Hooray for Hollywood: Big movie backdrops fill the walls at Boca Museum of Art's new exhibit

In a matter of steps, people entering the Boca Raton Museum of Art can travel from colossal Mount Rushmore to the vast cityscape of ancient Rome.

The 22 renderings look real, but they were plucked from MGM’s basements – narrowly escaping a junkyard grave.

“The Art of the Hollywood Backdrop” is the latest exhibit at the Boca Raton Museum of Art. The hand-painted scenes are decades old, dating back to 1938. But the artists responsible were never credited — until now.

Co-curators for the exhibit Karen Maness and Thomas Walsh spent hours going through archives and oral histories to find the artists behind the lifelike canvases. Though they have been able to credit more than a dozen artists for their work, many still remain unnamed.

“I started this for the love of painting,” said Maness, a professor at the University of Texas and co-author of “The Art of the Hollywood Backdrop,” a 13- pound tome published in 2016.

“I carry it on with both a love of painting but also as an advocate for these artists to help them be seen in history. They deserve to be recognized and honored,” Maness said.

The University of Texas at Austin previously hosted the exhibit, often selling out even at the height of the pandemic. This spring, the university loaned several pieces to the Boca Raton Museum of Art.

The exhibit features 22 iconic backdrops, including the Austrian Alps featured in “The Sound of Music” and Mount Rushmore from Alfred Hitchcock’s “North By Northwest” — a favorite of Walsh, an Emmy Award-winning production designer.

“It's like naming your favorite child. You can't,” Walsh said, then turned to face the giant Mount Rushmore. “But this is it.”

Works like this are often created by four to five artists on a tight deadline — one to four weeks depending on the project. Hitchcock’s backdrop towers over visitors at 90-by-60 feet.

What separates this art form from what museum-goers might be more accustomed to seeing — aside from the sheer size of it — is that it wasn’t made for the naked eye.

“These are artists who understand the art of illusion,” Irvin Lippman, the museum’s executive director, said.

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They might not look as detailed as classic realism, but in a camera lens, they look seamless and tangible.

“It was really interesting and we were trying to place them in the movies,” said Linda Toner, a Boca Raton resident and museum member, after completing a tour of the work. “We did notice that if you pulled out your camera to take a picture, it looks much more realistic.”

These hand-made illusions aren’t completely gone from the industry. While many modern films rely on CGI for special effects, some directors still opt for practical effects. Movies like “Moulin Rouge!” and “ The Greatest Showman” used painted backdrops.

Still, they’re much less common now with today’s technology.

“The Art of the Hollywood Backdrop” also explores the history and craft behind the magic. With soundscapes and video reels, visitors can fully immerse themselves.

“Hollywood never knows what it's lost until it's lost it,” Walsh said. “The truth is we can't go back in a time machine. We’ll never have enough artists to do this — and even if we did, they'd never be given enough time to do it well.”

This exhibit is accompanied by another, “Bonnie Lautenberg: Art Meets Hollywood.” Lautenberg has been a political photographer for decades. For this exhibit, she’s combined her love for cinema with her love for art.

Lippman called the pairing of exhibits “serendipitous” and said they both demonstrate a love of film. Each of Lautenberg’s pieces combines an art piece with a still from an iconic movie.

“What's brilliant about these is the psychological connections between the film, these particular scenes, and the work of art,” Lippman said.

One pairing features a still from “Pulp Fiction” and Kenny Scharf’s “Globeglob,” a work of colorful abstract swirls. Another features Rene Magritte’s “The Lovers” and “The Mysterious Lady,” which stars Greta Garbo.

“When I put these pieces together, it's so exciting for me,” Lautenberg said. “There's no process. Sometimes I have a movie that I want to use and then I have to find the art. Sometimes I want to use an artist and then I have to find the painting.”

About the backdrops on display, Lippman said, “People are able to see these wonderful paintings that [they’ve] only seen in the movies — and probably never even knew that they were paintings. I think it’s sort of an incredible opportunity.”

If you go

What: "Bonnie Lautenberg: Art Meets Hollywood," through Aug. 21; "The Art of the Hollywood Backdrop," through Jan. 22

Where: Boca Raton Museum of Art, 501 Plaza Real, Boca Raton

Hours: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday; 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday

Tickets: $12 adults; $10 seniors; free for students and children

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Boca Raton Museum of Art displays 'Art of the Hollywood Backdrop'