Helen Levitt
New York

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Images(3)

Artist Helen Levitt (American, 1913–2009)American, 1913–2009

CultureAmerican

Titles

New York

Datec.1940

Place depictedNew York City, New York, United States

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsImage: 10 7/8 × 7 5/8 in. (27.6 × 19.4 cm)
Sheet: 13 7/8 × 11 in. (35.2 × 27.9 cm)

Credit LineThe Target Collection of American Photography, museum purchase funded by Target Stores and the National Endowment for the Arts

Object number76.284

Not on view

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Department

Photography

Special Collections

Target Collection of American Photography

Object Type

PHOTOGRAPHS

DescriptionA lifelong New Yorker, Levitt found her principal subject on the streets of Harlem and the Lower East Side, and particularly in the chalk drawings and uninhibited child’s play of its youngest inhabitants. Aided by a right-angle viewfinder that allowed her to face one direction but photograph in another, she managed to move about as if with a cloak of invisibility, unnoticed by subjects fully absorbed in their own activities. Unlike many of her contemporaries whose photographs of the urban or rural poor were meant to convey a political message, Levitt’s photographs celebrate the poetry of the street and the theater of the everyday.
Provenance[The Witkin Gallery, Inc., New York]; purchased by MFAH, 1976.
Exhibition HistoryExhibited: "In Our Time: Houston's Contemporary Arts Museum 1948-1982," Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, 23 Oct 1982 - 2 Jan 1983 (LN:82.38)

Exhibited "Target Collection of American Photography: A Century in Pictures",
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston December 3 - February 25, 2007
Austin Museum of Art May 19 - August 12, 2007

Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi June 5 - August 24, 2008

“A History of Photography II: Selections from the Museum's Collection,” The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, March 17–July 19, 2015.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks

Inscribed in pencil, verso center: L
Signed in pencil, verso bottom right: Helen Levitt

Signed in pencil, bottom right: Helen Levitt

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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