"Recasting the Figure In Photography: Portraits, Diversity, and Identity " Exhibition
Baruch College/Sidney Mishkin Gallery
This event has ended.
The human figure as subject, object, and statement provides rich material for the seventeen photographers whose images are included in this exhibition of works from the Mishkin Gallery’s permanent collection.
The photographs in this exhibition range from whimsical to disturbing, from traditional portraits to images of figures that actually are “objects” – statues, mannequins or even shadows or body sections. As a group, they speak to the many meanings we ascribe to the human body and to individual identity.
Edward Steichen’s portrait of Joan Crawford exemplifies traditional portraiture at its most stately. Garry Winogrand’s figures, captured in fleeting, random moments of daily life, and Milt Hinton’s celebrated portraits of his fellow jazz musicians are examples of human figures as traditional subjects at work, at rest, and at play. But some of Hinton’s most memorable images, such as one depicting a group of musicians standing before the “Colored Entrance” of an Atlanta, Georgia train station, also raise issues of political identity.
When the human figure is treated as an object, as in the work of the Mexican photographer Manuel Alvarez Bravo, its context and identity are transformed by the camera. In Lucien Clergue’s photo of four nudes, only the posteriors of four reclining women are visible, making the photograph essentially a still life formation. In the world of Gilles Peress, individual figures exist – but they are subsumed into a group identity such as “demonstrators” or “worshipers.” In the photos of Elliott Erwitt, we see a reversal of reality as actual objects – such as a sculpture or a mannequin – appear as figures.
Media
Schedule
from September 26, 2008 to October 24, 2008
Opening Reception on 2008-09-25 from 18:00 to 20:00