Through over 150 works, explore how photography, graphic design, and popular magazines converged to transform American visual culture from 1930 to 1960.

In the after-currents of World War II, avant-garde strategies in photography and design reached the United States via European émigrés, including Bauhaus artists forced out of Nazi Germany. The unmistakable aesthetic made popular by such magazines as Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue — whose art directors, Alexey Brodovitch and Alexander Liberman, were both immigrants and accomplished photographers — emerged from a distinctly American combination of innovation, inclusiveness, and pragmatism.

Featuring over 150 works including photographs, layouts, and cover designs, the exhibition considers the connections and influences of designers and photographers such as Richard Avedon, Lillian Bassman, Lester Beall, Margaret Bourke-White, Louis Faurer, Robert Frank, William Klein, Lisette Model, Gordon Parks, Irving Penn, Cipe Pineles, and Paul Rand.

Modern Look: Photography and the American Magazine is organized by Mason Klein, Senior Curator, The Jewish Museum.

Modern Look: Photography and the American Magazine is made possible by The Mimi and Barry J. Alperin Family Fund, a gift from the estate of Gaby and Curtis Hereld, Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation, Heidi and Richard Rieger, Wyeth Foundation for American Art, Lisa S. Pritzker, Ronit and Bill Berkman, John and Helga Klein, and Ellen Schwartz Harris.

This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Additional support is provided by The Skirball Fund for American Jewish Life Exhibitions, Horace W. Goldsmith Exhibitions Endowment Fund, The Alfred J. Grunebaum & Ruth Grunebaum Sondheimer Memorial Fund, and other generous donors.

Exhibition Date: March 19, 2021 - July 17, 2021 

Admission is free through December 31, 2020. Timed tickets are required to help the Museum maintain a building capacity of 25% and an appropriate socially distanced visit for all guests. Members must also reserve timed tickets.

A limited number of timed tickets are available per 15-minute time slot, up to one month in advance. Please plan to arrive on time, as space limitations prohibit waiting inside the Museum building.

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