Cecil Beaton

MELLOR, Dr. David [edited by] [256] pp. Weidenfeld and Nicolson 1986 11 3/8" x 9 3/8" The work of Cecil Beaton, best known for his photography of fame and fashion, is being shown in copious quantity in a lavish exhibition in London's Barbican Center. Visitors wander through 20 galleries, each with its own decor, that display 700 photographs, paintings, costumes, drawings and other items created by this extraordinarily imaginative and keen-eyed figure, who died in 1980 at the age of 76. Beaton's artistic genius projected a special cachet to portraits of British kings and queens, of Picasso, Dali, Joe Louis, Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo, to name only a few of the people who dropped by to face his cameras. His infatuation with the Edwardian age into which he was born was translated into costumes for both the stage and the film hit versions of the musical, ''My Fair Lady.''.