September 25, 2000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:  Leslie Unger - (310) 247-3000

                         lunger@oscars.org

Beverly Hills, CA - More than 70 portraits of film personalities drawn by internationally renowned artist Don Bachardy will be featured in a new exhibition at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences beginning October 13. "Stars in My Eyes: Portraits by Don Bachardy" will be installed in the Academy's Fourth Floor Gallery and, like all exhibitions at the Academy, is free and open to the public.

Begun in the early 1960s, and including work completed as recently as last month, this group of portraits features not only actors and actresses, but also directors, producers, writers and designers. Each drawing was created during a live sitting in the course of just a few hours, most often at Bachardy's home studio that he shared with his longtime partner, Christopher Isherwood.

Legends such as Katharine Hepburn, Dorothy Parker, David O. Selznick, Marlene Dietrich, Cecil Beaton, Montgomery Clift, Fred Astaire, Warren Beatty and many others sat for Bachardy during the course of just a few years in the early '60s. From the '70s through the present, Bachardy has continued his remarkable association with individuals from Hollywood's Golden Era as well as those making an impact on film today. Gloria Stuart, James Ivory and Gus Van Sant are just a few of the subjects who have sat most recently for Bachardy.

The portraits included represent a range of media used by Bachardy to capture these highly personal images, from pencil to pen and ink to watercolor. As Bachardy views these drawings as a collaboration between artist and sitter, he asks each subject to sign and date his or her portrait.

Bachardy is a graduate of the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles and the Slade School of Art in London. The first of his numerous solo shows was held in 1961, and since that time his work has been added to the collections of many museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the M.H. deYoung in San Francisco, the Smithsonian in Washington and the National Portrait Gallery in London. He is the author of seven books, including Christopher Isherwood: Last Drawings, and his latest work, Stars in My Eyes, which has just been published by the University of Wisconsin Press.

"Stars in My Eyes: Portraits by Don Bachardy" will continue at the Academy through December 17, 2000. The Academy is located at 8949 Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills. Viewing hours are Tuesdays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and weekends, noon to 6 p.m. For more information, call 310-247-3600 or visit the Academy's website at www.oscars.org.