The Discerning Eye of Julien Levy: Selections from a New Acquisition

Selections from the Julien Levy collection of photographs are displayed in celebration of the generosity of Lynne and Harold Honickman and Levy’s widow, Jean Farley Levy, who made possible the museum’s recent landmark acquisition.

Among the highlights are works by such artists associated with Surrealism as Max Ernst, Dora Maar, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, and Man Ray, along with examples from the more than 360 images by Eugène Atget. Also on view are two photographs taken in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, by Charles Sheeler, along with three Joseph Cornell boxes. The installation includes a portrait, taken by Levy, of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, for whom he mounted her first solo exhibition, and works by Lee Miller, for whom Levy organized the only solo show of her lifetime.

One of the most influential and colorful proponents of modern art and photography in the United States during the 1930s and 1940s, Levy displayed in his own gallery many of these works on view.