Exhibition - Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm

The Chrysler Museum of Art announces the Dec. 5, 2023, opening of the major exhibition Paul McCartney Photographs 1963–64: Eyes of the Storm, comprised of 250 of his curated images. This exhibition runs through April 7, 2024, at the Museum, One Memorial Place, Norfolk with Dec. 5 and 6 being member-only days.

This intimate and very personal exhibition drawn from McCartney’s private archives shares photographs from December 1963 through February 1964, as the momentum of Beatlemania began. McCartney used his Pentax camera and captured the Fab Four—himself, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr–as they rocketed from being the most idolized band in the United Kingdom to the most popular musicians in the world.

The Museum has been fortunate to have McCartney’s photographic curator and archivist, Sarah Brown, to collaborate onsite with Chrysler Museum Senior Curator Lloyd DeWitt as they complete the installation of this once-in-a-museum’s-lifetime exhibit. McCartney, Brown and the National Portrait Gallery’s Rosie Broadley carefully selected the images for Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm for its debut earlier in 2023 at the National Portrait Gallery in London and now at The Chrysler Museum of Art. Brown will be onsite to meet with media, answer questions and lead tours through the exhibition before it opens to the public.

Visitors to this distinctive exhibition will encounter an immersive experience from the Eyes of the Storm with 250 photographs and video footage. Included ​are photographs McCartney captured of him and his bandmates at Liverpool and London gigs to The Beatles‘ perspective as they experienced in real-time “The Ed Sullivan Show” in New York, a historic appearance that drew a record 73 million viewers.

“Every picture brings back memories. I can try and place where we were and what we were doing to either side of the frame. Pictures of us with the photographers bring back memories of being in New York for the first time and being taken down to Central Park, the New York hard-bitten cameramen shouting out, ‘Hey Beatle, hey Beatle.’ We’d look at them and they’d take the picture. ‘One more for the West Coast.’ I remember all those stories,” said McCartney when interviewed by Christie’s last September.