The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Cleveland Museum of Art running pair of new exhibitions
CMA exhibitions examine urban life of decades ago
If summer blockbusters aren’t your thing but you’re still looking for a cool excuse to get out of the summer heat, the Cleveland Museum of Art is offering two new exhibits showcasing New York City street photography and urban realism in printmaking from the first half of the 20th century.
Born out of the pandemic when galleries and museums weren’t loaning pieces and sharing exhibits, the esteemed University Circle neighborhood venue decided to create something special out of its own collection.
The results are “A New York Minute: Street Photography, 1920—1950” on view through Nov. 7 in the Mark Schwartz and Bettina Katz Photography Gallery, and “Ashcan School Prints and the American City, 1900— 1940,” on view through Dec. 26 in the James and Hanna Bartlett Prints and Drawings Gallery.
“Because the CMA has such incredible holdings in American prints of the early 20th century, I’ve been wanting to do an exhibition of this nature for some time,” said CMA Curator of Prints and Drawings Emily Peters. “When the pandemic hit, I thought it would be a great time to explore the subject matter, which focuses on the American city and in particular the vibrant social life we associate with it. Call it the opposite of social distancing.”
Ashcan School artists, such as George Bellows and John Sloan, were people-watchers at heart who were interested in the grittier side of urban life observed on subways, in city parks, at amusement parks and in crowded tenements.
Both movements focused on depictions of the everyday activities of urban dwellers to illustrate the demographic, social and economic shifts transforming the city.
As for “A New York Minute,” CMA Curator of Photography Barbara Tannenbaum said the Ashcan School artists actually influenced where photographers pointed their lenses.
“The urban realism that the printmakers and the painters from the Ashcan School really correspond in terms of the technique with what we call ‘street photography,’ in which the photographer — for the most part — is often a voyeur,” Tannenbaum said. “They photograph people who are unaware they’re being photographed. Also, this was a really interesting time in the history of New York City, which was growing massively. It was a conjunction of different factors that made it such a fascinating and rich period in terms of the history of photography.”
One of the takeaways from both exhibits is while it’s a century later, so much hasn’t changed, including the immigrant experience.
“The early 20th century was an era when the art world was opening up to a greater variety of individuals, including women and people of color,” Peters said. “The exhibition, therefore, features images of urban life made by black and female artists.
“This is in addition to white men, who catered the subject matter to their own perceptions and experiences. It’s a really interesting moment to think about not only what is being depicted but by whom.”
Tannenbaum takes it a step further.
“These were new photographers trying to advocate for social change, societal change,” Tannenbaum said. “A lot of them were making their art from both personal expressions but also trying to arouse people’s awareness that there were people in the city who were living in these crowded conditions and had to live their lives out on the street.
“It really was both a kind of an argument that you should be aware of these people and their economic status but also that you should realize and have empathy for them because they’re human beings just like us. It’s an amazing period that has a lot of echoes for our own time.