Weegee, “For Senator Andy Warhol” (c. 1965), {photograph}
Weegee: Society of the Spectacle, a career-spanning exhibition of the photographer’s work now on view on the Worldwide Middle of Pictures, goals to bridge the hole between this early Weegee and the one who went on to {photograph} Hollywood stars and politicians. Critics have tended to dismiss late-career Weegee, as if his tawdry gaze turned insupportable as soon as it left the streets and entered the studio. Maybe it’s because his profession spans an artwork historic divide of its personal: Early Weegee may be justified within the context of Thirties documentary images, particularly the style because it was reimagined and embraced by the European avant-garde. On this studying, Weegee is the American counterpart to Brassaï, whose nighttime pictures of the Parisian underworld had been embraced by the Surrealists. (Weegee’s personal portraits of Salvador Dalí, on view in a Scoop! journal photograph characteristic, underscore this parallel.) There’s cultural cachet to this connection, and Modernism’s anti-establishment road cred certainly will get misplaced in Hollywood.
Weegee, “Anthony Esposito, booked on suspicion of killing a policeman, New York” (1941), {photograph}
Weegee, “Night… a black velvet curtain has dropped over the white sky… a few mothers went looking for their kids… found them here… dragged them home for supper… but they are back again… but that’s the same Empire State Building in the Background….,” (1944), {photograph}
Weegee, “Mona Lisa distortion” (c. 1958), {photograph}
Weegee, “Simply Add Boiling Water” (1943), {photograph}
Weegee, “Weegee” (c. 1958), {photograph}
Weegee: Society of the Spectacle continues on the Worldwide Middle of Pictures (84 Ludlow Avenue, Decrease East Facet, Manhattan) by way of Could 5. The exhibition was curated by Clément Chéroux.
Julia Curl is a PhD scholar within the Division of Artwork and Archaeology at Princeton College, the place her analysis focuses on avant-garde movie and images.
Extra by Julia Curl
