9 May 2009 to 26 June 2009
Gallery Hours Tues-Fri 10-5:30. Saturday 11-5:30
Laurence Miller Gallery
20 West 57th Street
NY 10019
New York, NY
New York
North America
p: +1 (212) 397 3930
m:
f: +1 (212) 397 3932
w: www.laurencemillergallery.com
Helen Levitt, New York, c. 1940 � Estate of Helen Levitt Courtesy Laurence Miller Gallery, New York
HELEN LEVITT A MEMORIAL TRIBUTE MAY 9 � JUNE 26, 2009
Laurence Miller Gallery will present a memorial tribute to Helen Levitt from May 9 � June 26, 2009. Helen Levitt passed away in her Greenwich Village home on March 29, at the age of 95. Ironically, or perhaps fittingly, a show of her work entitled Passages, which Helen had approved, was already in the works, and her death caused a momentary pause in how to proceed. It was decided that Helen would not have wanted her passing to intrude upon best laid plans. Hence, guided by her spirit, we celebrate her legacy with this exhibition, her twelfth at Laurence Miller Gallery.
HELEN LEVITT: A Memorial Tribute will present a series of passages, in both color and black-and-white, from her extraordinary 70-year career. Featured will be her pictures of animals, which were among her earliest as well as last pictures taken; a little-known series of portraits taken on the subway using Walker Evans� camera; children�s street drawings; elderly folks in conversation; and children at play, the photographs for which she is most well-known. Helen Levitt�s classic and rarely seen silent film, In the Street, from 1944, will be shown as well.
One of the tribute�s highlights will be a selection of never-before-exhibited �first proofs.� These early documents of her working methods are often unique. Some are vintage, others were printed as late as the 1970�s, but all were printed by Helen in her bathroom that doubled as the darkroom. Often they are variants of iconic images, and often they are sequences of several shots taken at the same time. They all reveal the photographer�s �dance� as she observes boys climbing up a tree, a large family gathering on the front stoop, two men seated beside a curious cat, or four boys peering into a pool hall. In combination with the film In the Street, the early sequences reinforce her reputation as a cinematographer, and are genuine and valuable records of the working methods of a canny and poetic photographer.
