Noel Coward: Art and Style

Excellent exhibition at the Guildhall Art Gallery looking at the life and work of Noel Coward.

This show really caught the flavour of the London theatre at the time of Coward with some wonderful exhibits like the Oliver Messel masks for “Dance Little Lady”. It gave a real sense of how cutting edge his work was at the time. It also gave a picture of the people he worked with and gathered around him.

The show also evoked his life and homes with pieces of furniture from his chattel in Switzerland alongside home movies and magazine spreads on the houses.

I was fascinated by the section on how Coward created his image and brand and then had to work out how to live with that.

It was a lovely touch to end the show with two of the costumes from the new Blithe Spirit movie which demonstrates that Coward still resonated today.

Closes 23 December 2021

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