscripts, photographs, books from Beerbohm’s library, and personal items, most on public display for the first time. It has been curated by Prof. Margaret D. Stetz and Mark Samuels Lasner (both from the University of Delaware) in collaboration with NYPL’s Julie Carlsen.
New York Public Library
“Max Beerbohm: The Price of Celebrity”
nypl.org
Through January 28, 2024
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