Spring has sprung at Long Island museums
New exhibits on view
As the season’s blooms burst forth, the region’s museums are blossoming with new exhibits. Photography is the focus of some major exhibitions at area museums. Here’s a sampling.
Nassau County Museum of Art
NCMA greets spring with “Richard Avedon: Photographer of Influence,” a retrospective of the works of the legendary artist and photographer. The exhibition, which opens on Saturday, May 21, showcases more than 50 photographs by the iconic photographer as it celebrates Avedon’s storied career. It was a career in which he straddled the worlds of magazine and museum, pioneering a vision of photography as a two-sided mirror that reflects both the subject and photographer.
“This is the first time that the museum has had a major exhibition devoted to a single photographer,” said NCMA Director Dr. Karl E. Willers. “Avedon ties into so many major aspects of popular American culture. It is an exciting prospect for us to be able to show one of the foremost photographers of the late 20th century.”
The exhibit has its roots in Tuscon, Arizona, where it was organized by the University of Arizona’s Center for Creative Photography, with the cooperation of The Richard Avedon Foundation, New York. Its only East Coast showing will take place here at NCMA in Roslyn.
“Avedon covered a lot of bases in his career,” said Dr. Willers. “This exhibition surveys his entire career, from his earliest images when he was at Harper’s Bazaar in the 1940s, to his images from Paris, and the later ones of various people of influence. Some will be icons that people will recognize, while other images will be less familiar. It is an interesting overview of an artist whose works had lasting impact on the way culture looks at and uses photography.”
