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American Myth & Memory
David Levinthal Photographs
David Levinthal creates photographs that probe the recesses of American memory and imagination. Born in 1949 and raised in Northern California, Levinthal spent his childhood engaging with classic American myths and legends through televised Westerns and plastic playthings. He never strayed far from these formative influences, dedicating his forty-year career to photographing toys in constructed scenarios. Populated with cowboys and cavalry, Barbie dolls and baseball figurines, his photographs project the illusion of innocence. But look closer. The toys are stand-ins for society -- for the stories we tell and the values we hold that shape our cultural myths.
This exhibition highlights six of Levinthal's most well-known bodies of work selected from more than four hundred of the artist's photographs recently donated to the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The featured series -- Modern Romance, American Beauties, Barbie, Wild West, Baseball, and History -- reveal the evolution of Levinthal's work and his signature approach to color photography. His images explore the cultural prominence of these quintessential American subjects and mass media's role in mythologizing them. Through his lens, Levinthal hints at the fallibility of collective memory and the deceptive myths it can engender, prompting us to consider the societal ideals and stereotypes lurking beneath our most familiar cultural touchstones. The curator for this exhibition is Joanna Marsh, Deputy Education Chair and Head of Interpretation and Audience Research at the Smithsonian American Art Museum |