New York, Helen Levitt

Artwork Overview

Helen Levitt, New York
Helen Levitt, New York
Helen Levitt
New York
circa 1942
Helen Levitt
1913–2009
New York, circa 1942
Where object was made: United States
Material/technique: gelatin silver print
Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 23.5 x 16.3 cm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 9 1/4 x 6 7/16 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 19 x 14 in
Credit line: Museum purchase: Peter T. Bohan Art Acquisition Fund
Accession number: 1985.0024
Not on display
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Label texts

Archive Label: In making this photograph of children at play in the urban density of New York City, Levitt ignored the larger social ills of poverty, the rise of fascism, and the threat of war to depict a world that seems free of anxieties. She presents the body as a vehicle for freedom and play, as the three boys run about an empty parcel of land. Levitt saw children’s play as physical, centered in the body itself, not in the mind or emotions, and she drew attention to its physicality, its very location in the body, by placing these boys within deep and clearly defined three-dimensional spaces that they then command with a theatrical presence.