"The Radical Camera of New York's Photo League From 1936 to 1951"

The Columbus Museum of Art hosts "The Radical Camera of New York's Photo League From 1936 to 1951"

Posted: 06 Jun 2012 09:40 PM PDT

Columbus, Ohio. Drawing on the depth of two great Photo League museum collections, the Columbus Museum of Art (CMA) and The Jewish Museum in New York City collaborated on an exhibition of nearly 150 vintage photographs. "The Radical Camera: New York’s Photo League, 1936 – 1951", a formidable survey of the group’s history, its artistic significance, and its cultural, social and political milieu, will be on view at CMA through September 9th. Catherine Evans, exhibition co-curator and the William and Sarah Ross Soter Curator of Photography at the Columbus Museum of Art, observed that “This museum partnership is an extraordinary opportunity to showcase two in-depth collections. Because the images continue to have relevance today, it is especially important that the exhibition will be seen in four U.S. cities, reaching as broad an audience as possible.” The exhibition premiered at The Jewish Museum on November 4, 2011, to rave reviews. The New York Times called The Radical Camera a “stirring show,” and the New York Photo Review hailed it as “nothing short of splendid.” The New Yorker named the exhibition one of the top ten photography shows of 2011. Following its CMA presentation, The Radical Camera exhibition will travel to the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, CA (November 15, 2012 – February 24, 2013); and Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL (March 16 – June 16, 2013). 

'Dangerous Beauty'

Chelsea Art Museum Exhibits 'Dangerous Beauty'

Posted: 31 May 2012 07:27 PM PDT

New York City - In the wake of the controversial ban on underweight models by Madrid’s fashion week, and the recent publicized death from anorexia of a Latin American model, the fashion industry and the media went into a short-lived frenzy of self reflection asking, what is too thin?  The proposed ban drew support from only two other countries – Israel and India – while it was flatly rejected by the major fashion capitals of the world: Paris, London and New York.  In a climate where whoever is thinner gets the job, the pressure to be thin is enormous and as these are the women and girls who are relentlessly photographed, they become style role models for a population fascinated with celebrity.

The Met in NYC goes "Naked Before the Camera"

The Met in NYC goes "Naked Before the Camera"

Posted: 31 May 2012 10:00 PM PDT

New York City.- The Metropolitan Museum of Art is currently showing "Naked before the Camera", through September 9th. Since the beginning of art and in every medium, depicting the human body has been among the artist's greatest challenges and supreme achievements, as can so easily be seen by Museum visitors walking through the galleries of Greek and Roman statuary, African and Oceanic art, Old Master paintings, or Indian sculpture. Tapping veins of mythology, carnal desire, hero worship, and aesthetic pleasure, depictions of the nude have also triggered impassioned discussions of sin and sexuality, cultural identity, and canons of beauty. Controversies are often aroused even more intensely when the artist's chosen medium is photography, with its accuracy and specificity—when a real person stood naked before the camera—rather than traditional media where more generalized and idealized forms prevail. In the medium's early days—particularly in France, where Victorian notions of propriety held less sway than in England and America, and where life drawing was a central part of artistic training—photographs proved to be a cheap and easy substitute for the live model.