MEN ABOUT TOWN Al Hirschfeld Exhibition is Now Live Online

The Al Hirschfeld Foundation as opened its latest online exhibition, “Men About Town: Al Hirschfeld Draws Noël Coward,” now live at AlHirschfeldFoundation.org/exhibitions through June 1.

Nearly 40 of Al Hirschfeld’s drawings focus on Noël Coward’s life and work. In conjunction with “Coward 125,” an observance of Coward’s 125th birthday, the Al Hirschfeld Foundation presents this exhibition of 25 selections of Hirschfeld’s extensive artwork focusing on Noël Coward and his plays, ranging from Private Lives (1931) through Waiting in the Wings (1999). The exhibition is curated by Alan Pally, who served for many years as a Trustee of the Noël Coward Foundation and is currently a member of the Foundation’s Grants Committee. Selections in the exhibition include Coward, himself, as well as the many actors who appeared in his work, including Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Laurence Olivier, Joan Collins, The Lunts, Frank Langella, Elaine Stritch, Lauren Bacall and more.

“Hirschfeld and Coward were contemporaries who admired one another’s work,” says Alan Pally, curator of the new online exhibition. “In Al Hirschfeld’s house on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, a photograph of Noël Coward was prominently displayed in the living room. In the Noël Coward Room in Red Lion Square in London, a drawing of Noël Coward by Al Hirschfeld is prominently displayed as part of the rich repository of materials available for study. In celebrating Coward’s 125th birthday, I can’t think of a more fitting tribute than this look at Coward and his career through pen strokes of the great Al Hirschfeld. With this exhibition, we honor the work of an American artist who was an icon of New York theater and a British artist who loved New York and whose work in the fields of theater, music, film, and literature earned him the title of ‘The Master.’”

“Al Hirschfeld and Noel Coward entertained audiences in somewhat the same way,” says David Leopold, Creative Director of The Al Hirschfeld Foundation. “Their work was both witty and elegant as well as timeless. These Men About Town bought audiences a lot of joy.”

Go behind the lines of Hirschfeld’s art with "The Hirschfeld Century Podcast." A special episode focusing “Men About Town: Al Hirschfeld Draws Noël Coward” will be released April 9 from  from AlHirschfeldFoundation.org/podcasts, iTunes and other popular podcast sites.