Regarding Heroes of our Time at the Glenbow Museum

Book at least half a day off, or better yet, the whole day, when you plan to visit the Glenbow Museum. Five hours inside the wonderfully captivating and compelling Glenbow Museum was not enough for this history buff. The Glenbow Museum challenged the tradition of many preconceived facets of portraiture through the media, photography and a video. Exploring beyond just the “likeness” of a person that is reflected in a picture, it had me reconsidering the definitions what was a portrait and what made someone a  hero.

The highlight of the season was of the exhibition displaying the fascinating and introspective photographs of Yousuf Karsh, one of the world’s greatest portrait photographers. His unadorned but powerful style of photography provides a character study of these men and woman of international renown, and his lyrical insights of these accomplished heroes are extremely intimate and breathtaking.

One of my favourite portraits that he had captured was that of the playwright, George Bernard Shaw. Personally, Karsh had captured the essence of this old soul- of his gentle demeanor in a relaxed pose, but with a glint of subtle playfulness in his eyes. Yousuf Karsh himself wrote of his encounter with George Bernad Shaw, “Shaw came bursting into the room with the energy of a young man, though he was almost ninety years old…The old man peered at me quizzically to see if I appreciated his little joke. It was then that I caught him in my portrait.”

The beauty and inspirational perspective of Karsh’s portraits is one I cannot fully describe, but yet this small anecdote from Karsh his photograph of Pablo Casals will help describe  the sheer magical quality of Karsh.  “Years later, when this portrait was on exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, I was told that an elderly gentleman would come and stand in front of it for many minutes each day. When the curator, by this time full of curiosity, ventured to inquire gingerly, ‘Sir, why do you stand day after day in front of this portrait?’ he was met with a withering glance and the admonition, “Hush, young man, hush – can’t you see, I am listening to the music!”

Regarding Albert Einstein, Yousuf Karsh questioned what would happen if another atomic bomb were to be dropped on Earth. Karsh noted that “He spoke sadly, yet serenely, as one who had looked into the universe, far past mankind’s small affairs…” and Einstein responding with,“Alas, we will no longer be able to hear the music of Mozart.” The most amazing and awe-inspiring aspect of Karsh’s acute insights are that he is able to capture Einstein’s nature in his photographs, of a simple and kind man that possessed undoubtedly a powerful personality and mind.

Karsh was determined to reveal the “secret hidden” in every accomplished individual he had photographed, unveiling a most extraordinary eye for both photography and for the intimate humanism of who these heroes are.

Thanks so much to the Glenbow Museum for providing this excellent opportunity that I highly recommend for those who have yet to experience the truly eye opening and breathtaking photographs of Yousuf Karsh, of which are considered his favourites, to do so. Reading the story first, of which Karsh provided with almost all the photographs he had taken, be prepared to be engaged in the private lives of many heroes such as Walt Disney, Jacqueline Kennedy, Nelson Mandela, Ernest Hemingway, Audrey Hepburn, Mohammed Ali, Pablo Picasso, and many more.