See old Hollywood portraits and 'Addams Family' artist's work at Cheekwood

Cheekwood is adding Hollywood nostalgia and ghoulish humor to its fall and holiday festivities with exhibitions set to open that shed light on the little-known histories of two influential cultural phenomena.

Opening Sept. 30, “Glamour & Style: Portrait Photography from the Golden Age of Cinema” presents the 1930s and '40s celebrity portrait and fashion photography. On view in Cheekwood’s graphic arts gallery, the exhibition centers on the work of George Hurrell, who revolutionized Hollywood portraiture with his ability to capture and create the glamour and allure of his famous subjects.

“He would often pose the actresses and actors against a minimalist background with a really strong directional light, and they had this very pronounced gaze,” said Cheekwood Museum curator Eric Birkle. “Sometimes that gaze is directed at the viewer in a kind of confrontational or seductive way. Other times, it’s directed off into the distance.”

That influential “Hurrell style” of dramatic lighting and composition became the very definition of glamour for the movie industry during the Golden Age of Cinema.

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The exhibition presents around 18 works culled from Cheekwood’s permanent collection. In addition to selections of Hurrell’s portraits, the show includes images by Louise Dahl-Wolf, Barbara Morgan, and Eugene Smith, other renowned photographers of the era who employed a similar style.

Birkle joined Cheekwood in March. He said it has been exciting to dig into Cheekwood’s vast permanent collection and explore these photographs and other works on paper that haven’t seen the light of day in a long time.

“I’m looking forward to doing more shows like this that allow people to see parts of Cheekwood’s history and collection they’ve likely never seen,” he said.

Creepy, kooky, mysterious, and spooky

With Halloween around the corner and Tim Burton’s upcoming "Addams Family"-inspired Netflix series “Wednesday,” Cheekwood’s “Inside the World of Charles Addams” comes at the perfect time. Opening Oct. 8, the exhibition showcases the cartoons and career of Charles Addams, the creator behind the iconic and lovably spooky "The Addams Family."

On loan from the Tee & Charles Foundation, the more than 80 works on display span Addams’ long career, from the 1930s until his death in 1988. Viewers get to see selections of his "The Addams Family" cartoons plus other works featuring his wickedly funny commentary on contemporary society, historic events, and one’s experience at the museum. The show also includes a section dedicated to his botanical paintings.

Known for his macabre and mischievous humor, Addams was a contributor to the New Yorker for more than 50 years and is considered one of the great humorists of the 20th century. He published his first "The Addams Family" cartoon in 1938 and would go on to create hundreds more. Though "The Addams Family" inspired several TV shows, movies, and more, Birke said that those cartoons were a mere fraction of the artist’s body of work, which encompasses about 1,300 finished cartoons and several thousand unfinished works.

“Only a couple hundred of his cartoons feature 'The Addams Family,' so they weren’t necessarily his emphasis,” Birkle said. “It was just one of the many ways that Addams expressed his commentary on the modern family, especially the type of family he grew up associating with the ornate Victorian mansions and old graveyards in his hometown of Westfield, New Jersey.”

The popularity of "The Addams Family" skyrocketed once it was adapted into the 1964-66 TV sitcom. Until then, the characters were nameless and didn’t have the individual identities we associate with them today. They were just caricatures of a bygone era, Birkle added.

“By the 1920s when Addams was starting his work, those Victorian mansions from the late 1800s had been abandoned or converted into apartments. Many were derelict and had this haunted, run-down aura. But in some cases, there were descendants of these families still living in them, which was perceived as a bit odd. And so, 'The Addams Family' emerged from those stereotypes of that time.”

In conjunction with the exhibition, Cheekwood has some fun "Addams Family"-themed activities planned for October. On Oct. 13, a special edition of Cheekwood’s Thursday Night Out features an "Addams Family" costume contest with multiple categories. And Oct. 22-23, Cheekwood’s Halloween Pooch Party will include a costume contest with an award for best "Addams Family"-themed canine costume.

If you go

What: “Glamour & Style: Portrait Photography from the Golden Age of Cinema” (Sept. 30-Jan. 1) and “Inside the World of Charles Addams” (Oct. 8-Jan. 8)

Where: Cheekwood, 1200 Forrest Park Drive

Tickets: All guests, including members, must reserve a timed-entry ticket online before visiting. To reserve a ticket, visit https://cheekwood.org/buy-tickets/

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Cheekwood to showcase old Hollywood, 'Addams Family' artist's work