Artist
David Levinthal (American, born 1949)American, born 1949
CultureAmerican
Titles
- Untitled [Barracks]
- from the series Mein Kampf
Date1994
PlaceUnited States
MediumDye diffusion transfer print
Dimensionsimage: 23 5/8 × 19 11/16 in. (60 × 50 cm)
sheet: 26 7/16 × 22 1/16 in. (67.1 × 56 cm)
sheet: 26 7/16 × 22 1/16 in. (67.1 × 56 cm)
Credit LineGift of Michael Levinthal
Object number99.687
Non exposé
Explore Further
Department
PhotographyObject Type
created a series of more than 50 photographs, including the one shown here,
titled Mein Kampf, in which he staged
toy figures of Nazi soldiers, Hitler, and Holocaust camp victims in various
narrative tableaux. Mein Kampf, which
means ‘my struggle,’ was the title of Hitler’s 1925 autobiography, and embodies
the artist’s own struggle to represent his indirect experience of the Holocaust
as a Jewish man who grew up in postwar America. Levinthal felt compelled to
begin the series when he discovered a brand-new Hitler figure in an Austrian
toy store, made from a mold produced in the 1930s.
ProvenanceMichael Levinthal; given to MFAH, 1999.
Exhibition History"Ruptures and Continuities: Photography Made after 1960 from the MFAH Collection," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Brown Foundation Galleries, February 21 - May 9, 2010.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Signed in black, recto, lower right: "David Levinthal 1994 3/5"
Cataloguing data may change with further research.
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David Levinthal
1994
Dye diffusion transfer print
99.684