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Photographs by: David Levinthal
Text by: Jonathan Mahler
Sports
Hardcover
12 x 10 inches
144 pages
112 four-color photographs
ISBN: 978-1-57687-468-4
“Levinthal pierces the mythology of quintessentially American subjects while also playing to our collective nostalgia.”
—Jonathan Mahler
Photographs by: David Levinthal
Text by: Jonathan Mahler
Sports
Hardcover
12 x 10 inches
144 pages
112 four-color photographs
ISBN: 978-1-57687-468-4
“Levinthal pierces the mythology of quintessentially American subjects while also playing to our collective nostalgia.”
—Jonathan Mahler
“Each view, in other words, is iconic—presumably, like much of Levinthal’s work, a comment on modern American myth-making.”
—Louis Jacobson
“I became intrigued at how seeming reality could be constructed from mere models. Over the more than 30 years that I have been working as an artist, I never cease to be amazed by how much these figures and toys can tell us about ourselves.”
—David Levinthal
“The Jackie Robinson depicted in this 20×24 Polaroid print is a toy—a cold-cast, painted figurine barely nine inches high. Yet when photographed with dramatic lighting in what looks for all the world like a baseball stadium, all of the emotion, all of the excitement returns: a miniature metaphor for what makes the game of baseball so riveting yet elegant; so outwardly simple yet so inwardly complex.”
—Frank Van Riper
Using hand painted figurines and photographed with the oversize 20×24 Polaroid camera, Levinthal re-creates historic moments in baseball. “Quite possibly the most accessible of all his series, Levinthal’s Baseball is remarkable for its straightforward celebration of America’s most beloved sport. With both antique and recently manufactured figurines, the artist has recreated some of the legendary moments that color baseball’s storied history—for example, Don Larsen’s perfect game in 1956, Carlton Fisk waving fair his 12th-innning home run to give Boston game six of the 1975 World Series, and Mark McGwire’s record-setting 70th home run in 1998. The breadth of stars portrayed includes past and present players such as Babe Ruth, Derek Jeter, Satchel Paige, Ozzie Smith, Reggie Jackson, Willie Mays, Roger Clemens, Jackie Robinson, Pedro Martínez, and Joe DiMaggio among many others.” —Jonathan Mahler
David Levinthal, born in San Francisco in 1949, has been working with toy figures and tableaux as the subject matter for his artwork since 1972. In January of 1997, the International Center of Photography presented a survey of his work from 1975 to 1996. He has received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and was named a 1995 Guggenheim Fellow. His work is included in numerous museum collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum, and The Menil Collection.
Jonathan Mahler, is the author of Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning (Picador, 2006), and The Challenge (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008) among many other works.
