[set both at 1-1/2 col]

Henri Cartier-Bresson (French, 1908–2004), “Behind the Gare St Lazare, Paris,” 1932, gelatin silver print, printed 1950s, 15½ by 111/16 inches. Gift of the photographer, by exchange. ©2006 Estate of Henri Cartier-Bresson

John Gutmann (American, b Germany, 1905–1998), “Watching the Game,” 1934, gelatin silver print, 9¾ by 67/16 inches. Purchase. ©2006 Estate of John Gutmann

12/29

MOMA REINSTALLS PHOTOGRAPHY GALLERIES WITH SURVEY OF HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY

#681360

SET 12/18 WD – 2 CUTS EMAILED

NEW YORK CITY — The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is presenting a reinstallation of the Edward Steichen Photography Galleries that surveys the history of photography from the earliest years of the medium to the 1980s. Currently on view through July 16, nearly 200 works are presented, including a number of new acquisitions.

The selection begins with highlights of the museum’s Nineteenth Century collection, from intimate daguerreotypes by unknown photographers to outstanding prints by European and American masters such as Julia Margaret Cameron, Gustave Le Gray, George Barnard and William Henry Jackson. The history unfolds through a display of works by established masters, including Eugène Atget, Alfred Stieglitz, Walker Evans, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Dorothea Lange, Ansel Adams, Robert Frank, Roy DeCarava, Irving Penn, Lee Friedlander, Diane Arbus, Michael Schmidt and Robert Adams, among many others.

Featured in the installation is a display of works by Helen Levitt (American, b 1913), who captures the uninhibited play of children and the tender interactions between friends and neighbors on the sidewalks of her native New York. The 16 photographs on view include many of her black and white images from the late 1930s and early 1940s, as well as examples of her work in color from the 1970s. MoMA began collecting Levitt’s photographs in the early 1940s, and the first solo exhibition of her work was presented at the museum in 1943.

One major new acquisition is Hannah Wilke’s “S.O.S — Starification Object Series” (1974–1982), which relates to performances by the artist in the mid-1970s in which the audience chewed fresh sticks of gum that the artist then applied to her nude body and struck poses in a parody of a fashion model or starlet. Other new acquisitions include an early-Twentieth century photograph of a snowflake by Wilson A. Bentley, who popularized the phrase “no two snowflakes are alike,” Bill Brandt’s classic photograph of a young housewife in London, 1937, and John Gutmann’s “Watching the Game,” 1934, a radically foreshortened view of a spectator seen from above.

The Edward Steichen Photography Galleries comprise a circuit of six rooms. The last and largest is reserved for special exhibitions, which change three times a year. The first five galleries, reinstalled at least once a year, are devoted to a selection of outstanding works from the museum’s collection. Each new display is organized differently, but all of them aim to suggest the vitality and richness of photography’s creative traditions.

The Museum of Modern Art is at 11 West 53rd Street. For information, 212-708-9400 or www.moma.org.