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First Beauty Composite: Bette Davis, Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Sophia Lauren, Marilyn Monroe

1982, printed 1999
(American, b. 1948)
America, 20th century
gelatin silver print
Image: 20.9 x 22.7 cm (8 1/4 x 8 15/16 in.); Framed: 46.4 x 46.3 cm (18 1/4 x 18 1/4 in.)
The Jane B. Tripp Charitable Lead Annuity Trust 2020.75
© Nancy Burson
Edition: edition 11/15
Location: not on view
This artwork is known to be under copyright.

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Did You Know?

Standards of beauty vary not only across cultures but also through time.

Description

By compositing the faces of female movie stars from two different eras, Nancy Burson helps us see how the type of face considered photogenic and therefore beautiful changed over the space of just a couple of decades. Curiously, creating digital composites of women took Nancy Burson longer than producing composites of men because women’s hairstyles are much more varied.
First Beauty Composite: Bette Davis, Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Sophia Lauren, Marilyn Monroe

First Beauty Composite: Bette Davis, Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Sophia Lauren, Marilyn Monroe

1982, printed 1999

Nancy Burson

(American, b. 1948)
America, 20th century

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