Photography and the American Magazine
Lillian Bassman, A Report to Skeptics, Suzy Parker, April 1952, Harper's Bazaar, Gelatin silver print, Collection of Eric and Lizzie Himmel, New York © Estate of Lillian Bassman
Since the turn of the Millenium, the world of print journalism has been increasingly under threat. With the advent of the internet, magazines have seen their audiences cannibalized by Google, Facebook, and blog culture, and watched as print ad-buys plummeted and revenue suffered steep annual declines. Yet, in the mid-century period, the magazine industry held a firm monopoly on readership in the U.S., and served as a key inspiration for the art and design world at large, undergoing a stark visual transformation owing in large part to the influence of émigrés forced from Nazi-occupied Europe.
Joseph Breitenbach We New Yorkers, 1942, Gelatin silver print and collage, The Jewish Museum, New York. © Josef and Yaye Breitebach Charitable Foundation, courtesy Gitterman Gallery
In the Jewish Museum’s upcoming exhibition, “Modern Look: Photography and the American Magazine,” curator Mason Klein explores the influences of these avant-garde artists on the evolution of the photographic process across the Atlantic, and the distinctly “American” visual identity that resulted. While the “Neue Optik” (New Vision) and the “Neue Sachlichkeit” (New Objectivity) traditions carried over by adherents of the Bauhaus school were crucial in informing the shift in photography from documentation to art in the U.S., the inclusivity, pragmatism, and innovation that informed the American magazine aesthetic were entirely unique.
Portrait of Helen Frankenthaler, photographed for Life Magazine, May 13, 1957, printed 2018 Archival pigment print The Jewish Museum, NY, Purchase: Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Fund, 2018-75 Artwork © The Gordon Parks Foundation
Described as an examination of how “photography, graphic design, and popular magazines converged to transform American visual culture from 1930 to 1960,” the exhibition will feature 150 works across various mediums. Highlights include magazine layouts and cover designs from publications such as Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue, whose art directors, Alexey Brodovitch and Alexander Liberman, respectively, were accomplished photographers in their own right and recent émigrés from Eastern Europe.
Frances McLaughlin-Gill, Nan Martin, Street Scene, First Avenue, 1949, Gelatin silver print. Private collection © Estate of Frances McLaughlin-Gill
Brodovitch, who was arguably responsible for making photography the backbone of modern magazine design, played a fundamental part in introducing the U.S. market to the more graphic and “modern” aesthetic that was cultivated across the vanguard European art movements in the ’20s. Pioneering the raw, organic expressionism that would dominate magazine photography for years to come, he had a particular talent for cultivating relationships with such unknown artists as Irving Penn, Richard Avedon, and Lisette Model, all of whom are represented in the upcoming show. Other artists to be featured include photographers Lillian Bassman, Margaret Bourke-White, Louis Faurer, Robert Frank, Gordon Parks, and William Klein, along with the graphic designers Lester Beall, Cipe Pineles, and Paul Rand.
Direction, Vol. 3 No. 9, December 1940 - Cover design: Paul Rand
To accompany the exhibition, the Jewish Museum will publish a catalog by senior curator Maison Klein in collaboration with the Yale University Press. Featuring essays from historian Maurice Berger, curator Marvin Heiferman and Vogue writer Leslie Camhi, the catalog will investigate the ties between mid-century American magazine design and European experimentalism of the era, providing insights into such wide-ranging topics as the impact of media coverage of political activism and the role of gender in the fashion industry.
William Klein, Kid + Homeless, New York, printed c. 1955, Gelatin silver print, Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York © William Klein
While the increased importance of advertising may have denigrated the magazine to a mere vehicle for consumer capitalism, its role as a resource for artistic innovation and collectivism throughout the post-war period is undeniable and striking. This exhibition explores and celebrates the cross-cultural and interdisciplinary connections that sparked this photographic transformation, connecting the dots between the visual pop-culture that we’re so immersed in today and its lesser-known, but salient roots.
The exhibition will be on view from March 19, 2021, through July 11, 2021, at the Jewish Museum.
