Untitled from the series American Beauties

Object Details

Artist

David Levinthal, born San Francisco, CA 1949

Exhibition Label

The distinct look of the American Beauties series came about after a long day of shooting Western pictures at the 20x24 Polaroid Studio. Levinthal positioned a newly acquired pinup figure on a bed of sand leftover from his cowboy photos and removed the spray-painted Wild

West background. He then photographed the solitary figure with dramatic lighting in a darkened studio. Levinthal loved the simplicity of the result and the sculptural quality of the tiny toys. The images are among the artist's most evocative and enigmatic--nocturnal beach scenes where the world of childhood innocence intersects with the world of adult experience.

Credit Line

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of an anonymous donor

Copyright

© 1990, David Levinthal

1990

Object number

2017.32.8

Restrictions & Rights

Usage conditions apply

Type

Photography

Medium

Polaroid Polacolor ER Land Film

Dimensions

24 × 20 in. (61.0 × 50.8 cm)

See more items in

Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection

Department

Graphic Arts

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Topic

Landscape\beach

Figure female\full length

Allegory\quality\beauty

American

Record ID

saam_2017.32.8

Metadata Usage (text)

Not determined

GUID (Link to Original Record)

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk757e6c3ab-3ec5-48fb-8ba7-71bf30db6d6b