David Levinthal

Levinthal was born in 1949 in San Francisco, California. He received a Scientiæ Magister in Management Science from the MIT Sloan School of Management (1981), an MFA in Photography from Yale University (1973), and a BA in Studio Art from Stanford University (1970). He was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in 1995[2] and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1990–1991.[3]

He has had retrospective exhibitions of his work at the International Center of Photography[4] and the George Eastman Museum.[5]

Levinthal has produced a diverse oeuvre, utilizing primarily large-format Polaroid photography.[6] His works touch upon many aspects of American culture, from Barbie to baseball to X-rated dolls. Levinthal's major series include Hitler Moves East (1972–1975), Modern Romance (1983–1985), Wild West (1986–1989), Desire (1991–1992), Blackface (1995–1998), Barbie (1997–1998), Baseball (1998–2004), and History (2010–2018).[7]

His politically charged series, Blackface, consists of close-ups of black memorabilia, household objects infused with African-American stereotypes, and caused such a controversy that the Institute of Contemporary Art of Philadelphia was forced to cancel the exhibition while still in its early planning stages.[4]

On his use of toys, Levinthal said that "Toys are intriguing, and I want to see what I can do with them. On a deeper level, they represent one way that society socializes its young."[8] Furthermore, Levinthal is aware of the power of toys: “Ever since I began working with toys, I have been intrigued with the idea that these seemingly benign objects could take on such incredible power and personality simply by the way they were photographed. I began to realize that by carefully selecting the depth of field and making it narrow, I could create a sense of movement and reality that was in fact not there.[9]

David Levinthal in 2022

• Hitler Moves East: A Graphic Chronicle, 1941–43 (Sheed, Andrews & McMeel, 1977). Published with Garry Trudeau.
• The Wild West (Smithsonian Institution, 1993). Text by Richard B. Woodward.
• Small Wonder: Worlds in a Box (Smithsonian Institution, 1995). Text by David Corey.
• Barbie Millicent Roberts (Pantheon, 1998). Text by Valerie Steele.
• Mein Kampf (Twin Palms, 1998). Texts by James Young, Roger Rosenblatt, and Gary Trudeau.
• Blackface (Arena Editions, 1999). Text by Manthia Diawara.
• XXX (Galerie Xippas, 2000). Text by Cecilia Andersson.
• David Levinthal: Modern Romance (St. Ann's, 2001). Text by Eugenia Parry.
• Netsuke (Galerie Xippas, 2004). Text by Eugenia Parry.
• David Levinthal: Work from 1975-1996 (International Center of Photography, 1997). Texts by Charles Stainback and Richard Woodward.
• Baseball (Empire, 2006). Text by Jonathan Mahler.
• I.E.D: War in Afghanistan and Iraq (powerHouse, 2009). Text by Levinthal.
• Bad Barbie (JMc & GHB Editions, 2009). Texts by Richard Prince and John McWhinnie.
• Hitler Moves East: A Graphic Chronicle, 1941-43: 35th Anniversary Edition (Andrews McMeel, 2013). Texts by Roger Rosenblatt and Garry Trudeau.
• War Games (Kehrer, 2013). Texts by Dave Hickey, Paul Roth, and Kaitlin Booher.
• History (Kehrer, 2015). Texts by Lisa Hostetler and Dave Hickey.
• War, Myth, Desire: Box Set (Kehrer, 2018). Texts by Lisa Hostetler, Joanna Marsh, Dave Hickey, Garry Trudeau, Levinthal, and Roger Rosenblatt.
• War, Myth, Desire (Kehrer, 2018). Texts by Lisa Hostetler, Joanna Marsh, Dave Hickey.

Levinthal's work is held in the following permanent public collections:

• Art Institute of Chicago
• Centre Pompidou in Paris
• Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art
• Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Minneapolis Institute of Art[10]
• Museum of Modern Art[11]
• Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.

• Official website
• David Levinthal at Julie Nester Gallery
• David Levinthal photographs at New-York Historical Society