Leon Levinstein’s New York City Photographs at the Met
After most of the big summer museum exhibitions have closed, and before the crowd-pleasers of fall start making their appearance (Edward Hopper at the Whitney! The Abstract Expressionists–Rothko, de Kooning, Pollock, etc.–at the MoMA! Picasso and Matisse at the Guggenheim!), now is the perfect time to catch up on the smaller shows that we may have missed… the perfect time, in other words, for shows like Leon Levinstein: Hipsters, Hustlers, and Handball Players, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The 40 black-and-white photographs now on exhibition here–all being shown for the first time ever at the Met–display Leon Levinstein at his best: candid, close-up and often unflattering portraits of long-gone losers and scam artists, working stiffs and desperate young lovers, all shot on the streets (and the beaches, as in Woman Wearing Paper Bag Hat, above) of the Lower East Side, Times Square, Coney Island… anywhere in this town that people gathered to make a score. It all could have be rude and exploitative, but Leon Levinstein clearly has a fondness for (and identifies with?) his subjects.
Hipsters, Hustlers, and Handball Players: Leon Levinstein’s New York Photographs, 1950?1980, at the Met Details
Leon Levinstein’s photographs will be on display at the Met from now through October 17. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is located on Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street, and is open Tuesday through Thursday, and Sunday, from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and on Friday and Saturday until 9:00 p.m. Admission is always suggested at the Met, which makes it eminently affordable to pop in and see a small show like this, and then be on your way. For more information about the Levinstein exhibition and the museum as a whole, please visit the Met’s website.
Posted in NYC Events | Tagged Leon Levenstein • met • metropolitan • museum of art • NYC • photographer • photographs