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Paul McCartney still believes in yesterday—and so does the Portland Art Museum.
On Sept. 14, the museum will open Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm. Organized by the National Portrait Gallery in London, the exhibition will feature more than 250 photos from McCartney’s personal archive, concentrating on The Beatles’ rise to prominence.
“Looking at these photos now, decades after they were taken, I find there’s a sort of innocence about them,” McCartney said in a statement. “Everything was new to us at this point. But I like to think I wouldn’t take them any differently today.”
Curated by McCartney, Sarah Brown and Rosie Broadley, the exhibition will use the photos, as well as archival video, to capture the dawn of Beatlemania and the so-called British Invasion, with plenty of candid shots of John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
“[The photos] now bring back so many stories, a flood of special memories, which is one of the many reasons I love them all, and know that they will always fire my imagination,” McCartney said.
Paul McCartney Photographs will be on view through Jan. 19, 2025, just months before the museum’s Rothko Pavilion (a $110 million project that will add new restrooms and galleries) is slated to open.
While The Beatles are a perennial presence in popular culture, nostalgia for their glory days has been particularly intense in the wake of the pandemic. In 2021, film director Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings) released a documentary series over seven hours in length that revisited their 1969 rooftop concert.
More recently, Sam Mendes (American Beauty) announced he would direct four films inspired by the band, each viewed from the perspective of a different Beatle. Yes, this is the kind of ambitious project that kills careers, but remember: It’s not wise to underestimate a guy who made a plastic bag look gorgeous.