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'Cecil Beaton’s Fashionable World'

Every week from July 11, 2026 until January 10, 2027.
Sunday: 11 AM - 5 PM
Thursday: 11 AM - 5 PM
Friday: 11 AM - 5 PM
Saturday: 11 AM - 5 PM
Museum of Photographic Arts at the San Diego Museum of Art (MOPA @ SDMA) in Balboa Park
All Ages
Included with Museum Admission
'Cecil Beaton, The Second Age of Beauty is Glamour, Checked Suit' by Norman Hartnell (detail), 1947. Modern print from original colour transparency. © Condé Nast Archive UK.
San Diego Museum of Art
'Cecil Beaton, The Second Age of Beauty is Glamour, Checked Suit' by Norman Hartnell (detail), 1947. Modern print from original colour transparency. © Condé Nast Archive UK.

About the Event

Photographer, fashion illustrator, Oscar-winning costume designer, social caricaturist, and writer Cecil Beaton (1904–1980) was an extraordinary force in the twentieth-century British and American creative scenes. This is the first exhibition dedicated to Beaton’s fashion and portrait photography, which he elevated into an art form.

This exhibition showcases Beaton at his most triumphant – from shaping the public image of the “Bright Young Things” (a group of exuberant and artistically inclined socialites in 1920s London) to fashion photography for "Vogue" and other magazines, his vital role as photographer in World War II, and his reinvention of royal portraiture for the modern age, to award-winning costume and set designs for "My Fair Lady" on stage and screen. Via London, Paris, New York, and Hollywood, his era-defining photographs captured beauty, glamour, and star power in the interwar and early post-war eras.

"Cecil Beaton’s Fashionable World" features portraits of some of the twentieth century’s most iconic and glamorous figures, including Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, and Marlon Brando; Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret; as well as stars of the artistic and literary scenes, Truman Capote, Francis Bacon, and Salvador Dalí.

This exhibition is organized by The National Portrait Gallery, London, and presented by The San Diego Museum of Art.

The San Diego Museum of Art on Facebook / Instagram

Museum of Photographic Arts at the San Diego Museum of Art (MOPA @ SDMA) in Balboa Park

Museum of Photographic Arts at the San Diego Museum of Art (MOPA @ SDMA) in Balboa Park

1649 El Prado
San Diego, California 92101
619-238-7559
info@mopa.org

The mission of the Museum of Photographic Arts is to inspire, educate and engage the broadest possible audience through the presentation, collection, and preservation of photography, film and video. Since its founding in 1983, the Museum of Photographic Arts (MOPA) has been devoted to collecting, conserving and exhibiting the entire spectrum of the photographic medium. The museum’s endeavors consistently address cultural, historical and social issues through its exhibitions and public tours. The Museum of Photographic Arts is accredited by the American Association of Museums and is a member-supported, private, non-profit institution. Additional support for museum programs is provided in part by the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture, the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Fund of the Jewish Community Foundation, the Weingart-Price Fund, the San Diego Foundation, Patrons of the Prado and the National Endowment for the Arts. MOPA is located in Balboa Park in the Casa De Balboa building, east of the main traffic circle and central fountain. Gallery Admissions: MOPA has a pay-what-you-wish admission policy. Recommended pricing is $8 adults $7 seniors and retired military $6 students FREE to members, active military & dependents, and children 12 & under FREE to school groups with advanced reservation San Diego Residents' Free Tuesdays San Diego City and County residents and all active military members get in FREE, every second TUESDAY of the month. Please bring your ID. Hours of Operation: Tuesday - Sunday: 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Summer Hours: Thursday: 10 a.m.-8 p.m. through the summer. Closed: Mondays, Martin Luther King Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. Holiday Hours: 10 a.m.-3 p.m. (Includes: President’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve)

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