david levinthal: baseball

DAVID LEVINTHAL:
BASEBALL
AU G U ST 10 - N OVEMBER 18, 2005
PRO J E C TS AT CLIFFORD CHANCE
For the seventh exhibition in the Projects at Clifford Chance series, we
are pleased to present works from David Levinthal’s Baseball series, begun
in 2003. In the 1970’s, Levinthal began photographing small objects, toys,
and dioramas to create photographs that transform the familiar into uncanny
and arresting images. Using sophisticated lighting and photographic techniques, Levinthal reveals the transformative power of photography and the
drama, narratives, and social values embedded in the medium and in
his miniature forms.
Dinaburg Arts LLC
Curator, Clifford Chance US LLP
DAVID LEVINTHAL A RT I ST STATEMENT
For more than thirty years I have arranged toy figures in studio-constructed situations that mimic representations of contemporary myths and American icons.
Doing so, I have tried to elaborate an aesthetic of fabrication rather than realism.
The large-scale color photographs that I generate with the 20x24 Polaroid
Land Camera give my effigies a seductive grandeur: at the same time, I am
careful to make visible the seams of simulation. Probing the nature of such
pervasive imagery, as it has been transmitted, filtered, and blurred in films,
television, books, and magazines, I nevertheless try to evoke the genuine
emotions that any of us can attach to an entirely artificial world.
The Baseball series is based on the icons of baseball history, players such
as Mickey Mantle, Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, and Willie Mays as they have
been portrayed and forever etched in our collective memories. Described in
soft focus to blur the distinction between still life and action shot, the characters reveal themselves only through imagined movement, their faces and
clear, broad gestures reiterating the essence of America's historic pastime.
Clifford Chance US LLP
31 West 52nd Street
New York, NY 10019
Dinaburg Arts LLC
www.dinaburgarts.com
(212) 807-0832
David Levinthal appears courtesy
of Paul Morris Gallery
Graphic design by Abby Walton